October 15: Halloween Dress Rehearsal!

It's time to wrap up our inaugural Kidical Mass season with one final ride to celebrate our awesome first season. We'll meet at Turkey Thicket Rec Center in Brookland at 10:00 this Saturday, October 15th. This ride is a HALLOWEEN DRESS REHEARSAL, so bring or wear your Halloween costume, even if it's not ready yet.

From Brookland, we'll swoop down the Met Branch Trail, depart at the southern terminus in NoMa,  wind through Near Northeast and end up at the H Street Farmer's Market. There we will hold a costume contest, judged by Greater Greater Washington and District Curmudgeon's own Jaime Fearer and Geoff Hatchard.

• FIRST PRIZE will go to the least complete costume. You can bring as much or as little of your final costume as you like. Bonus points for uncut raw materials (though you should bring a photograph or a sketch to show that it really is for a Halloween costume).
• SECOND PRIZE is for best use of a bicycle or bicycle accessory.
• THIRD PRIZE is for most complete costume

After the contest, we'll pay a visit to our friends at Pound Coffee, where we will get brunch and eat tasty pumpkin-themed snacks from Dessert Station. To keep little hands busy, we will have a box-full of mini-pumpkins for the kids to decorate and take home.


Meetup times and locations:

• 10:00am: Turkey Thicket Recreation Center, Brookland, east side near the basketball courts
• 10:45am: Met Branch Trail, R Street NE entrance
• 11:15am: H Street Farmer's Market
• 11:30am: Costume Contest!
• 11:45am: Leave H Street for Pound Coffee @ Eastern Market

Meetup points and route are on this Google Map. Questions? Email Megan at KidicalMassDC@gmail.com. Please join us and our friends for the final ride of the season!

Next Ride: September 17

Welcome, Kojo Nnamdi Show listeners and other family biking fans!

Our next ride is September 17, and it's going to be a epic family biking journey, so hold onto your helmets:

• Four wards
• Three bridge crossings
• Two beautiful bike trails
• TEN MILES OF AWESOME

Main Ride:
Meet us at the Anacostia Metro Station at 11am for a quick ride through Historic Anacostia, including Anacostia's famous Big Chair, before we take a break from riding in traffic to enjoy the gorgeous river views from the Anacostia Riverwalk Trail. We'll follow the west side of the trail up past RFK (GEESE!) and cross the bike-friendly Benning Road bridge, and end with a picnic at the River Terrace Recreation Center and Playground. Bring your own lunch, desserts are on us!

Super Awesome Epic Family Bike Ride:
Meet me at the R Street NE entrance to the Met Branch Trail at 9:30am for ten full miles of overwhelming cuteness and family biking fun. We'll follow the Met Branch to its end, then zip through Near Northeast, Capitol Hill and Eastern Market (another meetup spot), before we head across the Pennsylvania Avenue bridge to Anacostia.

Route map is here.

Saturday, September 17

9:30am: Met Branch Trail/Eckington meetup
10:15am: Eastern Market meetup
11:00am: Anacostia Metro meetup. Yes, you can take the Metro with a bike and a baby! See?

We look forward to seeing you! Email Megan with any questions.

Next Ride: Saturday, July 16

Farmer's Market!
The White House!
$50 for 50 Riders!

This ride has a little something for everyone. Meet up at 10:30am on Saturday, July 16 at the Mt. Pleasant Farmer's Market, where you can grab a scone from Atwater's Bakery or an exotic popsicle from Pleasant Pops, or just sample the delicious meat, cheese and produce. At 11:00am, we'll all leave together for an easy ride down to the White House, where we'll take our picture together. After that break, we'll head back up the hill to finish off with a well-deserved cooldown at the Columbia Heights splash fountain. Participants are welcome to stay after the ride to enjoy some of the many eating options in Columbia Heights.

This month, there's an added incentive to ride! Our old pals at BicycleSPACE, following up on a challenge issued by a staff member at the Rails to Trails Conservancy, have pledged to give Kidical Mass DC $50 if we can recruit 50 riders for this event! We're saving our pennies for a very special event this October, so we hope you can help us meet this challenge on Saturday!

For more information, email KidicalMassDC@gmail.com

Where We Ride: Met Branch Trail

Before I had a kid, I used to be a cyclist of the “strong and fearless” variety. No road was too busy and no bike lane too narrow to stop me from getting to my destination by the most direct route. After I had my son Alex, though, it was as if I had become a newbie all over again. Suddenly I was hyperaware of every vehicle, every pothole, every pedestrian and every hazard on the road. I began to prioritize traffic calmness much more in choosing my routes.

Around the same time, I discovered the Metropolitan Branch Trail.

Next Ride and POOL PARTY! Saturday, June 18

We have some birthdays to celebrate this month, so June’s Kidical Mass ride is going to be extra fun and full of action! We’ll gather at the Turkey Thicket Recreation Center at 10:30am on June 18 before heading off through the quiet streets of Brookland to pay a visit to the Mt. Rainier Bike Co-op. After a quick pit-stop and visit with our friends at the Co-op, we’ll cool off with a POOL PARTY at the Prince George’s Pool in Mt. Rainier. Our friends at DessertStation are providing a special cake to help us celebrate the birthdays of our June babies (young and old)!

A biketrain will bike up the Met Branch Trail starting at 9:45(ish...) with meetups in Bloomingdale, Eckington, and Edgewood for residents of Capitol Hill and other points south.

Full details after the jump:

How We Ride: Christiania cargo bike

We’ve all admired the chic Copenhagers and carefree Amsterdammers for their casual inclusion of bicycles in everyday life, but what happens when these European cycling paragons have children? Do they pack it all in for a house in a suburban subdivision and buy themselves a station wagon? No! They just invest in the city cycling version of a station wagon—the cargo bike. Whether they’re built on two wheels or three, cargo bikes feature in many a photograph of “Supermums” on Copenhagenize and Amsterdamize. One of the most popular examples of cargo bikes is the Christiania cargo trike. The Christiania is now available in the US for the first time through the efforts of American Will Kearins and his export company, Boxcycles. BicycleSPACE here in DC has secured a coveted spot as a retailer of Christiania’s bikes.

The staff at BicycleSPACE, taking pity on my obvious desperation to ride one of these legendary bikes, generously allowed me to try out the Christiania with my son Baby A. We used the bike on two separate occasions: once on our Tuesday Biketrain from our Washington DC home to Baby A’s daycare in Hyattsville and back, and once on a Kidical Mass ride through Capitol Hill. Together, these rides illustrated both the strengths and weaknesses of the Christiania as an urban family vehicle/car replacement.

The Christiania occupies an important kid-and-dog transportation niche

Full review after the jump >>

Nex Ride: Saturday, May 21

Location: Near Eastern Market Station. Map.
Time: Gather at 10:00am, ride starts at 11:00am
Destination: Pound Coffee, 621 Pennsylvania Avenue SE

Once again we’ll meet in the park area just across Pennsylvania Avenue SE from Eastern Market Station (between 8th, 9th and D Street and Pennsylvania Avenue). From 10:00am till 11:00am, we’ll drink coffee, eat tasty snacks provided by our friends at Dessert Station, and share our family biking stories. Then we’ll leave for a leisurely ride through Capitol Hill and end with brunch at Pound Coffee. Participants will have a chance to win a $50 gift certificate from event partner BicycleSPACE.

Click here to register for the event.

Hope to see you there! 

Did someone say "prizes"?!

Yes, indeedy! The rockstars at BicycleSPACE have given us three (three!) $50 giftcards to give away at the April 23 ride. We'll be distributing them to the following winners:

• Youngest passenger
• Youngest solo rider
• Luckiest participant (chosen at random from all registered participants)

Many thanks to the staff and management of BicycleSPACE for supporting Kidical Mass DC!


Fine Print:
You must be present at Kidical Mass DC to win. Only registered participants are eligible. You can register in person on the day of the ride or in advance by clicking here. Only one prize per family. The solo rider prize will be awarded to the youngest participant in the Kidical Mass ride to cycle independently the full distance from Eastern Market to the Argonaut.

How We Ride: Pushbikes

Photo courtesy of Like-A-Bike

Although Baby A is still too young and small for any kind of training bike, I’ve already been doing my research on the best way to teach him how to ride. If you’re like me, you remember graduating from a tricycle to a bike with training wheels to (finally!) an independent two-wheeler; but some parents are now finding that their children can begin at a younger age and transition more smoothly to two-wheeled bikes by using small pedal-less bikes known variously as pushbikes, scooter bikes, or balance bikes. A few parents on the invaluable Brookland parents’ listserv have offered their suggestions on introductory bikes for children. Read more after the jump!

Next Ride: Saturday, April 23

UPDATE: Capital Weather Gang thinks that most of the rain will have cleared by
Saturday morning, so we will ride rain or shine!

Join us for Washington DC's first-ever Kidical Mass ride - a legal, safe and FUN bike ride for kids, kids at heart, and their families. Coffee! Prizes! A chance to meet other cycling families!

Welcome to Kidical Mass DC!

Hello, and thanks for stopping by! Here's where you'll find updates on Kidical Mass events along with information and inspiration for biking with kids. Stop by often or add us to your feed reader to keep up with local and national family biking information.