1 block from Washington, DC
 

This is a great forum. I found it while looking up information on folding bikes. I use my bike for commuting because I can't stand being stuck in traffic in a car. I really like passing all those cars stopped on the 14th Street bridge every day! Now that the time has changed, I need a bike that I can still ride 12 miles to work in the morning, but put on the Metro in the evening.

My first bike was a green Schwinn banana seat thing, followed shortly by a beautiful white Jacques Anquetil children's bike that my dad bought for me. I was hooked from age 8. I now ride a Jamis Coda Comp for commuting. My old racing frame broke in an accident last year (as did my helmet, yikes). It was a 1980 Vitus. I also have a very heavy 1985 Stumpjumper and a 1951 JC Higgins 3-speed.

Bikes are great! So are heads! Wear your helmet!

Great to see you! Actually, my brother works in DC and will be moving to Arlington on Thanksgiving. I keep my folding bike at his place, so if you're in the area, I will definitely look you up for a folding bike ride.

Welcome to the forums!

Koffee

hi there. Nice to see a few Washingtonians on the forum -- I live in Arlington and am just getting back into cycling. I'm training for my first triathlon in the spring, so hope to be out on the trails a lot :)

Velogirl, where do you live (in general)? I'm just South of 50 in Arlington and trying to find a safe route to ride from the trail near my house to DC. Any ideas?

You might want to consider picking up a copy of the newest edition (6th edition) of the Metropolitan Washington, DC Bike Map, published by ADC and available at most bike shops for around $8. You might be near the Four-Mile Run trail, which connects to the Mt. Vernon trail and the Martha Custis trail, to name just a few. I live in Maryland, but work in Virginia. I commute about half on trails, half on roads. Hopefully that will soon change when the Metropolitan Branch trail opens. It will run along the Red Line Metro tracks on the east side of DC from Union Station all the way up past Takoma Park, I think.

Thanks for the advice!

I'll take a look for the trail guide and try to figure out a good route. I am close to the 4 mile run trail and the W&OD, but those are both North/South where I am, so I need to figure out how they connect to an East/West trail.

Happy riding.

Four-Mile Run hooks up directly with the Mount Vernon Trail at National Airport. Mt. Vernon Trail runs along the Potomac River from Mount Vernon (George Washington's House) south of Alexandria up past Rosslyn. Along the way it connects to several bridges--14th Street Bridge, Memorial Bridge, and Key Bridge--that cross the Potomac to DC. A bit north of Rosslyn, the Mt. Vernon trail connects to the Martha Custis trail, which goes west along 66, but I don't know how far. From the Key Bridge, Memorial Bridge and 14th Street Bridge, you can catch the C&O Canal Trail, Capital Cresent Trail, Rock Creek Trail, Sligo Creek Trail and Northwest Branch Trail all the way in Prince Georges County, Maryland.

In any case, you can easily get to DC and all the other trails if you are near the Four-Mile Run trail. That map shows them all.

See you on the trail!

Welcome to the forums Velogirl. I fly in to DC every week for work and if it continues till spring I want to ship a bike out so I can ride once the evening daylight returns or commute. Are you familiar with any bike lockers at the Metro stations? I work at L'Enfant and have been staying in Crystal City buy may be moving to Rosslyn. I finally had a chance to ride out here today because of the holiday and rented a bike to do the Mt Vernon trail. I'd really like to take advantage of the great trail network in the area.

trey_va - you might want to check out http://bikewashington.org/ for some good maps of the area trails.

Happy riding!

geez where was this excellent thread back in 1991-1993 when I lived in DC and had my first chromy HardRock? I didnt know some of those trails I rode parts of individually all connected... Awesome. I need to pay a visit to my old stompin grounds sometime :)

Badger Biker-many Metro stations have bike lockers. Check out www.wmata.com. It's the website for the DC Metro system. Somewhere on there it has the locations of bike lockers. I think they are $75 per year to rent.

jallen-I was living in Austin, Texas back in 91-93 (great riding, by the way). I don't know when the trail system got all connected. I'm waiting for the very urban Metropolitan Branch Trail to open up--it will follow the Red Line from Silver Spring to Union Station. Do come back to visit your old stompin grounds, and don't forget your bike!

bikewashington.org is a good resource, as is waba.org (Washington Area Bicyclists Assn).