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@Rod Smith 51178 wrote:

Fun ride. The “sculptures”, human powered vehicles, were spectacular. Some very impressive designs. Here’s one featuring a mustache and a mustachioed stoker in drag, longtime DC messenger (and many times alleycat champ) who just happened to be good friends with the tallbike rider we escorted to Baltimore and along the parade route who also had a mustache on his bike…

Bruce said “Hey Rod, we have a trailer!” and proudly pointed it. The trailer had a round, rotating trailer bed with a mouse on it.
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That’s my friends’ entry! And they won the mediocre award!

Thanks for the good picture; I heard all about it while it was being assembled, but this is the best picture I’ve seen.

Liz

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Hello!

Sorry I haven’t been more on top of this; been busy with non-cycling affairs lately.

So far, Fairfax County has 34 schools participating and our goal is 50. If you are a county parent, you can check the link in the first post above to see if your son or daughter’s school is participating. If not, it is not too late to throw something together. See information on the website for last minute tips. If your child’s school is participating but you don’t see it listed, please register the school so it shows up on the website. Feel free to PM me for more info. Thanks!

It appears my kid is the only one in the convoy to Luther Jackson Middle School in the Merrifield area of Fairfax County. Anyone want to join us for the ride on Wednesday morning? I know Mike is offering coffee; if I have to up the ante I will. Pastries, too, at Pastry Xpo in Mosaic. Anyone care to join us? We can figure out a rendezvous spot and time if there is interest.

Thanks.

Liz

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[ATTACH]2777[/ATTACH]

Some people have a sparkle bike, some people have a yellow reflective tape bike . . .

(This is my 40 year old bike from childhood, still in my parents’ cellar. Just pump up tires and go!)

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JimK is right, the little connector trail between Electric and the W&OD. Wanted to see how it behaved in gravel without going too far from home.

Liz

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Hello —

Recently, I solicited advice about my next bike purchase.

Well, I got it, put it together and took it out for a spin this morning. Here it is:

[ATTACH=CONFIG]2759[/ATTACH]

Bonus points for anyone who knows where this photo was taken without peeking at Strava.

And here’s what it looked like it when it arrived and I put it together! Okay, so my husband helped with two parts. Be impressed, I was.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]2760[/ATTACH]

I think I saw Dirt and someone (another Kill Bill participant?) warming up on the W&OD eastbound in Vienna about 7:30 a.m. while I was out on my inaugural ride.

Liz

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Hello —

The bike might be too big; we had that problem with my son and IMO it set him back a year in learning to ride (he outgrew his bike just when he was about to get it and the bike shop sold us a replacement that was way too big).

When you took off the pedals, did you also lower the seat so that she can sit on the seat and put both feet flat on the ground? That’s a no-no for us grownups, but it is a good way to start so she can always put her feet down to stop if she gets nervous gliding.

Find a level place to practice gliding so she doesn’t feel out of control. I know that’s hard — what looks level when we are walking about always seems to have a slight tilt when you’ve got a nervous beginner on your hands.

When she can glide safely, put one pedal back on and teach her to push off and take the first pedal stroke — she’ll be so busy concentrating on that, she won’t have time to get nervous about gliding.

Good luck!

Liz

P.S. I forgot: I think REI has kids learn to ride classes — you might try that, too?

P.P.S. There is no magic age or time frame; don’t get discouraged if you see younger kids who’ve got it. She’ll get there!

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Why you all insist on bringing up horrible, horrible memories of my very first day in Washington, DC at the tender age of 20 is beyond me.

By the way, I do know the most direct, as the crow flies, way to get from the Kennedy Center to the Iwo Jima Memorial. Unfortunately, my classmate and I were not crows.

Liz

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@GuyContinental 49987 wrote:

information sharing/building (segment owners/”mayors”) .

Good ideas, Guy. Toward this end, I am declaring myself the “mayor” of the segment right in front of my house, Cottage Interval. As mayor, I want you all to know that there is a stop sign in the middle of the segment. I don’t think this makes it dangerous, but you should stop because it is a notorious stop sign trap for the Vienna Police who hide a cruiser just out of sight on the cross street, Oak. One of my neighbors got a ticket for not doing a full foot-dropping stop.

If I could note this on Strava I would.

Liz

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consularrider, can you schedule all your out of country travel now?

Get well soon.

Liz

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@elcee 49950 wrote:

For me, it just doesn’t pay to bike aggressively; if I wanted to go quickly, it’s almost better to be on the street among the cars.

elcee is exactly right. The analogy I make is that before cycletracks, L Street was like a frogger game and after cycletracks, it’s like a lazy river ride. If you have no expectation of going fast, it’s actually okay. If you want to play frogger, you can still take the lane and are entitled to do so.

@KLizotte 50011 wrote:

Perhaps it is time to re-think the L street cycletrack? I haven’t ridden it yet but it seems like riding with traffic may be a much better idea.

I would disagree — I never minded riding with traffic but I like the cycletrack better and default to that now (except when I have to swing out into traffic around a trash truck). I think there are upsides and downsides to both. Riding in traffic through that stretch is no piece of cake, especially for beginners.

This is probably a conversation I should be having with WABA staff and my fellow LCIs, but I think the Confident City Cycling curriculum would benefit from some discussion of how to avoid the pitfalls of cycletrack use (jnva’s video would be a good case study).

Liz

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You all are scaring the socks off me — I have to go through there early next month when work takes me out to Rockville. I have now conflated this in my mind with riding up the side of the Empire State Building. Maybe I will just keep going on the CCT and cross at Key Bridge — talk about “Wall of Shame!”

Liz

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dcv, I took my son to REI and held everything up and said, “Do you like this?”, “Do you like this?” etc. until he said okay. He got a pair of sort of hipster looking shorts with a liner with a chamois (Zoic brand, I think).

But I had an LCI gig in Alexandria yesterday; we were discouraged from wearing any technical gear when teaching so I had to run through the drills, group ride and return trip home in jeans and I was hating life by the end. Don’t know how he does it.

Liz

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@vvill 49632 wrote:

Go to your profile within the national bike challenge site (click on your avatar/image), click on Change Settings. Hit OK (don’t bother changing anything unless you want to). When the page reloads you should see the local challenge.

Worked for me anyway.

Also, here is a direct link for the FABB challenge.
http://www.endomondo.com/campaign/national?view=7731

It works! That was fast.

So anyone who has already registered for the challenge, lives in Fairfax County and wants to participate in the Local Challenge, please follow the instructions above. You can still participate in your team or workplace competition; this is just an additional layer.

Thanks again.

Liz

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Hello —

I’m hoping to crowdsource the solution to a little technical problem. With some arm twisting, I convinced the challenge officials to allow us to create a “local” challenge for the cyclists of Fairfax County, under the auspices of Fairfax Advocates for Better Bicycling (FABB). I just used the link they provided and created it. So it is out there ready to log our tons of miles. There is one catch: no one can figure out how people who are already enrolled in the 2013 National Bike Challenge can join a local challenge created after they have joined the national. Challenge officials are awaiting word from Endomondo. In the meantime, anyone want to try to figure out how to get those of us who’ve already registered aboard the local challenge? Thanks.

Liz

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You: Weather.com

Me: Your obsessive stalker

Me: Why did you lie to me like that? I wouldn’t have been mad, I have a new rain jacket I wanted to show you.

I thought we had a relationship!

Liz

[Author]

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