Pit Stop Reviews

[DCLiz]

Since it’s hard to tell which pit stops have what, I thought we could start a thread with different reviews/descriptions? Maybe next year WABA could encourage pit stop organizers to post more details, such as what kinds of things will be raffled off?

Freedom Plaza
The good:

• Loved being able to practice putting my bike on a bus rack. Will feel much more confident about trying this in real life.
• BicycleSPACE adjusted my rear derailleur!
• Free bicycle valet!

The bad:

• Very few vendors/stands. It was unclear whether this was weather-related, or just due to the general decline of this pit stop.
• No raffles or cool giveaways, at least not when I arrived at around 8:40ish.
• Coffee was put away by 9 am. Nothing left for stragglers. Granted, the volunteers had been out in cold, wet weather for a looong time.

National Geographic
Wow, I wish I had come straight here! Not only were they able to move it indoors, there were a lot of vendors, and good raffles. They raffled a number of awesome National Geographic jerseys. Plenty of coffee and grub, even at 9:30.

How about you? Which pit stops are must-visits?

And of course, thanks to all of the organizers and volunteers and vendors who braved this morning’s weather.

[lordofthemark]

Canal Park

The good – plenty of vendors for an out of the way pit stop – In addition to WaBa, we had BikeSpace, the Marriot, and the Capital Riverfront BID
– It was dry, thanks to the location next to Park Tavern
– Giveaways including water bottles and patch kits. Not as much as the big pit stops, but this is Canal Park

The bad – No coffee this year (last year only decaf was left by the time I got there
– Raffle? Was there a raffle?
– No USDOT picture this year. Because rain.

[dbb]

Although there was some weather related compression of space, Rosslyn was quite busy.

Dirt was staffing the WABA booth and was giving away burrito coupons.

Rosslyn likely had the most orderly bananas in the history of BTWD

BikeArlington and the Arlington Bike Advisory Committee were out in force. Megan and Jakob were working the crowds.

And perhaps the best (or at least the most appropriate) cycling shoes were seen this morning.

[mstone]

probably not a good year for pit stop reviews, because things were definitely off from normal at several I went to

[Mikey]

Only 2 for me this year,

Rosslyn –
Everyone I knew was here. Everyone was in good spirits, and the coffee was good. Plus some nice swag.

Georgetown- First year for me coming here
Definitely the Foodie stop – chocolate croisants, cupcakes, fresh granola, yogurt, gormet juice, etc, and coffee. Nice second breakfast.

I then stopped off at Swings to say hi to the regulars, and rolled by Freedom Plaza unimpressed, so I didn’t stop.
Looking forward to this afternoon.

[DismalScientist]

Rosslyn-

The good:
Local politicians don’t think Rule 5 applies to them.

[sjclaeys]

Rosslyn was swell, lots of people, swag and goodies. Crystal City was great because I won a wind breaker.

[Fast Friendly Guy]

Karen B and I got to Rosslyn around 7ish and the tents were ample to keep volunteers and cyclists dry. Tables well-staffed (Pete B at the WABA table) Didn’t see Tim Kelley, but someone said he was there.

A variety of bagels, bananas, coffee, granola and energy bars (though didn’t see Kind Bars). There were lots of friendly volunteers eager to pass out swag!
Notable booty this year: Azalea-pink BTWD 2014 T-Shirts, BLINKIES (red and white light), high quality Bike Arlington cotton baseball caps, Variety of Bike Arlington plastic bike water bottles, Black T-Shirt for those interested in Car Free/Light, Revolution Cycles tune-up station manned by Pinkie, Katie, Daniel, etc,

sightings:
one eighth
Steve Claeys
Bob Cannon
Dana (dbb)
Greg B
Pete B

Missed:
Shawn D
Cyndi J
Chris R
Vincent
Dickie
and the usual FCC2 bunch

[Dickie]

I had to be at the shop early this morning so I skipped volunteering this year and jetted to work. I had time to stop off at the Balston stop and bumped into americancyclo, guycontinental, GB, Dread, and Tim. Great free coffee and bagels from JavaShack, grabbed my free bottles and shirt and headed off. Spotted bobco coming in and gave him a thumbs-up. Stopped to chat to the Bikentic folks on the WOD and that was about it for me. Missed out on most of the swag and goodies, but seeing folks out there volunteering and riding in such crap weather made me really happy and warm…. I give the stops I saw the big thumbs up just for being there… you all rock!

[vvill]

I started off volunteering at Ballston where there seemed to be a dearth of early riders given the number of volunteers, but it was still good to see TK, Megabeth, Steve O, Steve A, CR as well as some other BikeArlington staff. From there I trekked over to CC whilst I shared an MVT mile with OneEighth and saw Dave K and jpetty. After that it was back to Rosslyn to say hi to Dirt where enroute I saw jopamora and then jrenaut. Of course at Rosslyn I ran into a bunch of others… Mikey, mikoglaces, dbb, bobco. A few of us (culimerc, dcv, MattAune) joined together to ride over to FCC for my third? coffee of the day just to warm myself up – there were already a few regulars there, including Bilsko. In previous years I’ve stopped at Georgetown, Freedom Plaza and Nat’l Geographic but this morning got too cold between getting repeatedly wet, warming up, cooling down.

Didn’t worry too much about swag collecting, though I did pick up an extra BA water bottle for a colleague who’s out of town.

[Mantadiver]

The Columbia Pike stop was good, especially for being a first year stop. They had cheery pie and doughnuts which was nice.

[eminva]

I’m surprised I didn’t see more of you, but I got a late start (for me) and took an immediate detour off my usual route to get to my first pit stop. Still, it was fun to see dkel and his wife and all the folks in Rosslyn. I’m sorry the weather depressed turnout, but completely understandable.

I stopped at five pit stops:

Mosaic District:

Good: sheltered, the Freshbikes folks were friendly and refreshed the lube on my chain, I was only the fourth person there so I like my chances in the raffle for the $300 Freshbikes gift card
Bad: only two sizes of tshirts, tea instead of coffee (what can I say, I’m lowbrow) and the Freshbikes guys looked a bit lonely.

Merrifield:

Not sure if this is good or bad, but they had little cartons of Chinese food takeout — chicken of some kind. Also: coffee!

Falls Church/W&OD:

Good: Bikenetic crew’s excellent Rule 9 compliance
Bad: Falls Church City’s poor Rule 9 compliance

East Falls Church Metro Station:

Good: sheltered, they had goody bags of swag for the people who registered there. I had not registered there, but they fished all the swag but for the t-shirt out of a bag for me. Metro police guys were nice. It was explained to me that you should register all your bikes with them even if you don’t ride to metro, so if it is stolen and later shows up on metro property, they can get it back to you.
Bad: Didn’t appear to have coffee or fresh food (might have missed that though)

Rosslyn:

Good: Saw many people (RCannon, Dirt, dbb, Shawn of the Dread, americancyclo, Dismal), they gave me the tshirt in the size I wanted even though I wasn’t registered there, they were practically throwing swag at us by the time I got there, and I got interviewed by Channel 7 news. I’m gonna be on TV, y’all!
Bad: My shoes filled up like a sinking submarine every time I stopped in front of one of the tables.

See below for all my swag. Thanks to everyone who volunteered and all the organizations that made it possible.

Liz

[ATTACH=CONFIG]5629[/ATTACH]

[DanB]

Stopped at Merrifield on the W&OD where they were well-stocked with edible swag. (Can you call it that?) Especially appreciated the large Gatorade and the caffeine gels.

Then Falls Church where I only saw one other biker during my short stay. Thanks to the group at Bikenetic for the $20 gift card for the few and faithful!!

I went down the hill from the trail at the East Falls Church Metro and looked down Sycamore St, but I didn’t see the pit stop, so I kept going. Wish I would’ve looked harder. That “I bike to Metro and Metro to work” t-shirt looks pretty neat.

Rosslyn has all the good reflector stuff (thanks, Bike Arlington), but no flashy lights this year …

Breezed by the Georgetown Meigs Park stop, because all I saw was a vacant tent.

Sounds like next year I’ll have to swing by Nat Geo, too.

[culimerc]

I’m soooooo going to hit Nat Geo next year.

[mstone]

@eminva 85629 wrote:

Not sure if this is good or bad, but they had little cartons of Chinese food takeout — chicken of some kind.[/quote]

The breakfast chinese food was great!

Quote:

Falls Church/W&OD:

Good: Bikenetic crew’s excellent Rule 9 compliance
Bad: Falls Church City’s poor Rule 9 compliance

On the upside, since FCC cancelled bike to work day, they didn’t have a bike to work day stop sign ticket cop in place.

[Author]

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