Cycling Back Around

Ah, the fat tires, the fenders, the molded plastic hand grips, the "S" on the saddle. Pardo got the bike on Craigslist for $75 and added a vintage-looking rearview mirror from eBay.

Emily and Chris Leaman ride fixed-gear bikes. Favored by messengers, now adopted by hipsters, these direct-drive machines have pedals that move with the wheels, like a child's tricycle. Sometimes they have no brakes. The way to stop is pedal backward. They are the most extreme expression of the pared-down, low-maintenance, retro ideal. Wheels, steel and a chain. And beautiful.

Emily rides hers to work at Washingtonian, Chris to the State Department. This evening they've ridden to Whole Foods on P Street NW, where the bike rack is full, and the parking meters and parking signs, invented for cars, also are tethering shoppers' bicycles.

Into their messenger bags they pack hummus, guacamole, pita chips and wine. They are biking down to the Mall to picnic and watch "The Candidate" at Screen on the Green, another lovely night in Bicycle Washington.

* * *

Found and lost, lost and found. What Bicycle Washington affords this summer is redemption, for both rider and bike.

It all began for Ed Cabic with a Mt. Shasta Capella that he got about 17 years ago when he was 11, growing up in Columbia. It was a nice hybrid, large for the boy, and he rode it a lot. Then he got his driver's license.

Nothing beats driving, until Cabic realized he was arriving at work every morning mad and stressed.

A couple of years ago, he hauled out the dependable, upright Mt. Shasta. He started riding from Petworth to his job as a computer applications developer for a law firm at 10th and K.

The first day, he had to stop five times on the hills going home. Within two weeks, he didn't have to stop anymore.

"I went from hating my commute to having the commute be what I was looking forward to all day," says Cabic, now 28. "I come into work happy."

So happy that: "I found my commute was not long enough."