A car guy discovers cycling.

[Tim Kelley]

Welcome! How did you find out about the forum?

Looking forward to seeing you at Lights For Bikes!

[acc]

New voices, new perspectives, and cheerful twisted humor are always welcome.

Get some good, no great, lights. You will see the ninja joggers faster and be seen with enough time to take evasive action.

Size matters. At least as far as lights go.

Enjoy your bikes. You need at least one more. You’ll always need one more.

[Tim Kelley]

Oh, and because you mentioned the competition aspect, check out:

http://www.strava.com

and

http://www.cycleops.com/products/power-meters.html

[baiskeli]

Welcome.

“Virtual draft” – I like that.

[DaveK]

In my case I replaced cars with bikes, but I know the feeling. Wait til you start building the bikes, too.

God help me if I ever get back into a place with a garage…

[dasgeh]

One advantage of fast bikes over fast cars is that fast cars can get you into a lot more trouble with the law. Not that I know

[Vicegrip]

@Tim Kelley 35066 wrote:

Welcome! How did you find out about the forum?

Looking forward to seeing you at Lights For Bikes!

Googled “wash DC area bike forums”

@Tim Kelley 35068 wrote:

Oh, and because you mentioned the competition aspect, check out:

http://www.strava.com

and

http://www.cycleops.com/products/power-meters.html

Thanks for the tips. I am on Strava as kurt mickelwait and will look into the cycleops site. (I won’t tell them I am using a kurt brand fluid trainer) I am a long way from being competitive considering the watt outputs the guys at the fast end of the charts are making. My other ride makes 207,338 watts. 😎
I do like to see if my efforts are making for improvements. In automotive road racig we use similer GPS enabled data systems. They gather all kinds of info on the car and the driving and lets me digest what works and what does not. sometime waht feels fast is not. @dasgeh 35125 wrote:

One advantage of fast bikes over fast cars is that fast cars can get you into a lot more trouble with the law. Not that I know

The faster I get on the track the slower I drive on the street for some reason.
Work and faimly got in the way of getting in a ride down to the lights give away today but I will try and make the next one.

[KLizotte]

Welcome to the group!

You should be aware that cycling causes formally sane folks to start buying more and more bikes. You may have to swap your Porsche for a more suitable bike carrier

The organized rides are good fun so be sure to check them out. You’ll begin to recognize forum people around town in time.

It is hard to imagine a newbie mistake you could make that hasn’t already been committed – the funnier the better!

[Vicegrip]

Yes I fully understand the N+1 rule as it also seems to hold true for old sports cars. I figured out that I have lots of bike space in the shop by breaking one of the “rules” I hang them (gasp!) upside down by their wheels. In my estimation I think I have room for another 2 or 3 but first I need build a good motor. One good aspect of bikes over race cars is you only need one motor and it works on them all.
As to n00b mistakes. I now come home and think of how many flubs I committed. If the number is under 2 or 3 I consider the ride a success. I had my first “Crazy Ivan” on Sat. A calm clear “On your left” caused the lady portion of a couple out for a ride to !!! and turn into the guardrail right at the entrance of the the overpass at national airport. I stopped and asked if all was OK. Hubby was giving me the OK sign and waving me on with a “My wife is such a ditz” kind of expression. Stopped at the intersection of custis and WO&D to take the sleeves off my jacket. Then I proceeded to wobble around like a drunk while trying to to clip in while the bike was in 9th gear. Seems I had forgotten to drop to the 5 ring and I stepped in some twig packed mud which made for a good klutz combo. Naturally the intersection was populated by plenty of folks so my own “If no one saw it it did not happen” rule was not enforceable. All day my clip ins were clean and quick but that one.

Had a car honk at me and jam on the gas as he made a tight pass even when he had plenty of room to move over, there were no oncoming cars and I was hugging the right. Little bit later I got to give him the hairy eyeball as I pulled up, stopped right at his door, puffed up tall in the saddle and looked down at him while he was at a red light. I am not small or spindly like he was and he was a lot quieter then….

[Bilsko]

@KLizotte 35195 wrote:

You should be aware that cycling causes formally sane folks to start buying more and more bikes. You may have to swap your Porsche for a more suitable bike carrier

Nah.

[DaveK]

@Bilsko 35208 wrote:

Nah.

To be clear I’m liking the post above for the bike carrier, not for the bloated manatee underneath it.

[Bilsko]

@DaveK 35222 wrote:

To be clear I’m liking the post above for the bike carrier, not for the bloated manatee underneath it.

Better?
[ATTACH=CONFIG]2013[/ATTACH]

[culimerc]

[ATTACH=CONFIG]2014[/ATTACH]

Just so you know it does work just fine.

[Vicegrip]

@culimerc 35227 wrote:

[ATTACH=CONFIG]2014[/ATTACH]

Just so you know it does work just fine.

Nice! Good car, good year, a true everyday exotic. New enough that the heat and AC works but it is still light and nimble enough to attack the twisty bits and feel what you are doing.

The Panamera is a nice drivng car that looks like 2 groups were tasked with design and they ended up deadlocked in an unresolved argument.

[Author]

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