MacAskill Solo Ride

I like Danny MacAskill. He talks funny... he bikes funny too.


Here's my favorite of his videos.


Quick note: The Jezabels, who do the second song on this video will be in DC at the Rock and Roll Hotel on June 18th. Should be pretty good.

Bike To Work Day 2014

Mashing is FUNdamental: A Literary Alleycat this Saturday!

Saturday, May 4th is DC’s Mashing is FUNdamental: A Literary Alleycat. An alleycat is a checkpoint race—you can take any route you like, but have to hit every checkpoint. Think urban scavenger hunt on bikes. This alleycat is unlike any other: it’s literary-themed. Half the checkpoints are libraries, where you have to check out a given book. The other half are challenges related to DC authors, such as yelling "Oh Captain, My Captain" from the top of the Smithsonian Portrait Gallery's steps (where Walt Whitman was once worked). The event’s manifest (alleycat-speak for “checkpoint list”) reads something like this:

• Anacostia—1800 Good Hope Rd, SW
    o Any book on social science (call number starts with 3)
• Woodridge—1801 Hamlin St, NE
    o Any book on religion (call number starts with 2)
• West End—1101 24th St, NW
    o Any CD (call number starts with PHONO)
• Etc. (there’s 11 stops, totaling just over 20 mi when traveled most efficiently)

At the finish line/after party at Satellite Room, riders turn in their books and manifests to verify completion. We’ll award prizes to the fastest bikers, and raffle off additional prizes (we have over $1,000 in merchandise to give away). There’s a second, mellower manifest; comprised of stops relevant to DCPL (the Mellon Fountain, etc.) and DC literature (where Zora Neale Hurston lived, Katherine Graham, Langston Hughes, etc.). This is targeted towards riders who just want to cruise and see their city through an interesting new lens. Overall, the event is designed to civically engage riders more than the average bike race. Riders will learn something, and can mash it (alley-cat speak for “go really fast”) the entire way in hopes of glory at race’s-end.
And for all that the written word gives us, we wanna give back: all event proceeds go to 826DC (826dc.org), a nonprofit organization dedicated to working with students ages 6–18 in developing their creative and expository writing skills, and to working with teachers to inspire their students to write.

What: Mashing is Fundamental: A Literary Alleycat
When: Saturday, 5/4/13
Where: 7th St steps of the Portrait Gallery (604 7th St, NW; DC)
Registration: 1pm
Race start: 2pm
Afterparty: Satellite Room
Donation: $5, benefiting 826DC

834 Miles Per God Damn Hour

When I was a kid I spent a lot of my time staring at this image of Joseph Kittinger skydiving from the edge of space. There was something truly mind blowing about this image. I never saw any footage of the jump or heard anything about it anywhere else. I just had this photo... to stare at.

Fast forward thirty something years to yesterday when Felix Baumgartner did it live in HD for me and my 4 year old girl to watch.


We both watched with jaws dropped as Baumgartner reached 834 miles per god damn hour. My daughter was totally engaged, asking lots of questions and making some pretty keen observations (for a 4 year old). After he landed we exchanged high fives and fist bumps and danced around the kitchen yelling about how great science was.

To make it even cooler Joseph Kittinger was leading the ground crew. Buh BAM!

Having said all of that, my daughter and I wont be drinking a red bull any time soon.

How To Prepare A Road Bike For A Century

I'm doing the Sea Gull Century tomorrow and I've not prepared for this in the slightest. I've known about if for months and I ain't done sheeyit. I expect the suffering/fun ration to be quite high. Having said that there is one crucial step in my lack of preparation that I didn't overlook. The Bike.

Here's how I get my Bianchi EV3 Reparto Corse ready for a ass chaffing century. I slap on my big couch of a Brooks B-17.

Much like donning a sombrero in a tuxedo this move will ensure my ass is comfy.

Ah ain't skeerd.

(I'm a little scared)

Tour de Fat DC: Tour de F#&K Yeah!

This past weekend I took the family to the much anticipated Tour de Fat at the Yards Park in DC and I must say that there was nothing lame anywhere to be found.
(Except the Yankees winning a block away)

There were sexy parade people...


There were lots of oversized board game classics...

There was lots of meandering...

There was a fake/real gameshow...



There were lots of chicks with drums, some say those are the best kind of chicks....

There was me on what I can easily say was the most fun "bike" type machine I've ever ridden. The concept of this amazing contraption was simple; make a bigwheel for grownups that power-slides every time you make the slightest turn. The best part was that if you turned too hard it would send you rolling off, combining my two favorite adrenaline boosting activities;  power-sliding and wrecking. Thank you New Belgium!
Here are some power-sliding action shots:

And here is a wrecking shot.

There were lots of other bike oddities to wreck on...

Yeah that's my voice talking to my 3.5 year old. Suck it.
I was unaware at the time but this video I captured Gwadzilla, (in the pink helmet) deftly outspinning his opponents who were flung far and wide and left hoist in their own petard. (0:45sec)

The event culminated in a ceremony honoring a DC citizen who traded her car in for a bike. Props.

So a damn good time was had and a bunch of money was raised. Cheers to New Belgium and WABA.

Pre Tour De Fat Party At The Pug

Last night I went with a buddy down to The Pug on H street for a New Belgium/WABA pre TDF party. There were lot's of Belgian style beer and bike people, which is always a good combination. There was a raffle to raise money for WABA and NB gave away hats, shirts, and a pretty sweet custom cruiser to this lucky gal.

I apologize for the crappy photos.

The place was filled with poorly lit blurry people. Gwadzilla is in there somewhere.

I had a nice chat with Katie, WABA's DC Bike Ambassador.

I tried the aptly named Tart Lychee, which was both tart and full of lychee. It was pretty damn good, however there is a time and a place and last night was neither. Maybe a hot summer day while grilling pork.

I picked up another piece of beeraphernalia for the LHT.

After having our fill of Belgian style beer, and being raffle loosers, we went next door  to Granville Moore's for some mussels, fries, and actual Belgian beer. I highly recommend the the braised lamb and Navigator mussels.

Over all it was a great night; we met cool folks, gave WABA some money, drank good beer, and ate great food.

Bike To Work Day 2012

Bike To Work Day is next Friday! Commuter Connections and WABA have done a great job organizing this event in the past and this year will be no different.

Historically BTWD has had it's share of crappy weather but that shouldn't be the case this year as the Ultra-Super-Accurate 10 day forecast from weather.com says it will be 78 and sunny.

Register Here.

Join a convoy or go it alone.

Save $10 on a WABA membership

Get a T-shirt.

Justify those feelings of superiority over your co-workers.

Kidical Thinking

This past Saturday I took the family down to the ABC's of Family Biking at the Capital Hill Montessori School. With my oldest daughter on the LHT, we meandered through Silver Spring and Takoma Park eventually connecting to the 14 St. bike lane. I hadn't taken this route into the city before and was pleasantly surprised. It's a great hilly ride through beautiful mostly tree-lined neighborhoods. We took a detour past Obama's house on my daughters advice but upon arrival she was less than enthusiastic.

The event had a good turnout with lots of cargo and family bikes accompanied by cargo and family people. It's always cool to swap ideas and share tips with like minded bikenerds. 

I was able to test ride a Christiana with a full payload which was fun. 

My daughter was partial to the Bullitt.

...and of course there were Xctracycles everywhere.

By far the biggest plus of the day was learning that after 20 miles my DIY child seat was fully naperational.

Kudos to Megan and the gang for throwing together a very cool event.

Video from the event.

Phoenix Bikes Show Fundraiser This Thursday

Phoenix Bikes Show fundraiser is this Thursday, April 26, 7-9pm, in the Crystal City Shops, 2100 Crystal Drive, Arlington. There's will lot's of funky bikes to see and bikes rebuilt by kids in our program for auction. Proceeds support Phoenix Bikes, a nonprofit community+youth bike program in Arlington.

Tour de Fat Is Coming To DC

New Belgium Tour de Fat is coming to DC!

6/16/2012 9:00 AM- 4:00 PM Yards Park

Pedal Pushers Bike Swap on Capital Hill

Bike swap season approaches. If you know me or have followed this blog for a while you may be familiar with how I feel about local bike swaps. They are the heart of local bike scenes and must be supported. 

The Pedal Pushers Club is throwing what looks looks to be a pretty good one on the hill. It's gotta be good, they've got a poster and everything!

Mark your calendar....

Highlights Of Bloggery: 2010

With the new year a few hours away, it seems like a good time to look over some highlights of the past year of blogging. Click on the image to view the posts.

I should mention here that for some reason this post entitled "Pink Floyd Thursday" gets more hits than anything I've done in the past 3 years. Since posted, it has revived an average amount of hits, nothing to write home about. In November something happened, and it now gets around 2000 hits a month. I believe this is due to a Google image search for the above image. Thanks Google!

Not a bad year.

Happy 2011!