Good crowd at Be Fit McLean

We spoke to lots of people today at the Be Fit McLean Outdoor Expo. People wanted to know about good bike routes in the county and we had several copies of the Fairfax Co Bicycle Route Map to hand out. Several people signed up for the FABB e-newsletter (to sign up send a message to info@fabb-bikes.org). We also encouraged people to get involved in the county Bicycle Master Plan process.

We met Eduardo from Phoenix Bikes, a youth and community bike shop in Arlington. Their table was covered with free bike bells courtesy of BikeArlington. Phoenix Bikes will be holding a used bike sale on March 3 at Big Bear Cafe in DC. Phoenix is helping the Falls Church High School bike club to hold club rides since bike riding is a prohibited activity and the club needs an outside sponsor to hold rides. We're hoping to change that policy.

Supervisor Foust was on hand to check out the exhibits and judge the Dutch oven cooking contest. The National Park Service reps were next to our table and we discussed the issue of biking on the GW Parkway. According to them, the original charter for the GW Parkway states that bikes are not allowed on the Parkway and it was their sense that it would take an act of Congress to change that charter.

We learned that NPS holds Learn to Ride classes and Bike with a Ranger sessions in the spring. WABA also has a full schedule of bike classes this spring. We'll post more details on the FABB events page.

Thanks to the FABB volunteers who helped out at our booth and to everyone who made donations to support our work. Our next event is the Vienna Green Expo on April 19.

Falls Church HS Bike Club

Falls Church HS bike club members
Austin Strand (Left) and Matt Quandt 

We recently learned about the Falls Church High School Bike Club. The club is an after school activity organized by Andrew Zlatnik, a teacher at the school. We asked Andrew a few questions about the club.

The club was started last year. Currently there are 5 regular members with up to 20 students attending some of the meetings. According to Andrew, "Three of the five regular members ride their bikes at least some of the time. There is a standard bike stand [rack] in front of the school." Several teachers also bike commute some of the time.

Andrew would also "like to find ways that we can offer repairs for students who ride or bring bikes to school in the near future." He also works at Phoenix Bikes. "I tried to model the bike club after Phoenix Bikes, including the earn-a-bike program where students can earn one of our donated bikes for themselves, a friend, or a family member after working in the shop for 25 hours and demonstrating basic bicycle repair skills."

"I have advertised on Freecycle and contacted several local condominiums or apartments for help in distributing the attached advertisement. We’ve had a slow but steady supply of donated bikes. We do depend on local donations for bicycles to work on. We try to fix the bikes we can, but strip others for usable parts. I recycle any frames or other metal parts that we can’t use."

Unfortunately, the club does not have rides since bicycle riding is listed as a "Prohibited Student Activity" by the Fairfax County Public Schools Risk Management office, along with such other activities as "Airplane or Helicopter Rides, All Terrain Vehicle (ATV) Rides, and Auto or Motor Racing". We contacted the Risk Management office and they indicated that if the permission were granted by the Activities and Risk Management offices and parents signed a release and the principal approved, a ride could be held.

If you would like to donate a bike to the Falls Church High School Bike Club, contact Andrew at zlatnika@gmail.com.