Sorry for the hiatus cats and kittens but it's the most wonderful time of the year here at the salt mine. The time of year you stuff 9 bikes into single occupancy hotel rooms. The time of year when you're up at 4:30 to catch morning light, scout locations, meet with models, wardrobe, shoot until sunset, download photos, eat, catch up on email, pass out, wake up at 4:30. It's catalog season! My lifestyle book has taken on a different look over the past couple of years as we try our best to feature different geographic locations around this beautiful nation of ours. Two years ago it was the Pacific Coast, last year the American Southeast. We always try and pick locations that meet the following criteria: Pleasing landscape/architecture, bicycle-friendly, and not in a dry county. When the team met this year we looked around the table discussing potential locations and settled on the most important location of the past 365. Washington DC. I hadn't been to the city since I was on an 8th grade field trip and I have to say, it was great to go back. The District did not disapoint and I thought I'd share a few of the little "bits of tid" I picked up from the time we spent rolling around the city:
1. When you are conducting a photoshoot outside of the White House, do not use the word "shooting" use "photography". There are men on the roof of that home that will look at you with binoculars and make you uncomfortable.
2. "Rolling Thunder" is not a weather forecast. It is 10,000 motorcycles and it will slow your bicycle photoshoot down.
3. Every building is important. Even the ugly ones.
4. It's not a good idea to stand outside the US Treasury building at lunch time and ask the people coming outside if they could please make it a "working lunch".
5. When parking, read all of the signs. There are usually a lot of them.
6. On second thought, don't drive. Ride a bike. It's much easier and you can park super close to the monuments.
7. 4:45 am is the absolute best time to visit the Lincoln memorial. I was only ready to do it once but an unfortunate "formatting" mishap forced me to do it twice. My future kids are screwed if we ever take a family trip to DC.
8. 8th graders are just as annoying now as they were when I was in 8th grade.
9. Washington DC is possibly the only city that actually gets busier during Memorial Day weekend.
10. When a hotel says "Garden View" they really mean "Basement Hole".
This year's catalog drops mid-August and can be found at your local Trek dealer. If you'd like to submit an idea for next year's location, light up the comments section below!
Why not a proverbial small bike town. Something that people wouldn't readily recognize, but has a buergoning bike culture. I'm sorry that I couldn't give a city, but that would be a nice change of pace for something like this.
Posted by: ARJWright | June 01, 2009 at 01:44 PM
ARJ- I would love to shoot a smaller bike town but one of the things our shoot cities must have is diversity in landscapes. We shoot between 8-10 different bicycle categories and in order to stay true to their diverse flavors, we have to shoot in a "target rich" environment. That being said, I'm told that Bangor, Maine and Davis, CA are great bike cities with pleasing aesthetics. Madison, WI is a town very much like we're talking about but i live there so maybe i'm biased.
Posted by: Hootie | June 01, 2009 at 02:27 PM
Tucson, AZ - Gold level bicyle-friendly, mountains, saguaro cactus, University of Arizona, BICAS. Probably best to shoot in March/April rather than late May :)
Posted by: Colby | June 02, 2009 at 04:03 PM
I'm trying to find out what size bike I need. Is there some kind of rule to know.
Posted by: Bruce | June 04, 2009 at 03:21 PM
Hey Bruce,
Great question! The best thing to do is visit your local Trek dealer. Bike fit is a tricky science involving standover, inseam, reach, and a few other variables. It also depends on what bike you're interested in. My advice would be to ask a trained pro and have the bike you're interested in right there to use as a reference. Good luck!
Posted by: Hootie | June 04, 2009 at 04:39 PM
how about Altoona, PA. Used to be very big in the cycling world. Still a nice town and some of the best riding you'll find. And a killer Trek dealer. (:
Posted by: Chris F. | June 04, 2009 at 11:53 PM
How about Xenia, Oh. for the small town. In Xenia, there are four bike trails (soon to be five) going in different directions. Lots of bike traffic on the weekends. There are mountain bike trails within a 30 minute drive. There are also a lot of bike routes in the area. Dayton is a 30 minute drive and Cincinnati about a 50 minute drive. Great Trek dealer in Yellow Springs and several in Dayton. You can get further info on the Miami Valley Rails-To-Trails web site.
Posted by: Cindy | June 10, 2009 at 04:37 PM
Have you ever thought about coming to Ann Arbor, MI?
Posted by: Ron | June 11, 2009 at 07:02 AM
Nelson, British Columbia. It's got everything you need. Talk to Steve Martin if you need a reference.
Posted by: Canuck Biker | July 25, 2009 at 01:57 PM
Drop by Toronto and surrounding areas.. we got streetcar tracks to singletrack around here.
Cheers!
Posted by: Xander | November 09, 2009 at 08:59 PM