Happy May, everyone! Looks like Spring is finally here to stay (fingers crossed and knock on wood…)

Here’s a roundup of the top 5 events we’re looking forward to this May!

Bike Month
May is one of our very favorite months—and not only because of the glorious weather. May marks National Bike Month, a cycle-centric celebration sponsored by the League of American Bicyclists. All month long there will be many bike-friendly ways to take part, including Bike to Work Day and Bike to School Day. We’ll be representing yet again at Freedom Plaza in DC for this year’s Bike to Work Day, so make sure you stop by to say hello!

DC Cool Bikes
New to our Downtown DC location this month are our much buzzed about DC Cool bikes. Named after celebrities from the National Portrait Gallery’s American Cool exhibit, these retro-chic beauties are truly oh-so-cool! So cool, in fact, that full day rentals include a This Bar Saves Lives snack and bottled water. Ya dig?

Reopening of the Washington Monument
A moment three years in the making! Our beautiful Washington Monument will officially reopen to the public with a ceremony on May 12th to include a special appearance by Al Roker. Public tours of the Monument will recommence shortly after the ceremony ends.

Tour de Fat
The fantastical fete that is Tour de Fat is returning once again to Yards Park in DC on May 31. Family-friendly and celebrating all things biking, Tour de Fat includes a bike parade followed by all day silly celebrations.

Capital Wheel Opening
Take in the vista that is Washington, DC from the gondola of an enormous observation wheel! Set to open this month, the Capital Wheel is located in National Harbor and stands at 180 feet tall. Once open, the wheel will operate year-round from 10am-10pm.

Always wanted to try one of those new-fangled personal transporter contraptions (otherwise known as the Segway)? Now’s your chance!

Bike and Roll DC will be offering a new ride—the Segway Experience—that gives visitors and locals the opportunity to take a Segway out for a spin. Less of a tour, and more of a ride, the Segway Experience allows riders to try out our machines while gliding around beautiful Washington, DC. This ride is 1.5 hours and departs daily at 4:00pm. (Some restrictions do apply.)

And, for a limited time only (4/25-4/27), get $5 off this new ride with code: “Try a Seg”!

Hooray- it’s here!

We are so (so, so, so!) excited to announce that our rental location in downtown DC is officially opening tomorrow for the season! This fantastically positioned location is outside the MLK Library at 901 G Street NW. Easily accessed by all metro lines, this location is open from 9:00am-6:00pm daily, now through early December.

Reservations are now available from Saturday moving forward. We have a wide variety of equipment for you to choose from and will soon be offering our specialty (read: totally awesome) “DC Cool” retro chic bikes starting in May. This location is credit card only.

Basically, we have a lot of cool things happening here at Bike and Roll and we’re looking forward to welcoming you and your guests at our new locations!

SPOTTED: the Nationals’ Racing Presidents make an appearance on guide Rob Pitingolo’s tour on Saturday!

Those tour-goers look starstruck, huh? (We would be too!)

It’s finally here! (Spring that is… oh, and peak bloom too!)

We are busy blossom worker bees over here, but couldn’t be more thrilled about peak bloom weekend here in Washington, DC. The blossoms have bloomed, and the spring weather couldn’t be nicer! It truly is quite the sight to see.

And, if you’d like to see the blossoms by bike or Segway, we still have (just a couple!) spots available for today and over the weekend on our tours. Same goes for bike rentals- act fast and you can still get a chance to peruse the petals on two wheels! Click here to book. Or feel free to call us at (202) 842-2453 with any questions.

We hope all of you have a chance to get out and enjoy the beautiful cherry trees this weekend, whether on a bike, Segway, or on foot!

Here we go! It may not have felt very springy recently, but rest assured, warm weather will come eventually! And, maybe if I list the top 5 events we’re looking forward to in April, it will come even faster…

National Cherry Blossom Festival
Through April 13, the National Cherry Blossom Festival has plenty left in store for DC visitors and locals alike. On April 5, spectators can enjoy a beautiful spring fireworks display. The finale parade takes place on April 12 from 10am-12pm. And, of course, our Blossoms by Bikeand Segway into Spring tours are available daily throughout the festival!

Smithsonian’s Jazz Appreciation Month
Running through April, the Smithsonian Institution will be honoring Jazz Appreciation Month with a variety of special events. Check out this list of workshops, concerts, and activities you can take part in to celebrate the jazzy occassion.

Nationals Opening Day
Hey, batter, batter, swing! Washingtonians rejoice as the Nationals kick off their opening day on April 4, taking on the Atlanta Braves at 1:05pm. You may even want to stop by the stadium just for the awesome food choices (don’t worry, we won’t tell.) Hooray for spring!

Bike and Roll Opens Downtown DC Rental Location
As you may have heard, Bike and Roll DC will be opening up shop in downtown this April— a brand new rentals only location will pop up outside the Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial Library in just a few short weeks! Look for our standard (aka amazing) rentals, along with a few special edition, retro chic “DC Cool” bikes.

Earth Day Celebrations
Boy, are we glad we live in a green-friendly city! Earth Day activities abound in the DC metro area— from a full day event complete with entertainment and giveaways at Union Station to National Mall and National Zoo celebrations, you won’t be short on fun things to do April 22!

Surprise!

2014 is certainly shaping up to be the year of big announcements for us! And here comes another one, hot off the presses: we are oh-so-excited to announce that we will be opening a brand new downtown DC location at the Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial Library, located at 901 G Street NW. The new location will offer a variety of bike rentals (including kids’ equipment) in an outdoor setting on the G Street exterior of the library. Phew, now that was a tough secret to keep!

An official historic landmark (cool, right?), the MLK Library is located on G Street between 9th and 10th streets NW. A quick 3.5 blocks from the National Mall, this central location is easily accessed by both Metro Center and Gallery Place stations, which collectively service all metro lines.

We think this spot is a pretty perfect gateway to both the National Mall and a variety of DC’s notable neighborhoods. Our new downtown DC location will be well positioned as a departure point to explore anywhere and everywhere in the city!

Along with our standard rental equipment, limited edition specialty/retro-chic bikes (just wait until you see ’em!) will be offered here in line with the city’s new “DC Cool“ campaign. Opening in April, all sales at this location will be credit card only.

So head downtown next month to see our new digs and rent some bikes!

So, you may have noticed there have been a lot of exciting changes going on here at Bike and Roll DC these past few months… (Oh, ya know— a new National Mall location, shaking things up a bit in Alexandria, a brand new Segway cherry blossom tour, and perhaps another location announcement to make in the very near future…) Needless to say, we’ve been some seriously busy bees!

Spring is always a fun time for us since it means the kick-off of a new season and National Cherry Blossom Festival tours to boot! But this spring especially has some wonderful surprises in store for our (amazingly awesome) customers. We are thrilled to announce a special partnernship and treat for this year’s cherry blossom tour-goers: Dark Chocolate Cherry & Sea Salt snack bars from This Bar Saves Lives!

Ever-so-aptly “cherry” themed (and all for a great cause!) This Bar Saves Lives makes delicious, all-natural, non-GMO snack bars. And for every bar sold, they give a packet of life-saving food (fantastically named, “Plumpy’Nut“) to a child in need. How’s that for smart snacking?

Just one more cool thing for you guys to look forward to… beyond the general awesomeness that our cherry blossom tours provide anyway!

It may not feel much like spring (at all…) but we promise (fingers crossed) that it really is just around the corner! As is the 2014 National Cherry Blossom Festival. Just this morning, the National Park Service announced that projected peak bloom dates for this year are April 8-12. Only a few weeks left!

As always, we are pretty darn excited to provide you guys and gals with the only official bike and Segway tours of the festival. That’s right, we’re bonafide! We’ll be running our belovedBlossoms by Bike rides and brand spankin’ new Segway into Spring tours (only 49 bucks!) from March 22-April 13. Both of those leave from our National Mall location in L’Enfant Plaza.

Our Blossoms by Bike River Ride will depart from the Old Town Alexandria Waterfront and run from April 4-April 12. This ride is a little bit longer than the others, and will give you a nice view from across the river.

We do recommend that reservations be made in advance as these tours are filling up quickly.

So let’s all collectively do our bring spring/think pink/goodbye winter dances together and get ready to celebrate the arrival of those beautiful blossoms!

Hey Hunks,

Time to thaw out those tear ducts because February is almost over! Hooray! It seemed like this month was going to last forever, right? I was prepared for a thousand more days of misery and an endless stream of tweets about unplowed bike lanes. But great news! March is almost here. Say it with me: March. Feels good, doesn’t it? Anyhow, Bethany asked me to write a blog about some of the many great things coming up in this new and beautiful month of March, so here are five “events” to which I am looking forward:

Friday March 14, 2014 – Spoonboy // Theo Grizol // Hot Tears @ Space Jam – $5 – One of my housemates is smooching a boy who lives at the Space Jam. One day last week I came home and found a little handbill for this show on my fridge. Wow! Spoonboy (David Combs of the Max Levine Ensemble) has been active in the DC punk scene since I was in high school. High school! That’s legit. He plays plan-it-x style pop punk. You will probably like it. Theo Grizol performs in Defiance Ohio. Cool. Also, a band called Hot Tears? Yes pls.

Saturday March 15, 2014 – Sadie Hawkins Team Alleycat – $10 – Put on in part by Stefanie Winzeler, one of the organizers of last fall’s dope 19th Amendment Alleycat, the proceeds from this race will go to benefit Women and Bicycles. Always good to shred for a good cause. From the event description: “Forget what you know about Sadie Hawkins, this is about getting more ladies cycling the city streets. Who cares who asks who to dance, as long as you get out there and mash. Only 24% of DC cyclists are women, but WABA’s Women & Bicycles program is changing that. This is an LGBTQA friendly event! Ride at your own risk, follow the laws and be safe.” Sick. Also remember, all teams of two must have at least one female rider. As Stefanie notes on the fb page: “if you show up as a team of two dudes, you’re doing it wrong. Ride a bike with a girl. We may have cooties, but we’re fast and experts at navigating the streets of DC.” Word.

Sunday March 16, 2014 – WCP’s Loose Lips Democratic Mayoral Debates @ Black Cat – FREE (I think?) – Did you know that I have over a year’s worth of Washington City Papers, stacked chronologically, sitting on my bedside table? I just really like the City Paper, okay?! I even have a tattoo on my chest that says Everything I Know About DC Politics I Learned from Loose Lips. I am constantly appalled by how little people know about local politics. Get informed, yo! There are going to be plenty of mayoral debates leading up to the DC Democratic Primary on April 1, 2014, but if you’re only going to attend one, attend this one. Then when you get bored you can go downstairs, get a tallboy, and play pool.

Monday March 17, 2014 – Pot ‘o GOLDSPRINTS @ Capitol Hill Bikes – FREE (I think?) – Who doesn’t like to get all hot and sweaty doing some indoor stationary track bike racing? This event is going to be super sick and you should probably go. The head bike tech over there is doing some great things AND he used to work for us! So, yeah, do it.

Saturday March 22, 2014 – Segway into Spring Tour @ Bike and Roll DC – $$ – Tears of joy! Okay so this is the obligatory self-promoting item on this list, but I am actually really excited about our new Segway into Spring tour. It is going to be so dope! Segway into Spring is shorter and cheaper than our regular Segway tour and will take you around the back side of the Tidal Basin so you can see all the pretty cherry trees in bloom. Our tour manager Aaron has planned a killer route and we’ve got some awesome and enthusiastic tour guides on board to take you out. You should probably sign up today. Did you catch that? Click this link and give us all of your $$$. Please?

Okay. TL;DR: March is going to be great. Here is the GIF of those dancing clouds again. Have fun, be safe, and ride your bike all the time.