[DCLiz]

@consularrider 21070 wrote:

Hmmm…well, thank you all for the inspiration! I only get a bronze water bottle? But where is the platinum award prize, I made it with last night’s ride after the happy hour!

I read this in the Bike Challenge comments: The platinum drawing is only held at the end of the contest. If you made Platinum or Gold in May, you will be entered into the Gold level drawing for all four months. If you don’t win in Gold, then you are entered in the Silver drawing, and if you don’t win in Silver, then you are entered in the Bronze drawing. Hence the water bottle.

I am sad that Chris Nelson won one of the bikes I want, even though I wasn’t eligible for the Gold drawing this month. I’ll be there in June, though!

[DCLiz]

Well, the aforementioned racks are probably a better option, but for me, I was able to use a standard rack to my low-end Trek hybrid that doesn’t have braze-on mounts/dropouts by swapping out my quick release seat clamp for one that had the requisite mounts. The friendly folks at Bicycle Space came up with that solution and did the install for me.

[DCLiz]

I just got a Ward folding rear basket and I love it. I pop it open and throw my purse in when I need it, and it folds flat when I don’t. I bought it from The Daily Rider and the nice folks there installed it for me at no cost.

I also have a cute clip-on pannier from Basil — it’s girly pink and white and gray. I like it because it’s super easy to clip on and off the back rack, and cute enough to take out with me if I’ve ridden to happy hour. That goes on the other side of the rack from the folding basket when needed, such as on Bike to Work day to haul swag.

[DCLiz]

Interesting thread, and thanks to mrkenny83 for starting it! I actually still need to practice taking ONE hand off too signal — I have trouble with that. I found that riding CaBi really helped there. It’s much easier to balance on those things. They also helped me learn how to start and stop properly. And slowly allowed me to raise my seat to the proper height. All skills which more or less translated to my hybrid. Now I’m working on remembering to downshift at stops.

But, wouldn’t be able to squeeze the top bar on a CaBi!

[DCLiz]

Many of you probably received this email, but for those that are just browsing, Bike DC sent out this explanation on Monday night. I appreciate that they realized they needed to communicate what happened with the participants.

[DCLiz]

@JustinW 19538 wrote:

Still many positives enjoyed, including

– 2 or 3 immense unicycles

Yes. How did those unicycles get up the hills? I barely made it with two wheels and 21 gears!

[DCLiz]

I’m curious when this hour-long backup happened, and when people were turned away from Iwo Jima and Air Force Memorial? I did the family ride, and we left the starting point right around 8 am. There was definitely a back-up at the off-ramp immediately following the Roosevelt Bridge, but only a few minutes — no where close to an hour. Just had to get off and walk through the choke point. EDIT: It sounds like the accident shut down that part of the route before the family ride got under way, so I guess we missed it.

Part of the backup at that time was due to the fact that family riders and full riders were mixed in with each other. There was some confusion as everyone got sorted into the correct lanes. As a slower family rider, I was naturally on the right (and the full riders were on the left). We than had to navigate across each other to get pointed in the right direction. I feel that if the volunteers had megaphones at that point and were further into the traffic, they could have gotten people into the correct lanes earlier, to alleviate some of the crush.

Also, once the family riders did get on Rte 50, there were some scary moments were there was no instruction whatsoever as to what side of the road we were supposed to be on. The outbound riders were supposed to be on the left while the inbound riders came in on the right (their left, I guess). This is completely non-intuitive — as a vehicle, you are used to riding on the right, and at this point, it was the first time we were on a two-way stretch of the route. A volunteer, or even a sign on the cones saying “keep left” (which ironically were present later on the ride), would have been helpful.

Riders were riding fast inbound, shouting at very confused people to keep left.

But, we made it to Iwo Jima and the Air Force Memorial with no further problems beyond what is expected when so many people on the road together. I think we got there a little after 9 AM.

EDIT #2 — Just read Mark’s post at WABA. Seems like there was an issue with the route to the finish line for earlier riders too: http://www.waba.org/blog/2012/05/recap-bike-dc-2012-edition/

This was my first Bike DC, and I had lots of fun. The weather’s always this good, right?

[DCLiz]

Awesome, thanks for sharing the link! Can’t wait to add my new purple bike glow light to my bike!

[DCLiz]

@DSalovesh 18134 wrote:

answer, but: take the lane. That was the situation before the cycletrack, and it’s still the situation wherever we don’t have one.

Gotta tell ya — I did that and had a near miss. I took the lefthand of the two travel lanes, as I was continuing straight. The lefthand lane was free of traffic, while the right lane had a long queue of cars waiting to turn right onto Constitution.

A car swerved suddenly–no signal–out of the right lane, into the left lane to cut the queue. Had I been about 6″ further along, I’d be under an SUV. Barely made it to the safety of the crosswalk then sidewalk I was shaking so bad.

So I won’t be riding on this stretch any time in the near future!

BTW — if I did something wrong or could have prevented this near miss by doing something differently, I am open to constructive suggestions. I was actually riding along expecting a car to swerve out, but it was just luck that this one missed me–he obviously hadn’t seen me at all. I think I was riding in the center or center left of the lane.

[DCLiz]

Bicycle Space, a fantastic bike shop located across the street from the Convention Center, has weekend social rides of all different levels. They’re a great way to meet likeminded folks! http://bicyclespacewdc.com/rides-events/month/calendar

[DCLiz]

Quote:

Where do the bunnies go?

Metro.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]844[/ATTACH]

(The original caption of this photo, shared by 365 Things to Do in DC on Facebook, is “NYC’s subway has rats and cockroaches. We’ve got bunnies. #DCwinning”)

[DCLiz]

Thank you for posting this. I personally did not realize the dangers of being in a bike lane standing to the right of a bus/truck until now. I took Confident City Cycling 1 & 2 two years ago — I don’t recall learning this information. If it hasn’t been already, how to cycle near large vehicles should be included in the curriculum.

[DCLiz]

@mstone 16073 wrote:

Didn’t the zoo’s meet its end during the great zoo animal die-off?

No, the Zoo’s giraffes were moved to other zoos to make way for the expansion of the Asian elephant habitat. The new Elephant Trails will make the National Zoo one of the few places in the country that can house a multi-generational herd of Asian elephants, including full grown bulls.

[DCLiz]

Did you see the DCist article today, which reports that, among other things, the cyclist was ticketed for not wearing a helmet?

[DCLiz]

@KLizotte 8108 wrote:

Perhaps biking has gotten popular enough that some entrepreneurs (or the local government) will start building secure bike parking “sheds” in neighborhoods (a good use for small, empty lots) where users would pay a monthly fee to park their bikes. Obviously security would be paramount.

That would be so fantastic. I tried to get a locker at the Eastern Market Metro, but they wouldn’t even take my name for the waiting list. Obviously the demand is there!

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