My Evening Commute

[worktheweb]

Last night I was heading South on 15th on the stretch between Penn and Constitution and I was filtering between the stopped cars and got to the front. The guy in front starts honking at me and I just ignore it and then glance in my rear view mirror and see he pulled out his phone and appeared to record video of me for about 20 seconds. I continued to ignore him and went with the light. He then made quite an effort to pass me and at the next line of traffic I passed him again and was on my way out the city. I wonder what his aim was. Maybe he wanted to send it to the police? But showing me in front of him shows nothing, and everything I did was lawful. Maybe he wanted to mock the guy on a bike on his social media? Who knows.

There was a part of me that wanted to walk back and tell him that nothing I was doing was illegal, and in fact it was actually expressly permitted by the DC code. Alas, I knew it would be futile and I left it at that.

[wheelswings]

@worktheweb 124465 wrote:

There was a part of me that wanted to walk back and tell him that nothing I was doing was illegal, and in fact it was actually expressly permitted by the DC code. Alas, I knew it would be futile and I left it at that.

Agreed – it wouldn’t make sense to try and educate such a creep. He was probably trying to intimidate you with the filming, as that’s all he really had available to deal with his frustrations. Sorry!

I think a lot of drivers are hating us bicycle riders these days because the traffic is so bad, and they’re stuck in it and late for work. This morning I flitted by many blocks of stalled traffic going up Florida Ave. It was pretty mind-blowing, actually, as I’m not exactly a speed demon on my 1994 Mountain Trek. I have no doubt the drivers found me hugely irritating.

As we know, DC tops the list of cities with the worst traffic. I feel bad for car-commuters – it’s got to be miserable, stuck in their steel boxes — but at the same time that’s absolutely no excuse to dish out the aggression on two-wheelers.
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2015/08/25/worst-traffic-washington-dc/32075461/

[ian74]

@worktheweb 124465 wrote:

Last night I was heading South on 15th on the stretch between Penn and Constitution and I was filtering between the stopped cars and got to the front. The guy in front starts honking at me and I just ignore it and then glance in my rear view mirror and see he pulled out his phone and appeared to record video of me for about 20 seconds. I continued to ignore him and went with the light. He then made quite an effort to pass me and at the next line of traffic I passed him again and was on my way out the city. I wonder what his aim was. Maybe he wanted to send it to the police? But showing me in front of him shows nothing, and everything I did was lawful. Maybe he wanted to mock the guy on a bike on his social media? Who knows.

There was a part of me that wanted to walk back and tell him that nothing I was doing was illegal, and in fact it was actually expressly permitted by the DC code. Alas, I knew it would be futile and I left it at that.

Probably just admiring your manly physique. The honk was to just get your attention so you could see the passion in his eyes.

[consularrider]

I actually rode home during the Kyiv evening rush hour today. There were several spots with bad backups of cars. Normally I don’t like to filter, but … :rolleyes:

[Terpfan]

I owe an apology to the guy a little past Memorial Bridge heading south on MVT. That was a horrible pass by me. I thought I had timed it well, but it was a bad pass. I hope you heard me yell out sorry. Even us critiques of others’ passes make our own bad calls every once in a while

[americancyclo]

Last night’s traffic was banana sandwiches on Independence Ave from the capitol all the way to the Lincoln.

more like Cardependence Ave, amirite?

[ginacico]

Of course it waited until evening rush hour to start raining.

So what to do? Waiting for Metro or figuring out what bus to take aren’t appealing.

Then Vaya says, “My name means ‘Let’s go!’ I’m made of stainless steel, I don’t rust. I have all-terrain tires, fenders, and I’m even wearing the rain jacket that keeps your stuff dry. C’mon, let’s go for a ride!”

M Street was completely blocked by fire-EMS, traffic chock-a-block, we detoured several blocks trying to find a way out of the city.

Vaya took me home, the long way (14th Street bridge – MVT – FMRT – W&OD), in a steady rain. And it wasn’t unpleasant in any way.

Except for the black SUV gunning a left turn towards me, when I had the light trying to cross George Mason. She sucked.

I swear she just winked at me.
[ATTACH=CONFIG]9686[/ATTACH]

[dasgeh]

…was cold. Especially the part home from the after-meeting bar. Brrr.

[GovernorSilver]

Nice, pleasant ride. Went with my new Chrome Industries backpack instead of pannier to make it easier to filter between cars if necessary. I injured my lower back/hips several years ago, so I had some trepidation, but my lower back felt fine as long as I worked on keeping the spine straight, shoulders rolled back, etc. Good thing I had some instruction in hatha yoga and other physical culture stuff. I may have to play some more with the backpack strap settings and the chest strap setting to find the most low-back friendly support.

Feeling more comfortable with the trekking bar, especially after removing the Zefal Spy mirror from it – which proved to be useless as I couldn’t see anything useful in it. It’s impossible to adjust the up-down angle of the Zefal without stopping, unhooking the rubber strap, and putting it on again. I ended up getting a lot more practice using my ears to help detect oncoming cars in the lane to left, and looking over my shoulder without disrupting the bike’s balance.

I really can’t have anything else on the inner-flat side of the bar, other than the brake levers, shifter, and bell, or my hands will feel cramped and my wrists feeling a bit strained in that grip position. I find the side hand position to be a nice cruising position, even though my torso is a little less upright there (good thing I’ve been test riding road bikes!) – it’s great for the wrists. I’m developing a technique in which I can pivot my hands on the base of the palm to quickly switch from side hand position to inner-flat hand position to quickly access the brakes, bell, and shifter. The front curve hand position is of course best against headwind, since I get the most forward lean there. With the weather still being warm enough to encourage people to come out and jog, walk their dogs, etc. on the trails, I got a decent amount of practice switching hand positions. I may have imagined it, but I could have sworn I saw a cyclist or two coming in the opposite direction smile at the sight of my pink handlebar tape.

Because I burned out my brain learning how to maximize my trekking bar, I shifted in the wrong direction while climbing the hill to my house, not once but multiple times. By the time I figured that out, I gave up climbing about two doors down from my house, especially when a car turned from the left to get in front of me – not that close but enough to disrupt what little momentum and pedaling rhythm I had left.

Still, the MKS Lambda pedals are an awesome upgrade to this bike. This morning, I thought it was just a honeymoon morning ride thing, but after my evening ride, there is no doubt the Lambdas and their huge surface areas noticeably reduce the amount of effort I have to put into a pedal stroke.

[Anonymous]

@dbb 121868 wrote:

I got an email from them (Trail’s Edge) about ten days ago that said they were reworking their website. I cut the phone number out of that email 734-420-1200

I have no other information other than moose mitts are wonderful

fyi from trail’s edge…

Amy,
I am actually updating the site as someone stole our old web domain over the summer. I am re-doing the Moose Mitts pages and going a little retro with the renovated site. We’ll have a new address too…but be warned the site is under heavy construction right now.

trailsedgecyclery.com

The Moose Mitt page will be up soon

[Terpfan]

I guess a lot of folks had the day off yesterday because the MVT was crowded and people were up to all sorts of nonsense. I barely missed two crazy ivan scenarios, watched two or three passes that must have had Papal intervention as they miracously avoided collisions (and were just stupid passes), and even had a woman sit down on the path doing yoga or something. Maybe I should hope for the cold weather to chase away these folks. FWIW, this is why I don’t ride on it on weekends/holidays.

[komorebi]

@Terpfan 124924 wrote:

even had a woman sit down on the path doing yoga or something.

Yes, I saw a man doing pushups on the MVT, in a spot where there isn’t room to bail out to the side of the trail (unless you want a faceful of foliage and maybe even some poison ivy).

@Terpfan 124924 wrote:

FWIW, this is why I don’t ride on it on weekends/holidays.

I also avoid the MVT on the weekends, for the same reason. Lately, I’ve started avoiding it even on weekday afternoons if the weather’s nice. Which is a shame, because that means I’m not getting picked up by the trail counters.

[chris_s]

@komorebi 124957 wrote:

I also avoid the MVT on the weekends, for the same reason. Lately, I’ve started avoiding it even on weekday afternoons if the weather’s nice. Which is a shame, because that means I’m not getting picked up by the trail counters.

Your penance is to ride up and down Quincy Street by Central Library and tick those multiple times.

[bentbike33]

Had to go home in the middle of the afternoon yesterday, and the 2 hours made for interesting differences.

Cars actually can go fast across the 14th street bridge into Virginia after noon.

Uphill Tailwind Conundrum The easterly winds promised an assist up the Rosslyn climb on the Custis, and the relatively empty conditions encouraged faster riding as well. But my ground speed exactly matched the wind, so the airspeed was zero. The high afternoon sun and dead air caused me to start overheating and forced a reduced level of effort. So tailwind ≠ speed increase when climbing in the sun.

Custis traffic is much lighter in mid-afternoon than rush hour, but the only appreciable difference in the user population was the number of elementary school boys exuberantly riding home from school.

The student pick-up at St Ann’s School is a sight to behold. All the cars are lined up four-wide and many more deep, held in position by tiny car-herds in their chartreuse safety sashes until all the students have reached their respective vehicles at which point they are released onto the streets of Arlington. It looks like a NASCAR start if the field included minivans, SUVs and Priuses (Prii?). I like to think the boys I saw on their bikes had escaped this automotive madness.

[komorebi]

@chris_s 124968 wrote:

Your penance is to ride up and down Quincy Street by Central Library and tick those multiple times.

Penance/challenge accepted! Getting to Quincy will take me out of my usual way, though. So maybe I’ll make a point of hitting all of the other non-MVT counters on my way there. You know, just to make sure that I’ve properly atoned.

[Author]

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