What is WHIRL?

No dues, no clubs, no meeting, no organization. You might think that it must be an organization to have a Web Page! Wrong! This site is unapproved, unorganized, and unofficial!

WHIRL (Washington's Happily Independent Recumbent Lovers) is a group of recumbent riders that meets weekly for a 24 mile ride through Rock Creek Park. This ride has been ongoing since 1991. After the ride, some of the riders go out for lunch afterwards at a local cafe in Garrett Park.

Starting on Memorial Day Weekend 2007 the ride will begin at 8 A.M. The start time will continue to be at 8 over the summer and then the start will change to 9 A.M. on Labor Day weekend until the following Memorial Day weekend.  (Previously the ride times had followed daylight savings time changes, but these new times were agreed upon in March 2007.)

 The starting point is the Viers Mill Recreation Center parking lot on Garrett Park Road in Maryland. To reach this lot, you go north on Beach Drive (the main road through Rock Creek Park) until it dead- ends. Turn right, and the parking area is immediately on your left. Click here for a map to the starting point.

• Find out about other riding bent riding groups on the Recumbents.com Clubs page

• WHIRL member Kathy Bilton's large list of recumbent owners
• Here's a link to WHIRL member who's now in the bike business,  Bill Cook's Barcroft Cycles site. 

• Here's how to subscribe to the WHIRL email listserver  A listserver is an email based discussion forum or group. A sizable percentage of the WHIRL group has email and is subscribed to this listserver. The 'list' is used for WHIRL chat.

• Archives for the whirl@topica.com mailing list.

• Potomac Pedalers Bike Club -   'Normal' bike club for DC, MD and Virginia. No recumbent interest, but it is OK to ride with the wedgies too. How else to we create converts?

• Washington Area Bicyclist Association - "Join Us to Make the DC Area A Better Place to Bicycle!"

• "Ride Recumbent, Ride!" an article by Vic Sussman that launched WHIRL