Singlespeed & Fixed Gear - DC: It's a great day for a fixie ride!

If you haven't gotten out for a ride yet today, by all means do so! It's a lovely Labor Day here in DC, and I had an awesome morning ride from my girlfriend's place in Chevy Chase through Rock Creek Park, NW DC, and Takoma Park, to the University of Maryland campus.

The streets of DC were blissfully free of traffic this morning, and the temperature is just perfect. I did the 10 mile ride for the first time on my fixie today (39/15 gearing). What a workout :eek: When I'm not spinning like mad down the hills, I'm weaving back and forth and straining to climb up them... especially the hill on Sherill Drive out of Rock Creek Park. Lots of fun, though!

A beautiful morning for a ride in the city. It was like a science fiction movie - no cars, no people, just the sound of a breeze and the traffic lights blinking for nobody.

I didn't manage a ride, though. My daughter just learned how to walk, and she woke up at 5am. So, we walked around and around the block, must've seemed like ten miles to her three inch stride. Just wait till she learns to ride a bike...

I love holiday weekends in DC.

A beautiful morning for a ride in the city. It was like a science fiction movie - no cars, no people, just the sound of a breeze and the traffic lights blinking for nobody.

I didn't manage a ride, though. My daughter just learned how to walk, and she woke up at 5am. So, we walked around and around the block, must've seemed like ten miles to her three inch stride. Just wait till she learns to ride a bike...

I love holiday weekends in DC.
Congrats to you and your daughter! :) I'm sure you can't wait until you can ride bikes with her. I have this vague memory of climbing up my first jungle gym on a family vacation... it seemed like I was on top of the world, looking down through the clouds, surveying the world below. Many years later, I went back to that place and saw the jungle gym, which turned out to be about 4 feet tall :rolleyes:

i don't live in DC, but the weather was perfect here, too. i did a quick (6-10 mi.) whipround and remembered how fun it is to just ride. i need to do that more often.

I rode yesterday but damn I made a day of it!

9am The Capitol Hill Bikes Bethesda Ride which ended at 11am at Haines where I met my friends for loops and grilled cheese almost immediately followed at 2pm for a ride friend's house in Shirlington and then onto Mt Vernon and back by 7pm. Almost ended up as a surprise century!

I might have passed you in Rock Creek Park going in the other direction. I had the bright idea that it would be a good day to go for a ride and check out if City Bikes had a Miche cog adapter and cogs and then find a place to study for a while.

It looked on my map like I could make a left onto Calvert St and go east to the bike shop. Apparantly Calvert St is one of those enormous bridges that I almost fell over trying to see the top of, so the next thing I know is that I'm heading for the Tidal Basin. So I went to the Mall instead and meandered my way from 19th St through Du Pont Cir. to the bike shop. As usual, I got lost on the way -- I was on Florida and completely missed Champlain and wound up on 14th St.

What should have been a 30 minute ride or so (from Silver Spring) took me over two hours, what with backtracking and digging for my map and all. I was riding slow but steady, since I hadn't been through Rock Creek at all before or into the city very much on my bike since I move into the DC area.

I got NO studying done, so I was riding around with 20 lbs of books plus a 15 lbs chain and lock for nothing. Training, I guess you could call it. I got to City Bikes and bought a U lock, strap pad for my bag and a water bottle.

In the end I had a blast; it was a great ride, I didn't fall down, I found the bike shop (no Miche cog system though, alas), my hands weren't too numb, and I didn't fall down.

I liked riding in DC. Now that I've been through Rock Creek, it looks like there is a much better way to get in there from Silver Spring than 16 St or Georgia Ave, and I'll probably be getting into town much more often. I usually just ride to Brookland, but since this week I'm starting my second grad program near the Mall, I'll be all over the place, I hope.

Damn it was nice yesterday. Went up into the NW 4000+ blocks and found some nice rolling hills! great fun

i got into dc around noon, went to my friend's for breakfast, cleaned out the garage, played with gopeds, finished a tall bike, rode a tall bike, and then the rain said "go see little miss sunshine" so we did. still, a good day.

A nice day for a ride today as well... how many of you actually did tho? :)

my fiancee and I went on a trail loop... mt vernon all the way up, stopped at roosevelt island, stopped at G'town, went into revolution cycles to look at the maps... and ooooh those chrome bags looked soooo nice! then back on Custis and 4mi run trails and back down to Alexandria, not a very strenuous ride, but it's about 10 mi further than anything my fiancee's done yet, so that's encouraging! She still maintains that she'll never ride on a street.... so, we'll see about that, because the mt vernon trail on monday afternoon is the most crowded I've ever seen it!!!

A nice day for a ride today as well... how many of you actually did tho?

i took the bus to work for the first time today. :(
im ashamed of myself now.

rain = skidding awesomeness!!

rain = skidding awesomeness!!

I rode geared today--my track bike needs a headset and bottom bracket.:(

i took the bus to work for the first time today. :(
im ashamed of myself now.


if you think that's bad... my fiance DROVE me to work!!! I'm becoming a cager! :(

hmm it was a nasty rainy day all day just east in the mountains. But Sat and Sun were great days to be out. It's finally cooling down to where I like it sheees I was sick of that heat.

if you think that's bad... my fiance DROVE me to work!!! I'm becoming a cager! :(


OK, I take it ALL back, a GF or Fiance is a VERY good thing.....

It is really sunny now, and I feel like a lame a$$ that I didn't ride. Riding tomorrow for sure!

My butt got wet on the ride home, but that's alright cuz it was still soaked from this morning's downpour! Ha!