Bike Sharing bikes in DC

Sorry for the bad photos, but from the warehouse, here's a few pics of the new SmartBike rental bicycles that are getting stationed around the city. We nabbed a contract a few months back to build up the bikes.

Here's the WashCycle rundown on bike sharing. Our own sometime-manager Jeff Peel was just named as their first program manager, he'll do a great job in leading the Clear Channel charge to win (back) the hearts of bicyclists.

The bikes themselves are remarkably nice to ride. To be blunt, they don't really look like much, but everybody who's ridden one was impressed. Three speed internal hub, all mechanical bits shrouded in mystery and plastic, big racks, big slick tires, and more stable handling than the Breezer folding bike I normally pinch from the warehouse to run errands.

Bicycles in Ireland, pt 1

With things around the shop settling into an offseason swoon, the timing was right for a long-planned and often-delayed trip to Ireland with my dad to tour the sheep farms and village pubs of his misspent youth in County Cork. Regrettably, we did most of our tour either by foot or by Nissan, but I did take a few pics of bike relatedness, and wished I had hauled the Moots along with me.

We began in Dublin, where nearly everybody bikes. No wonder, they really make it painless (at least in comparison to DC). Every road, everything from one-way lanes to the highway into town, has a bike lane. And nice ones, too. Every road in Ireland is paved with this terribly coarse chip-seal asphalt, it's basically just stones mixing in with some tar. It percussed my lumbars in the car, and I'm guessing it would turn any bicycle into a circa 1987 Cannondale crit racer. However, they've put a nice colored surface seal on the road that not only provides a smooth (but not rainslick) ride, but provides a nice visual distinction.

The gent to the right is fairly representative of the commuters I saw. No fancy gear, riding an older MTB or hybrid, wearing his work clothes. Atypically, he's wearing a helmet, one of the few I saw in Ireland.

When he got to work, he likely locked his beater to one of the many bike parking islands throughout the city. The first pic is the quite barren racks outside of (you guessed it) the department of motor vehicles. The next one was far more typical, filled nearly to capacity during the workday.

Miscellany -- The Guv'ment is trying to keep Gaelic alive, no doubt having observed the Babelicious harmony that prevails in such other such polylingual nations as Belgium, Spain, and my home and native land. So they have entire towns whose citizens are subsidized to be all-or-nothing Gaelic, Gaelic state radio and TV stations ("South Park" and "Pimp my Ride" dubbed into Gaelic), and of course, bilingual street signs that taught me that the Gaelic word for bike is either "Raon" or "Rothar".

More later, perhaps.

Repair Classes Begin November 1st!

Ever wanted to learn the basics of maintaining and working on your bike? Already know some basics and want to build on them with more specific knowledge? A little rusty and want to brush up? We're here to help.

We;re very pleased to announce that beginning November 1st, Ben, one of the mechanics at our Adams Morgan location, will be leading repair classes. Ben worked for us years back and we were very happy to have him rejoin us moths ago. He has a lot of experience leading repair classes and is an excellent, patient teacher. The schedule for the first round of classes is as follows:

Thursday, November 1st, 6:30pm: Basic Maintenance

Thursday, November 8th, 6:30pm: Derailleur Adjustment

Thursday, November 15th, 6:30pm: Wheel Truing

Thursday, November 29th, 6:30pm: Brake Adjustment

We will continue to offer our Flat Tire Repair Class every Thursday at 6:30pm.

All classes begin at 6:30pm and will be held at our Adams Morgan location at 2501 Champlain Street NW.

If you have any questions about the repair classes, email Ben directly at copperwire (at) runbox (dot) com.

Cannondale show bike

Check out this wacky Cannondale show bike! It's just a prototype, but looks kinda production-ready. The chain inside the stays is a particularly neat-o touch. No, we haven't heard anything. Scroll alllllllll the way down for pics.

Dang bike thieves

City Bikes made the WaPo in a story about bike theft in DC. They got it wrong on our stolen bikes -- we actually found them on eBay. The police acted real quick on our find, but whatever.

The Pinky Wave!

Been feeling lately like my usual motorist abuse protocol of yelling, cussing, and spitting is just spreading more hate, so thanks to bikeportland.org for this note on Australia's far more clever approach...

Bike Rental Kiosks in DC?

Jim Sebastian and the great folks at the DDOT Bicycling Program want to start a bike-sharing network in DC (funded by, ahem, the bicycle-friendly folks at Clear Channel, who apparently like their revenue streams tinged with small traces of irony).

Anyway, DDOT needs your input, so fill out this super-short survey (and write in Adams Morgan!!).

Hate spandex?

From City Bikes alum Dave, an exhortation to ride this Saturday's World Naked Bike Ride. I pledged to my parents, friends, and all sighted mammals that my days of public nudity ended with my college graduation. Same day as my 10 year reunion. Hmmm.

9AM meet, 10AM ride at MacPherson Square. Bring sunscreen!

Bike Access on the Lexus Lanes?

WABA (dang, still haven't renewed my membership) just sent out a bulletin urging folks to write in to demand bicycle facilities as a part of the planned refurb of many of the bridges over the Beltway. The impetus for the work is the plan to sell the roads to a private company, who will turn it into a volume-based variable toll road. Currently, the WO&D is about the only bike-accessible way to escape outside the Beltway on the west side of Virginia. Anyway, I've copied the full text of WABA's note further down....

....But first, it's time for a rant. People talk of a lack of accountability with government. True enough, but turning a vital piece of public infrastructure over to a company who is only accountable to the bottom line and the strict wording of a contract written by that same unaccountable government hardly seems prudent.

Here's a recent article from Business Week on the privatization of what used to be public facilities, highlighting the tremendous outlays being made to acquire things like bridges and highways. Given the amounts being paid out upfront (lease the PA Turnpike for $30B!), is there a lot of incentive to be responsive to the needs of the taxpayer, or rather, to comply as minimally necessary to keep the overseers happy?

Anyway, therein lies the importance of getting bike facilities into the contract. If it ain't in there, Fluor-Transurban sure won't be answering our emails. Bicycles reduce congestion. Revenues increase with congestion. And every little bit helps when you're laying out $913M.

Get Bikes over the Beltway

The Virginia Department of Transportation is currently negotiating with the private firms Fluor/TransUrban on all aspects of the proposed High Occupancy Toll (HOT) lanes on the Beltway in Virginia. Due to the nature of the public-private partnership under which this proposal is being considered, these negotiations are being conducted in secret. A number of the bridges along and crossing the Beltway will be reconstructed as part of the project. These bridges currently pose major barriers to bicycle travel in Northern Virginia.

Now is the chance to provide bicycle accommodations on all bridge crossings affected by the project. WABA and Fairfax Advocates for Better Bicycling urge Fairfax cyclists to contact VDOT and demand that bicycle accommodations be included in all Beltway HOT lane bridge projects. Write to Dennis Morrison, Northern Virginia District Administrator, at Dennis.Morrison@VDOT.Virginia.gov. Copy fabb@waba.org.

Consider including these points in your message:

The Fairfax County Trails Plan calls for bicycle routes on many of the Beltway crossings. The HOT Lanes project provides a once-in-a-generation opportunity to build these routes.

Providing bicycle and pedestrian access on the crossings is consistent with VDOT policy to "accommodate bicyclists and pedestrians?in the planning, funding, design, construction, operation, and maintenance of Virginia's transportation network."

Crossings on roads such as Little River Turnpike in Annandale, Chain Bridge Road in McLean, Route 7 in Tysons Corner and Gallows Road in Dunn Loring are key bicycling corridors.

Providing bicycle accommodations is critical to making bicycling a more viable transportation option and reducing traffic congestion.

For more information, visit http://www.fabb-bikes.org/.

Meet Mike

Not Merchandise Man Mike, but this random guy named Mike. I met him briefly at Bike to Work Day, he lives about two blocks away from me, and has been commuting into the city every day by bike for 30-something years. I was kicking myself for not getting a picture of him, as he was very entertaining, perhaps a tad eccentric (so rare in bike circles...), and certainly memorable.

Anyway, fortune smiled, as this Mike turned up last night at a planning meeting in Mt. Pleasant for doing International Carfree Day in DC (nice folks, they've got some big plans, go to their site to keep up to date or to find out how to help, they could use manpower, cash, printing services, good ideas, etc etc....). I recognized him instantly, asked for a pic with him holding his favorite sign (he has about 4-5, all with a 'bicycling is patriotic' theme), and had a nice chat about traffic on the Mt. Vernon Trail.

No point to all this, I just thought that Mike deserved a mention in the blog, as 30 years in the saddle is pretty remarkable.

Bike to Work Day wrap up

Another BTW Day come and gone... I chose to forego the Preakness-infield madness of the Freedom Plaza rally to commune at the Crystal City pitstop, which was organized at the last minute by the folks at the BID. Checked out about 25-30 bikes, mostly Walmart bicycle-shaped-objects with slack shift cables and sketchy brakes, and one poor guy who dropped a left crankarm off a pretty Scott cyclo-x bike.

The weather was a bit murky, but 133 people still rolled through this pit stop. There was a fairly serious crash at the tricky exit to the tunnel under the VRE train tracks, a lady got bussed off to the hospital with a concussion. I haven't heard any other reports of mishaps, though.

Besides Crystal City, City Bikes was doing bike checks at NIH and Bethesda, manning the table at Freedom Plaza, and leading the Mt. Pleasant ride. Lots of coffee consumed among us, that's for sure. Great photos to be found at Gwadzilla's blog....

WABA reports 6600 registrants, which is a lot (a record?). We (the shop) have had a few irate emails about t-shirt shortages, which for the record, isn't really our department, but we're passing them along to WABA. Y'all are quite passionate about your free t-shirts, that's coming through loud and clear.

08 Specialized Bikes - posted by CityBikesMike

Langsters in city-based paint schemes (why no DC 'No Taxation Without Representation' model?), new TT bikes that are HOT, a HotWalk for my son, 2 Rockhopper 29'ers under $1k... exciting stuff in the middle of the season.

I'm going to actually call Bob and suggest that they look at making a DC-based model. Everyone should know what is going on with the statehood push. I'm not sure how much people out in the world actually know that the good people of Washington, DC, don't get a vote in Congress. Talk about a rad bike. We could sell those suckers hand over fist! Here's hoping. The red and white with DC flag would be pretty hot looking, I think...

On the right, we have the sock Langster, the Langster Boston, Langster London and Langster Chicago. Below that is the new TT bike. Horizontal drops, center-pull front brake, vertical seat mast with removable seat clamp that provides 40mm of fore-aft adjustment, a second seatpost with 35mm of setback, team paint schemes, full carbon, prices down below $3k, fully super aero design with a frontal area less than one inch throughout the ENTIRE BIKE, new chainrings (good thing), SRAM TT carbon group and Red components, new Tri-specific saddle with two different NOSE widths. I almost wish I rode a TT or two during the year. Oh, and I wish I could afford it! The bike with Zipp 404 wheels, fully dialed is close to $8k. There's a good chance that that price will change but not much.

The Langsters will be priced just $50 over the stock pricing. What you can't see is the colored chains and paint details.

On the left, we have the Langster Seattle (with plastic fenders with wood-grain treatment), Langster NY (cabby paint scheme, 16" wide bars and 'rider carries less than $20 cash' decal on the drive-side chainstay) and the two Rockhopper 29'ers. The Rockhopper Comp Disc 29'er and the Rockhopper Disc 29'er.

All the Langsters are aluminum frame with steel fork so it's just the parts that are switched up. When you put these together with the new Tricross Single (below), you've got a solid onespeed lineup for the boys and girls.

Oh, the Langster Chicago has a decal that looks like there's a sticker over top of the 'L' and it spells 'Gangster.' Pretty funny stuff.

The HotWalk is a teaching bike for the little ones. Instead of training wheels, you get a bike that the kids learn balance on, as opposed to pedaling. Emma is still training-wheel-dependent and I should have gotten something like this for her. We won't make the same mistake with Jeremy. We'll see how Emma takes to this as well. She'll probably want to play with it as well.

I wish I had some high-res pics to show y'all, but all I have is the pics from the .pdf Specialized sent out. The good news is that these are not renderings, but actual pics of actual bikes.

These bikes are real, they are on the water already and your local Spec'd shop will see them in the next month or so (if they are smart and order them). Check out the pics, go ask your local bike shop to get you one or two and hold on for the full 08 roll-out in mid-July. Rumor has it that there's a 29'er Stumpjumper in testing right now with an enduro sl-style frame. Maybe I've seen it, maybe I haven't... Also, maybe the stump fsr bikes are going from 120 to 130 next year (like my 06 carbon stump fsr).

As soon as I saw these bikes, I realized that Specialized was trying to eat Bianchi's lunch. Bianchi hired Spec'd central-region guy about a year ago to be their national sales manager. This guy Mark has come out of the gate REALLY hard, pushing Bianchi to grow (without adequate systems support, if you ask me) and A LOT of people got pushed out of Bianchi dealerships because they (we) didn't want to play ball. I'll spare you the details, but I think that Spec'd has rolled out models to push Bianchi out of their super-established niche (29'ers, onespeed 'cross bikes, fixies). I've been given a few 'wink wink, nod nod' looks when I've mentioned this to a few people in the know so I might actually be on to something. I'd rather ride a Specialized anyway in case something goes wrong as I know that Specialized will take care of the product. I don't have that confidence about Bianchi. If you look around, you'll see a lot of new Bianchi dealers this year as they move into one shop after they got spit out of a different shop. More power to the shops who have gotten good service from Bianchi.

So, check out the bikes and let me know what you think. We'll be ordering next week fo sho. I'm most excited about the HotWalk for Jeremy. This is a RAD idea and I'm glad that they are pulling through on this model. I may be accused of being a Specialized nut, but it's stuff like this that makes me really like this company. I can rock their sub-30lb 6" travel bike and my boy can ride his rad little balance-teacher...

Thanks to Brandon, Andy, Bob, Jason, Luke, Deacon and the rest of the Specialized bike teams for pushing through some really rad stuff mid-year.

"Knowledge speaks, but wisdom listens"

Jimi Hendrix probably didn't have bikes and the retail sale of them in mind, but that's about all we know. And while we'd never suggest that you'll exit this blog any wiser, we do hope you'll drop in every once in awhile and get a small taste of the DC metro bike community, and the day-to-day in our two shops.

Coming soon, we'll get some info up on some new stuff we're bringing in for the season, post some pics from Bike to Work Day (sign up, please), and whatever else strums our Strat.