Staff Camping Trip — DC's Favorite Bike Shop - BicycleSPACE

Welcome to BicycleSPACE!

We’re around the bend (the Solstice passed at 5:01 AM Thursday!), days are officially longer than the nights, and SPRING HAS SPRUNG! And there’s no better way to get out into the Sunny days- or burn off some vexation- then turning over the pedals on your ride home or favorite local trail!

Get READY TO RIDE! It’s a great time to come by and take some test rides on a fresh set of wheels and/or get your current steed all tuned & buffed before things get crazy at the shop! We have a wide variety of bikes in-stock for riders of all kinds-and all the gear needed to get the most out of your ride! The service department has been churning through the repairs with quick turnaround times- stop by anytime for an estimate & we’ll have you back rolling smoothly in a jiffy! The crew is amped to get everyone rolling, whether on a new set of wheels or making sure old faithful can keep you smiling!

Thinking of a family cargo bike? COME CHECK OUT GREAT DEALS FROM ALL OUR BRANDS- models from Urban Arrow, Xtracycle, Canondale, Aventon & Bunch available for a limited time at awesome prices!

Were you one of the lucky voucher recipients of the latest DC E-Bike Incentive Program? We have lots of great options for you to choose from, so call or come by to take a look!

Thanks for your support in 2024- we look forward to seeing you soon in 2025!

WE’RE HIRING!

The riding season is upon us & we are looking for enthusiastic peeps to join our team- whether you’re an experienced tech or someone who just loves to ride and wants to help others do the same, we’d love to work with you! Fill out an application and be in touch!

Please be aware that we are in the process of transitioning our website & the info on other pages is likely not up-to-date. Please call the shop w/any inquiries- especially on bike availability…

Staff Camping Trip

Vortices, polar or otherwise, be damned, the BicycleSPACE crew was going camping last Friday. I’ve never been bicycle camping, and when I go backpacking I try to pack ultralight, getting by with only the bare essentials. It didn't go down like that with this round of bike camping because we were rolling deep with a Surly Big Dummy. It took one look at Austin’s cargo bike piled high—tents, cookware, knives of every shape and size, a wooden cutting board, a tool roll, water, a bundle of firewood, beer and food for six hungry dudes—to know this would be relative luxury...


Francis, on his Surly LHT, taking a break from hauling production gear, Jake on his Nature Boy Zona, and Austin on the aforementioned Big Dummy, left the shop before dark, and worked their way up the C&O canal towpath to Swain’s Lock Campground. Austin admitted to bonking a few times, but since he was carrying 100+ pounds of bike and gear up a muddy towpath, there was no heckling his barge-like pace. You don’t heckle a man with that many knives.

After I popped home to throw my camping gear in a backpack, I grabbed by own Nature Boy Zona, and headed over to the towpath to wait for Tony and Adam, on their respective bikes, an All-City Macho Man and Surly Crosscheck. It would have been a little creepy waiting in the dark by Glen Echo, but, luckily, Tony and Adam had multiple Light and Motion lights strapped on their helmets and bikes.  I could see them coming practically all the way from Georgetown, lights over the horizon style a la Close Encounters of the Third Kind. Once they did arrive, we enjoyed mashing away on the frozen mud, lighting up the towpath with over 1000 cumulative lumens: an Urban 400, Urban 550, and a Stella. For reference, the user “Unicorn” at candlepowerforums.com (of course there’s a forum for that) claims that the spotlights mounted on the side of police cars are about 800 lumens.

We arrived at the campsite to a feast that only Austin could have prepared with all of the gear that seemed to spawn out of the black depths of his Big Dummy’s rack bags. Cincinnati Chili cooked over an open fire, canned oysters, and plenty of beers for dessert (don’t tell the park service).  A few nips from some flasks, combined with the effort of riding up to Swain’s Lock, made sure everyone slept soundly—most of us in tents, although Jake, in utter contrast to Austin’s kitchen-sink approach to camping, slept in a hammock and bivy-bag combo that he could fit in his Chrome Berlin.

The next morning was a chilly one, and I for one, found it impossible to get out of my toasty sleeping bag before 8AM, at which time Tony, Francis, and Jake had the unenviable task of riding back into town for a full day of work. A good bit later, Adam, Austin and myself cleaned and packed up the campsite while enjoying some nice camp coffee. Austin, of course, had warm boots on, but Adam and I suffered with frozen toes due to the ample vents on our cycling shoes, until Adam had the genius idea to use the campsite-provided trash bags as toe warmers. We looked a little bit homeless-chic as we rode home with empty trash bags around our toes and beer can filled ones strapped to our bikes. I suppose it’s better to look warm and a little odd than cold and miserable. As someone said, there’s no such thing as bad weather, just improper clothing. In a pinch, the trash bags turned out right proper.  


By Kevin Sundeen, Event Coordinator

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