Bikes and Baggage Cargo Ride — Proteus Bikes, College Park

[Greenbelt]

My LBS is hosting a utility fun ride (probably around 10 miles) on October 30. The goal is for customers and friends to experience errand/shopping riding with other riders on a low-traffic time of the week (Sunday morning). Some of us might do mock shopping just for the challenge and experience — I’ll probably have a backpack full of groceries by the time we’re done!

I’m not sure the exact route, but it will be mostly on residential streets and local roads with bike lanes. We’ll probably explore some of the shortcuts cyclists in the area use to get around the region.

Here is the link to the announcement, and I’ve pasted the text of the announcement below if that link doesn’t work.

Here is a link to a bike route to the shop from College Park Metro (http://vimeo.com/21293118 )
and here is a link to the bike route from the Greenbelt Metro (http://vimeo.com/21279584 )

It’s also pretty easy to get to Proteus from the University of Maryland campus — just take the Paint Branch trail north from the campus (near the Comcast center). The trail goes under University Blvd and around the Paint Branch golf course. After the golf course, there’s a spur off to the right that goes up to Route 1 near the bike shop, and there’s a new traffic light to cross over.

Date: Sunday, October 30
Time: 9:30am
Place: Proteus Bicycles | 9217 Baltimore Avenue | College Park | MD | 20740 | 301.441.2928

Leave your car at home. –

[ATTACH=CONFIG]423[/ATTACH]

Dig out your backpacks, racks, panniers . . . any safe way you can carry small packages. Discover just how fun and easy it is to do local errands on your bike. We have a fun route all planned out for you. You will go from stop to stop picking up packages and surprises, returning back to the shop for awards and celebrations.

This will be about a 10 mile ride routing you to various public places where one might commonly go on an errand. You will be amazed how fun and quick it can be using your bike instead of your car. Helmets are required and young and/or inexperienced riders should have a riding buddy with them. RSVP is appreciated. Check webpage in case of rain. Hope to see you there.

Sincerely,

Jill DiMauro
Proteus Bicycles

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email: jill@proteusbicycles.com
web: http://www.proteusbicycles.com

Topic

[Dirt]

Back to the original topic for a second…

I’ll be rolling to this Sunday morning with something large and with a very low IQ. If anyone would like to join me, the ride will be at a reasonable and friendly pace. I might stop and shop at a garage sale if I see anything that catches my eye.

If you’re interested, let me know. I need to figure a good route then plan my start time accordingly.

Love,

Pete

[Greenbelt]

Pete — just a check, it’s the following Sunday, October 30th, not this coming Sunday. (PS This coming Sunday is DCCX, which sounds like big fun.)

[Dirt]

Yup. I know. I have book club this Sunday. I RSVP’d with Jill. She seemed happy and asked me to pick up a few sheets of 4×8 plywood on the way over.

[Dirt]

Is anyone interested in riding over to College Park from NOVA on Sunday morning? It should be a pleasant ride. I haven’t figured out my route yet, but I will likely do so in the next day or two. Maybe Greenbelt can suggest a route. I used to commute to College Park, but haven’t done so in a decade or more.

[Greenbelt]

I’m not very good with Google maps, but here is a link to an attempt at a route suggestion

From downtown DC, I take the MBT to Monroe Street Bridge (bike lane)
Left at 12th (sharrows) and right at Newton (bike route)
Left at 18th, and right at Varnum (bike routes)
Cross Eastern Ave and the road becomes Arundel Road (bike route, bumpy road — beware unmarked speedbumps)
Jog one block to the right at 34th street (otherwise you’d be on a one-way Allison Street going the wrong way)
Left at 38th Street, over the bridge, and right on the NW branch trail
Cross Rhode Island at the crosswalk/trail alongside Armentrout Road (beware the construction/cyclocross challenge)
Down the ramp and up the NE Branch Trail to Lake Artemesia
Pick up the Paint Branch Trail at Lake Artemesia and go under the CSX track.
Take the College Park Trolley Trail/Rhode Island Ave (bike lane, sort of) across University Blvd (not a pleasant intersection)
Cross left to the outer road alongside Rhode Island
Left on Erie Street up the hill to the bike shop (Route 1 at Erie)

Alternatively, you can take the Paint Branch trail all the way around, under Route 1, past the U of MD campus, under University Blvd, past the golf course, and back up to Route 1 at Hollywood Road, which is a couple blocks up from the shop. You can cross over and double back through the neighborhood streets.

I’d strongly recommend NOT riding on Route 1.

I don’t have a video of the exact route to the shop from DC, but this one shows from Lake Artemesia to DC (most of the route in reverse, essentially): http://vimeo.com/23366829

[Dirt]

Perfect. I’ll play with that. I was looking at wonderful ways to avoid Rt.1. When I look at Google Maps cycling routes for that area (which is sometimes sketchy as it is) there seems to be a pretty good void through there.

I’ll map that out when I get home tonight.

Pete

[Dirt]

I made a public event on Facebook if people want to join the ride over to College Park: https://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=284460614908249

Let me know if you have problems accessing and I’ll invite you to it.

Hugs and kisses,

Pete

[acc]

What a great excuse to buy a messenger bag! Thanks Dirt for giving me an excuse to shop. I even got to choose my own color combinations at Timbuk2 — in retrospect probably not a good option for me. Lime green-neon red- florescent yellow seemed like a good idea at the time. See you there!

ann

[Dirt]

@acc 9719 wrote:

What a great excuse to buy a messenger bag! Thanks Dirt for giving me an excuse to shop. I even got to choose my own color combinations at Timbuk2 — in retrospect probably not a good option for me. Lime green-neon red- florescent yellow seemed like a good idea at the time. See you there!

ann

My eyes! My eyes! AAaaaaaaaahhhhh

[acc]

I wasn’t going to mention this, it really should stay quiet, I was going to surprise you. But this afternoon because it’s raining and I can’t ride (Ok, fine – I won’t ride in the rain for no good reason), I spent the afternoon sticking fifty rhinestones on my helmet. Let the screaming commence.

Looking forward to Sunday,
ann

[Dirt]

Looks like we’ve got 7 people riding and the possibility of 4 or 5 more. Should be a fun group.

[Greenbelt]

Good to see/meet people! Here’s some video from today’s ride:
[video=vimeo;31347210]http://vimeo.com/31347210[/video]

[Dirt]

What a great event! The people at Proteus are awesome. I love that shop more than ever. If you’re in the area, check them out. They’re truly a cool community bike shop with a great attitude and a great support of the local riding scene.

Seriously cool that I got to meet Greenbelt!!! It was great to finally ride with another contributor to the forum.

Hanging out in the shop after the ride.

Great signage.

Lovely scenery

The ride to and from was awesome. Cool to hang with some folks from the Forum and mix them with the band of characters with which I normally ride.

Many thanks to Jill at Proteus and her team!

Rock and roll.

Pete

[Mark Blacknell]

It never occurred to me that you were Greenbelt.

Doh.

(Thanks for leading, and yes, this was a very cool idea.)

[Greenbelt]

Was very impressive to see the Virginia riders, doing a 60+ mile ride on heavy load bikes! I’m really glad the weather was good, and I hope you guys enjoyed the scenery on our local trails. On the way in this morning, we came upon a big buck deer right by the underpass near College Park airport, and Laurie saw a bald eagle (I missed it — apparently it flew right over my head) at Lake Artemesia.

[Author]

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