My Evening Commute

[komorebi]

On my way home, I passed by the Tidal Basin just in time for this stunning sunset:

The other noteworthy thing that happened was that an unknown cyclist fell in behind me just south of the 14th Street bridge and proceeded to ride my wheel all the way to the MVT/4MRT split. No lights, no reflective bits and thus impossible to see in my helmet mirror, didn’t say a word, didn’t acknowledge any of my hand signals, didn’t call when passing pedestrians. The only reason I knew he was there was because I could hear his rear rack rattling. He did at least call out “Thank you for the light” when we diverged at the MVT/4MRT split. But it would have been much less creepy if he had said something oh, about two miles or fifteen minutes earlier.

So consider this my annual PSA to all the guys out there who ride without lights and then latch onto the wheels of women riding alone at night: please say something. I’m happy to help light a fellow cyclist’s ride home, but I would feel a whole lot less creeped out if you would simply ask first.

[lordofthemark]

The “temporary” pedestrians lights and beg buttons at King and Beauregard/Walter Reed in Alexandria are the best that intersection has had in at least two years. There is now even a leading pedestrian interval when crossing Walter Reed on the east side of King. Perhaps I should stop kvetching so much.

[bobco85]

While riding home yesterday, I noticed my rear wheel looking a little wobbly (I could feel the wobble, too). After getting home, I found that 2 spokes on my rear wheel were really loose, so I had to tighten them. I used the advice from one of the mechanics at my bike shop (Performance in Baileys Xroads) to pluck each spoke and make sure that they all make the same tone. It seems to have worked, as there were no wobbles in my rear wheel this morning.

[hozn]

@bobco85 146390 wrote:

While riding home yesterday, I noticed my rear wheel looking a little wobbly (I could feel the wobble, too). After getting home, I found that 2 spokes on my rear wheel were really loose, so I had to tighten them. I used the advice from one of the mechanics at my bike shop (Performance in Baileys Xroads) to pluck each spoke and make sure that they all make the same tone. It seems to have worked, as there were no wobbles in my rear wheel this morning.

If you have an iPhone, try the spoke tensioner app. You also want them to be sufficiently tensioned or this will just happen again.

[dkel]

@hozn 146421 wrote:

If you have an iPhone, try the spoke tensioner app. You also want them to be sufficiently tensioned or this will just happen again.

I prefer @bobco85’s more musical solution!

[hozn]

@dkel 146426 wrote:

I prefer @bobco85’s more musical solution!

You can still apply the musical approach, you jut need to know what the pitch should be!

I suspect that if there were two loose spokes that wheel has a problem (probably under tensioned).

[dkel]

@hozn 146427 wrote:

You can still apply the musical approach, you jut need to know what the pitch should be!

I suspect that if there were two loose spokes that wheel has a problem (probably under tensioned).

Doesn’t the app give you the pitch as well? (I’ve actually used the app…I just don’t remember!)

[hozn]

@dkel 146430 wrote:

Doesn’t the app give you the pitch as well? (I’ve actually used the app…I just don’t remember!)

I don’t know if it tells you the pitch/freq numeric value. — as opposed to just translating to kgf. I have never used it (no iPhone), but the author is a friend and former coworker of mine and we discussed it quite a bit. Apparently it is more accurate than the tensionometer; the trick is measuring spokes correctly and I guess you also need to know the spoke diameter. I would like to use a tool like that, since it also keeps track of each spoke’s tension and can give averages or plot it on a chart.

[Steve O]

@hozn 146427 wrote:

You can still apply the musical approach, you just need to know what the pitch should be!

As musicians, I think dkel and I have a secondary interest in the actual sounds of the spokes.

I did not know of this app, but a few years ago when I replaced a rim using the same spokes and hub, I determined what note the spokes were (on average) before I took the old rim off and used that note to put the new rim on. Then I trued up the usual way.

I wish I had done something like this along the way, though.
[video=youtube_share;1pXm-WlUFqs]https://youtu.be/1pXm-WlUFqs[/video]

[dkel]

I have used pitch to true wheels, too. I think it’s actually pretty difficult to hear the primary pitch much of the time, because the spokes are not very musical in their tone, and the points at which they cross can change the resonating length of the spoke, which is not helpful for determining it’s fundamental pitch. But it does work! Belt drives are also tensioned by pitch; that’s the way the Gates Carbon Drive app works.

[bobco85]

@hozn 146431 wrote:

I don’t know if it tells you the pitch/freq numeric value. — as opposed to just translating to kgf. I have never used it (no iPhone), but the author is a friend and former coworker of mine and we discussed it quite a bit. Apparently it is more accurate than the tensionometer; the trick is measuring spokes correctly and I guess you also need to know the spoke diameter. I would like to use a tool like that, since it also keeps track of each spoke’s tension and can give averages or plot it on a chart.

Following your recommendation, I got the app and played around with it for a little bit the other day. I had some difficulty with the initial setup because I didn’t have any measurements for the spokes/wheel/nipples/etc. I still don’t know what thickness the spokes are, and it’s hard to measure them to the tenth of a millimeter accuracy. I finally resorted to just holding the phone near the wheel, damping the cross spoke, plucking each spoke, and looking to see what kgf reading showed up.

I will play around with the app some more when I have extra free time, but so far my wheel is not wobbly.

[hozn]

Good point about needing a spoke gauge (to measure thickness)! If it was a typical mid-level wheel I would guess double buttes 2.0-1.8 spokes, but if they are bladed etc. then that won’t work. Lower-end (usually factory) wheels often have straight-gauge (2.0mm) spokes. I don’t know how greatly the pitch -> kgf translation is affected by spoke thickness, but I imagine it is significant.

[huskerdont]

Going up the hill on Custis, what do I see coming the other direction but a cyclist talking on her cell phone and with a green parrot on her shoulder. I always say there are lots of ways to bike, but that is one I had not considered before.

[scoot]

While I was stopped at a traffic signal yesterday evening (headed south on 17th, at M), I noticed four cyclists exhibiting dangerous behavior. First I was passed by a southbound rider who ran the red signal one-handed while talking on his phone who then almost hit the pedestrians crossing on the opposite side. Then a northbound rider ran the signal the other direction; he was more careful at least. Then a female salmon crossed through the intersection eastbound in the M St cycletrack. Finally a northbound rider on 17th decided to use the oncoming lanes for about 100 feet to avoid stopped traffic so that he could turn onto M before our light changed.

All in the span of maybe 45 seconds.

[KLizotte]

This evening heading southbound on the MVT I was passed by a cyclist with this sign attached to the back of his rack. It was pretty cool! He also said something to me when he passed but I missed it because I was listening to music. Sorry!

[ATTACH=CONFIG]12523[/ATTACH]

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