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Look Mom! Re-Learning to Ride No-Handed
Sometimes I like to see myself as a “serious” bike rider. I ride in the rain and cold, maneuver adeptly in urban traffic, and participate in the occasional brevet. That’s right, people. Serious. Another part of bicycling that I take seriously is riding no-handed. Ironically, riding no-hands evokes images that to me are far from… Continue reading
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Bicycles are Not Cars: Girl on a Bike on #BikeDC Speaks
We’re back for the final installment of the #BikeDC Speaks series. If you ride in the D.C. area and do any blog reading or tweeting, you have probably heard of Girl on a Bike, aka Kate. A regular commuter and excellent blogger, Kate regularly participates in a lot of local #BikeDC events. I’m thrilled that… Continue reading
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Benefits of Tracking the Miles
I grew up watching my dad, a runner, track his miles. He always took the time to note how far he ran, the day’s temperature, wind direction, and a few other details about his run. It seemed only natural, then, when I started running (and later riding) to keep a mileage log. I recently read… Continue reading
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2nd Annual Coffeeneuring Challenge: 7 Cups, 6 Weekends
That’s right, people. Coffeeneuring Challenge time. Another six weeks of rule-based biking and imbibing is here! Yeah! Some of you may recall that coffeeneuring is based on an idea developed by Joe Platzner, a member of the Seattle Randonneurs, as he discussed life after last year’s Paris-Brest-Paris. He noted: A bunch of us have trained pretty hard for PBP.… Continue reading
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Grant Petersen’s Just Ride, the Rivendell Reader & an E-Less Stanza of “The Raven”
Grant Petersen, of Rivendell Bicycle Works, appeared at College Park Bicycles last night to talk about his book, Just Ride. I had a great time seeing familiar faces of the #BikeDC community AND meeting the man behind Rivendell Bicycles. Woo! I won’t rehash the evening too much, as I think he covers much of the material he talked… Continue reading
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Tangobiker: A Tale of a Super Coffeeneur
Last year around this time, I launched the 1st Annual Coffeeneuring Challenge. The goal? Ride your bike to seven different coffee shops over six consecutive weekends, and adhere to 15 rules in the process. Several riders began the challenge, and 12 people officially earned the title of coffeeneur. After the challenge ended, one person decided… Continue reading
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Rando Q&A with Dan D., Great Lakes and Minnesota Randonneurs
Today it’s all about what’s happening on The Daily Randonneur, where Dan D. of Wisconsin has written a Rando Q&A I think you’ll enjoy. Click to make the jump and read the post here. Have a great day, everybody! Continue reading
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WABA 50 States Ride 2012: All About the People
This past Saturday Felkerino and I participated in another edition of the Washington Area Bicycling Association (WABA) 50 States Ride. Yeah, that ride with 500 participants that crosses over all 50 of the state streets within the District of Columbia and covers about 65 miles in the process. True to our plan, we shortcut as… Continue reading
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Getting Comfortable in the Saddle
One of my blog readers, Trish, recently asked the following question about comfort in the saddle: I searched your blog to see if I could find your thoughts on comfort in the saddle, which is my biggest obstacle to long rides. I’ve been doing metric centuries every weekend, but beyond that I think my rear… Continue reading
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Lost in the Landscape. One Perspective of a Female Touring Cyclist
Over the summer Swift Industries, a bicycle-loving and beautiful bag-making company out of the Pacific Northwest, sponsored a writing project called Tough & Tender, “a literary and photographic project that celebrates women’s relationships with bicycles, touring, and the bike industry.” The project received several contributions and I’ve found them all inspiring. Many thanks to Swift Industries for creating… Continue reading
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WABA 50 States Ride: Pre-Ride Prep for the Ultimate Urban Excursion
This coming Saturday marks the arrival of another edition of the 50 States Ride. While this ride sort of freaked me out the first time I did it, it’s since grown on me and now it’s a much-anticipated fall event. Washington Area Bicycling Association (WABA), our local cycling advocacy group, organizes the ride. My entry fee supports… Continue reading
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Riding the C&O Canal on the Rawlands
This weekend, Felkerino and I took advantage of the spectacular mild weather and busted out our Rawland dSogns for a day ride along the C&O Canal. Our destination? Homestead Farm, a pick-your-own produce place just outside of Poolesville, Maryland. Continue reading
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The Bicycle Cycle
Given this week’s temperate weather, I’ve heaved a big sigh of relief and welcomed the idea that fall will soon be (if it is not already) here. Fall is my favorite time of year for bike riding. Ironically, fall is often when my monthly mileage slacks off, at least for a couple of months. As… Continue reading
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Rando Q&A with Andrea M., D.C. Randonneurs
Today the bloggy action takes place over on that other blog I know, The Daily Randonneur, with another Rando Q&A. Andrea M., of the D.C. Randonneurs, graciously agreed to be a guest contributor for this week’s Rando Q&A. Check the full post out here. The Rando Q&A features many thoughtful insights about riding brevets from… Continue reading
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Southern Virginia Tandem Bike Tour Lessons Learned and Wrap-Up Post
Writing during the journey is always a bit different than what comes to mind after a bike tour ends. The week has given me time to reflect on the trip we had, and I wanted to throw up some summary observations, assessments, and lessons learned from our recent jaunt around southern Virginia on our Cannondale… Continue reading
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The National Bike Challenge and Teams Friday Coffee Club
You may or may not know this, but the National Bike Challenge happened. The goal of the challenge was to get more people out riding their bikes and logging their miles. The League of American Bicyclists, Bikes Belong, Kimberly-Clark Corporation, and Endomondo sponsored the three-month event, which took place from June 1-August 31. Specifically, the… Continue reading
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Pedaling the Blue Ridge Parkway: The Dream I Thought I Had
This past Saturday, Felkerino and I capped off our weeklong bike tour of southern Virginia with two days on the Blue Ridge Parkway. Below is a map of the segment we toured, which extended from Floyd to the northern edge of the Parkway in Waynesboro, Virginia. As you can see, we covered slightly more than… Continue reading
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What I Learned Bike Touring from Wytheville to Floyd, Virginia
Today Felkerino and I headed off to Floyd, a southern Virginia town that abuts the Blue Ridge Parkway. A scenic and challenging day in many ways, it brought home a few themes about bike touring. 1. If the route isn’t working, change it. Continue reading
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Bike Touring from Blacksburg to Wytheville, Virginia
The weather: Sunny and dry Miles ridden: 92 Mountains: Three, one being the notable Walker Mountain ten miles outside Wytheville. Continue reading
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Into the Teeth of the Virginia Highlands
The past two days of riding have brought home the fact that all rides are not created equal. Felkerino and I plotted our 70-mile days, climbing away from Clifton Forge, over Dolly Mountain to Covington, and across Hay’s Gap to overnight in Paint Bank. Continue reading
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Bike Touring Southern Virginia on the Lead Sled
Felkerino and I are off bike touring in Virginia this week. We began our ride in Waynesboro and are winding our way south to Wytheville. Day 1 we rode to Lexington, a quaint historic town. Yesterday, Day 2, we arrived in Clifton Forge, part of the Alleghany Highlands region. We’ve employed the mountain Cannondale tandem… Continue reading
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Colorado High Country 1200K: A Breathtaking Trip Out West
The Colorado High Country 1200K is a 90-hour, four day jaunt through about 750 miles of the great states of Colorado and Wyoming. Felkerino and I rode it last month and this month I wrote my story about it. Continue reading
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Using Shared Infrastructure Sharingly: Chris on #BikeDC Speaks
After several weeks of #BikeDC Speaks posts from the women of the #BikeDC community, we are back this week with a guy’s point of view on riding in the D.C. area. Chris is another familiar face from #FridayCoffeeClub and, if you ride along MacArthur Avenue, you may spot him there as well. During his years of commuting… Continue reading
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BicycleSPACE and the D.C. Murals Ride
After all the heat and humidity we’ve endured over the summer, this past weekend we received a welcome reprieve. Especially Saturday. Warm sun, light breezes, pleasant temperatures. Far too gorgeous of a day to stay inside, Felkerino, his daughter, and I joined BicycleSPACE’s mural ride to see where it would take us and to simply… Continue reading
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Bikes to Like: Rick R.’s Trek Elance 300 (650B Conversion!)
It’s all about bikes this week, and today features a guest post from Rick R. about his Trek Elance 300. A North Carolina rider, Rick completed a full Super Randonneur series with the D.C. Randonneurs. Felkerino and I rode many miles with Rick (and Christian) on this spring’s Warrenton 300K. Felkerino and I joked that… Continue reading
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Summer Commutes on the Velo Orange Mixte
I tend to have an overall preference for diamond frames, and never considered myself a mixte sort of person. However, a couple of years ago Velo Orange was selling off a batch of their mixte frames at the attractive price of $300 so I mixed up the bike stable by adding a mixte to it.… Continue reading
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I Get By with a Little Help from My Gym Friends
When I first started going to the gym, I did so because I wanted to strengthen myself for cycling. Then I wanted to strength train because I completely freaked out about getting older and realized the importance of weight-bearing activity. Later I continued my gym visits because I enjoyed the challenge to my body and… Continue reading
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Getting Better All the Time: Leslie T. on #BikeDC Speaks
Leslie T., superhero transportation cyclist, and I go way back to the days I first began riding with the D.C. Randonneurs. If there is a way to get there by bike, Leslie will figure out it. When work requires her to travel, she takes a bike along. Vacation? It usually involves a bike. Getting around… Continue reading
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The Appeal of the Run Commute
Because I have a fall running event coming up, I’ve inserted a couple of run commutes into my weekly commute diet. While cycling is my primary mode of commuting, mixing it up with run commuting has proven quite pleasant. Not surprisingly, my running route to and from the office varies from my bike routine. First,… Continue reading
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Reviving the Lead Sled: our Cannondale Tandem
Due to unforeseen circumstances (to be discussed in another post), our Co-Motion tandem will not be around for a while. In the meantime, Felkerino and I still want to tandem together so we decided to put our original brevet tandem, a Cannondale mountain frame, back into service for some summer rides and any upcoming fall brevets we do. Because… Continue reading
Chasing MailBoxes 