My Morning Commute

[Terpfan]

@Amalitza 119709 wrote:

I don’t think insect repellant will help. The problem is you ride into them as they fly across your path (and/or they fly into you as you ride across their path). All those bugs that splat on your car windshield? On a bike, you are the windshield, so they just splat on you. And then the ones with stingers sting you.

Or, you what that one guy on the MVT has, a motorcycle helmet. While I question his sanity wearing it when it’s like 100 degrees out, it clearly works well for the ridiculous bugs that manage to fly into our mouthes at the most inopportune times.

[dplasters]

@dkel 119713 wrote:

In my experience, remarks like this guarantee you will flat.

Soon.

Very soon.

I was aware of the risky mojo in posting. I’ve been debating posting “when the heck am I supposed to get my first flat??” for a while though and figured I’d just bite the bullet and do it.

To be fair, I use very very very robust and heavy tires. Thickslick Urban Elite 700×25.

[dbb]

Observed this morning on South Eads. Rolling up to the sewer pipe relining project. From a block or two away, I thought a bus was on fire.

It appears (based on the lack of Arlington Fire response and the fact that nobody on the site seemed excited) that the contractor was prepping the system in some form or another. I have asked the county to check this out.

[Boomer Cycles]

@Boomer2U 119683 wrote:

I just retired a set of Forte Strada K (700 x 25) tires with Kevlar belts by Performance Bike after 3400+ miles on my Trek Madone. I original brought them last Christmas for $14 a piece to just get me through Freezing Saddles and to spare my more expensive tires, but then the darn Stradas refused to die! I did rotate them every 1000 miles so that they would wear more evenly, and kept the tire pressure constant at 90 psi, but I’ve now gotten 3 flats on both tires on my last 4 rides, so it’s time to retire them (no pun intended). They are heavy, and not very supple when changing flats. But I have lots of earned respect for these $14 tires.

I recently bought a pair of the next grade up, the Forte Pro+ Road Tires (700 x 25), for $15 each (@ 20% for the 4th of July Sale), which are lighter(360 grams), run at a higher PSI (110-130), and have a more supple casing (60 TPI) as my new daily commuter tires. I’ll report back on how they hold up.

I also ride Contis 4000s on my Ridley Domacles with great results, but that is my fair weather project bike (and I also rotate them as well to keep the wear even). I have maybe 1500 miles on them, with no flats or issues yet.

UPDATE: I just commuted home from DC (12 miles) in the drenching rain on my new Forte Pro+ (700 x 25) tires and I was pleasantly surprised how well they gripped the wet pavement while riding through rush hour traffic on Wilson Blvd and Fairfax Drive. They didn’t slip either while cornering on the puddly Custis Trail. Not too shabby for a $15 tire!

[hozn]

@GB 119613 wrote:

This blowout talk has made me wonder if I should rotate my front tire to the back, retire the back as a spare and put on a fresh front tire. Does anyone do this?

I typically just replace the rear tire twice for every front (and do not rotate), so I order tires in 3s assuming I plan to stick with the tire.

Having a spare tire is a good idea, though, for tiding you over until you can replace it properly (e.g. shipment arrives). I have my old Conti as a spare now, but will buy the 3rd Schwalbe One once I get to ~1500 trouble-free miles.

Tires really are a great way to improve (or simply change) how a bike rides.

[dkel]

I had a great ride this morning! I hope everyone else enjoyed their rides as much as I did!

[GovernorSilver]

Another pleasant morning ride up the MVT. Saw the posts about Custis Trail and the one in MD and felt quite lucky that yesterday’s rain didn’t affect the usability of the MVT. A jogger apologized as I passed him and I said “It’s ok! The bell is just to let you know I’m coming (not to tell you to get out of my way)”. Not enough time to say the part in parentheses. Oh yeah there was that incident with the cyclist silently attempting to pass both me and a pedestrian – at the same time I was passing the pedestrian (after I’d rung the bell of course). He got forced off the trail. Felt bad about that but I didn’t know he was there.

After crossing 14th St. bridge and coming up the Raoul Wellenberger sidewalk, I followed other cyclists up the street then onto Jefferson. They probably saved me some time as I still tend to obey traffic lights . Decided to try Louisiana Ave all the way to that Union Station half-circle and saw for myself why my other colleagues from Arlington/Alexandria prefer to take their chances with N. Capitol St. instead of taking the First St NE bike lane. Foot traffic is really heavy there. I didn’t mind having to dismount to walk through the crowd as I’d left a bit early and was arriving a bit early to work.

Forgot to flip down my flip visor for defense against bugs but wasn’t stung. I’m sure my day will come though.

[Boomer Cycles]

I rotate tires regularly and then salvage the better of the 2 for a spare when I switch out to a new pair of tires. I find that I can significantly extend the life of the tires by rotating them.

[Boomer Cycles]

I rode out to the Green Lizard in Herndon on the WOD trail this morning for coffee and met a pair of self-described old weevils on a classic Santana tandem bike that had a rear drum brake. Their joke of the day was asking us which of them was the lesser of 2 old weevils, LOL

[komorebi]

Thanks to jabberwocky, GB, hozn, dkel, Terpfan, americancyclo, vvill, trailrunner, Crickey7, Boomer2U, dplasters, and the others who participated in the discussion about tires earlier this week. At that time, the original tires on my first (and only) road bike were still going strong, so I read the discussion and mentally filed it under “Interesting, but not terribly relevant.”

Well, the discussion suddenly became very relevant yesterday, when I managed to rip a hole in a tire sidewall and needed to buy my first set of replacement tires in a hurry. Having your discussion fresh in my mind helped me figure out what I wanted for my new tires, a process that otherwise would have taken much longer. Thanks!

[dkel]

After dropping off my kids at Lake Fairfax, I was going to ride out to the W&OD and then to work in Vienna. I didn’t exactly:

[ATTACH=CONFIG]9081[/ATTACH]

Evidence that I essentially walked out of Lake Fairfax. Apparently many people think it’s fine to ride (or drive??) back there when the trails are a muddy mess: there were plenty of bike tracks in there, but also what looked like truck tire tracks. I don’t even know how one would get a truck back there! I should have gotten a few pictures, but I was too busy getting lost and muddy.

Anyway, does anyone have a recommended road route to Lake Fairfax? I was thinking of going a little way up Wiehle from the W&OD, and then cutting through neighborhoods to get to Lake Fairfax Drive.

[jabberwocky]

@dkel 120118 wrote:

Anyway, does anyone have a recommended road route to Lake Fairfax? I was thinking of going a little way up Wiehle from the W&OD, and then cutting through neighborhoods to get to Lake Fairfax Drive.

Thats my recommended route. I actually rode it this morning. Up Wiehle, right on North Shore drive (up near Baron Cameron), around ring road to Hunt Club, then onto Lake Fairfax drive. Wiehle isn’t as bad as you’d think, even at rush hour. But if it makes you uncomfortable, you can take the earlier north shore right, go through tall oaks shopping center and hit the reston path that loops behind all those neighborhoods and ends on ring road.

[hozn]

@dkel 120118 wrote:

Apparently many people think it’s fine to ride (or drive??) back there when the trails are a muddy mess: there were plenty of bike tracks in there, but also what looked like truck tire tracks. I don’t even know how one would get a truck back there! I should have gotten a few pictures, but I was too busy getting lost and muddy.

Yeah, I think they’re doing construction in there somewhere? There are one or two sections where they’re driving construction equipment near the lake.

It is too bad that people have been riding it wet. Perhaps larger signs at the entrance “DO NOT RIDE WET TRAILS” would be helpful. One has to wonder, though, if we just need bigger budgets for trail work, since effectively this has been a “no mtb” summer for Lake Fairfax, which is also kinda too bad. There have probably been 2 weeks since the trails thawed where it was dry for riding, maybe a handful of other days that were acceptable. I don’t know what the right solution is, but ignoring MORE’s directive not to ride muddy trails is probably not the answer.

I’m just glad I don’t rely on being able to get out on the MTB for exercise / cycling recreation.

I don’t have a great route suggestion for you, except to suggest not riding down Hunter Mill. Taking Whiele to the *second* North Shore Dr. intersection and cutting over to the right through the neighborhoods makes sense to me.

[dkel]

@hozn 120121 wrote:

effectively this has been a “no mtb” summer for Lake Fairfax

Yeah, that was the other reason I walked…even with my fatties on, I didn’t like all the roots and rocks for my CX commuting bike. If it were totally dry, maybe, but even then it’s not like a gravel ride. A real MTB would give me more confidence.

[dkel]

@jabberwocky 120120 wrote:

you can take the earlier north shore right, go through tall oaks shopping center and hit the reston path that loops behind all those neighborhoods and ends on ring road.

That path looks on Google Maps like it’s paved. Is it that way all the way through?

[Author]

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