Bike to Work Day – Best Pitstops

[Mikey]

I thought I would open a thread to discuss past pitstop giveaways so that you can help plan your B2WD route.

As a rule, Arlington tends to have the best give-aways, I’ve gotten bikearlington blinky lights, bike maps, drawstring sacs, and reflective straps at the Rosslyn pit stop. And of course I got coffee bananas, cliff bars, and bagles here as well.

I got an aluminum water bottle last year at freedom plaza.

The afternoon pitstop in Fairfax City has had real food; Barbecue sandwiches 2 years ago, chicken wings last year, and a drawing for prizes that because of the low turnout (8-10 of us) we all won something.

I hope to make it to some new pit stops as well this year (FC, yards park).

what’s the best stuff you’ve found on B2WD?

Topic

[chris_s]

The Carlyle stop in Alexandria had water bottles and…grooming kits…

Also continental breakfast catered by Potbelly’s.

I’m not making this up I promise.

[mrkenny83]

YAY!!!!!

This was my first Bike to Work day!!!!!

I got 5 free Clif Bars to keep here at work!
I got some weird Clif SHOT Energy Gel!
I got free coffee!
I got a free McDonald’s Fruit’n’Yogurt Parfait!
I got a free t-shirt!!!!

Most importantly, I got sooooooooooo many “GOOD MORNINGS” from the folks on the trail!

[KelOnWheels]

RayGun Building! Fancy coffee![ATTACH]1069[/ATTACH]

[Lt. Dan]

hit up the Pit Stop at the Freedom Center in Manassas this morning!!! Free water bottles, t-shirts, and breakfast! Good stuff, THANKS GUYS!!!!

[vvill]

Had a fun morning running between stops. Saw skreaminquadz and Tim at Freshbikes, zanna (briefly) and the superhero unicyclists at Rosslyn, skreaminquadz + pals again at Reagan, then I went to Farragut Sq and chatted to a lady who I first + last met maybe 2 or 3 years ago riding with on a Bike To Work Day convoy!(before I regularly commuted) And then my colleague at work showed up at the same stop! From here the two of us just went up to the Nat’l Geographic stop and then back to Murrow Pk. I forgot my camera though

Most stops had great selections of random prizes and general bike swag. The Golden Triangle stops’ staff were very friendly! I felt a little bad for them since they had relatively little traffic or stuff to give out. I kept declining water bottles but people kept wanting to give them away, so I have 5 different ones now. I limited myself to 2 coffees, 2 bananas and 1/2 a bagel.

[aflapr]

Great ride in this morning – beautiful weather and lots of happy folks on the trails. The Falls Church pit stop was nicely laid out and I appreciated the FCPD blocking off Grove. The Ballston pit-stop was a blast – it was nice to meet Tim and some of the commenters from the forum. Thanks for Tim, acc/Rhinestone Cowgirl, and all the others working and volunteering. I’m in a great mood today – what a day for bike commuting! Looking forward to the PM pitstops on the way home.

[Terpfan]

Well the Reagan Building one came with live entertainment in the form of Ethopian and G8 Protestors at Freedom Plaza. In fairness, I did get a flat around Ellipse and so I almost said screw it and skipped BTWD, but I went and REI had some guys fixing bikes. They changed my tube for me–score! The refreshments were Brueggers bagels, some fruit from Whole Foods, coffee, and then some fair-like tents giving stuff away. I only took the waterbottle, listened to two speeches and then was on my way to be at work on time.

[Veik]

Rosslyn pit stop was packed.
lots of give aways, prizes, etc.
Best one on my route from Herndon to DC.

[eminva]

Awesome progressive party this morning! Got a desk top covered with swag and enough breakfasts for a first rate stomache ache. Should have let discretion be the better part of valor and limited myself to the McDonalds fruit parfait at Dunn Loring.

Acc giving out t-shirts at Ballston:

[ATTACH=CONFIG]1070[/ATTACH]

FABB at the Vienna pitstop (me on the left there)

[ATTACH=CONFIG]1071[/ATTACH]

RESTONTODC at Vienna pitstop:

[ATTACH=CONFIG]1072[/ATTACH]

Looking forward to the return trip this afternoon.

[Jason]

Two girls promoting vegan/veggie stuff in latex cabbage bikinis at Federal Triangle. Yes I am serious. On my ride in at 7:00, even fewer people out than normal. Strange. At 7:30 at the Ray Gun there were very few people, when I took a friend out later to pick up some stuff (biker too) it was super packed. Guess I am an early riser?

[DaveK]

Only hit the one pit stop this morning – I escorted my wife from our house in DC up almost to the College Park stop, turned around and hauled ass back to Rosslyn to get there before the stop closed. Incidentally if someone in a Bike Arlington jersey passed you on the MBT this morning doing close to 30mph… it wasn’t me.

[vvill]

@Jason 19967 wrote:

Two girls promoting vegan/veggie stuff in latex cabbage bikinis at Federal Triangle. Yes I am serious. On my ride in at 7:00, even fewer people out than normal. Strange. At 7:30 at the Ray Gun there were very few people, when I took a friend out later to pick up some stuff (biker too) it was super packed. Guess I am an early riser?

There were 3 PETA (I think?) girls at Reagan wearing very little with something like this written on them… don’t eat meat eat me 😮

As far as volume I actually saw one person riding on what looked like a hybrid/MTB northbound on 309/Old Dominion towards McLean. I rarely ride on that road as the shoulders are tiny but I did this morning since I left home close to 6am. Generally I didn’t notice any increase in numbers until I got to Ballston and then of course Rosslyn, which was indeed packed.

[Riley Casey]

Silver Spring pit stop was busy from 7:30 to 8:30 at a minimum. The DJ had people plenty of people dancing. Well earned prizes to the oldest rider (81) and the oldest bike (46). Lots of riders checking out the tables of info and the tasty coffee. No latex cabbage bikinis though:( . Thanks to Jenn and the folks from Silver Cycles for the excellent swag. Its high time we had this sort of thing on the other 250 days a year I bike to work. :p

[eminva]

@vvill 19980 wrote:

There were 3 PETA (I think?) girls at Reagan wearing very little with something like this written on them… don’t eat meat eat me 😮

Can you imagine the intern orientation there? “Congratulations! You are fetching enough to wear our lettuce bikini at promotional events!” I think I’d decamp to the American Bankers Association or something.

Liz

[rcannon100]

Thank you Bike Arlington, WABA, CABI, goDCgo, LAB, BIDs, NPS, Freshbikes, Revolution Bikes, Phoenix Bikes, REI, Bikespace! and other people I am sure. Thank you also to the BACs. And the Interagency Task Force.

I remember when BTWD was one pitstop, down on Freedom Plaza. Boy have things changed! Back in the day, we use to aggregate in meeting points in the burbs, and “convoy” into Freedom Plaza. 100s of bikes in a pack – I believe at times just taking over bridges. That was fun. But today, 12,500 registered (of course I registered 2000 times trying to win the free bikes)! ~50 pit stops. It was fun pitstop hopping.

You bike advocate people. You done good. We cycle-to-work people ding our bike bells in your general direction in appreciation!!!!

[Author]

Replies