My Evening Commute

[Dickie]

Was not my finest. It started OK as I stopped off at Bikenetic to see Dirt and talk new cross/commuter tires as mine are completely shot and flatting all the time. Dirt was not around but Jan was glad to help out. I left informed but without new rubber for now. Back on the WOD and being careful to elude the dreaded FCPD I slowed at the Grove St. crossing only to be passed by a dude with absolutely no regard for the stop sign. He flew through the intersection just as I was getting clipped in without even a look. He then pulled the ultimate DB move, passing (and nearly clipping) two woman with strollers as they crossed paths with a gentleman walking towards them… yep, four abreast with him at speed. The gentleman yelled and put his hands out for protection and the ladies screamed. I slowed, apologized for his behavior and chased the scum down. As I got next to him (and gestured for him to remove his headphones) I became possessed by a sudden calmness (weird). I decided to politely explain what I had just witnessed and suggested better methods for future situations… he tolerated my intrusion and then I flatted. DANG IT! Luckily it was directly in front of the “Free Air” station on the WOD so I rolled my bike to the station, leaned my steed against the air machine (you can see where this is going), started taking off my back pack when I watched my bike slowly roll forward and fall against the pole…. result:

Needless to say, wasn’t a great ride home.

Topic

[bobco85]

@scoot 177485 wrote:

What was the recommended route between 236 and the Wakefield Park ped bridge?

Here’s the route I got into the habit of taking: https://goo.gl/maps/mgKoTzuwkrB2

It’s confusing, and you’ll likely need to pull out your phone to check your position the first few times, but you’ll avoid any sketchy areas. You’ll be able to grab a good lane position on Heritage Dr when approaching Little River Turnpike, and you’ll avoid the narrow and steep hills next to parked cars on Americana Drive (I didn’t like riding on it).

[scoot]

@bobco85 177492 wrote:

Here’s the route I got into the habit of taking: https://goo.gl/maps/mgKoTzuwkrB2

Thanks. I didn’t realize there were bike lanes on Heritage now also. On the whole it looks more comfortable than Americana.

The door-zone bike lanes north of Patriot, as shown on StreetView, do look terrible though. A road diet would have been a much better choice. It’s hard to believe that Heritage Dr would need four car lanes, since traffic levels will so obviously be limited by the throughput of the intersection at LRT anyway.

[komorebi]

I hit a dubious milestone on my evening commute today: I logged my first car-on-trail sighting. Around 8:15 p.m., I turned onto the Alexandria section of 4MRT, by the Toyota dealership, and saw a car on the trail in front of me. It was a gray or blue BMW sedan with what looked to be Maryland flag plates, although it was too dark for me to see the plate number. The driver was nearly to Route 1 at that point. When he saw me, he quickly put his car into reverse, backed up all the way to Commonwealth Ave., and took off.

Today’s commute made me wish I was running a front camera — not only to capture video of this sadly confused driver, but also to document the much nicer parts of today’s ride, like the flybys that I had with Josh and birru.

[DrP]

I had the cutest attempt at being CAT6’d on the way home. Cycling 4MRT by the disc golf course, a kid coming towards me, quickly flipped direction and tried to keep ahead of me. Spinning for all he could, looking back to see if he was beating me or not (bit of a smirk on his face too). While he was pedaling much faster than I was, his wheels were way too small to outrun me. He looked maybe 7 years old.
I told him he was a great cyclist, but his wheels were too small, today.

[bobco85]

While riding on the Burke-Gilman Trail yesterday (not part of my normal commute, but I was headed to the Cascade Bicycle Club HQ for a class), I saw a rider ahead of me who was cruising around 15-20 mph suddenly turn sharply to the right and almost into a ditch (more like halfway into).

Seeing this ahead of me, I pulled over to see if he was hurt. He seemed to be fussing with the right pant leg of his shorts, almost like a loose thread had gotten wrapped around the right pedal.

When I asked him what was wrong, he said that a bee had flown up his shorts and that he had panicked in trying to get it out.

Happy Spring, everyone!

[bentbike33]

@bobco85 177885 wrote:

When I asked him what was wrong, he said that a bee had flown up his shorts and that he had panicked in trying to get it out.

Happy Spring, everyone!

This is exactly why I prefer lycra shorts.

[mstone]

@bentbike33 177886 wrote:

[bees]
This is exactly why I prefer lycra shorts.

this:

[huskerdont]

Honeybee hitchhiked on my inner forearm the other day for a couple hundred yards until I could find a bush to brush it on to. It was pulsing a bit and every time, it’s stinger would just touch my arm. It wouldn’t fly off. I asked if it was okay, but it ignored me; at least it didn’t get angry.

[Brendan von Buckingham]

I saw a sea monster on my commute home yesterday!!

I was outbound on the George Mason Bridge. Something floating in the river 35 feet below caught my eye. I thought it was a lost sea turtle at first. But it was a gigantic eastern snapping turtle. Alas, it was dead. Of course as I’m gawking at the size of it, and want other people to see too, the bridge was completely empty of any other cyclist or pedestrian. Typical.

I’m taking guesses on how big you think that thing is.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]17892[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]17893[/ATTACH]

[Crickey7]

Bike Sandals. That is all.

[Steve O]

@Crickey7 178380 wrote:

Bike Sandals. That is all.

+1

[mello yello]

30-pack of shower caps: $2.50

Dry head on tonight’s ride home: eight and one-third cents.

I’m also going to be experimenting with modifying them as booties, with a hole and some rubber bands.

[drevil]

@mello yello 178404 wrote:

30-pack of shower caps: $2.50

Dry head on tonight’s ride home: eight and one-third cents.

I’m also going to be experimenting with modifying them as booties, with a hole and some rubber bands.

Haha, I use a purple one with pink polka dots, but I’m not sure where it is now. A buddy found these at a drug store mid-ride, which I think were intended to keep your beehive/bouffant nice and poofy

[img]https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3057/2346878037_e58328542b_z.jpg?zz=1[/img]
Kevin Lookin Sweet in a Shower Cap! by ricky d, on Flickr

[mello yello]

@drevil 178406 wrote:

Haha, I use a purple one with pink polka dots, but I’m not sure where it is now. A buddy found these at a drug store mid-ride, which I think were intended to keep your beehive/bouffant nice and poofy

[img]https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3057/2346878037_e58328542b_z.jpg?zz=1[/img]
Kevin Lookin Sweet in a Shower Cap! by ricky d, on Flickr

Oh Man! Missing my “like” button.
That’s better by a long shot for the downpours! Even has a visor!

Now I just need one of those big green shaded visors like the old ladies on the golf course or the poker dealer costume has.

[DrP]

Decided to wait until the rain tapered off a bit last evening to leave work. Biked along Four Mile Gallop (much too majestic and fast for a run) going home, until George Mason when I switched to the W&OD (was not 100% sure it was clear of water under GM, but was saw it full of debris) for a while. Watched the burgeoning river the whole way home. wow. The only ford that was not overflowing to the point of invisibility was the one north of Glen Carlin Park that is no longer part of a trail. I was surprised to see the one south of Glen Carlin Park overflowing – that on almost never is. I did return to Four Mile Gallop Trail after Rt 50. The pass under Carlin Springs looked like the water receded a few minutes before I arrived, but it was passable. The Wilson underpass, of course, was not.
It was a great ride and watching the power in that water was amazing.

[Author]

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