Sunday Feb 19, Casual Group Ride to DC

[Greenbelt]

NOTE, THE FORECAST HAS CHANGED SINCE THIS WAS POSTED, SO WE’RE GOING TO DO THIS RIDE ON SATURDAY

So far, the weather forecast for this weekend looks excellent:

Saturday: Mostly sunny, with a high near 49.
Saturday Night: Partly cloudy, with a low around 33.
Sunday: Mostly sunny, with a high near 50.
Sunday Night: Mostly clear, with a low around 32.
Washington’s Birthday: Sunny, with a high near 46.

I’ve seen the threads on biking with kids, and the various ways people do it. Since Eastern Market has lots of nice open space, and the weather’s supposed to be decent, would anyone be interested in an informal kid bike transport meetup?

If so, I’ll bring my video camera and the good still camera, and we could perhaps get some photos?

[nstout]

Hi there,

I’m new to the area and to the site. Looking for some good group rides to participate in on the weekends. Anything 20 – 50 miles under or around 20 mph. Would this be a good ride to get my feet wet and meet some new people? Also, are there any other rides you’d recommend in the area (i.e. within 1 hour of alexandria)?

Thanks,

Neil Stout

[Greenbelt]

Our shop rides are fairly long, but casual, as much social as for the workout. We’ve been splitting into groups, with some at 15-17mph and some slower. We’ve been trying to get in at least one 22mile ride in Beltsville and a 35-ish mile ride to DC every month or so. It looks like the weather might not cooperate with this Sunday’s ride, though! Just a soon as I posted the good weather report above, the forecasters are calling for a chance of rain or snow now! We may have to move the ride to Saturday the 18th instead — stay tuned. I know Potomac Pedalers does a fast ride in Beltsville on Wednesday nights once daylight savings return. And I often see fast riders in groups on Beltsville on Saturday mornings.

[Tim Kelley]

@nstout 14800 wrote:

Hi there,

I’m new to the area and to the site. Looking for some good group rides to participate in on the weekends. Anything 20 – 50 miles under or around 20 mph. Would this be a good ride to get my feet wet and meet some new people? Also, are there any other rides you’d recommend in the area (i.e. within 1 hour of alexandria)?

Thanks,

Neil Stout

This time of year the group ride options are more limited than during the summer. Spokes in Alexandria on Quaker lane runs a Sunday morning group ride that is a good B level pace (16-18mph). Squadra Coppi runs a Sunday morning ride out of Java Shack in Arlington at an A- pace, starting out easy enough, but then ramping up to 20-22+mph on the back half.

During the summer time, Revolution Cycles in Arlington/DC has a nice casually paced ride and Freshbikes runs an awesome Tuesday night hill ride with enough people to suit any pace with free beer and burgers afterwards!

[Greenbelt]

The weather forecast for Sunday now looks lousy — a chance of heavy (or even wet snow) rain and high winds.

Saturday still looks tranquil and warm, however.

Therefore, we’re switching this ride to Saturday the 18th. Same time — 1pm. -Jeff

[nstout]

Thanks Tim & @Greenbelt! I’ll show up for this ride on Saturday…90% sure…and great info on the other rides! Excited to get into the mix of things up here!

Neil

[zanna_leigh]

I may have to pop my long distance bike ride cherry by joining you guys for the ride from College Park down to DC. I’ll ride up from Arlington to meet everyone….and hopefully I won’t get lost on the way. Looking forward to it!!!

[Greenbelt]

@Tim Kelley 14810 wrote:

This time of year the group ride options are more limited than during the summer. Spokes in Alexandria on Quaker lane runs a Sunday morning group ride that is a good B level pace (16-18mph). Squadra Coppi runs a Sunday morning ride out of Java Shack in Arlington at an A- pace, starting out easy enough, but then ramping up to 20-22+mph on the back half.

During the summer time, Revolution Cycles in Arlington/DC has a nice casually paced ride and Freshbikes runs an awesome Tuesday night hill ride with enough people to suit any pace with free beer and burgers afterwards!

I’m don’t know if it’s Potomac Pedalers or Oxon Hill or a shop ride, but a Friday mid-day bunch just rode past my house heading for the Beltsville farms! PS, that’s Carmen the chihuahua in the foreground.
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[SilverSpring]

(Again, with apologies to POEM)

The intrepid pedalars left the bike shop,
College Park to the Hill, not a short hop,
The band split into two,
And then added a few,
With the bike ride complete, let the snow drop

Many thanks for a great ride on a beautiful day

[Greenbelt]

Hey Silver Spring and Kathy(!) and Zanna and Neil — nice ride today, and glad the meetups worked out. Don’t know if the video came out, but here are a couple cell phone shots. I think the best rider of the day was Chase the dog, who did 35+ miles in a backpack without a complaint. And the most adventurous award goes to Neil for riding on the Beltway trying to find the shop!

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[KLizotte]

Wrong Kathy, I think you mean ArlingtonRider.

That dog sure is a trooper! I hope he got a chance to run around at the end.

Am looking forward to joining one of these rides eventually.

[DaveK]

^^ What she said. I was riding out to Vienna with my wife today but we’ll have to join one of these rides sometime. If I were at home I would have walked down to the Market to at least say hi.

[Arlingtonrider]

It was great to see you all today – we’ll have to do that again sometime! Jeff and Laurie, it was so nice to finally meet you in person. I’ve gotten so many great biking and commuting tips from both of you, and the routes and videos you post have inspired me to explore more. Neil, I had no idea you rode the beltway to get to the shop today! I’ll have to pencil that into my bike map. The greatest charmer of the group, however, was Chase the poodle, who clearly enjoys biking just as much as the rest of us. Now that I know how easy it is to get to Eastern Market by bike, I want to go back and spend more time there. Lots of fun places to check out!

Thanks for getting us all together!

Kathy

[Greenbelt]

If you look closely at the second picture, you can see Chase the poodle poking his head out of the backpack!

OK, here’s the video (same as posted on Dirt’s Tim Johnson ride thread):
[video=vimeo;37075777]http://vimeo.com/37075777[/video]

[nstout]

Thanks! It was a great ride and a great way to explore the east side of town which I’ve never had the opportunity to do till today.

[Author]

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