My Evening Commute

[Tim Kelley]

@dasgeh 113089 wrote:

So I’ll just ask, is there any reason to be Straving these days? No BAFS, no NBC, not doing #30daysofbiking ….

Why no NBC?

[dasgeh]

@Tim Kelley 113682 wrote:

Why no NBC?

Hasn’t started yet

[CaseyKane50]

@dasgeh 113695 wrote:

Hasn’t started yet

But, you can register or login for NBC and start warming up for this year’s challenge.

[americancyclo]

Got home the other night, hung up the bike and then it came crashing down
[ATTACH]8350[/ATTACH]

Bought a few of these at Home Depot. Now just wondering how long I have until the other two fail.

[TwoWheelsDC]

@americancyclo 113752 wrote:

Got home the other night, hung up the bike and then it came crashing down
[ATTACH]8350[/ATTACH]

Bought a few of these at Home Depot. Now just wondering how long I have until the other two fail.

This is a nightmare scenario for me, as I have four bikes all attached to the same mount. I didn’t buy bike-specific hooks though. I drilled holes in a 2×4 and attached U-bolts, then ran a rod through the U-bolts. I then took heavy-duty straps that have metal eyelets, ran the straps around the rod, and attached hooks to the eyelets to hold the bikes upright from the front wheel. I then screwed that mount into a crossbeam in my shed. It’s mostly pretty sturdy, but I’m always a little worried that the 2×4 is going to pull out of the wall and all 4 bikes come crashing down.

[Emm]

Last night my evening commute involved biking from DC to Revolution Cycles in Clarendon for “Ladies Night” followed by biking home the 9 miles home to Alexandria at 9:00 at night since the event went late. By far the latest at night I have ever been on my bike. On a positive note, my cygolight is BRIGHT, and was all I needed on even the darkest segments of the MVT. I also took someone’s advice from last year here and used a helmet mount for my light–I really liked that method.

Question for people on nighttime biking–I found the glare of oncoming car headlights to be a little blinding at points. I was wearing my sunglasses, just switched out to the clear lenses. Is there any type of glasses that help with this? My google search came back ambiguous. It looks like they may make prescription anti-glare lenses, but what what about non prescription ones? If not, I may just be stuck getting prescription sports glasses, which is not ideal for my budget. I usually prefer wearing contacts when I’m biking.

Also, if any women were considering going to any of the future Revolution Cycles ladies nights–it was totally worth it based on the swag bag alone–a bike bag, bike socks, tire levers, bike pins, and some sunscreen and a few other cool things from Bike Arlington. My friend also won a $120 bike saddle, so I was jealous. The wine, cheese, chocolate, and incredibly useful discussion about women specific bikes, chamois, chamois cream (including a –clothed–demonstration of how to apply it), and other topics was also really helpful.

[dasgeh]

@Emm 113868 wrote:

Also, if any women were considering going to any of the future Revolution Cycles ladies nights–it was totally worth it based on the swag bag alone–a bike bag, bike socks, tire levers, bike pins, and some sunscreen and a few other cool things from Bike Arlington. My friend also won a $120 bike saddle, so I was jealous. The wine, cheese, chocolate, and incredibly useful discussion about women specific bikes, chamois, chamois cream (including a –clothed–demonstration of how to apply it), and other topics was also really helpful.

Sounds like fun… Total brainstorm here, but I wonder if any LBS would be willing to host a “parents night” or more realistically a parents event during the day. They could show off various family bike options, have fun stuff for kids to occupy them while parents talk to experts about biking with kids…

[Terpfan]

@Emm 113868 wrote:

Last night my evening commute involved biking from DC to Revolution Cycles in Clarendon for “Ladies Night” followed by biking home the 9 miles home to Alexandria at 9:00 at night since the event went late. By far the latest at night I have ever been on my bike. On a positive note, my cygolight is BRIGHT, and was all I needed on even the darkest segments of the MVT. I also took someone’s advice from last year here and used a helmet mount for my light–I really liked that method.

Question for people on nighttime biking–I found the glare of oncoming car headlights to be a little blinding at points. I was wearing my sunglasses, just switched out to the clear lenses. Is there any type of glasses that help with this? My google search came back ambiguous. It looks like they may make prescription anti-glare lenses, but what what about non prescription ones? If not, I may just be stuck getting prescription sports glasses, which is not ideal for my budget. I usually prefer wearing contacts when I’m biking.

Also, if any women were considering going to any of the future Revolution Cycles ladies nights–it was totally worth it based on the swag bag alone–a bike bag, bike socks, tire levers, bike pins, and some sunscreen and a few other cool things from Bike Arlington. My friend also won a $120 bike saddle, so I was jealous. The wine, cheese, chocolate, and incredibly useful discussion about women specific bikes, chamois, chamois cream (including a –clothed–demonstration of how to apply it), and other topics was also really helpful.

There are those yellow-tinted sunglasses that help with the glare, but really it’s just the poor design of the MVT where it comes level at so many places with oncoming traffic. It’s made worse by northbound fellow bicycle commuters running their lights on ultra bright (they don’t have the same effect given the traffic they deal with is separated by 50′ or so) or worse, on blinky. I’m not sure they realize how tough it is to see if their 500 lumen light is coming from a slight left and halogen high beamed vehicle is coming from the right–it’s literally blinding (or maybe they just don’t care).

The only solution I have found is looking down or holding my hand up. I suppose visers help out a little.

[Steve O]

@Emm 113868 wrote:

Question for people on nighttime biking–I found the glare of oncoming car headlights to be a little blinding at points.

There was a bit of a discussion on this a little while back, starting with this post:
http://bikearlingtonforum.com/showthread.php?6843-My-Evening-Commute&p=100352#post100352

[Emm]

@Steve O 113881 wrote:

There was a bit of a discussion on this a little while back, starting with this post:
http://bikearlingtonforum.com/showthread.php?6843-My-Evening-Commute&p=100352#post100352

Thank you–this is helpful. So it looks like I will just suffer. I was thinking while riding last night that painting reflective stripes along the sides and center of the trail could help, which it seems others have brought up. All of the reflective signs (which I usually don’t even notice) JUMPED out at me, so clearly reflective stuff works well.

[PotomacCyclist]

Near Gravelly Point on the MVT, when you ride southbound near the GW Parkway, the car lights can be particularly bad because of the angles. I have to hold up my hand to block out the car lights while still being able to see the trail and oncoming bike traffic in the other lane. It’s similar to the way that baseball players use their glove to block out the sun when they look up in the sky on day games to catch a pop fly ball. (For non-baseball fans, that just means a baseball that is hit high up into the air.) I also slow down a little, so I have a better chance to react to any situations (such as a person crossing the yellow line to pass while going into the blind turn there).

On a different note, as I rode past the Gravelly Point parking lot and headed south, shortly before I reached the bike bridge (over the car exit lanes from the airport), I saw a cyclist who had apparently crashed. I couldn’t tell if it was a man or a woman. I would have stopped to check, but there were already about six people attending to the person. I would only have gotten in the way at that point, so I kept on going. I think the person was sitting up. They were pretty close to the car lanes on the GW Parkway, only a couple feet away. I hope the person was not injured too badly. Anyone know what happened?

[Terpfan]

@Steve O 113881 wrote:

There was a bit of a discussion on this a little while back, starting with this post:
http://bikearlingtonforum.com/showthread.php?6843-My-Evening-Commute&p=100352#post100352

Which reminded me that it’s evidently as bad coming the other direction as well.

Oh, the beautiful MVT. At my current snail pace at work, I may be in the darkened bright lights fun tonight. Bah.

[Brendan von Buckingham]

It happened on my outbound evening commute on Friday, but I needed the weekend to confirm it wasn’t a dream.

I cross Memorial on the downriver side and then head towards Iwo. That puts me on the south sidewalk of Memorial Avenue. Crossing the traffic coming up from GW Parkway is a little hairy because drivers generally roll that stop sign (right by the Arlington Cemetery Metro stop) and don’t expect a bike approaching from their right. So when they roll the stop sign they’re doing it with their neck locked in to 9 o’clock without even thinking of looking right. It’s a tricky spot that hasn’t tagged me yet.

But believe it or not, on Friday, a cop was squatting on the intersection. A car rolled the stop sign (while looking right at the squad car even) and the cop pulled him over. An NPS cop even.

Gobsmacked.

[bobco85]

@Brendan von Buckingham 114071 wrote:

It happened on my outbound evening commute on Friday, but I needed the weekend to confirm it wasn’t a dream.

I cross Memorial on the downriver side and then head towards Iwo. That puts me on the south sidewalk of Memorial Avenue. Crossing the traffic coming up from GW Parkway is a little hairy because drivers generally roll that stop sign (right by the Arlington Cemetery Metro stop) and don’t expect a bike approaching from their right. So when they roll the stop sign they’re doing it with their neck locked in to 9 o’clock without even thinking of looking right. It’s a tricky spot that hasn’t tagged me yet.

But believe it or not, on Friday, a cop was squatting on the intersection. A car rolled the stop sign (while looking right at the squad car even) and the cop pulled him over. An NPS cop even.

Gobsmacked.

Every time I pass through there I go very slowly because of this. I’m glad to see some enforcement being done.

[Crickey7]

Tornado watch is in effect from 5 to 10 pm. Winds up to 55 mph and hail are expected.

Should be interesting.

[Author]

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