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@ShawnoftheDread 87841 wrote:

Are those foam? They look like they’d be quite fun to ride through. Like on a CaBi during an early lunch.

They looked like they were heavy corrugated cardboard or particle board (or some combination thereof). Some extremely nice folks were finishing trying to shuffle them into the turn area when I went past. I don’t know how they resisted the urge to build a big Duplo wall in the auto lane or erect a decent U-turn barrier.

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Presented without comment*

[ATTACH=CONFIG]5856[/ATTACH]

*Because they would be both predictable and profane.
Photocredit: sharrowsDC

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The Daily Rider on H Street NE has a nice selection of upright city bikes from Gazelle, Pashley, Pilen, Spot, and a few others. I also second the Bicycle Space recommendation. Both excellent shops.

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That’s awesome!

And this reminds me, my tires are getting long in the tooth and I’d love to try Maxxis’ Hookworms if I can get ’em to clear my frame’s stays.

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@Greenbelt 87342 wrote:

Heavy traffic this morning

I’ve never seen that many bikes in DC stopped in a (mostly) single-file line! Hope springs eternal in the human breast!

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There were lots of great folks and fun costumes at the social ride. I’ve never ridden three miles quite so slowly, but everyone seemed to agree that it was a beautiful route through Capitol Hill, so it was nice to be moving at a proper gawking pace. And we rode right past my house!

The bike rodeo was also a blast!

A few more photos on Flickr here.

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I’ll just throw in a recommendation to go check out the Daily Rider on H Street NE and Bicycle Space by the downtown convention center when you’re checking out shops. Almost everything in both stores is oriented toward transportation cycling and the staffs are both great. If I were you I’d test ride everything in both stores!

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Is that a beer fridge!?!?!?! Why not just install a set of taps through the wood workbench and be done with it!

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@OneEighth 86814 wrote:

Ridicule is also effective.

My problem, as an irredeemable misanthrope, is a tendency to blow way past “good natured chiding.” Once, I think I caused an old man to throw himself off of the 14th street bridge in despair.¹ Safer for everyone if I just spray people like they’re a misbehaving cat. There’s no way that can go wrong!

¹ Hyperbole contained herein. No old men were actually harmed in the making of this post.^2
2An old man may, however, have been saddened in the making of this post.

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@DCLiz 86790 wrote:

Traveling westbound on the Pennsylvania Avenue cycle track, observed a cyclist ahead of me stopping for a red light, and then going through it when the cross-traffic light turned red, much to the annoyance of all of the cars in the opposite direction who had to wait for him while they had a green left-turn arrow.

Lemme guess, at Penn and 12th? Every day I see some mouthbreather jump that light despite it usually being (typically homicidal) metrobusses making that left off Penn. It’s a really short protected light cycle too, so their unwillingness to put up with that crap is doubly understandable. For whatever reason, cyclists seem not to be so brazen about it at Penn and 7th.

And while we’re on the subject of stupid, OMG THE SHOALING! Now that it’s warm enough I will be deploying my new state of the art anti-shoal device.

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@cyclingfool 86455 wrote:

Over the course of a few years, we had ongoing problems with a a delivery vehicle that parked illegally in the alley way next to our apartment building for hours at a time. After other avenues to address the situation failed (speaking directly to the driver, reporting the driver to the vendor he worked for)…

You’re a very patient person! Just FYI, tire boots are so cheap as to be almost disposable.

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Isn’t that just past the Fish Market on Maine Ave looking past the small marina toward the weird old National Parks Service boathouse-thing at Haines Point?

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I think you could do pretty well at the corner of 15th and Penn where the cycletrack meets the White House/Treasury Dept pedestrian plaza. I’ve seen lots of interesting bikes pass through there and they’re usually moving slowly enough to get a good leer in, rather than the fleeting glimpse you might get if bikes are at speed.

East Capitol Street also funnels lots of interesting rides downtown during morning rush. You’d get a decent view from the window booth in Jimmy T’s Place (and a tasty breakfast!).

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@jamilkb 85534 wrote:

DC Freedom Plaza was kinda …
I walked over from the office in attempts to get my T-Shirt….nothing but a small group gathered around some guy giving some kinda speech…..
Turned and walked back to the office…
Oh well….
I DO wonder where the T-Shirts are though…

They’re staying dry in a bus parked in front of the National Theater. Head back over and grab yours!

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I remember staffing the Raleigh to DC Aids Rides for a few years starting in 1997. The old Bikes USA chain (which was based near Dulles but had stores all over the Southeast) was a big sponsor. Me and a few of the other part-time mechanics in the Raleigh shop were on spring break from NC State or local high schools. And our local manager bet that a few teenagers in panel vans filled to the brim with bike parts and leaky tents chasing a two-thousand person peloton couldn’t get into too much trouble.

He was, quite to everyone’s astonishment, right. The people were uniformly a treat to be around. Much fun was had and many memories were made, but one story in particular bears telling. We’d fixed many bikes of questionable provenance over the week, with a number of people becoming familiar faces at the pit-stops. The bike of one of our frequent clients finally gave out about twenty miles outside of the city. The chain had snapped, sheared off her derailleur, mangled her dropout, which sent everything, rider included, skidding down the road. Her rear wheel and derailleur were ruined, we didn’t have replacements. The look on her face when we broke the news was already heartbreaking, but when she told us how she was riding for the brother she lost that year we knew we had to try something with what he had on hand.

We didn’t have much left. Just a few ruined department store bikes that had been castoff and replaced by their riders along the way. So we scavenged a wheel of the wrong size–a 26″ single speed from a beach cruiser with a rear coaster brake, since her rear caliper didn’t align with the new smaller rim. Then we bolted on a busted derailleur with the limit screws ratcheted down for chain tension. But she still had three speeds from her front chainrings! So we all agreed that she could conceivably limp to the finish. The penniless highschoolers though were very clear that if questioned, they would deny any knowledge of the kludged together frankenbike. I mean, the bloody coaster brake was secured with a pipe clamp and duct tape.

She found us after the closing ceremony on the mall—while we were breaking down bikes and boxing them up for people flying out—in tears at having been able to finish. We got huge hugs and then she walked off, leaving the bike leaning against the Dept. of Agriculture. I’d be lying if I said I don’t still keep an eye out for some kid riding that old beater around the Hill.

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