Two Freakin' Years Old

My little spanker turned two and as I stated previously, you'll never guess what she got!

She got a shiny new Strider Bike; we'll see if this whole balance bike movement works first hand. Several things changed when she turned two and none of them are terrible (so far). Our talks are now conversations where we are both contributing. Logic is starting to make an appearance and the question "Why?" comes up often. Yes it can be annoying but at the moment it's still fun.

Changing gears, I got a package from the good folks over at Evil Cycling yesterday. 

Evil socks are a must have for today's discerning velococksman, as well as an appropriately placed sticker.

Yeah that's right, I used a semi-colon and made up the word velococksman in the same post.

Suck it Friday.

Trees Continuing To Fall On The CCT

Since taking this picture this morning, it seems the tall tree in the top right of the frame had seen one too many bike commuters go by and decided to end it all.

I found it's body on the way home...  so sad.

Watch the skies commuters...  WATCH THE SKIES!!

Fallen Trees On The CCT

Having been off the bike for most of last week with a cold I'm only now seeing some of the damage the Capital Crescent Trail sustained from the storm last weekend, so this is probably old news to many of you.  Between Bethesda and Silver Spring there are several trees hanging over the trail like this one. It makes me wonder how many trees they will keep when the Purple Nurple shows up. I would image lots of downed trees could be problematic for a light rail system.

On a side note I thought I would mention that if you own a GoPro Hero like I do, you probably have a vast library of what I like to call "HTF?" photos like this one.

How The Fuck Does This Thing Work Again?

The BFF Review: Rise Of The Nesmith Hipster

Last Saturday was the Bicycle Film Festival in Washington DC. I went to two out of the three programs and for the most part I enjoyed myself. For me the two films that embodied the true nature of cycling and most accurately illustrated the passion of cyclists were: "SKI BOYS",the last reels of the Ski Boys, which document their inventive exploits in rural Ontario during the early 70's, and "WHERE ARE YOU GO a documentary following the the four month Tour de Africa.

After watching these and several other selections I was on a huge veloculture high, which came crashing down when they showed "BROADWAY BOMBER/BRIDGE BATTLE", a first person helmet cam film of a street race through NYC. I have been in my share of adrenalin fueled sprints through our fare city and the rush is not lost on me. However, putting pedestrians in danger is just lame. This movie made me angry, I wasn't feeling the velo love anymore. To my amazement I found myself actually hoping that these d-bags would be hit as the bulleted through crowded crosswalks into fast moving traffic. Then a thought came to me, "This is why people throw crap at me when I commute to work. This is why it's so hard for cyclists to get a foothold in our car based culture".

People work extremely hard at advocating for cyclists, getting bike lanes approved, changing laws and gaining acceptance, and when people see butt holes like these flying within inches of an old lady in the cross walk it nullifies the progress made.

Ok, rant almost over...

As I stewed in my seat, I hoped the next film would wash away some of this anger, I was wrong. The final film of the evening was "ANIMA D'ACCIAIO (SOUL OF STEEL)", A Portrait of the legendary Italian frame builder Giovanni Pelizzoli aka "Ciocc". This would have been a great cinematic experience had the hosts been paying any attention and realized that the top and bottom of all the films were cropped off. This was a problem for those who wanted to read the subtitles which were half on the screen and half off. So I stared at the nice Italian people imagining how interesting their insights were and how enjoyable their dialog would be to read.

Overlooking a rather careless film choice and a technical blunder the BFF was pretty cool and I will probably give it another chance if it comes back to DC.

Now to the cultural phenomenon of the evening: The Nesmith.

It wasn't a shock to see the hipsters out in droves at this event. The shock came when I saw several hipsters wearing heavy knit hats with the little pom pom on top, (aka "the Nesmith") made popular by The Monkeys' guitarist, Mike Nesmith .


Making the Nesmith Hipster look complete is the earth tone "well worn" flannel shirt seen above.

This particular Nesmith, (seen volunteering at the BFF DC) is sans flannel, but the pom pom on the knit hat worn just off the back of the head is a sure tell. I imagine the Nesmith Hipster goes dormant during the summer months only to return in late November when the temperature drops.

Although the Nesmith Hipster seems a rare find, I believe that because of the hipsters' knack for proliferation we will be seeing a dramatic increase in population in the coming months.

In the photo above, not only did I capture the illusive "Snarles Barkley", but a potential Nesmith. Notice the flannel and set back hat, unfortunately because of the camera angle we may never know if this hipster was a true Nesmith.

The Wednesday dance is your chance to do the hump...

Washington, DC Got Tweeded But Good

The first semi-annual Washington, DC Tweed Ride was a great success! Eric and the crew from Dandies and Quaintrelles really pulled it off. Thanks to you and all your volunteers, and kudos on the great piece in The Post this morning! Over 200 people pre-registered, so I imagine there were a lot more who showed up. It certainly seemed that way.

The weather was perfect and the enthusiasm and motivation were palpable. Everyone was amazed at how great the event was and how much they were enjoying themselves. The event started with some wrangling to get signed up and have photos taken but before we knew it the ride was on.

The nice part of the route is that it started in a relatively passive neighborhood on the Hill. This meant that those who were timid about riding on the DC streets started off easy before they hit the downtown traffic. Well played indeed.

There was hound's tooth and wool as far as the eye could see, or for several blocks at least.

A brief rally at the Obama's house before pressing onward.

One of the finer moments of the ride came when the main group reached Dupont Circle. As everyone entered the circle all automotive traffic came to a halt, and for two delightful orbits the epicenter of DC traffic congestion belonged to the velopeds. Also, seeing a penny farthing in the circle was quite satisfying.

Eventually we arrived at Marvin where the gin was flowing, the pipes were smoking, and the bike racks were provided by WABA...

...some needing less tweed than others. (I hope that tweed was lined, for her nipple's sake.)

It's interesting that when compared to a more serious cycling movement like a critical mass ride, a tweed ride seems to gather a great deal more people. Looking at yesterdays event I think the tweed ride might be more effective at creating positive awareness of cycling as transportation without the negative press and connotations that the critical mass gets. Thoughts?

It was the perfect way to spend a 70-degree Sunday in November. And since this was advertised as a semi-annual event the big question is when is the next one?

There are a ton of you who have great photos of the event. Please post a link to the photos in the comments section so we can all enjoy them.

Daniel sent me his flicker set this morning.

Here is a link to the pile of photos on Flickr

A video of the ride is here.

Also, I found a pump along the route, hit me up if you lost yours on the ride.

Have a smashingly good Monday ole' chaps!

Mustache Wednesday

I thought I would post some mustache media, just get my head in the right place for this Halloween.

"id be a lot cooler if you did..."

There, I feel better already.

Monday Commuting

So what if it's Monday, I had a great ride in.

Pardon the low quality, my Canon G9 is on the fritz so I am left with my cell phone.

Monday ain't got nothin' on me...

C&O Tow Path Part Four: Hancock to Silver Spring

I had a good nights sleep in the bunk house and was glad not to have to take down the tent in the morning. While cooking breakfast the thought of making it all the way home had returned. It was 135 miles from home and the previous day had been my longest day at 88 miles. Could I add 47 additional miles to my longest day? I hurried to pack up and at least give the the idea the option of success. My average daily ride was around 85 miles which would put me back in Brunswick. I would push a good pace and see how things were going when I got there.

I had been working on more ways to stay on the bike. After food, the next reason to stop was to rest and stretch. I found that if I stood up on the pedals, pushing one hip as was forward as I could while dropping my heal in the same side as far down as I could, I could stretch my back, thigh, and calf on that side in one motion. I would speed up, stretch one side while coasting then repeat on the other side.

That just left rest as the only reason to stop biking. Given the amount of pain caused by having to start back up again taking a rest would rarely win the argument.

On the way back around the detour I passed a small group of houses that had this sign to great on comers.

"Warning To those who steal from us as we sleep OR ARE WE? Are we watching for you yes! This Neighborhood Don’t Call 911! But you might!"

I think this neighborhood needs a 6th grade English teacher more than an increase in security.

Shortly after passing some turkeys I arrived in Brunswick, roughly 85 miles from Hancock by 1pm. I was staying on the bike and I was flying. Keeping an average of 15.5 mph I rarely stopped for anything. One slight advantage of this section of that the downhill slope of the trail is marginally higher. But the drop is so slight that you never feel like you are going downhill.

I was feeling tired but great. There were times when I was really sucking wind and thought I might have to rest for a while. At these moments I would eat sour patch kids, pull out the ipod and remove my helmet. I am a freak about wearing my helmet but this was a very rare occurrence where I rode without one. The novelty of the wind in my hair, the sugar rush and the kick ass playlist would usually make me forget about the pain.

After passing Harper's Ferry I was confident that I would be sleeping in my bed that night and have an extra day to chill before returning to work. Before this trip, the farthest I had ever ridden was 97 miles while doing the C&O a few years back and here I was pushing for 135.

When I hit Seneca Creek the canal took on the more well groomed look as I approached Great Falls and the more popular parks. I was on fire, I still had 30 or so miles to go but 30 miles never seemed so small a feat.

The down side to reentering the metropolitan area is that people become less and less outgoingly friendly. Up to this point, pleasantries of some kind were traded with almost every single person I encountered on the path. But the closer and closer I got to the city the more people looked like the had a stick up their asses. That's not to say they weren't nice people, it's just that they were in a different place than I was. I was on could ten and they were just trying to burn as many calories as they could before they had to pick up the kids or whatever chore was next up. People is people... people.

Then end of the trail was a few miles further in Georgetown but I was getting off before that. I thought about doing the extra miles to get to Mile 0, but I had been there before. For this trip, mile 0 was my front porch. So when I saw the bridge taking the Capital Crescent Trail over the canal I realized that I would soon be saying goodbye to the river, the canal, and the tow path. I had been on the C&O for four amazing days and had come to rely on it's simplicity. Whatever was going on in my head my eyes were always pointed over at the canal, down at the river, or straight down the path.

So I took a last look at the canal and joined the flood of commuters pushing their way north towards Silver Spring on the smooth paved trail. I found it both surreal and amusing being passed by so many people on road bikes while I trudged along on my fully loaded LHT that seemed to take up the whole lane. Everyone so deep in thought after a long day at work, pushing and pushing to get home and on to the next thing. I imagined myself as a large blood clot slowly tumbling along a major artery as smaller blood cells bounced and dodged around me racing their way through DC's circulatory system.

I made it home unceremoniously. I did my trip and had my adventure with one well earned day to spare. 135 miles that day, 395 in total. I made some calls, took a long shower, and drifted off to sleep, victoriously, in my own bed.