Ian's blog

I met a couple people from Phoenix Bikes last week during a special event with Whole Foods. They had a mechanic in the parking lot tunning up bikes. Whole Foods also donated a portion of the sales for the day to Phoenix bikes. There website says

“Welcome to Phoenix Bikes! We are a little community bike shop serving folks in and around S. Arlington, VA.

Located in Barcroft Park, along the 4 Mile Run and WO&D bike trails, we work with young people in the community, building bikes and becoming leaders. In addition to participating in our Earn-A-Bike Program and other Phoenix Team activities, our young mechanics join staff and volunteers in serving Arlington’s biking community. We do tune-ups and repairs at low cost to area cyclists, and sell quality used bikes fit for the whole family. Stop on by the shop to check us out, chat for a few minutes, and get into the Arlington bike community.”

So I decided to go down on saturday to see what I can do to help. I ended up being there for a couple hours. I helped fix a rear brake on bike that didn’t have brakes. I put together two wheels with new tubes and tires and I installed a new cassette on a rear wheel.

Lots of fun for me, hopefully I will have more spare time to help them out in the future.

Now this would be very cool if it ever gets signed into law

According to www.fabb-bikes.org the House recently passed the Energy bill which includes a $20/month benefit for bike commuters a press release is on Congressman Earl Blumenauer’s website

bike stats from Friday

Court House to Falls church (new bike)
Time 24:01
Trp 6.1
ODO 224
Avg 15.2
Max 25.9

Court house to Bethesda (old bike)
Mx 22.5
Av 14.1
Dst 8.99
Time 37.45
ODO 362.4

To avoid the heat of the day I decided to bike to old town Alexandria and back leaving about 8pm. The sun was due to set at 8:30. The one thing I wasn’t prepared for was the hale of oncoming bugs as I biked along beside the river.

Stats
Max 26.2
Time !:19:16
Trp 19.4
ODO 218
AVG 14.6

I love the thrill of cycling at night not knowing what is going to come up next. I bike with a nice Nite Rrider bike light which lights the path but it is still fun when a rabbit runs out in front and you chase it a little till it darts off to the grass on the other side.

the washington post is proposing upgrading the last stretch of the cannal into DC.

This would be a great addition and would allow a safe trip onto the DC mall

Another photo from the bike tour.

This one is the Grand Army of the Republic Memorial at 6th and pensylvania

We are following a 3 hour bike tour round DC by the NPS. todays topic is memorial day