[danlesh]

Just a quick note that we are still looking for someone who is driving to HP to help transport some supplies…

Related notes:

1) Still looking for a TOAST connection… if someone has desire to arrange the “BREAD” that would be helpful. Please reach out to me in a dm. I’m happy to share costs / help arrange community collection.
2) I have one possible hook up, but if someone has one of those massive catering hot water dispensers, that would be helpful… I have huge costco boxes of hot chocolate and fancy english tea.
3) I do have a couple lines out to food trucks to park nearby for us… I’ll update when I have something firmed up.

[danlesh]

@Nadine 218103 wrote:

This sounds great! Where in Dupont is the ride leaving from at 8pm? Near the metro? What corner?

What a good question! From the Circle! [ATTACH=CONFIG]28782[/ATTACH]

(i’ll edit my original post now, too!)

[danlesh]

Thanks Steve O – sorry you’ll miss it too, but we’ll do our best to make this awesome!

[danlesh]

@Steve O 217522 wrote:

in particular if Bike Party promoted it as a Freezing Saddles event at which they are invited and welcome guests.

I guess if there are 250 BP folks and 25 FS it might seem out of balance, but given it’s a Saturday, I bet there will be more than 50 FSers.

We could definitely promote it like that.

I agree the turnout # is a bit unknown… we’d almost certainly start the evening with more community folks than will stick around until midnight.

[danlesh]

@jrenaut 217448 wrote:

While I appreciate the offer and think DC Bike Party is great, I would not be in favor of you all taking over FSLNHPP. It’s a Freezing Saddles party, not a bike party – the whole point is to celebrate the last day of being obligated to go ride your bike in crummy weather. Having a bunch of people there who didn’t go through the competition together just doesn’t feel right.

This is a fair perspective which is why I wanted to post for discussion / perhaps consensus(?) before just doing it.

To be clear, our offer is to invite and encourage a wider group of cyclists to join / cheer us on. They might just mind their own business, but they might also talk to us… and might even consider doing it next year…. or they might not, you know? We would be inviting more folks to the large open public space, so this would be different from the smaller event I attended last year.

We would bring sound. That is sorta our thing, and I’d just say a couple different community rides have been doing similar “chill vibe” sorts of bike/dance events every month since 2020 without attracting Park Officials. The sound from the trailer is actually quite directional, meaning that if we point it in one direction it doesn’t “bleed” very much in other directions in a wide open space. (Incidentally, I was at HP doing laps on NYE and there was a group that set up a PA system outside a RV. Park Officials did ask them to shut it down around 1:30 am.)

We are *not* talking about food trucks though, but since we’ll be there a while, we would encourage folks to pack snacks / picnics.

I’m not particularly plugged in to leadership here but is there a process? Is anyone else offering to organize the party on the 19th? If DCBP isn’t going to then we’d still like to try to make the Hamster Dance thing materialize before the 19th, and then it sounds like someone else would need to take point for the official FSLNHPP.

[danlesh]

@DrBullet 217396 wrote:

Are food trucks allowed down at Hains Point?
…that might be an easier option than having to bring/arrange food…if they are allowed there…or nearby??
It will be a Saturday night…seems like a good time to party 😎

nerp .

[ATTACH=CONFIG]28474[/ATTACH]

[danlesh]

In a word YES!

In more words: the DC Bike Party crew can lead the effort and make this happen. I had a post a while back about us hosting a “hamster dance” and weather and scheduling conflicts had us looking into early March. Buuuuut… if folks are cool with us bring a somewhat larger crowd to the scene to cheer on the final laps, I think this could be quite serendipitous for the closing party.

Generally what we’re thinking is:

• we’ll promote the event with the bike community, asking folks to party with us and welcome the spring
• we’ll lead a group ride at 8pm from Dupont Circle to Haines Point
• and we’ll park our mobile sound system at the southern parking lot where folks can dance and socialize all night, and/or loop de loop de loop de loop…
• around 11:15 pm we’ll get the sound system moving and invite everyone there to roll around the island “party pace” a couple more times… then we’ll be off!
• we’ll end the season finale HP ride back at the southern lot, we’ll eat some toasty toast (or something like that) and call it a night.

Sound good? If anyone else can help we’ll absolutely welcome it. Particularly, we might want to take up a bit of a collection for the toast part to make sure we have enough… bread.

@Steve O 217167 wrote:

Freezing Saddles ends at 11:59:59 on March 19, the last full day of winter.

Every year since 2014 Freezing Saddles participants have gathered at Hains Point, ridden in circles, stopped their GPS devices shortly before midnight, and shared a toast to curse winter and celebrate another year of Freezing Saddles.

For the first time this year, I will miss this illustrious event, as I will be in N. Carolina for Croatan.

Therefore I am asking for someone else to take on the task of promoting and “organizing” the FSLNHPP. There’s not a lot to organize, actually. It’s mostly communicating with participants and teams and encouraging people to bring food, drink and entertainment to Hains Point. And then wrangle the riders for a final group lap in time to finish before midnight.

[danlesh]

Is there a hashtag I should use in the strava title?

DC Bike Party’s funked up, masked up, (oughta be vaxxed up!), Supersonic, Omichronic Tonic Ride. (Cold weather formula to warm ya buns and feed your heart.)

[danlesh]

AND its awesome!! Thank you so much for making these!!

[danlesh]

I’m low key hoping to be on your team again too!! I feel like with a couple years to practice, #23 would have been a serious contender! Happy new year to you and yours! I do intend to rock a couple more of those long rides again this year so let’s keep in touch and make em happen!!

[danlesh]

@Smitty2k1 212114 wrote:

So I’m definitely the right age for the Hamster Dance… but how does someone make an entire party out of a single song?

I can promise the song won’t be on repeat the *whole* time. But I can’t promise people won’t want to wear costumes, or be rolling around a giant wheel.

[danlesh]

Hi All! I’m Danny and I live in NE DC – glad to see I got placed on a team even though I registered late, after only learning about this on 12/26! Anyhow my commute at the moment is just to my kitchen table, but I still managed to knock out 7 century rides in the last 6 months, and overall more than 400 miles /month for 2020. I also help run DC Bike Party – I pull the sound trailer, when we’re doing that. I also pull my 3 year old in a trailer when the whether permits on weekends.

ANYHOW – glad to be in Team 23 the with ya! I just went through syncing my Strava aacount, and I see my name showing in the participants list, but it does not show the sorry single ride I got in so far this week. I’m not sure if there’s a lag in the data, or a technical issue I still need to resolve.

[danlesh]

Hi all – I know registration is closed but just… in… case… I’ll riding all winter anyway, might as well be part of a convivial and good-humored team competition. This *would* be my first time if I get assigned a team.

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