Bike To Work Friday

It was Bike to Work Day here in our Nation's Capitol. I hooked up with the Capitol Hill peloton and headed over to the celebration at Freedom's Plaza. This was my first one and it was, of course, raining.

I've been a bike commuter for the better part of five years now. It is by far the fastest way for me to get to and from work. I started out as a fair weather cyclist. I didn't ride in the rain, snow, or bitter cold. Spring, Summer and Fall were biking months. I used the Metro in the Winter. After a couple of years that has changed. First, I started riding in sub-freezing weather. Then I began to ride in the rain. I suppose I'll have to pick up some snow tires before winter.

Anyhow, I didn't have much of an agenda in joining the official Bike to Work crowd. It was more to support WADA. Since I've been in DC, I've become more and more impressed with their efforts. With the help of the awesome DC Commissioner Jim Graham, there are new bike lanes. They've got a huge bike pavilion that will be built next to Union Station. They also just started the first in the US bike share program. Perhaps this is why Bicycling Magazine gave us the Most Improved City this year.

When I hit Freedom's Plaza, I picked up my free t-shirt and H2O bottle and started to look for familiar faces. I didn't see any, so I went to pick up my free donut holes and some juice before they started the program. Like I mentioned before, I didn't have too much of an agenda for being there, but I did want to introduce myself to another DC bike blogger, Gwadzilla. He takes snapshots of cyclists when riding and I've been pestering him to get out of NW and shoot some Capitol Hill riders. He's a distinctive individual, so I thought I could pick him out. While I was looking, I spotted Alan Heymann, and old friend on Councilman Graham's staff. Alan rides down to take law classes, so he's down with the biking.

After a bit, I spotted Gwad and introduced myself in person. He took my picture, so here's hope that I'll finally make it into his blog.

The program was good. They gave out lots of freebies. Rah, rah biking and all that, but I had to get on to work.

The weather broke for the commute home. I took my usual route, but something else bike-related happened to me that should be included in this post. I recently upgraded my steed from an old Breezer to a faster skinny-wheeled Jamis. The Breezer's been sitting in my shed collecting dust, but I've considered making a cargo bike out of it. Extracycle sells these conversion kits that add a couple of feet of usable cargo rack to any old bike. I had the notion that the boys would be able to ride on the back when they get older. Anyhow, I'm stopped at one of the lights on East Capitol and this hoon blows past me on his fat tired cargo conversion. I'm not a speed demon, but the new bike usually allows me to go at a pretty good clip. This cat on the longtail is really huffing it and leaves me in the dust.

I think I'm getting old.