Happy Anniversary!!

[Steve O]

I don’t know the exact date, but it was in the fall of 1996 that I took my first DC-area bike commute, probably right around this time of year. So this marks my 20th anniversary of bike commuting here.

I had biked avidly in college, but fell away for a number of years afterward, eventually leaving my bike(s) behind, but never really lost interest, taking a few B&B bike tours during that time, including on my honeymoon. (And watching, in person, Lance Armstrong win the Core States race in Philadelphia in 1993.)
I moved to Arlington in 1994 and in 1996 acquired a used Motobecane from a work colleague.

At first I was a fair-weather rider, relying on Metro when it was cold, snowy, rainy, etc. Eventually, of course, I overcame all that and went year-round, every day. It’s the best.

In those 20 years I have had several job locations, including Downtown DC (3 locations), Silver Spring, Herndon, Reston, Kensington and now Rosslyn.

Here’s to 20+ more years!!

Topic

[Judd]

Way to go! Here’s another 20 after your next 20 too.

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[streetsmarts]

Good for you! Here’s to many more years of happy riding.

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[Boomer Cycles]

I started bike commuting in 1989 from Pimmit Hills in Falls Church VA to 17th and New York Ave NW on a MTB that I bought at a liquidation sale at Montgomery Wards in 7 corners. I wore out the hub on the real wheel after only 4 months and discovered it was trash. Like @steveO, I began as a fair weather cyclist, but just kept expanding my season and experimenting with kit, bikes and tires until I went year round. Back in the late 80s and early 90s there were few bike commuters in my neck of the woods. I was often the lone commuter in the early morn on the WOD and Custis. My co-workers thought I was nuts.
Bikes were always part of my life growing up. It was how I got to school, sports and social activities from kindergarten until I got my drivers license in High School. As kids, we used to hack bikes by extending their forks and adding banana seats, inspired by the movie “Easy Rider.” Bikes stayed with me as a starving student through grad school. I even took my bike with me when I got a job after grad school and moved to San Juan, Puerto Rico, where I commuted to work through the worst congestion ever (and without a helmet:-0). I can’t really think of a stage in my life when I didn’t have or ride a bike. So I guess that I must be past my 50th Anniversary Bike commuting somewhere I needed to go on a regular basis. Ride on!

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[fxbooks]

Congratulations! We’re glad you’re biking with all of us other crazy idiots.

[huskerdont]

I started bike commuting in DC in 1994. First it was just Clarendon to Rosslyn, easy enough, but then I used a heavy POS mountain bike up and down the hills of Military Road from McLean to Rosslyn. Youngish and too stupid to know that the mountain bike was making me work far harder than I needed.

For 5 years I didn’t bike commute, because Rockville. Now that I have a route I can do every day, I would only miss it if I were too injured to ride.

So, leaving out the 5 years, I guess that’s (counts fingers) 19 years?

[huskerdont]

I was rather hoping this would prompt others to tell their bike commuting anniversary, origin, and history stories. I mean, one shouldn’t be intimidated by Steve O’s,, um, seniority.

[jrenaut]

My adult return to cycling began when Capital Bikeshare launched. We were at some event with some friends, and the woman at the Bikeshare display happened to be a college classmate of one of our friends. They go to talking, and I got a CaBi membership. At the time I was commuting exclusively by Metro, but pretty soon we had a CaBi station right down the street from my house and right down the street from the office. I started bike commuting sometimes – usually I’d do the morning ride downhill then Metro back home. Eventually I started riding both ways more often than not.

In May of the next year, I got tired of never being able to get a CaBi in the morning and I bought my first bike, an aluminum Giant road bike. It was great until a cabbie making a u-turn on PA Ave hit me and totalled the bike. Soon after I got my Bianchi, then the longtail, then the fixie, and here we are.

[Judd]

Here’s my origin story:

http://www.waba.org/blog/2017/12/judd-and-josephine/

[DCAKen]

I started commuting to work by bike back around 1990. I was living in Belle View, south of Alexandria and working in Old Town, so it was an easy two mile ride up the Mt Vernon trail. Riding my bike to work meant I didn’t have to worry about finding (and paying for) parking. Moving to Rosslyn stretched out the commute a little more, enough that I would work up a good sweat on the warm mornings. Working for a small consulting company meant no showers, so I had to use the damp cloth method to get presentable. I was a fair weather commuter in those days, put off by cold and/or wet conditions.

I changed jobs in 1992 and cycling up to the new office in White Flint proved to be too daunting for me, so it was back to the car. After about a year, my office was relocated to Silver Spring into a new building with showers and I got back into commuting by bike. Over the years, I’ve gotten to be much more of an all-weather cyclist. I still draw a line at temperatures below 25, though. I just can’t keep my extremities warm enough.

I’ve been riding up through Rock Creek Park for all these years, witnessing the gradual deterioration of Beach Drive until the harsh winters a few years ago left it with more patches than pavement. And the trail has suffered as well, both with the crumbling pavement and the influx of so many more trail users. I’ve been so happy to see the Beach Drive rehabilitation project finally moving forward after years of discussion.

[baiskeli]

@huskerdont 173810 wrote:

I was rather hoping this would prompt others to tell their bike commuting anniversary, origin, and history stories. I mean, one shouldn’t be intimidated by Steve O’s,, um, seniority.

LOL, seniority, right.

I started commuting in 1988 from Alexandria. I still have the button I got at the very first Bike to Work day, and my old permit to bring a bike on Metro when you needed one. I also biked through 20 feet of snow to get to school.

[Steve O]

@huskerdont 173810 wrote:

I mean, one shouldn’t be intimidated by Steve O’s, um, geezerness.

ftfy

[LhasaCM]

I’m a relative newbie as a regular bike commuter. Though I’ve been in the area for close to 17 years now (same office building/suite the whole time), it was really when I moved into DC proper 5 years ago that commuting by bike seemed more attainable. For whatever reason, the thought of crossing the river on bike seemed so daunting.

I started occasionally riding into work/to daycare with our (then 1yo) daughter on my “nice” Target bike (a Schwinn Trailways) and a Yepp mini front seat. Definitely a fair weather cyclist; I wouldn’t ride if it was too hot/cold/rainy/windy/etc. I upgraded to a Jamis Commuter, moved my daughter to a Thule Ridealong rear seat, and started riding a bit more regularly. Safetrack (especially the few times where there was NO Metro service by me) was further encouragement so once that kicked in, with our daughter graduated to a trailercycle for the PM commute, I started riding at least one way (if not both) each day, using CaBi the next day if I got lazy and left my bike at work. We also started riding a bit for fun on the weekend (to get coffee/donuts/visit a playground/etc.)

Last year’s Freezing Saddles and the mild points-based encouragement to ride every day was the final step in the evolution to my current “I don’t care what the weather is – we’re getting there by bike!” approach to commuting, with the #kidical leaderboard a small nudge to do both school drop-off and pickup each day starting last May. FS also gave me the extra motivation to ride WAY more than I ever had, though it’s still not anything folks would consider “high mileage.” That mindset has carried over to a lot of weekend activities as well; I’m now at the point where I try as hard as possible to plan on getting there by bike, regardless of how sensible or not that plan may be (though once I break down and get a cargo trailer…)

[baiskeli]

@LhasaCM 173858 wrote:

For whatever reason, the thought of crossing the river on bike seemed so daunting.

Daunting? You kids have it easy! In my day, we didn’t have any of these fancy-schmancy “bridges.” You had to hitch a ride on a riverboat every day. It cost us ten cents – that was alot back then! When the weather was bad and the boat wasn’t running, we had to swim through a storm while holding our bikes in one arm! And that was after riding through 20 feet of snow.

[reji]

2 days ago, I unknowingly celebrated my 5-year anniversary bike commuting when I naively set off from Vienna in the cold darkness for work. Inspired by the effects of the aging process and being 30 pounds overweight, I was determined to find a fun way to get some aerobic exercise. I normally drove from Fairfax to Vienna to take Metro to/from work so I decided to just drive to the WOD in Vienna for an easy bike commute to Ballston. 1 mile in, already frozen and huffing up the “hill” by Tapawingo, I questioned my sanity. Fortunately my stubbornness won and I did it again, although not until the following week.

[baiskeli]

@reji 173868 wrote:

being 30 pounds overweight

Hah! Just 30 pounds? You kids today. In my day, we were all 100 pounds over, and that was before we ate all our pie! Stop complaining, you spoiled kids.

[Author]

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