41st Street

I love that hill and sometimes I do laps on it. I would be happy to ride it with you.

Road cleats do make me a bit more careful, it’s true, but often I’m wearing MTB cleats. Maybe the first time you might consider different shoes/pedals if that’s an option. But really, the only time I didn’t make it up was because of some wet leaves; snow or ice would also be a concern. I’ve never toppled over.

Like you, I routinely go down Glebe, but have yet to go up Glebe there, probably because 41st St. is so much fun.

Yeah, great hill. I’ve ridden up Glebe numerous times, but 41st is far, far more pleasant. The switchbacks are demanding when it’s wet / leafy / mossy. I’ve had rear wheels slip there, though so far haven’t had to dismount (knocking on wood). What huskerdont said about keep the weight back. — if you have gearing that lets you stay seated, that’s great, though I have to stand — I just keep the weight back when I do.

It’s a fun hill to punctuate a ride back into Arlington from DC/MD, but doing laps on 41st doesn’t sound fun at all!

As a less experienced cyclist, I’ll definitely agree with the “keep the weight back” advice. Not my neck of the woods, but the one time I did go that way heading back to DC (with the kid on the trailercycle, of course), even though it was a little bit slick from a recent shower, having the extra weight on the rear definitely helped in maintaining traction.

@cmj7gh 173966 wrote:

Following up on Steve O’s offer to give advice from another thread. Figured it’d make more sense to start a dedicated thread.

I ride over Chain Bridge from Arlington with some frequency, and I usually take Military rd up to the Randolph/Richmond loop, past that awesome treehouse on Randolph, and then down a crazy hill that google maps doesn’t identify as a road but some maps call 41st st.

I haven’t successfully ridden 41st street yet – either up or down. At this point I just walk the little switchback between Randolph and the cul de sac, and then ride the rest, but even that walk can feel sketchy when I’m wearing my slippery road shoes. I’ve tried riding down the switchback a few times, but I’m always scared that I’m going to go over the handlebars.

I ride other hills without any problems, but the combination of the steep grade and that switchback adds a bike handling component that I can’t get over. I’m sure it’s just a psychological block at this point, but I’d love any advice/encouragement y’all can offer!

Separately, I sometimes bypass that hill by taking Glebe road down – it works well enough when there’s rush hour traffic slowing it down in the mornings, but I don’t know if I’d ever feel safe riding up Glebe road there.

Hey teammate. Glebe is awesome to bomb down when traffic is light, but I’d avoid climbing that spot at most hours. 41st is much less sketchy than it seems — in fact, i’d guess it’s 10x more sketchy walking it in your road shoes. All the above advice is good. Only thing I’d add is to not overthink the railing and the turns. You’ll be mashing slowly enough that the turns are much more mild than they appear.

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Never go down 41st, never go up Glebe. Die happy.

@hozn 173974 wrote:

Yeah, great hill. I’ve ridden up Glebe numerous times, but 41st is far, far more pleasant. The switchbacks are demanding when it’s wet / leafy / mossy. I’ve had rear wheels slip there, though so far haven’t had to dismount (knocking on wood). What huskerdont said about keep the weight back. — if you have gearing that lets you stay seated, that’s great, though I have to stand — I just keep the weight back when I do.

It’s a fun hill to punctuate a ride back into Arlington from DC/MD, but doing laps on 41st doesn’t sound fun at all!

I agree with hozn, up to a point. I ride this hill in both directions several times each week. 41st is unquestionably more pleasant than Glebe, which I would not ride up or down ever, but I am not ready to call the uphill ride on 41st “pleasant” in and of itself. But maybe I just need to get more zen about it, or get a better granny gear. Having experienced too much craziness from drivers on the nearby streets of North Arlington and McLean, I just would not take the risk on the Glebe hill. YMMV.

In all the years of riding this, there have been a handful of times that I have dismounted to walk down the switchback, including a time or two with ice when I have gripped the railings for dear life. I have also lost traction a few times on the uphill on wet leaves. I definitely have to stand to make it up the initial section underneath the parkway bridge and on the switchback, except on my mountain bike.

Also, if you ride down, be very careful at the Glebe/Chain Bridge intersection. Cars will notoriously take a right on red coming down Chain Bridge Road to head up Glebe without paying attention to bikers in the crosswalk. And others often shoot the left turn from Glebe to Chain Bridge without regard to the red arrow or those in the crosswalk. Try to make eye contact if you can – but a defensive approach is best.

How often do you get to annihilate the speed limit on a bike? Glebe down is one such place. Since you can take that first curve as fast as a car, you can take the lane without feeling like anyone will ride up your back. But you do have to take the lane. Back in the 90s before I knew to do this, I was hugging the right and a woman in a sedan passed me then veered over, almost putting me into the guardrail.