Seattle : Bellevue :: Washington, DC : [fill in the blank]

The weekend before last (basically forever ago in internet time) this popped up on Twitter regarding Rosslyn's aspirations as a neighborhood:

"like Brooklyn is to Manhattan, Bellevue to Seattle, or Cambridge to Boston." http://t.co/n7rahdIL5f

— sharrowsDC (@sharrowsDC) July 26, 2015

First of all, I've never been to Brooklyn or Cambridge, but I'm pretty sure Bellevue is the one-of-these-things-is-not-like-the-others in that grouping. I hear Brooklyn or Cambridge and I think, "reputation as cool area near the main city, perhaps bike-friendly and/or full of hipsters." My family lived in Bellevue for many years, and I worked in Downtown Bellevue for a year as well, and neither "cool" nor "bike-friendly" are words I would use to describe the city. I follow #bikeSEA and it sounds like there's been some progress since I lived there last, but Bellevue to my mind is still mostly a suburb; in fact here's a recent post about walkability in a Seattle urban neighborhood proper vs. Bellevue (my family lived right around this map):

Why we walk in cities! How far 1 mile can take a pedestrian in a US city & a US suburb. From: http://t.co/HT0wWUaZ4q pic.twitter.com/adV8jBYDCO

— Max Roser (@MaxCRoser) June 3, 2015

The idea that any city would aspire to be Bellevue cracked me up, and I immediately had to share with my sister:

Magic Mike XXL as standard by which to judge a city's fun factor

Besides, I'm pretty sure that Washington, DC already has its own Bellevue: Bethesda + Friendship Heights. My mother the inveterate shopper would find herself right at home walking amongst the retails chains (including high-end luxury stores) and hotels and even Microsoft offices. Bel Square is basically indistinguishable from the Westfield Montgomery mall. The main difference is that the office parks in Bellevue are surrounded by evergreens.

Anyway, I've spent this whole post knocking Bellevue (and by extension Bethesda), but I have to say that I still miss the King County Library System's Bellevue branch. Also, Bellevue has some pretty good Asian restaurants and supermarkets if you know how to find them--yet another characteristic that it has in common with Bethesda, though decidedly a good thing. And the Capital Crescent / Georgetown Branch Trails have more than their match in the East/West Lake Sammamish Trails!

Reading and Commuting: An Offshoot

I am playing with writing about the books I'm reading in this blog. Part of it is to help me process them, rather than just devour them unreflectively. What does this all have to do with commuting? Well, I realized that these days I get most of my reading done on the Metro or shuttle (or waiting for them). I noticed this last summer too: when I was picking up multi-modal commuting again, I got more extracurricular reading done than I had at any other time of the year.

Finding time to read is basically the best thing about my commute. When I'm home, there are so many other things I'm "supposed" to do, and sometimes even reading becomes just another thing on that list. But when I'm on the bus or the Metro or the shuttle, well, what else is there to do? I've already heard the latest news on NPR (and I can't stream on the Metro anyway), I often don't want to knit during the summer, and my Neko Atsume kitties have been tended to. It's the closest thing to protected, unplugged time I get. I'm just lucky that I can read without getting sick during transport.

I've also been inspired by a recent recommendation that I started yesterday on a very multi-modal trip to Baltimore (bus to Metro to train, then back again): Nick Hornby's Ten Years in the Tub: A Decade of Soaking in Great Books, which is a collection based on a column Hornby wrote for The Believer for a decade about books he'd read for the month, as well as books he bought. First of all this book made me feel better about buying books even if I don't always getting around to reading them right away (and let's face it, may never get to them):

Nick Hornby, Ten Years in the Tub

Genome [by Matt Ridley] and Six Days of War [by Michael B. Oren] I bought on a visit to the London Review of Books' slightly scary new shop near the British Museum. I'm not entirely sure why I chose those two in particular, beyond the usual attempts at reinvention that periodically seizes one in a bookstore. (When I'm arguing with St. Peter at the Pearly Gates, I'm going to tell him to ignore the Books Read column, and focus on the Books Bought instead. "This is really who I am," I'll tell him. "I'm actually much more of a Genome guy than an Arsene Wnger guy. And if you let me in, I'm going to prove it, honest") (November 2003, p. 42)

It's comforting to know that even writers of Nick Hornby's status feel that What I Want to Read/What I Should Read tug when they buy books, and the Should sometimes wins out, regardless of how realistic those aspirations are. I always feel like a little bit of a fraud keeping around these books when I haven't read them yet, like who I am trying to fool? And the weight of that sometimes makes it even harder to read them, or read at all. But I'm trying to get over that; we'll see how successful I am.

Hornby's collection also reminds me how much fun it is to read! (Yes, I often vacillate from feeling like I should be reading, to feeling like I shouldn't be reading. Apparently, if it's fun I feel like I shouldn't be doing it, but I know it's supposed to be "good" for me so I should be doing it?) Even if I don't necessarily want to read the books he's writing about (though there are a few I will be looking into), I can still appreciate his enjoyment of it, which basically makes me want to read even more. Reading even leads to fun, unplanned moments like this:

Serendipitous book choice: Watched Comedians/Cars/Coffee w. Julia Louis-Dreyfus this AM: just read this on train pic.twitter.com/yeIdLwyPlh

— cc (@commutercharli) June 13, 2015

Anyway, I live a block away from a fantastic bookstore, and for once of my life have enough income that I can actually buy real books and support this industry (though I still buy used books too, and may hit up the library). I hope to have more reading, and hopefully more writing on that reading, in irregular installments. Besides, I can't write about my favorite DC bike routes all the time, can I?

So, in the spirit of Ten Years in the Tub, I'm going to start documenting books bought and read (even though I'm supposed to be on a book moratorium, until I finish some of the books I already have in DC, oops).

Reading about reading begets more reading

My First Bike to Work Day!

So I've been riding my bikes around on weekends and to run errands, but I haven't actually biked to work all year. I know, I know, it's just so hard to get myself out the door that early in the morning until I make it a habit. I even got packed and dressed a couple of days this week, then promptly sat down and fell asleep again. But for Bike to Work Day, one makes the effort. I was still pretty out of it when I got up though, and tried to put my bag on my Brompton's front reflector rather than on the carrier block, oops. Luckily I only have to go about a mile to get to the Metro for the first leg of my multi-modal commute, and could use the train time to wake up for the rest of my ride.

Train segment of my multi-modal commute

To market, to market #quaxing

I actually haven't been to the farmers' market in a while--my Saturday mornings feel like they get away from me especially since I moved, with cleaning or unpacking or other things I want to do. But today seemed like a good day to go since I've been out of groceries all week after being in Pittsburgh last weekend. Also, I'm stuck on Grim Fandango, so I didn't have anything to tempt me to stay in.

I tried a different route to get there than usual which was longer but involved minimal sidewalk riding. Admittedly this was mostly because some car got in my path right as I was setting off, and rather than dismount I just decided to change course. This route wasn't enough for me to avoid riding up a big (for me) hill, which made me appreciate even more that D and I put a granny ring on the Betty. It's much more manageable, especially given how out of shape I am right now.

Anyway, got to the market, where there were still mostly greens and root vegetables but I got some good things. I like going to the market because I can just get what looks good, and then plan my grocery shopping around that. It forces me to learn how to cook new things, and spares me from having to think about what I have to make for the week.

My morning haul: Pea shoots, French sorrel, sweet potatoes (Beauregards), strawberries, a mini-quiche, a Liege-style waffle, lemonade, a whole chicken, and a half-dozen peonies

Also notable at the market:

• Girl scouts doing public calisthenics to Taylor Swift ("Shake It Off" is and always will be by Mariah Carey) and what I think was a kid's version of a Nicki Minaj song (yes these exists, for I have heard them at the roller rink). All while one of their moms was taking pictures/video with an iPad. Also, they were ostensibly there to do some public engagement as part of a "Healthy Eating and Fitness Campaign" promoting farmers' markets. I didn't have the heart to explain the concept of "preaching to the choir" to the girls, who were trying to hand me their flyer as a I set off on my bike carrying my vegetables, but I do appreciate having a list of other markets I could ride to and their hours of operation. 
• The meat guys stopped selling longanisa, a Filipino sausage that I love but can never find out here unless I drive out to Rockville, and then only in highly preserved and imported form. Despite the supposed arrival of Filipino food in DC, I guess I'm not really surprised that Longanisa didn't really take off with the customers. The guys selling them didn't realize that it was a breakfast sausage, so not only did I have to explain that to them, I also had to tell them how it's best eaten: served in a trio along with garlic fried rice and eggs (a.k.a. longsilog). So I'm sad at this loss--maybe it's an opportunity to learn how to make my own? But I have no desire to work with hog casings.
• The meat guys made up for no longer carrying longanisa by having hot pink peonies, which are meaningful for my family on this day. They smell faintly of gardenias.
• A man with his little girl in a bakefiets, which  He even had her little playhouse in the bakefiets itself, so presumably she rode over while in it, very adorable. Also, I've seen very few bakefiets in person, and I'm always fascinated by any non-standard bike. 

Perfect timing for hot pink peonies

The ride home was mostly uneventful, though I tried yet another new route to try to avoid sidewalk riding. I passed by the Connecticut Ave. NW and Livingston intersection and nearly ran into the back of someone's car who had stopped to parallel park. This intersection is the start of the shopping area in Chevy Chase DC, and it's the worst in terms of cars attempting to find parking since it's basically narrow neighborhood streets. I used to live by there, and in the mornings I would be wary someone backing over me on their way to getting their coffee before work. Also, I attempted to save a fledgling bird that was in the middle of the street (perhaps inspired by Chasing Mailboxes' interview with Deb of Women BikeDC), though mostly I just scared it into making short little flights until it landed in a lavender bush.

One more new thing I tried: instead of using the front door to get into my building, which is usually a disaster when I have a loaded down bike, I used the back door. What was stopping me before was this  hairpin turn down three steps with a steep ramp to get to the elevator, but I found that even that was better than getting up the fronts steps and holding a heavy door open.

ETA Observation: Thus far the Brompton appears to turn more heads on the street than the Betty, but I've never had someone ride up to me and say "nice bike" while I was on the Brompton. I'll have to keep gathering data on this...

Inaugural Rides on the Betty

Have I really not posted anything since November? I guess the main bike activity I've had going on since then was building up my new bike. I'll probably post about it soon, now that we've finished and I have more to say than just, "we watched this YouTube video on dialing in a rear derailleur."

Anyway, we (mostly D, but I helped some) put together the bike in PGH, and I finally brought it to DC when I got back last Sunday. This was great timing because it appears that the weather has finally turned the corner, judging by the tree outside my windows:

April 8

April 18

D took the bike through its paces when he was fine-tuning the shifting, but I hadn't really gotten to ride it beyond going up and down the street. This week was the first time I actually really used my bike, and I got a couple of rides in.

Errands!

---

Of course, the first thing I did was run a few errands after work. I didn't have to go very far, maybe 3 miles overall, so it seemed like a good way to start getting a feel for the bike. Getting out the door was a comedy of errors though. There's a step right when you walk out of my building, and I caught my front fender on it, so that the stays came off the little bracket holding them in place. Oops. Before I even got on the saddle, I already had to pull off to the side and do a little maintenance, but luckily I could force them back in with minimal force. Then, when I got to my first destination to mail a package, I was pulling out my U-lock keys when one fell off of the zip tie holding it. A zip lock fail!  For the one key for which I don't have the serial number! (I have three back-up keys, but still).

Luckily the rest of my errands didn't involve any further equipment fails, but apparently I'd forgotten the little ritual involved in locking up my bike and gathering my various bags and possessions. There's a proper order of operations to make the process less awkward and it becomes habit after a couple of rides, but I've been riding my Brompton mostly so I've avoided all of that. I did get my bike parked at the grocery store, but it look longer than it should have, and then I ended up leaving my front light on the handlebars! My light was a gift from D, and it's wonderful and bright, so I would have hated to lose it. I didn't realize what I had done until I was already in the check-out line, but luckily when I got back to the bike my light was still there.

So, I got everything loaded up and made my way home. I took some quiet streets and confirmed that there was in fact a weird periodic rubbing sound coming from my bike. Also, the front rack mounted directly above the wheel feels more stable than a standard Wald front basket, but you can definitely still feel the weight affecting the handling. Otherwise, all the groceries made it back home in one piece.

Post-gocery run

Nitto Big Back Rack: An endorsement/review

Let me take a moment to put a plug in for the Nitto rear pannier rack. I had thought about maybe skipping the rear rack and saving myself some money and cutting weight, but now I'm glad I got it. This model in particular is fantastic; I believe it's an updated version that has an added rail running under the "platform" on top (I'm guessing on the terminology). Because of this, I can bungee my very large U-lock to the platform, but it doesn't interfere with the panniers clipping on to the rail. Without that second rail, this would not have been possible. Also, there's a little place at the bottom for my bungees to hook on to. This is curiously missing from the larger version (mine is the medium, there is no small)--couldn't the bungee hooks just slip off? Plus there's a place to mount a rear light, which I think is much more visible than having it on my seat post. This rack is just about perfect for my usage, and it was very easy to install too.

Rack w. bungeed U-lock and pannier 

Out on the Trail

---

I haven't ridden for any distance in several months (it's been a rough winter in many ways), but I want to get my legs back and some endurance so I could attempt a full bike commute home again. I had resolved that this weekend I would try to build up to longer rides. I live near the Georgetown Branch Trail (which I had mistakenly been calling the Capital Crescent Trail last year, not realizing that Bethesda marked a name change), but I had only ever ridden a half-mile of it as part of my commute home last summer. I wanted to see where it went, especially as I had heard that there was a nice bridge over Rock Creek Park that was part of the trail. Luckily, Saturday cooperated, what with the nice weather and me waking up early and not being able to fall asleep again. 

I am not a morning person, especially when my caffeine hasn't had time to kick in. As noted above, I'm still off my riding ritual, so of course I walked out my front door and locked it before realizing that I had forgotten my helmet. And then I was already a mile or two away from home when I remembered that my water bottle and toolkit were still sitting at home. Luckily neither of these was an issue for the rest ride. Actually it was pretty uneventful, though that at that hour of the morning the streets/paths are full of people who are outdoors for fitness reasons. I'm more of a gym person myself (please don't tell me that riding by itself is somehow equivalent to strength training; also riding for me is not about exercise), but I was wearing yoga pants so maybe that counts.

The other week, @sharrowsDC had a great post about city people and country people. I am decidedly a city person. Not that I don't appreciate parks and green spaces, but I prefer these to be near an urban setting. My thoughts as I was traversing the Georgetown Branch Trail:

• Hmmm there's that weird rubbing sound on my bike again
• I think I smell skunk
• Is that a leaf stuck in my fender?
• That's definitely a twig stuck in my fender (twice)
• Is that mud? Can I avoid that?? Note: My fear of mud may be because the first time I ever really fell off my bike was when my wheel got sucked into some mud.
• Is this yet another golf course? Are there seriously two in the Chevy Chase area?? Note: Seriously, there are two golf courses within a mile of each other along Connecticut Ave., meanwhile it took several attempts for me to find an acceptable meandering route from the northern part of Bethesda heading southeast home. I find this not cool.
• Oh god, I'm going to get stuck in previous bikes' tracks, why isn't this trail paved???
• I should really adjust my mirror when I get home, I don't need to see that much of my hand and arm

I still enjoyed myself though, and when I got to the bridge the view was not bad:

Rock Creek Park looking South toward DC 

Rock Creek Park looking North towards the Beltway

Not that I don't have anxiety when riding the city, but it's somehow different. For example, last year we rode to see the cherry blossoms during their peak weekend which coincided with the Cherry Blossom festival, and there were people everywhere and we had to keep dodging them on the path. I don't think D was too thrilled, but it was the city next to the water and we rode by the Kennedy Center and into the Tidal Basin, and I remember it fondly. Actually, maybe I'm not a city person, but rather a water person--I'll gladly ride along any body of water (Rock Creek doesn't count).

So, I didn't get all the way to the terminus of the trail because ewww mud, but I wasn't that far from Silver Spring, and maybe when it's dry I'll try again in a few weeks. I have to say though that I enjoyed riding around the neighborhoods more. For one thing, the roads are paved, and the geography is more varied. As much as hate hills, I know some of them are actually good for me.

Anyway, it was a good ride, and felt like my first real ride on my new bike. I even ended it at the perfect place, the local farmer's market where I got some tulips and my favorite breakfast sausages. All in all, not a bad first week with my Betty.

Observation: I have a not yet said much about the ride quality of my new bike. I'll have more to write later, but for now I'll observe that this bike takes hills noticeably better than my silver step-through. D said I shouldn't be surprised, and in theory I'm not, but the difference is still amazing to me.

Coffeeneuring Challenge 2014 Wrap-Up

I completed the 4th Annual Chasing Mailboxes Coffeeneuring Challenge! I made a summary table of my rides below.

A few numbers for my first time ever coffeeneuring: I visited 5 new (to me) coffee shop locations, in 4 different cities (if you count Bethesda separately), and even donated 1 book to a coffee shop exchange/library. In the process I acquired 2 new coffee mugs, knitted a pair of riding mitts and a matching headband/snood, rented a bike in a new city, rode a road bike for the first time (beyond going around the block, anyway), and got a great sense of the riding routes in DC's Northwest quadrant. ETA: I forgot to add--I fell off a bike for the first time too, but not when I was on the road bike, when I was on my Brompton!

The one thing I didn't really do this year, even though I had set it out as a pre-coffeeneuring goal for myself, was use my new camera to practice taking pictures. But I did get one photo I really liked during my rides, even if it was only from my phone:

From my first coffeeneuring ride: the Duke Ellington Memorial Bridge

There's always next year!! Speaking of which, some preliminary goals for 2015's Coffeeneuring Challenge: expand to coffee shops beyond NW DC (though that was mostly accidental on my part); incorporate other routes from Upper NW like Beach Dr., the Capital Crescent Trail all the way around down to Georgetown, or the Georgetown Branch Trail up into Silver Spring. By then my Betty will be built up, so maybe the coffeeneuring rides will also become longer-distance recreational rides as well (though I'll always be a transportation rider at heart!).

Coffeeneuring Challenge 2014 Ride Table

No.	Date	Coffee Shop	City	Total Miles	Photo Verification
1	Sat. 10/4	Tryst Coffee	Washington, DC	6.98
2	Sun. 10/5	Baked & Wired	Washington, DC	8.78
3	Sat. 10/19	Brickyard Coffee & Tea	San Diego, CA	~5.5
4	Sat. 11/1	Peregrine Espresso	Washington, DC	7.1
5	Sun. 11/2	Dolcezza	Bethesda, MD	6.2
6	Tue. 11/11 Veterans Day	61C Cafe	Pittsburgh, PA	3.3
7	Sat. 11/15	Filter Coffeehouse & Espresso Bar	Washington, DC	~4.5

Coffeeneuring Ride No. 7: Filter Coffeehouse & Espresso Bar (14th St. NW location, Washington, DC)

Where: Filter Coffeehouse & Espresso Bar

• Address: 726 20th St. NW, Washington, DC
• Website: http://www.filtercoffeehouse.com
• Bike friendliness: They have a coffee pot- and coffee cup-shaped bike racks! In orange!! 
• Other notable information: Filter is about a block away from Looped Yarn Works; always excited to have a coffee shop and a yarn shop in such close vicinity

Date: Saturday, November 15, 2014

Drink: Cappuccino

Total Mileage: ~4.5 miles total (2.1 miles Home to Filter)

Photo Verification:

I normally wouldn't drink a cappuccino so late in the day,
but it was just too hard to resist

Coffeeneuring Ride No. 6: 61C Cafe (Pittsburgh, PA)

Where: 61C Cafe

• Address: 1839 Murray Ave., Pittsburgh, PA
• Website: http://61ccafe.com
• Bike friendliness: Bike racks all along Murray; if you're willing to park on the other side of Forbes, there's a bike corral and squirrel (hill) racks
• Other notable information: 61C is named for the bus route that passes by the cafe. They recently opened a sister cafe, 61B, also named for its accompanying bus route. Both only take cash.

Date: Tuesday, November 11, 2014 (Veterans Day Rule)

Drink: Hot chocolate

Total Mileage: 3.3 miles overall (1.7 miles Home to 61C)

Photo Verification:

Hot chocolate for me, chamomile for D

Coffeeneuring Ride No. 5: Dolcezza (Bethesda, MD location)

Where: Dolcezza

• Address: 7111 Bethesda Ln., Bethesda, MD
• Website: http://dolcezzagelato.com
• Bike friendliness: Bike racks along Bethesda Row; store is small and crowded, but maybe a table towards the rear would accommodate a folding bike
• Other notable information: Dolcezza has Stumptown Stubby on the menu; I didn't know what it was, but apparently it's bottled cold brew coffee. 

Date: Sunday, November 2, 2014

Drink: Latte

Total Mileage: 6.2 miles overall (3.1 miles Home to Dolcezza)

Photo Verification:

I have a theory that committed Italian gelato and pizza places
by extension should have good coffee

Coffeeneuring Ride No. 4: Peregrine Espresso (14th St. NW location, Washington, DC)

Where: Peregrine Espresso

• Address: 1718 14th St. NW, Washington DC
• Website: http://peregrineespresso.com
• Bike friendliness: Lots of bike racks in nearby and in vicinity; not much seating and very busy, but if you can score one of the tables in the windows there's enough room for a folding bike without people tripping on it.
• Other notable information: The food options are mostly pastry, and what I had was delicious--Earl Grey and cherry scone! Also, they only sell travel mugs, not regular ceramic ones.

Date: Saturday, November 1, 2014

Drink: Mocha 

Total Mileage: 7.1 miles overall (5.3 miles Home to Peregrine Espresso)

Photo Verification:

The mocha formerly had a lovely heart in the foam,
but I couldn't resist a sip before I took the photo

Coffeeneuring Ride No. 3: Brickyard Coffee & Tea (San Diego, CA)

Where: Brickyard Coffee & Tea

• Address: 675 W G St., San Diego, CA
• Website: https://www.facebook.com/Brickyard.Coffee.Tea
• Bike friendliness: Didn't find any nearby bike racks, though the outdoor seating allowed people to keep their bikes with them (as I saw one patron do), and one of the staff kept a bike in the back. I was able to lock up to a lone parking meter.
• Other notable information: Open daily from 6am to 2pm. The 2pm closing time is weird to me, though I remember seeing this in one neighborhood when I was visiting Baltimore. The vast majority of the coffee shops in my life have been open at least until the evening.

Date: Sunday, October 19, 2014

Drink: Latte

Total Mileage: ~5.5 miles overvall (~3.9 meandering miles from The Bike Revolution to Little Italy to Brickyard Coffee & Tea)

Photo Verification:

Also easily accessible by the Green Line. In fact, I found the place
because I saw it while I was passing by on the way to my conference

Coffeeneuring Ride No. 2: Baked & Wired (Washington, DC)

Where: Baked & Wired

• Address: 1052 Thomas Jefferson St. NW, Washington DC
• Website: http://bakedandwired.com
• Bike friendliness: Don't appear to be any racks nearby, but there are some parking meters as well as a fence that people use to lock up their bikes.
• Other notable information: There appears to be a book exchange on one of the shelves toward the rear of the shop. At least I hope it's a book exchange, because I left a paperback there for any takers.

Date: Sunday, October 5, 2014

Drink: Mocha

Total Mileage: 8.78 miles overall (6.54 miles Home to Baked & Wired)

Photo Verification:

I came for the cupcakes, but I stayed for the quiche

Coffeeneuring Ride No. 1: Tryst Coffee (Washington, DC)

Where: Tryst Coffee

• Address: 2459 18th St. NW, Washington DC
• Website: http://www.trystdc.com/
• Bike friendliness: Lots of bike racks in front and near vicinity, indoors crowded but plenty of room on patio for me and my folder
• Other notable information: Across the street from Donburi and its amazing Japanese rice bowls.

Date: Saturday, October 4, 2014

Drink: Mexican Hot Chocolate 

Total Mileage: 6.98 miles overall (4.58 miles Home to Tryst)

Photo Verification:

It came with animal crackers!

Ride Notes: 

• At Yuma St. NW and 36th St. NW, there appears to be some sunken park or garden that isn't marked as a green space in Google Maps. But I noted the intersection today as I rode past so I could look it later, and Google Maps street view has some user-uploaded photos of the area. I plan on going back in the near future to take a closer look.
• I noticed a Neighborhood Slow Zone sign for the first time today! I wonder if they've been up for a while, or if they are recent like the Neighborhood Bikeway signs they just put up near me.
• Today was the first time I've ridden with tights on; I guess it really is October. It was cold enough to also merit some merino clothing (I've recently drunk the merino kool-aid), so I got to wear this great dress for the first time (currently on sale at Nau). It layers really well so it's perfect for fall/spring, but I can see it working even on the cooler days of summer. It's versatile, cute, comfortable, ride-able, and has pockets--basically everything I want in a dress!
• Speaking of cold-weather apparel, after this evening's ride I'm thinking of knitting myself some hand warmers. The trick will be to finish them in time to actually use them.
• All this time I've been riding across the bridge on Calvert St., I never realized it was called the Duke Ellington Memorial Bridge: 

Nice way to close my first coffeeneuring ride

Coffeeneuring Prep

So I think this year I'll actually be able to do the Fourth Annual Chasing Mailboxes Coffeeneuring Challenge for the first time! This is exciting because bikes + caffeine, but also because I have a few goals for myself in the process:

• Finding Good Coffee Shops - I'll actually be doing my riding in two (possibly three) different cities, and I'm always on the lookout for more coffee shops.
• Replacing My Mugs - I've cracked a couple of mugs in the past few months, and I'm not very happy about it.
• Playing with My Camera - While I have no eye for composition, I finally figured out what aperture, shutter speed, and ISO are. Now I have to use this knowledge.

Picture from last year's furloughneuring

Bike Commute Checklist

It's seems like every time I take a break from bike commuting--even if it's just for a few days--I get "out" of the habit of packing the things I need for my commute. D suggested that I make a packing checklist to help avoid yet another potentially embarrassing day (like the time I forgot an undershirt for my cutout blouse and had to go around in a cardigan and hope nobody noticed).

At the bottom of the page (after the cut), my checklist in categories. The main category is for things that go in my bag, broken up into subcategories such as clothes and toiletries. I also included the "on my person" and "on my bike" categories because I have actually managed to leave these things at home. In fact, I've forgotten most of the things on this list at one point or another since I started bike commuting (going back to Cleveland). Anyway, I started this list a couple of weeks ago, and I've used it several times since to good effect--no wardrobe or bike mishaps in that time. One thing my list is currently missing: a small bike pump, which I hope to acquire soon. (Got a bike pump last fall! It's pretty cool, but I hope never to have to use it.)

Amazingly, everything fits into my Brompton O bag, even when I bring extra items like a bag of coffee beans (though I did put extenders on the front straps to enable carrying more bulk).

Bike and O bag tucked into a corner in the locker room
(ignore the black backpack on the right, that's not mine)

Of course, making this bike commute checklist didn't do much to help me in my car commute today. I got all the way to lunchtime until I realized that I had forgotten my wallet. At least I've never forgotten that while riding my bike!

Brompton US Championship 2014: Notes from a Spectator

#BUSC2014

So by now it's actually been a few weeks since the Brompton US Championship. I started writing it up right after the big race, but it's been a hectic couple of weeks so I hadn't had the chance to finish up. Plus there was so much to write about!

• My First Social Ride: A Day at the Races - I finally go on a social ride
• Race Festivities - I try (and mostly fail) to stay cool 
• The Race Itself: A Spectator's Perspective - I have fun with my camera settings

After the cut, a series of mini-posts about the above.

My first flat tire: a photo essay

Observation: I enjoyed fixing my first flat tire in the same way that I enjoyed shoveling snow for the first time. That is to say, it was a cute adventure because it was novel experience during adulthood, and it happened in a context where someone else would have done it if I really didn't want to. However, I suspect that under different conditions (for either case), I would have ended up sitting at the side of the road in tears.

Introduction: It had to happen one day...

I think it's inevitable for all bike owners to one day get a flat tire, and I'm lucky that my first flat went down in the way that it did: 

• I went two years before experiencing a flat.
• When I did get a flat, it happened on my front tire, which was much easier to deal with than a rear one would have been. (For reference, see this NYCeWheels blog post on fixing a Brompton rear flat, coincidentally posted earlier this month.)
• I wasn't dealing with a flat in the middle of the ride; obviously it must have happened sometime during my last ride, but I didn't get the full effect of it until after I was already home. 
• I didn't have to get a lot of new equipment, and what I did get, I needed anyway now that I'm commuting on a more regular basis.

Required tools are surprisingly few

Auspicious circumstances aside, I wouldn't have been able to get through actually fixing the flat without a lot of help from the following, to whom I am thankful:

• The BicycleSPACE staff, who basically told me exactly what to do and what materials I needed get to fix my tire (a patch kit and levers, that's it). They even gave me a little hand-written note about their Thursday "Fix A Flat" class, in case things went horrible wrong! 
• D, of course, who talked me through the whole process via FaceTime from a couple states away, and calmed me down in various moments of panic.

I got through the whole thing, and successfully I think, but there were many steps along the way.

What's the opposite of drafting??

I slept in a little yesterday, which meant that I left for work about a half-hour later than I have been the past couple of weeks. I wouldn't have thought that it would make a big difference, but the traffic along the Millennium Trail was noticeably busier. The part of the trail I ride is right next to a road with a 40mph speed limit, so in the mornings I'm going in the opposite direction of the cars next to me,  and I can feel the "headwind" as they pass by. The worst part is this long stretch starting at the bottom of a bend and going up to an overpass; I don't enjoy going uphill anyway, and adding wind resistance to that--I guess it's a good workout. Here's a picture of the general area (although this was taken in the evening, when it was much more placid):

In the mornings I head in the direction of the green arrows,
while cars are speeding next to be in the direction of the red arrows 

I actually remember dealing with the cars last year since I used to leave later, and I disliked it so much that I found some alternate routes for the first stretch of my morning ride. What is this called, anyway? Not even D could tell me, and he's my go-to source for bike knowledge:

I do know about D's drafting! I don't really mind though because I have calves of steel

I definitely plan on keeping my AM departure early to avoid this unnamed phenomenon!

Riding in the Rain For the First Time (On Purpose)!

Last year when I would do my multi-modal commute, I usually avoided inclement weather and took the shuttle from campus to the Metro. Today, I decided I would go for it, and went for my first real ride in the rain! Not that I haven't ridden in rain before, but that was usually for two reasons: 

1. I'd get unwittingly caught in a storm, or 
2. I had no way of avoiding the rain, but needed to be somewhere, so I'd suffer through it. 

I'm actually almost always prepared for the rain. My bag is built to be waterproof, my bike has fenders and mudguards, and my leather seat is usually covered; I keep bright lights with me at all times; I even pack my rain coat on days when there's any chance of rain, which is often in the summers here. I think what made the difference this afternoon was that I finally have a route that I like, so riding in the rain didn't seem like adding insult to injury (which is how I would have described a rain ride on last summer's route).

So, I set off into these conditions (right around the green line at the top, between the two thunderbolts):

I'm pretty sure I experienced the green, the yellow,
the orange, and a little bit of the red

The ride was actually enjoyable, in part because it felt like an adventure. I don't actually ride this route often in the afternoon, but it was pleasant, with minimal time riding with traffic. The worst part of the ride was getting my glasses wet, but that didn't impede my visibility as much as I feared. There was one potentially worrisome point when I was climbing, so I clutched my grips instead of my barends and watched out in case my foot slipped off my pedals; nothing bad came to pass.

My gear held up as warranted. I had never ridden with my coat in such heavy rain, but it performed well given that I had the vents and the top unzipped so I wouldn't overheat--the parts of my shirt that were completely covered stayed dry enough for me to wipe down my glasses. Everything in my bag stayed dry as well, including the items in the rear detachable pockets. In fact, I think the only equipment "fail" I had was the battery on my front light dying, but I had a spare so I was able to replace it (though the battery may be having re-charge issues). 

Anyway, I made it to the Metro and eventually back home, feeling unreasonable proud of myself the entire way.

Rain riding bona fides

Of course, one thing I hadn't considered was how to manage a wet bike in a studio apartment. I usually leave my Globe locked in the bike room, so this hadn't been an issue for me before. I had wiped down my bag and my helmet, and was starting on my frame when I remembered I had my winter boot tray hidden away--it's the perfect size for a folded Brompton! I did a little more drying (though probably not adequate post-rain maintenance, which I should probably figure out at some point), then stored my bike back in its usual corner.

Re-purposed, now a bike tray

Observation: The most reliable forecasters around here are the guys who put down the rain carpets in our elevators at work. I saw the carpets this morning and scoffed--little did I know!

Return to Bike Commuting!

Even though I'm all about errand/transport riding during the weekends, I have to admit that I hadn't really done any work bike commuting until this week. Long story short, I stopped taking the Metro/shuttle and started driving sometime in January, and I had been driving since. I'd been making noises about getting started with multi-modal commuting again, but I hadn't really committed until recently, when my cousin in Chicago started looking into getting a bike (his first as an adult). He asked my advice, got a bike last week, and was riding everywhere! And it just made me think, I can do it too!--which I knew, but I needed that push.

Though I hadn't been commuting, I was thinking about different routes to work. After a few dry runs, I had three-ish options:

• Short bike commute: Last year I only rode between the Metro and work as part of a multi-modal commute, which is a "short" bike commute in the sense that it's the shortest distance riding (though longest overall in distance and time, if you include the Metro ride). There are actually several ways to go, so I did a lot of experimenting, and settled on a route that I like earlier this year; while it's the longest distance, it's the most pleasant ride, and I don't really lose much time because it has less long lights.
• Long bike commute: I have this dream of riding the whole distance from work (~15.5 miles), so earlier in Spring I did a dry run (chronicled here). While I survived the ride, I'm not quite ready (mentally or physically) to do this during the work week. There's always next year though! 
• Intermediate bike commute: I'd been toying with trying this route as an option that was longer than my "short" commute, but more reasonable than my "long" one. It's also multi-modal, where ~4.5 miles are done on my bike, while the rest is on the shuttle between main campus and the satellite campus where I'm located. I had issues finding the route the first time I tried it, but I worked it out over the weekend (described here). I made some slight modifications to the dry run, so I think this is going to work very well. 

Of course, now that I'm getting back into the game, I've got this hot hot weather to deal with!  

More than an hour after my ride, and it remains sultry out

Although I was worried the past couple of days, I've ridden home during what feels like the peak of the heat, and I've survived! (D laughs at me for being surprised.) I've even figured out the combination of routes that I like for the morning and afternoon. I know it's only been a couple of days, but I'm feeling pretty good, plus it's nice to know that I can change it up in the future if I really want to.

What's funny is that over the weekend, before I actually rode to and from work, I was thinking that none of my options were ideal. I was wishing for a bike-friendly street running parallel to either Wisconsin Ave. or Connecticut Ave., and thinking enviously of those #bikeDC commutes through the monuments or along the Potomac or on the nice bike lanes downtown. But today on the road, I really did feel like I had a great ride. I was surrounded by trees for most of the time, and had long and uninterrupted stretches of road almost to myself. Even the segments of my ride that I shared with cars weren't that bad--I've definitely ridden along worse, even when there was a supposed bike lane.

So, my goal is to keep this up for the summer. There are aspects of the bike commute I enjoy less, but that's for another blog post. Right now I just want to enjoy my bike commute high!

Observation: Riding along six lanes of traffic is never going to be pleasant, irrespective of whether there is a bike path/lane.