pedestrian tunnel Alexandria (Telegraph Road)

[anomad]

Sunday I was taking Ms. anomad for tacos and went into the tunnel under the rail road tracks along the Telegraph Road bridge. About halfway through I hit some wet rock or something and my front wheel went one way while I continued on according to the laws of physics. No serious injuries, but I couldn’t ride very far once my leg started swelling up. I’m feeling a lot better today, but it will probably be next week before I am back on the bike. Haven’t been down that hard since 1999, so my number was definitely up. Bike doesn’t appear damaged at all. The best part was I came to rest in a puddle of tunnel filth, I probably glow in the dark after take a dunk in that.

https://www.google.com/maps/@38.8041205,-77.0741135,3a,75y,349.15h,81.91t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sHP4k1mxv31IT4JTU7vkGsA!2e0!7i13312!8i6656!5m1!1e3

So my question is about really light bikes. This was basically my maiden voyage on my new chinese carbon 29er. The front wheel went away like it stopped dead in its tracks. Is that an issue with really lightweight bikes that they want to change direction way too easily? Its lighter than any mountain bike I have had by a long shot. I own and have owned a bunch of under 20 pound road and cross bikes, but never experienced anything like this. No suspension on this, carbon rigid fork. I’ve been riding bikes and motorcycles for 30 years if that means anything.

What say you? Being a newb to lightweight mountain bike catch me off guard or just bad luck? Obviously I am going to be paranoid as hell when I get back on this thing, since clearly it tried to kill me.

Topic

[creadinger]

Wow! I’ve ridden by that tunnel like a dozen times on Mill Road and never noticed it’s existence. Where the heck does it come out? Behind that Extra Space Storage building and up the sidewalk to Duke St?

[bobco85]

@creadinger 157118 wrote:

Wow! I’ve ridden by that tunnel like a dozen times on Mill Road and never noticed it’s existence. Where the heck does it come out? Behind that Extra Space Storage building and up the sidewalk to Duke St?

The north end of the tunnel spits you out under the Telegraph Rd bridge just north of the railroad tracks. It then splits, so you can go east past the Extra Space Storage building towards Old Town or west along a sketchy fence towards Taylor Run Pkwy.

[LeprosyStudyGroup]

@creadinger 157118 wrote:

Wow! I’ve ridden by that tunnel like a dozen times on Mill Road and never noticed it’s existence. Where the heck does it come out? Behind that Extra Space Storage building and up the sidewalk to Duke St?

Yeah. The entry under the overpass has a set of stairs and a rusty railing. The whole area was significantly cleaned up sometime in the last year or two. It used to be the overgrown kind of place where you found mattresses and bags of who knows what strewn about. The lights inside used to not work. I thought it was an abandoned entrance to the sewer or some service thing to the railway for a long time till I discovered the south side entrance and connected them together in my mind*. I’ve yet to actually go through it.

There is a gloomily shaded trail hemmed in between the off-ramp hill and a fence going west over lightly heaving sidewalk, curving towards the animal hospital. It’s long and remote enough that anybody walking through it is out of sight and earshot of any civilization. A not insignificant little hill goes up the east side along the wall of the Storage building.

I live across Duke on the north side of that tunnel. One Sunday morning I went to see a movie at Hoffman with Mrs. Studygroup and I suggested we walk home through the tunnel since it’s a significant shortcut. We walked up to it and as soon as she saw the entrance she refused to get closer, and after some insisting from me, started crying from fear. We took the long way back. That is powerful access infrastructure haha.

[Author]

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