My Evening Commute

[mstone]

The calorie consumption on a bike goes up with weight, good reason to eat more. Anyway, I treat the calorie calculations as basically made up. But it’s a wash, because you don’t actually absorb 100% of the calories you eat. I guess the best guideline on whether you’re eating wrong is how you feel rather than math.

[jrenaut]

@mstone 90229 wrote:

I guess the best guideline on whether you’re eating wrong is how you feel rather than math.

Blasphemy!

Math is always right. You’re either measuring wrong, or you’re wrong about how you feel.

[consularrider]

FYI – my evening commute was wet, wild, and wonderful (but not in West Virginia).

[vern]

I left my office in Crystal City at 4:40, just in time to catch the beginning of the storm. About 3 minutes into it, while on the MVT in front of National Airport, a gust of wind pushed me across the trail, pushing me from the middle of the southbound land to the middle of the northbound lane…basically a straight push to the side of about 3-4 feet. I had a quick wobble as I straightened my front wheel but I didn’t go down. The remainder of the ride was fairly uneventful, as the storm fizzled quickly. I actually missed the rain when it stopped because it kept my body cooled down.

[dkel]

[ATTACH=CONFIG]6195[/ATTACH]
Hee hee!

[dbb]

So I am rolling south on 15th Street towards Independence. As I stop at the intersection I hear some Latin music. I look into the cars and see a Volvo with MD tags driven by a gent who was keeping time with the music by shaking a couple of maracas. I’d hazard a guess none of the motorists saw that!

[gswim18]

Wet ride home last night! I am curious if anyone uses a different route when it is raining heavily. I ride home on Old Gtown road and strongly dislike doing so when the road is soaked and holding water. There are some routes through the neighborhoods but they tend to be slower.

[Greenbelt]

When it’s raining hard, especially at night, I don’t like taking the lane in traffic. Just don’t trust drivers to see me, even with my ultrabright lights, or to slow down enough for the conditions to stop behind me. And many drivers are on bald tires with poor windshield wipers, so they really can’t be trusted in the rain in the first place.

I love riding bike trails in the rain, though. Just me and the wildlife, lots of fun puddles and gravel and leaves and sticks, the occasional flash flood…

So yes and no for me — yes to the ride, but I definitely take alternative routes, sidewalks, whatever to stay off the main travel lanes when possible.

[chris_s]

@gswim18 90359 wrote:

Wet ride home last night! I am curious if anyone uses a different route when it is raining heavily. I ride home on Old Gtown road and strongly dislike doing so when the road is soaked and holding water. There are some routes through the neighborhoods but they tend to be slower.

I have a backup route for when the trail underpasses are flooded, but my commute doesn’t involve taking the lane on anything high speed so I generally stick to my standard route as long as they’re passable.

[consularrider]

I generally ride a less than direct route to/from work, so if there is a threat of rain I’ll consider taking the direct route. Both routes are mostly MUP and I deal with motor vehicle traffic only in the Rosslyn corridor. As chris_s mentions, even if I take the longer route, I have to have options for those times the underpasses along 4 Mile Run may be flooded.

[cyclingfool]

What was it with people last night? There were some REALLY dumb passes on the MVT last night. I was passed in three different instances by jackholes who couldn’t wait until we cleared a blind corner or until the other way was clear. You’re welcome to all of you for my choice of discretion being the better part of valor, or else things would have been ugly…

As they were just south of the airport ramp crossing, shortly after dumb pass #3. Not sure what had happened. but a rider had “hit the deck” here He was just getting up, surrounded by several other riders when I approached and then stopped. Since he was being attended to by what appeared to be his friends and there were other bystanders around who presumably saw more of what happened than I did, I rode on after stopping trailside for a few seconds. That little chicane there can be dicey at rush hour, and with the number of idiots doing stupid things last night, I wouldn’t be surprised if someone made an ill-advised maneuver there that either brought the rider down or forced him to take evasive action which led to a fall.

These instances are certainly something I didn’t miss when I was on-street more going through Crystal City and down Potomac Ave. I might have to default back to that route again, though I’ve been enjoying the change of scenery afforded by the reopening of 4MR.

[dasgeh]

There were SO MANY CYCLISTS out last night. Generally, that was a good thing, but, man, there was some jackhole-ry on the Custis hill.

Oh, and I (finally) got to pick up the Boda, so was taking a new route: M Street! The cycle-track is coming along, but the state of the pavement is really terrible. Anyone know when that will be addressed?

[Terpfan]

Augh, no one was calling passes last night (that’s not true, two cyclists, one of whom I am pretty sure is a poster on the forums, were calling passes) and some folks executed ridiculous near-collision passes. One couple was all kit-ed out and passed me. Of course, not surprisingly they weren’t the most solid of hill climbers so I caught up. I proceeded to draft the rear rider and then ring my bell every time they were about to do a non-call pass. This went on from about the 14th St Bridge almost straight through to 4MR where they turned off. I heard the lead woman call exactly one pass. One. It was like 6:15pm. We must have passed 20 people. Oh well, I think I made the point.

[gswim18]

Thanks for the thoughts on the rain folks. How nice have the commutes home been the last two nights?!?

[dkel]

You meet the nicest people on bikes! I had a nice ride from Vienna to Falls Church with Justin: we talked about metal fenders, leather mud flaps, brass bells, dynohubs, studded tires, and such. I put in a plug for the forum (he’s definitely the type). You just can’t have interactions like that in cars.

[Author]

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