My Morning Commute

[Rod Smith]

@Greenbelt 34606 wrote:

I’d be scared to weigh my commuter bike fully loaded — I’d bet it’s heavier than Certifried’s with my super heavy new tires! Fortunately, my route is mostly flat.

You replaced the Marathons with something heavier!? When I read Cert’s post, I thought disc brakes, Schwalbe Marathon tires. I’ve read that disc brakes require beefed up (heavier) frame/fork to resist the braking forces. I’m running Marathons on my disc brake equipped bike and it’s not light! I guess the Mararthon Plus is even heavier… While the Plus is more flat resistant, the regular Marathon is pretty robust. I’ve only flatted twice and one of those was the result of a UPS truck running into my bike in a loading dock.

[off2ride]

Right. In that situation that I saw that morning, I think the vest would not have helped.

@Certifried 34390 wrote:

To he fair, BA seems to give quite a few of those out. It might not (hopefully) have been a forum user.

Sent from my DROID RAZR using Tapatalk 2

[TwoWheelsDC]

Today was the first day of my new commute, from my new house/neighborhood, and it was glorious despite the cold. For me at least, not having to deal with 25 minutes of stop lights through DC and having a ride that’s mostly on stop-free, bike-friendly roads changes the way I view my commute in a really positive way. It also helps that the distance is now about half what it was before.

I did have a couple Sandy-related hiccups though…Westmoreland was closed at Williamsburg due to a downed tree and power lines, and up toward Haycock there was a power line stretched across the road, but cars were being allowed under it. It was a little disconcerting to ride under that thing, but I didn’t die, so it’s fine. Overall, it looked like north Arlington/McLean made out fairly well, thankfully…the only real danger for cyclists that I noticed was all the wet leaves in the bike lanes and shoulders, but hopefully we’ll dry out over the next few days and they’ll clear out.

[vvill]

@TwoWheelsDC 34741 wrote:

Today was the first day of my new commute, from my new house/neighborhood, and it was glorious despite the cold. For me at least, not having to deal with 25 minutes of stop lights through DC and having a ride that’s mostly on stop-free, bike-friendly roads changes the way I view my commute in a really positive way. It also helps that the distance is now about half what it was before.

Nice. One of the things I love about my commute (if I go the most “efficient” way) is the ratio between moving time and stopped time, compared to what it would be in a car or … metro.

@TwoWheelsDC 34741 wrote:

I did have a couple Sandy-related hiccups though…Westmoreland was closed at Williamsburg due to a downed tree and power lines, and up toward Haycock there was a power line stretched across the road, but cars were being allowed under it. It was a little disconcerting to ride under that thing, but I didn’t die, so it’s fine. Overall, it looked like north Arlington/McLean made out fairly well, thankfully…the only real danger for cyclists that I noticed was all the wet leaves in the bike lanes and shoulders, but hopefully we’ll dry out over the next few days and they’ll clear out.

Yeah I had that issue too on Westmoreland. I walked with my bike through it (after okaying it with one of the workers).

There weren’t too many trees down otherwise – I think many of those weaker ones were taken out by the derecho already. But we only got power back around dinnertime last night.

[dbb]

@vvill 34746 wrote:

I think many of those weaker ones were taken out by the derecho already.

+1 I think that the derecho may ultimately be seen as a pre-Sandy “culling” of the trees. Sandy would likely have been much worse for the local area if the derecho hadn’t occured.

[TwoWheelsDC]

Now that the detours are clear, I was finally able to properly time my new commute…30 minutes door-to-door. That’s what my car commute was when I was living on the Hill (bike commute was 1:15). I really have no excuse to not ride 5 days a week now…

[vvill]

@TwoWheelsDC 34815 wrote:

Now that the detours are clear, I was finally able to properly time my new commute…30 minutes door-to-door. That’s what my car commute was when I was living on the Hill (bike commute was 1:15). I really have no excuse to not ride 5 days a week now…

I may even run into you going the other way on Westmoreland!

[TwoWheelsDC]

@vvill 34824 wrote:

I may even run into you going the other way on Westmoreland!

I know! I’ve been keeping an eye out for you, but after looking at Strava I think you leave a bit later than I do. I’m sure I’ll see you when I’m out doing hills on the weekends though. BTW, I hit the lights perfectly on Westmoreland today and didn’t have to stop once between Williamsburg and Old Dominion on Chain Bridge (3+ miles)…it was awesome.

[vvill]

@TwoWheelsDC 34829 wrote:

I know! I’ve been keeping an eye out for you, but after looking at Strava I think you leave a bit later than I do. I’m sure I’ll see you when I’m out doing hills on the weekends though. BTW, I hit the lights perfectly on Westmoreland today and didn’t have to stop once between Williamsburg and Old Dominion on Chain Bridge (3+ miles)…it was awesome.

Yeah I’m on a weird schedule right now due to some issues out of my control. Normally I’d be on the road by 7am.

I love the hills around here!

[Certifried]

I haven’t biked in a week

(of course, I was sick from Saturday to Tuesday, but that just invokes rule 5)

[Certifried]

So, I need to bike more. I took my rear wheel in to Proteus to have it trued. I’d hit a bump a bit hard and the wheel was a little wobbly, but not so bad it interfered with my ride at the time. I even biked home later that evening, after the Proteus pot luck. Well, I finally got around to taking the wheel in for repair. I had purchased a truing stand, spoke wrench, and tensiometer, but decided to let the Pros fix it this time due to finding a broken spoke. Good thing too! I heard back that 5 spokes were broken…. OK, I admit I’m a bit hefty (215ish), but 5?! The wheel is going back to Jamis for a warranty repair. Not a chance on that 60 hour Strava challenge (not that I had a chance even with a healthy bike lol)

[TwoWheelsDC]

Just as I was almost ready to walk out the door this morning, my wife (still in bed) says “I thought you were going to wake me up so we could leave by bike together” to which I replied “it’s 29 degrees out, I didn’t think you’d want to ride.” But she insisted she wanted to ride (we’d ride in different directions but leave at the same time). Well, after waiting 20 minutes for her to get ready, we walked out to the shed to get the bikes and she basically says “no way I’m riding when it’s this cold” and goes back inside….sigh.

[ShawnoftheDread]

@TwoWheelsDC 35236 wrote:

Just as I was almost ready to walk out the door this morning, my wife (still in bed) says “I thought you were going to wake me up so we could leave by bike together” to which I replied “it’s 29 degrees out, I didn’t think you’d want to ride.” But she insisted she wanted to ride (we’d ride in different directions but leave at the same time). Well, after waiting 20 minutes for her to get ready, we walked out to the shed to get the bikes and she basically says “no way I’m riding when it’s this cold” and goes back inside….sigh.

It took your wife only 20 minutes to get out of bed and ready to go to work?! You are hereby officially forbidden from ever complaining again.

[TwoWheelsDC]

@ShawnoftheDread 35244 wrote:

It took your wife only 20 minutes to get out of bed and ready to go to work?! You are hereby officially forbidden from ever complaining again.

She is pretty quick in that regard, but it was 20 minutes just to roll out of bed and put some tights and a jersey on…doesn’t include getting ready at her office.

[ShawnoftheDread]

@TwoWheelsDC 35257 wrote:

She is pretty quick in that regard, but it was 20 minutes just to roll out of bed and put some tights and a jersey on…doesn’t include getting ready at her office.

You surely have no appreciation for the lives led by your fellow men.

[Author]

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