My Evening Commute

[Boomer Cycles]

I was treated to this glorious sunset on my commute home the other night, on the Festive Bike path (national cycle route 33) in Flax Burton, outside of Bristol UK.

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[GovernorSilver]

First ride with lots of headwind. Nice little dousing at the end.

Quads are telling me its time to raise the saddle again.

[Terpfan]

@GovernorSilver 142247 wrote:

First ride with lots of headwind. Nice little dousing at the end.

Quads are telling me its time to raise the saddle again.

I just missed the dousing. I was sitting at the light at Ft. Hunt and where Belle View becomes Beacon Hill Rd when a huge nasty strike of lightning struck. Seeing that motivated me a little more and I probably shaved my 2-3 minutes off the next 2 mile portion. As I walked into my shed with bike, the heavens unleashed. So I barely got wet, but close.

[baiskeli]

@Boomer2U 142155 wrote:

I was treated to this glorious sunset on my commute home the other night, on the Festive Bike path (national cycle route 33) in Flax Burton, outside of Bristol UK.

With your back to Europe, of course.

[GovernorSilver]

@Terpfan 142274 wrote:

I just missed the dousing. I was sitting at the light at Ft. Hunt and where Belle View becomes Beacon Hill Rd when a huge nasty strike of lightning struck. Seeing that motivated me a little more and I probably shaved my 2-3 minutes off the next 2 mile portion. As I walked into my shed with bike, the heavens unleashed. So I barely got wet, but close.

My goal was to be done with the DC portion of my commute before the thunderstorm hit – so I accomplished that at least. Last time I was caught in DC during a deluge (last week actually) the N. Capitol-Louisiana Ave portion of the ride was such a mess – backed up vehicular traffic, street flooding, etc.

I think if I hadn’t taken the extra time to look for the extra bike rack at Whole Foods – the one near the entrance to the underground parking lot (and there’s only one :p) – I might have made it home before getting doused. Curiosity didn’t kill this cat, but it got him wet. 10 min. of dousing vs. 50 min. does make a difference though!

[huskerdont]

Good. Picked wineberries out along the towpath, put them in my empty water bottle (except for those I ate), took them home, and covered them with vodka and put them in the freezer. Tonight will be better.

[Steve O]

@huskerdont 142320 wrote:

Good. Picked wineberries out along the towpath, put them in my empty water bottle (except for those I ate), took them home, and covered them with vodka and put them in the freezer. Tonight will be better.

I was once nearly arrested for picking raspberries along the GWMP. The Park Policeman “confiscated” my raspberries (essentially he took my container and threw them across the landscape). Apparently the law is that you may pick what you can eat, but you cannot take them away.

[huskerdont]

@Steve O 142336 wrote:

I was once nearly arrested for picking raspberries along the GWMP. The Park Policeman “confiscated” my raspberries (essentially he took my container and threw them across the landscape). Apparently the law is that you may pick what you can eat, but you cannot take them away.

I’ve heard similar stories from mushroom hunters and other foragers. Seems the rules are different in different locations, and often the folks doing law enforcement don’t know the rules. Best course of action is to be discreet.

I’d probably not gather raspberries along a major road like the parkway anyway because of accumulated residue from exhaust, but then, it’s probably a lot less than what I breathe in daily.

[consularrider]

@huskerdont 142356 wrote:

I’ve heard similar stories from mushroom hunters and other foragers. Seems the rules are different in different locations, and often the folks doing law enforcement don’t know the rules. Best course of action is to be discreet.

I’d probably not gather raspberries along a major road like the parkway anyway because of accumulated residue from exhaust, but then, it’s probably a lot less than what I breathe in daily.

Or you could be like us and get your berries downwind from Chernobyl. Started out with instructions to bleach all of our fruits and vegetables during my first overseas assignment in Mexico City. Over the past 30 years I have probably begun to worry less about things like that.

[GovernorSilver]

I think this is the 3rd week in a row somebody asked me if my Breezer is an electric bike.

Road bike guy at National Mall: “Is that an electric?”

Me: “It’s all manual. My first bike – I’m new to cycling!”.

Road bike guy: “So it’s an electric”.

Me: [laughs and shakes head, riding quietly a bit, then…] “Hey look, we’ve got a peloton ahead of us! Too bad I’m too slow to draft!”

I lost count of how many bikes were in the “peloton”. Definitely more than 5. Plus somebody on an electric scooter. And also the pedicab who decided to “join” the “peloton”. We collectively hogged both lanes of Jefferson until pedicab guy moved behind me.

So much headwind that by the time I caught sight of Braddock on Potomac Ave. Trail, I just stopped pedaling and coasted all the way to the street.

I later checked out the Breezer website. Sure enough, they do make an electric model – the Greenway. It looks pretty different though compared to my Uptown 8 – a lot more black, including the saddle. It also has a rear derailleur.

[LeprosyStudyGroup]

@GovernorSilver 142426 wrote:

I think this is the 3rd week in a row somebody asked me if my Breezer is an electric bike.

Road bike guy at National Mall: “Is that an electric?”

Just say “No. Belt drive.”

That should be short enough to be understandable, and cool enough for any case. Belt drives are the way of the future and you may still qualify as an early adopter. Pull down those Ray Bans and smile at em.

Edit: uptowns don’t have a belt drive do they? Oops. Thought all breezers did. Facepalm.

[TwoWheelsDC]

@consularrider 142362 wrote:

Or you could be like us and get your berries downwind from Chernobyl. Started out with instructions to bleach all of our fruits and vegetables during my first overseas assignment in Mexico City. Over the past 30 years I have probably begun to worry less about things like that.

Well, you wouldn’t have to worry about bacteria with Chernobyl berries, and the biological half-life of cesium-137 is relatively short, so NBD.

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[bobco85]

My evening commute on Thursday was shaping up to be pretty negative but had a positive outcome.

First, I had a very close pass (I’ll upload the video of it as I use a front-facing camera and rear-facing camera on my bike) while on Glebe Rd in Ballston in the right turn lane as I was approaching my turn onto Henderson Rd. I’ll upload the video of it later as I had footage from both my front-facing and rear-facing cameras (long story short, I bought a new camera, so I put the old one facing backwards out of curiosity of what drivers really do behind my back). Person in a white Benz who had pulled out from the Benz repair shop decided that they could stay in the lane and pass me at the same time (the lane gets really wide there).

Next, as I was pulling up to the bike rack at the Safeway in Baileys Crossroads, I saw this:
[ATTACH=CONFIG]12036[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]12037[/ATTACH]

I know that people sometimes leave their shopping carts at that bike rack (usually 1 or 2 at a time), but this is just ridiculous! I was tired and not really in a good mood, so I posted these on Twitter to Safeway’s handle with a healthy dose of snark and continued on my way after getting groceries. My plan was to call the store when I got home.

When I got home, I noticed that I had gotten a message from Twitter. It was a tweet from Safeway saying that they had called the store to have the shopping carts moved! I tweeted back my thanks then took a nap. Naps = temporary piece of heaven

[GovernorSilver]

@LeprosyStudyGroup 142428 wrote:

Just say “No. Belt drive.”

That should be short enough to be understandable, and cool enough for any case. Belt drives are the way of the future and you may still qualify as an early adopter. Pull down those Ray Bans and smile at em.

Edit: uptowns don’t have a belt drive do they? Oops. Thought all breezers did. Facepalm.

Lol, no worries. The Uptown 8 has IGH and chaincase. The belt drive model also has IGH but no electric motor.

Maybe next time I’ll say “Why yes, and here’s my electric motor!” and just point at my legs.

[bobco85]

@bobco85 142440 wrote:

My evening commute on Thursday was shaping up to be pretty negative but had a positive outcome.

First, I had a very close pass (I’ll upload the video of it as I use a front-facing camera and rear-facing camera on my bike) while on Glebe Rd in Ballston in the right turn lane as I was approaching my turn onto Henderson Rd. I’ll upload the video of it later as I had footage from both my front-facing and rear-facing cameras (long story short, I bought a new camera, so I put the old one facing backwards out of curiosity of what drivers really do behind my back). Person in a white Benz who had pulled out from the Benz repair shop decided that they could stay in the lane and pass me at the same time (the lane gets really wide there).

Next, as I was pulling up to the bike rack at the Safeway in Baileys Crossroads, I saw this:
[ATTACH=CONFIG]12036[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]12037[/ATTACH]

I know that people sometimes leave their shopping carts at that bike rack (usually 1 or 2 at a time), but this is just ridiculous! I was tired and not really in a good mood, so I posted these on Twitter to Safeway’s handle with a healthy dose of snark and continued on my way after getting groceries. My plan was to call the store when I got home.

When I got home, I noticed that I had gotten a message from Twitter. It was a tweet from Safeway saying that they had called the store to have the shopping carts moved! I tweeted back my thanks then took a nap. Naps = temporary piece of heaven

UPDATE: Today, I went by the Safeway and sadly, the shopping carts were still there. This time, I called the store and spoke to a manager. It turns out that the store recently got a much larger shipment of shopping carts than they ordered, so the delivery guys decided that was a good place to leave the extra carts. The manager said that they’re figuring out a better place to store the shopping carts and will move them soon. I’m hoping to see a good ending to this story sometime this weekend.

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