Bunnyhop Velohunt

Spring has finally sprung into DC, and what better way to celebrate it than with a bunny-themed velo hunt! The weather was definitely more agreeable than our last velo hunt, so people had no problem getting out and silly with rabbit puns and hopping all over DC.

The first task of the hunt was to take a portrait in the BicycleSPACE bunny photo booth:

After that, we gave the riders clues and sent them on their merry ways, or rather, upon receiving the clues, they stood around and tried to make sense of them.

What was on the line? $50 to Baked and Wired, DC’s best bakery, so they didn't stand around for too long! Riders had to ride out and take a photo of each answer to each clue, whether an item, action, or place, and post it with #bunnyhopdc. 

As the riddle master, I had the pleasure this time of watching the #bunnyhopdc photos pour in and send me into water-shooting-out-the-nose fits of laughter back at BicycleSPACE HQ. 

At this point, I’ll just share some of the clues, and let the creative photo-answers take you on this wild ride.

Clue #18: Get off my lawn punk! Don’t be a grasshole on the mall. They say no walking on the grass, but nothing about hopping… 

Clues #14 and #16: Find this very pensive rabbit in the sculpture garden and Do the futterwacken like the mad hatter in front of his favorite hat shop!

Clues #19 and #15: Don’t get egg on your face! and Pick out a nice day’s meal for a hungry rabbit at the grocery store:

Clues #7 and #12 :Attention DDOT: There are rabbit holes EVERYWHERE. Please fix immediately. and Find a flower bed with all the colors of the rainbow

Clue #6: Photobomb! Give a stranger "bunny ears” 

Once everyone returned from their tasks, I had a great time checking out everyone’s photos and videos. If you want to see even more for yourself, check out the #bunnyhopdc tagboard!

Clue #17: Eagles are rabbits’ natural predators: find an eagle and duck and cover! This photo below on the left won a Basil front basket for making me laugh the hardest, as well as for the scale and willingness of the riders to trust a stranger with their phone!

Of twenty-one total clues, the winners, Emily and Taylor, managed to take photos of 16 clues in less than two hours—they were busy little rabbits!

Thank you to all who came and bunny hopped, hid from eagles, and generally goofed around! I hope you had as much fun as I had checking out the #bunnyhopdc photos! 

By Kevin Sundeen, Event Coordinator

Grace's Trusty Torch

Riding back and forth between Hyattsville, Maryland and BicycleSPACE has forced me to invest in a good lighting system. Day or night, I use my Light & Motion Urban 400 to light my way home, to school, or to work. Because of my varying destinations and schedule, my commute takes me across the Anacostia Tributary Trails in MD into the streets of DC, and on to the Metropolitan Branch Trail, during all hours of the day...

Having a round-trip 15 mile commute means that I need to have a light that can last and still be easy to charge up on the fly, if needed. All Light & Motion's lights are USB-rechargeable which makes my life super easy-- I can charge my light as I'm researching or studying and have a full battery when it's time to roll home.

Light & Motion manufactures all their lights in the United States and provides an awesome 2 year warranty so you can trust the quality. 

The Urban 400 has four different modes ranging from the super bright 400 lumens (as the name suggests) to a medium, low, and then flashing. Those different modes allow me to adjust the lighting as needed.

I definitely use the super bright mode to avoid roots on trails and potholes on Route 1! And it has held up quite well, proving the Urban 400 is a game-changer for any commute.

By Grace Pooley, Sale Associate

Arundel Looney Bin

BicycleSPACE would never condone drinking while cycling. But portaging booze by bike to enjoy at your destination is a totally acceptable thing that we definitely encourage! Enter the Arundel Looney Bin, a uniquely adjustable bottle cage that can be used to carry wine, or maybe even a fifth of Evan Williams--Mmm-mmm! 

Of course, it's great for Nalgene bottles or even a roll of paper towels too, making it truly one of the most versatile bottle cages out there. So if you find yourself bending and breaking regular aluminum cages to fit that tankard of coffee, I would have to suggest you try out the Looney Bin.

By Tony Pelton

Your Donations at Work: Pathfinders Cycling Club

The BicycleSPACE yoga community was thrilled to welcome Pathfinders Cycling Club to the shop to share the proceeds of our "give what you can" yoga classes over the last several months-- a total of $2500! 

Representing Pathfinders were club leader, Olanza Badger, his wife, and son. We were treated to a detailed description of the Pathfinders activities and how they use cycling and community service to help youth develop healthy lifestyles. The donations from BicycleSPACE will help contribute to these efforts, allowing young riders to have the right cycling equipment to support their activities. As spring approaches and our group rides pick up steam in the warmer months, we'll be seeing more of Olanza and his crew on rides. We can't wait to hear how the season goes! 

All of us at BicycleSPACE remain deeply moved and grateful to the yoga community that comes to the shop to practice and give back. It has been incredible to see all the generous donations at work. We are proud to be part of this vibrant community-- together we have been able to make a big impact!

By Suzanne Wnek, Yoga Program Manager

Ladies Lead the Way

Pick one category for your team: Hardcore (messengers only), Softcore (experienced urban rider), or Applecore (first time at an alleycat).

Race organizer, Stef, takes a quick straw poll to gauge the experience of the hundreds of riders that filled into the bike polo courts of Brentwood Park NE for the first annual Sadie Hawkins Alleycat. For the vast majority of riders this was their first alleycat. And, unlike most alleycats, every team competing had women members or was an all-female team, which was precisely the goal.

Dance through for some more glimpses from this bike soiree...

The Sadie Hawkins AlleyCat was created to bring women together in what has often been a male-dominated world of alleycat racing. The race had varying levels of competitiveness and encouraged you to be as serious or as silly as you wished. All proceeds went to benefit WABA's Women & Bicycle Program. A few mini-messengers in training were onhand to witness their first alleycats from the view of their childseats.

The Virginia Ave Park checkpoint in SE tested your balance and teamwork in a "double time" challenge. You and your teammate had to navigate the windy paths on one bike.

The race required you to make stops at various local bike shops to pick up items and then deliver them to the next check point.  We put out some balloons outside the shop,snapped some fun photos, and handed out coupons that asked participants to check off their answer to our plea: "Would you go to the races with us?"

Checkpoint "Change Up" at the Duck Pond in SW. You and your partner did some wardrobe swaps and a few laps around the park.

The race took riders through every quadrant of the city.

Sunny Meridian Hill Park provided the perfect dancefloor for the "Cut a Rug" challenge.

Finish Line at Red Rocks on H Street NE. The beautiful sight of overflowing bike racks.

Stef welcomes teams to the finish line. Our own Kate Schrock and her teammate Bruce took first place! This lively event was the perfect way to introduce newcomers to the exciting world of alleycat racing. It's always a party when the DC bike community comes together, thanks to everyone for participating and to Stef for putting together an awesome event!

Story and Photos by Francis Tatem, Marketing Manager 

Looking for Love

Beyond being inherently mushy, this year’s Valentine’s Day was downright slushy.  We almost canceled the Looking for Love Scavenger Hunt event we had planned for Saturday.  But, happily, some folks felt it’s never too slushy to go looking for love on bicycles! And, sure enough, as soon as we stepped foot outside of the shop, everything wet stopped falling from the sky.  Truth be told, though, there was plenty of splish-splash on the ground and we were going to be at the mercy of our fenders, and, in my case, woefully inadequate footwear. Too bad I didn’t have any garbage-bag toe warmers this time. Regardless, we were excited to set off on a quest for love... 

With three teams, competition for the $50 prize to Busboys and Poets was not going to be particularly fierce, so we decided to pool our intellectual resources and ride as one big team.  That way, we'd collect as many points as possible, split the prize, and all have a couple of beers after a fun day riding.

Since I penned the riddles of love, I was along more as a spectator, and I enjoyed watching everyone come up with creative answers to the provided scavenger hunt clues. Case in point: one of the answers was the pentagon, but no one felt like crossing the river, and since we were already in the Natural History Museum, it was decided, to the amusement of the rest of the visitors, to hold hands and form a pentagon of bodies in the entrance of the museum.

The Natural History Museum turned out to be a jackpot for clever answers to my hints: we found and attempted to steal the Hope Diamond (get a priceless rock for your sweetheart), failed to touch some orchids (don’t pick the flowers!), and made tongues at a giraffe (second largest mammal heart).

We were having a great time in the museum, and we didn’t much want to go back outside, but the siren song of love beckoned us to the AMOR sculpture at the National Gallery of Art, and the Kennedy Center (only president to win the Purple Heart), with a stop at Virginia Avenue (an avenue, “for lovers”).

“Hey Mike, come over here!” (Jumps in slush puddle, splashing everyone)

After two hours, it was with warmed hearts and frozen toes that we decided to return back to the shop, and what was waiting for us? Mini, crumble-top cherry pies (sized for two) from our pal Sol of Acme Pie Company and hot coffee from Vigilante Coffee! It was, dare I say it, the sweetest end to a lovely, if rather cold, ride.  Well, that, and our trip to Busboys and Poets to cash in the grand prize!

If you want to see more from our adventure, check out all the photo submissions the participants collected here.  

Thanks to those who came out!

For those that didn't make it, we'll be doing more scavenger hunts like this soon.  Sign up for our email list, follow us on Twitter or Like us on Facebook to learn more about our fun and FREE events!

By Kevin Sundeen, Event Coordinator

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

Kate's Billy Goat eating Surly Troll

This is my purple Surly Troll single-speed, baby fat bicycle. Built to the lowest standards (exempting the frame, natch). Built tough-- my Troll is perfect for mountain biking and definitely at home in the snow. Riding the unplowed Met Branch Trail is the Troll's dream.

She's equipped with Soma hubs laced to Weinemann 65mm rims with pink and orange powder coated spokes, "The Pig" headset (one of our favorites here at BicycleSPACE, the thing is bombproof), 32t Surly Chainring on a old Deore crank with an FSA bash guard, Avid BB5 up front, BB7 in the back, 16t & 18t cogs (this baby fat only masquerades as a single speed!), Pedros "Trixie" tool for any unforeseen trail issues, and a Bern beer opener thingy attached to the fork.

For grips I went for my cheapo favorite, ESI Orange with a SpaceOr bar. My wheels got Kenda Slant 6 26x2.5 tires with Q-tubes and Gorilla tape. For pro braking power I used Jagwire ripcord cables and housing. As for the rest of the little bits I've got a Velocity bottle cage, Single Digit 5s, Shimano UN55 bottom bracket, Aztec 160mm and Clarks 180mm rotors, Salsa flip lock, Salsa stem, Bontrager seatpost and a Specialized saddle.

Goes to show you can make a sick bike on a budget. My troll thing definitely lives the surly life. 

By Kate Schrock, Assistant Service Manager 

March on Washington 50th Anniversary

Thousands gathered on the National Mall to celebrate the 50th Anniversary of the March on Washington.  President Barack Obama addressed the crowd from the very steps where Martin Luther King delivered his on iconic "I have a dream speech" on the Lincoln Memorial. 

A bicycle was the vehicle of choice for many of the attendees. 

Photos by Francis Tatem, Marketing Manager 

Stand Up and Deliver