Tim Johnson’s Ride On Washington: Come Ride With US!!!! HOLD THIS DATE!

[Dirt]

Greetings folks.

Thanks for your patience with all the discussions about Tim Johnson’s Ride On Washington. Y’all have been awesome at supporting me as I prepare for TJROW and with my fund raising. Now is the time to talk about some of the details of actually turning some pedals.

Day 5 of TJROW (Baltimore to DC on March 20th) is intended to be much more inclusive than the other parts of the ride. The distance is about 50 miles. It will be ridden at a little more inclusive pace. There are some really pretty sections of the ride. The last 15 miles (from College Park, Maryland to the US Capitol) in particular will be more inclusive.. something that a fit, casual cyclist could join in on. I’ve even got a friend who will help lead a more casual group of cyclists for the last leg.

Details for Day 5:

The details for Day 5 actually start on Day 4. The TJROW reception in Baltimore will be held at Twenty20 Cycling Co. at 725 W. 36th Street, Baltimore, MD 21211 from 7-8:30pm… maybe a little longer. http://www.twenty20cycling.com/ These events are entertaining, fun and a great way to support the ride. This local shop in particular is a very cool place to have an event. Come up the night before, come to the event, then ride back to DC with us in the morning.

Our hotel in Baltimore is the Hampton Inn & Suites Baltimore Inner Harbor, 131 East Redwood Street. We’ll be meeting there at 8:30am on Tuesday morning. We’re going to be wheels rolling at 9am. If you’re going to ride with us, please be ready to roll at 0900. Some of us that have ridden from Boston may be moving a little slowly, but we really need to try to keep to schedule for the last day if we can.

Here is the proposed route: http://ridewithgps.com/routes/966811 It may change in the next week or so. It will not be too far off from this.

How can I get to Baltimore? That’s a good question. There are many ways. I’ve heard a few different options so far.

* I’ve got a few friends who are riding up. A few are riding early with the intent to make it for the start. At least one is thinking of heading backward on the route until they meet up with us, then turn around and ride back.
* Some folks are just riding to College Park and meeting us there.
* Some folks have family or spouses that are driving them up to Baltimore.
* I’ve even heard that some folks are renting a car to head up. Day rental with return near the hotel nearby would be quite reasonable… especially if split between 2, 3 or more people. 2 people and bikes can fit in a small car pretty easily.
* It might be possible to take the train up, though I think the only Amtrak train that allows baggage (the bike) is the 10pm train. That gets you into Baltimore and your hotel pretty late.

If you need a ride to Baltimore, or have room to give someone a ride to Baltimore, please let me know via instant message. I will try and get people connected so that everyone can make it up to join in the ride.

Why is this ride cool?

1. The organization is awesome. Bikes Belong is one of the driving forces in making cycling better in America. Check them out.
2. You get to ride with some really cool cycling folks like 6-time National Champion cyclist Tim Johnson, 1992 World Champion Jan Bolland Tanner, MTB Hall of Fame Member Pete Webber and Advocacy guru and all-around amazing guy Richard Fries. Trust me, riding next to Richard for a little while is a lot of fun. He’s an amazing guy.

3. The reception at Twenty20 Cycling Co. Monday night will be enjoyable and informative. They put on a great event in a really cool shop last night.

4. This will be really, really fun.

Last but definitely not least: GIVE ME YOUR MONEY!!!!! (You knew that was coming, right?)

Here is my fund raising link: https://www.pledgereg.com/27074

For those who already donated, THANK YOU!!!! $25 donations start entering you for the raffle for prizes. For every $50 you donate, you get an entry in the raffle to win a custom Firefly frameset. Trust me, you want this bike. You really want this bike. http://fireflybicycles.com/ Mountain, road, cross or whatever… built in Titanium or Stainless steel. Trust me… you want this bike. I do too.

Thanks for reading! Thanks for supporting this ride. If you have friends who are cyclists, please forward this to them. We’d love to have them join in the ride.

Best wishes,

Pete

[vvill]

Anyone interested in a group ride to College Park (or further, perhaps) from DC or Rosslyn area? I don’t know the route so I don’t want to solo it.

Otherwise I’ll just take metro.

[Dirt]

I’ll post up a good route to College Park tomorrow. It isn’t difficult.

[vvill]

Thanks, Pete. I had a look at one of the Proteus rides that had a route from DC to College Park, but I get lost easily in new areas especially when there’s lots of turns…

[Dirt]

Well you’ve got one of them fancy-pants Garmin bike computers, right? I am picking up a new one tomorrow. My old one is about to die and I’ll need one for this ride.

If you haven’t used the nav features before, they’re really pretty dang good.

[eminva]

Vvill, I might be interested. Would be coming through Roslyn and DC. I could navigate through DC well enough. I will study the map very carefully and possibly a Greenbelt video a couple of times and I could attempt the trail portions of the route. I don’t have any fancy navigational devices, unless a smartphone counts.

Liz

[vvill]

@Dirt 15516 wrote:

Well you’ve got one of them fancy-pants Garmin bike computers, right? I am picking up a new one tomorrow. My old one is about to die and I’ll need one for this ride.

If you haven’t used the nav features before, they’re really pretty dang good.

Haha well yes I finally caved, spent the $ and got a Garmin 500 and took it on my first ride today. I don’t think it has nav features though, that’s the 800 right? I think Strava is going to be a lot more fun now I won’t be relying on a car GPS for my ride logs.

@eminva 15519 wrote:

Vvill, I might be interested. Would be coming through Roslyn and DC. I could navigate through DC well enough. I will study the map very carefully and possibly a Greenbelt video a couple of times and I could attempt the trail portions of the route. I don’t have any fancy navigational devices, unless a smartphone counts.

Liz

Cool, let me know. A smartphone counts! My cellphone is an old school flip phone. I’m happy to ride whatever pace suits. If we’re just going to College Park then I would probably leave from work sometime in the late morning, I’m near 19th + K St NW.

[Dirt]

@vvill 15529 wrote:

Haha well yes I finally caved, spent the $ and got a Garmin 500 and took it on my first ride today. I don’t think it has nav features though, that’s the 800 right? I think Strava is going to be a lot more fun now I won’t be relying on a car GPS for my ride logs.

Strava is definitely a lot of fun. Heaven for me, in fact. Finally a GPS-enabled Social Network.

The 500 doesn’t do turn by turn Nav like the 705 or 800 do, but it does allow you to enter a course and follow it. Basically it puts a purple line on the map for you to follow. It is pretty good. It is possible to set up the course so that it gives you indicators on when and what the next turn is too. Most of the people I ride with use that instead of the turn by turn nav.

I haven’t figured out if I’m getting the 500 or 800 yet. A lot depends on finances and what else I have to get for TJROW. I’ll know more tonight.

Either way I’ll try and post something up about how to nav with the 500 and 800.

Did you get the 500 with the Garmin Maps? I’ve been using the open street maps and have been very happy with them.

Have a good day. I’ll catch up with you soon.

[Tim Kelley]

@vvill 15529 wrote:

I think Strava is going to be a lot more fun now I won’t be relying on a car GPS for my ride logs.

One of my favorite past times this winter has been KOM Hunting in Arlington! Isn’t that right, americancyclo?

[americancyclo]

@Tim Kelley 15536 wrote:

One of my favorite past times this winter has been KOM Hunting in Arlington! Isn’t that right, americancyclo?

Sometimes I think I only use Strava to make Tim Kelley ride a bit harder. :p

[jrenaut]

I’m interested in riding up to College Park. Coming from DC.

[vvill]

@Dirt 15533 wrote:

Strava is definitely a lot of fun. Heaven for me, in fact. Finally a GPS-enabled Social Network.

The 500 doesn’t do turn by turn Nav like the 705 or 800 do, but it does allow you to enter a course and follow it. Basically it puts a purple line on the map for you to follow. It is pretty good. It is possible to set up the course so that it gives you indicators on when and what the next turn is too. Most of the people I ride with use that instead of the turn by turn nav.

Either way I’ll try and post something up about how to nav with the 500 and 800.

Did you get the 500 with the Garmin Maps? I’ve been using the open street maps and have been very happy with them.

Have a good day. I’ll catch up with you soon.

The segment stuff on strava is a really good idea, and it’s definitely better social networking since you don’t have to look at updates about people complaining about their day, politics, etc. – just rides.

Thanks for those tips! I found this which shows how to use the basic map thingy, as you described.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kAEM26w0bgg

I’ll have a play around with it tomorrow. I’m slacking today. (Oh, I don’t think I got any maps with the 500 – I thought only the 800 could use maps?)

@Tim Kelley 15536 wrote:

One of my favorite past times this winter has been KOM Hunting in Arlington! Isn’t that right, americancyclo?

Yeah I had a look at your KOM Sniping ride, impressive. I don’t think I’ll be trying for any KOMs but it is fun to see the average times on major segments in the area.

@jrenaut 15538 wrote:

I’m interested in riding up to College Park. Coming from DC.

Great. Looks like we may have a bona fide group then.

[americancyclo]

@vvill 15547 wrote:

(Oh, I don’t think I got any maps with the 500 – I thought only the 800 could use maps?)

I think only the 705 and 800 will let you load mapset. that was my motivation to get the 705 (on clearance).

looks like the 500 doesn’t have an SD card slot, so that might get in the way.

https://buy.garmin.com/shop/shop.do?cID=160&pID=36728

but you can definitely load ‘routes’ or ‘courses’ to a 500 like that guy did in the video.

[vvill]

Yeah it says

Maps & Memory:
Basemap: no
Ability to add maps: no
Accepts data cards: no
Lap history: 1,000 laps (dependent on memory usage)
Waypoints/favorites/locations: 0
Routes: 0

I’m guessing Dirt will be getting the 800!

Edit: Apparently ridewithgps just added Segments today

[consularrider]

Looks like I’ll have to pass on the ride, expect to be out of the country.

[Author]

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