Northeast - Is cycling in DC just kinda crap?

Ok, now I'm totally coming at this as a bit of a spoiled brat - I've moved to DC from quite possibly one of the best places around for cycling.

Having recently finally sorted out health insurance and fetched one of the bikes I'd stashed with my parents, then reassembled said bike, this evening I finally got out for a proper ride for the first time since June.

And it really was kinda crap.

Cycling in DC really was just like driving in DC - too much traffic, too much stop-and-go, bad pavement - - and that was both on the roads and on the Rock Creek Park path. I even got shunted off at the Lincoln Memorial and mistakenly ended up in Virginia - just like happens when driving!! And then had a hard time finding my way back into Rock Creek Park - just like driving!

What is to be done? Will I be fated to hill reps from Pierce Mill up Tilden for the rest of my cycling life? Is there something more to DC cycling life?!

Help dear denizens of BF! Help!

You need to connect with local club and group rides and find some new routes. Potomac Pedalers Touring Club (bikepptc.org) has rides all over the region every weekend and many weekdays. Check local bikes shops for shop rides (there are several shops in G'town). If you care for off-road, the C&O Canal Towpath starts down in G'town and runs 184 miles west. You can cross Key Bridge and take the Custis and W&OD trails out to Loudon County VA and plenty of good biking there. bikewashington.org is a good local info website with some bike routes (I'd also check some of the online route sites) and there is an active BikeWashingtonDC email group on Yahoo groups. That should get you started. DC itself is going to be city riding; I live in the NoVA suburbs so I don't have any 1st-hand info beyond the C&O and Custis trails. Good luck!

The cycling infostructure in d.c. is coming along. Its in its beginning stages. But there are some good places to ride. My favorite is the capital crescent trail. Everything pretty much starts in d.c. and works itself out. There are some great routes. But riding in d.c. streets is tough, but drivers are used to bicyclists now. So thats a good thing.

In maryland its another story, and often times dangerous. Last year on a solo ride, someone from a car threw a bottle at me while i rode. I often am spitted on and harassed. One reason i try to ride in trails in this area.

You need to connect with local club and group rides and find some new routes. Potomac Pedalers Touring Club (bikepptc.org) has rides all over the region every weekend and many weekdays. Check local bikes shops for shop rides (there are several shops in G'town). If you care for off-road, the C&O Canal Towpath starts down in G'town and runs 184 miles west. You can cross Key Bridge and take the Custis and W&OD trails out to Loudon County VA and plenty of good biking there. bikewashington.org is a good local info website with some bike routes (I'd also check some of the online route sites) and there is an active BikeWashingtonDC email group on Yahoo groups. That should get you started. DC itself is going to be city riding; I live in the NoVA suburbs so I don't have any 1st-hand info beyond the C&O and Custis trails. Good luck!

Yeah, I'm going to go along to some of the The Bike Rack rides at some point; some leave from fairly near where I live.

If you're near Tilden you want to head north on Beach Drive...out to the end at Garrett Park Road and back gives you a 30 mile loop (heavily used by cyclists so drivers kind of expect to see us).

There are routes off Beach to get out to Potomac and beyond (Tuckerman Lane features in a lot of them). I'm not as familiar with those as I do most of my longer rides down on the Northern Neck of Virginia, where I have a weekend place.

If you have a car there are lots of good routes in western Montgomery County and points west.