My Morning Commute

[Dirt]

@Rod Smith 50319 wrote:

The highlight of my embarrassingly late morning commute today was finally meeting Dirt (and Jimmy) who stopped to say hi and snap a picture.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/pedrogringo/8684566670/

Definitely the highlight of today’s ride for me too! Rock on, sir!

[ebubar]

Interesting commute this morning. Slight rain the whole way in. Felt like I needed those windshield wiper glasses that Screech and Slater invented on “Saved by the Bell”. I figured this dedication made me a true commuter…until the afternoon ride home.

Bridges get really slippery in the rain (duh) as do brakes. Had my first flip over the bars. I like to think it was a pretty epic wipeout, with a couple inch slide. The bike is still in good shape and I got by with just a sore ankle. The jacket is nice and dirty. Pannier protected the physics exams and ipad. THAT little event, I think, makes me a true bike commuter. Now my wife has to let me up my bike budget to afford a Volpe. Its for my own safety!

[Steve]

@ebubar 50720 wrote:

Interesting commute this morning. Slight rain the whole way in. Felt like I needed those windshield wiper glasses that Screech and Slater invented on “Saved by the Bell”. I figured this dedication made me a true commuter…until the afternoon ride home.

Bridges get really slippery in the rain (duh) as do brakes. Had my first flip over the bars. I like to think it was a pretty epic wipeout, with a couple inch slide. The bike is still in good shape and I got by with just a sore ankle. The jacket is nice and dirty. Pannier protected the physics exams and ipad. THAT little event, I think, makes me a true bike commuter. Now my wife has to let me up my bike budget to afford a Volpe. Its for my own safety!

Glad that you made it thru (mostly) unscathed.

[consularrider]

Such a beautiful morning to start Bike to Work Month, and I’m stuck in a car! At least it had the Virginia bike plates on it. We played leap frog from the Clarendon Circle to my office building in Rosslyn with one of the engineers (on his bike) who works on the floor below me.

[Dickie]

@consularrider 50745 wrote:

Such a beautiful morning to start Bike to Work Month, and I’m stuck in a car! At least it had the Virginia bike plates on it. We played leap frog from the Clarendon Circle to my office building in Rosslyn with one of the engineers (on his bike) who works on the floor below me.

Chris, I am just getting caught up on the Forum in over a week and saw the news about your injury. Hope the Dr’s are right and it isn’t as bad as initially diagnosed… drive to FCC11 on Friday and I’ll treat you to breakfast… heal up soon!

[jrenaut]

I dropped my bike off at Proteus yesterday for a tuneup and fender installation, so my plan was to Bikeshare this morning. At 8:18 there were no bikes at 14th and Harvard, so I started walking south. By the time I found a bike (the last one at 14th and R), I had decided to see what walking all the way was like. So I more or less walked my normal bike commute, 3.5 miles or so, in about 50 minutes. It was pretty pleasant. Only saw one illegal turn on PA Ave, and only one tour bus turned through a crosswalk that I was occupying.

I love living downtown and having so many options to get around. At numerous points along the way, I could have jumped on Metro or the bus or picked up Bikeshare, but it was just too perfect a day for walking.

[consularrider]

@Dickie 50748 wrote:

Chris, I am just getting caught up on the Forum in over a week and saw the news about your injury. Hope the Dr’s are right and it isn’t as bad as initially diagnosed… drive to FCC11 on Friday and I’ll treat you to breakfast… heal up soon!

I’d take you up on it, but I’m not the one driving.

[dasgeh]

Even though I was way late heading to work (had to drop the car off for inspection – another reason to love the bike), traffic was stopped on 66 at about Courthouse, and crawling across the TR Bridge. I know Schadenfreude isn’t nice, but I love it when traffic on the TR bridge crawls, and I sail away on that ridiculously substandard little trail.

My favorites on that note: the afternoon I flew by traffic on the bridge ON A CABI and the afternoon I beat a McDonald’s truck from Lee Hwy and Veitch to Lee Hwy and Spout Run (I was on the Custis, but I’m sure it was the same truck).

[ebubar]

@ebubar 50720 wrote:

Interesting commute this morning. Slight rain the whole way in. Felt like I needed those windshield wiper glasses that Screech and Slater invented on “Saved by the Bell”. I figured this dedication made me a true commuter…until the afternoon ride home.

Bridges get really slippery in the rain (duh) as do brakes. Had my first flip over the bars. I like to think it was a pretty epic wipeout, with a couple inch slide. The bike is still in good shape and I got by with just a sore ankle. The jacket is nice and dirty. Pannier protected the physics exams and ipad. THAT little event, I think, makes me a true bike commuter. Now my wife has to let me up my bike budget to afford a Volpe. Its for my own safety!

Confirmed that this particular commute was devilishly tough…Total ascent according to Garmin was 666.

[Amalitza]

@dasgeh 50762 wrote:

had to drop the car off for inspection –

Off topic, I know, but are you talking about Virginia state and/or emissions inspections? Where do you get to DROP OFF YOUR CAR to get that done?????

[rcannon100]

@dasgeh 50762 wrote:

My favorites on that note: the afternoon I flew by traffic on the bridge ON A CABI and the afternoon I beat a McDonald’s truck from Lee Hwy and Veitch to Lee Hwy and Spout Run (I was on the Custis, but I’m sure it was the same truck).

My favorite is racing a 3 Bus from Rosslyn up Lee Hwy to Lee Heights (Glebe). It is not hard to beat the bus up the hill during rush hour.

[DismalScientist]

@acl 50789 wrote:

Off topic, I know, but are you talking about Virginia state and/or emissions inspections? Where do you get to DROP OFF YOUR CAR to get that done?????

I always drop the car off although I get the impression that this is unusual. I would assume you can do it wherever inspections are done at a gas station with service bays. You can pick the car back up even if the service bays are closed as long as the gas station is open. It seems most people wait because they don’t know what to do if they don’t have their cars. You can always bike or bus to work! (I use the Exxon station at Seven Corners)

[dbb]

@acl 50789 wrote:

Off topic, I know, but are you talking about Virginia state and/or emissions inspections? Where do you get to DROP OFF YOUR CAR to get that done?????

My mechanic will do it that way. Near Shirlington so I can get lunch or I put my bike in the vehicle and come back later. PM me if you want a name.

[Amalitza]

Apparently I am just too damn gullible. I was told a couple times when I first moved to the area that no you can not make an appointment, it is STATE LAW that inspections are done first-come first-serve, you have to just show up and sit there in line. My dealer took care of it one year for me, but they actually are not an inspection station, they just took it to their neighborhood shop for me after doing a bunch of work on the car. Other than that, I have always sat there in the stupid line because that’s what I was told I have to do.

Shirlington is probably far enough away that it’d take me as long to drive there as it does to sit in line, but if anyone knows a place near or south of Old Town, yes, I’d love to know about it!

[dasgeh]

Really? I just showed up at Cherrydale Motors (Lee & Kenmore) with the bike in the back. Checked the car in, gave them my husband’s number, grabbed the bike and headed to work. They called him when it was done and he walked over with the kids to pick it up. Of course, it wasn’t there all day, but I doubt they would have minded if it were. They didn’t have any wait and were taking my car back as I put the bike together. The car was done in 40 minutes. Of course, it is a random Wednesday. I haven’t been there much, but they seemed nice enough.

Sometimes it sucks to live in the neighborhood of car shops, but sometimes it has its perks.

[Author]

Posts