There’s no place like home

[PotomacCyclist]

There seem to be more local bike sites in the mountain bike world. I just found several of those, but there aren’t as many general cycling/bike commuter forums.

MPLSBikeLove.com (Minneapolis/St. Paul) has a long-running bike forum. It runs back at least to 2006. http://mplsbikelove.com/forum/
But for some reason, they announced that they are going to integrate Facebook connections while retaining their forum. The announcement says that “Forums are dying.” Not sure if I agree with that. Facebook is useful, but it works differently than forums do. http://mplsbikelove.com/news/mpls-bike-love-is-about-to-be-reborn/

There is also Portland Bike Forums: http://bikeportland.org/forum/index.php? (Yes, I checked the usual bike city suspects first.) It also goes back to at least 2006. But it doesn’t seem to be quite as active as our forum. The population of Portland is fairly close to that of D.C. but the Arlington/DC metropolitan area is much bigger than that of Portland.

There could be other local bike forums. I found the Two Spoke forum, which includes many local sub-forums, including this one for NYC: http://www.twospoke.com/forum/. There is a local DC forum but it only has two threads and no new posts since 2011. I’m not really finding any popular NYC-specific bike forums.

National sites like mtbr.com and bikeforums.net have regional sub-forums but they don’t get as detailed as this forum does.

http://forums.mtbr.com/forum.php

http://www.bikeforums.net/forumdisplay.php/176-Regional-Discussions

***
I agree that bikearlingtonforum.com is great. It wasn’t that long ago when the fancy new method of posting updates on local trail conditions was a poorly advertised Twitter account. There are local bike groups and various smaller forums, Facebook pages and Twitter feeds. But BA Forum/Washington Area Bike Forum provides an easy-to-find location for all local bike chat. We are indeed lucky to have it.

On a semi-related note, I wish there were a similar Arlington/DC forum for running. There are many groups in the area with Facebook pages, web sites and active Twitter feeds. But nothing like BA Forum for runners. There are national running forums with occasional local coverage, but that’s not the same thing as a true local forum. Maybe there could be a new sub-forum here for runners/pedestrians. While it’s not quite on-topic, some of the needs and concerns of runners do match up with those of cyclists: safety on local roads and trails for non-motorized users, multimodal paths and trails. And many cyclists are also runners. Sometimes cyclists walk around the region too. Perhaps the new sub-forum could bring over some of the dedicated runners and convince them to pick up cycling, for exercise, recreation and/or commuting. Just a thought.

[americancyclo]

Walkarlingtonforum.com?

[acc]

@Arlingtonrider 57755 wrote:

We are so lucky to have our forum and forum community! I’ve been traveling a bit this summer and have found that none of the other places I’ve been to have a forum like this one. The three cities I visited recently – Evanston, Ill., Charlotte, NC and Denver, CO all have large numbers of cyclists, yet none of them seemed to offer any kind of ongoing connection to the cycling community. Does anyone know of anything I’m missing, especially here in or near Denver where I am now? (I’d love to find a TdF watching event somewhere.)

On the positive side, my Aurora, CO hotel is next to a great 9 mile bike trail into Denver and has bikes we can use for free. I ordered local bike maps before I left home so I’m enjoying riding, but I miss having a way to connect locally here and the kind ongoing conversations about local events, etc. that we’re able to have on our forum!

Thank you, BikeArlington, for starting this forum – I hope other communities will see what we have and develop similar sites. Does anyone know of any other U.S. cities with something like what we have?

Agreed. This site provides hints, suggestions, and encouragement to a wide swath of people who ride bikes. i’m so glad you found ways to ride while you are out of town. Of course you are among the most competent riders I know so that is no surprise.

[Author]

Posts