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In ’09 I had most of my bikes stolen. An old Trek 2200, an older Gary Fisher mountain bike, and my wife’s nice new Trek 7.3. The only thing they missed, to my great relief, was my ’98 Litespeed Unicoi, which was a stripped down frame at that point.

I’ve since rebuilt the Litespeed as a city bike with decent cargo capacity. About two years ago it got an electric assist and became my daily commuter. It’s nickname is “the Embarrassment of Riches.”

My wife got a Civia Loring to replace her Trek.

And finally, I picked up a ’04 Lemond Poprad off of Craigslist that’s serving as my all-purpose recreational bike. It’s gotten a few new parts like a carbon fork, mini-v brakes, and a compact crank, but is otherwise running the cobbled together 9 speed drive train that the previous owner bolted on. I really like this bike, but have been tempted to try something carbon for a while now. I’ve also never owned a bike with disc brakes and covet the ones on the Civia. But there can be no n+1, we’re in a small house and no more bikes will fit in the living room.

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@83(b) 83118 wrote:

People who have indefensibly shoaled me in the past week or so, in no particular order:

• many CaBis;
• people who can’t start without doing an awkward hop-shuffle;
• people who can’t maintain 15 mph at a minimum;
• people wearing bookbags;
• someone violating the “tights are not pants” rule;
• a pedicab;
• a mom pushing a jogging stroller;
• a Honda Accord;
• people wearing hi-viz clothing and/or who have mirrors attached to their bikes;
• a line of segways;
• people wearing helmets;

Addendum: people who don’t have fenders when its raining!

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@TwoWheelsDC 83526 wrote:

So ride across the bridge, up the bike lane on 11th to East Capitol, then to and around the Capitol to Pennsylvania Ave. […] Also, I just think East Capitol is one of the prettiest streets in the entire city.

I second TwoWheel’s route! I commute on that route and it’s a very pretty ride in very manageable traffic. Do note that to take a left onto East Capitol from 11th you’ll have to ride onto the sidewalk for half a block at the SW corner of Lincoln Park. Traffic only circulates around the park counter-clockwise.

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@dasgeh 83412 wrote:

The good news is that the Architect of the Capitol is very interested in becoming more bike friendly — they have a sustainability guy who was at the National Bike Summit. So maybe there’s hope.

Closer to the Capitol and the office buildings, the big road block to getting anything done is Capitol Police.

It would be especially awesome if there were a way to connect the Penn Ave lanes to the East Capitol lanes that didn’t involve climbing capitol hill by salmoning up Northwest or Southwest Dr or by riding on the sidewalk, which is often has heavy pedestrian traffic. As I recall though, one of the parties with control over that area wasn’t willing to make accommodations when the lanes were installed.

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@Brendan von Buckingham 83351 wrote:

Stopping cyclists don’t need lanes to keep themselves in line because they have no problem untangling and moving again.

I’m afraid I disagree, adamantly, about this part. Unless “no problem” means I’m allowed to treat it like a mountain-cross mass start where unintentional contact is considered fair play. Which I’ve had happen on not just one occasion.

East Capitol was a terrific mess again this morning and I’ve given up even the pretense of trying to pass shoalers courteously.

In review, shoaling is not safe. It also makes you a gigantic vibrating personal massager.¹ Honor the social contract.

¹And not one of the cool fancy ones. One made in China from lead paint and recycled cell phones.

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I think that Niner looks amazing!

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While we’re once again on the subject of red lights…

I’m a bit of a stickler and obey all traffic control signals/signs.¹ My biggest complaint with red light running cyclists is that their action always results in one of three outcomes that brings them into conflict with me. These range from merely annoying to genuinely dangerous. Responses to each scenario should be guided by a simple principle: if you fail to abide by the social contract then you don’t deserve its protections.²

(1) Most commonly they will shoal me and then run the light. The light will change in far less than a minute and I’ll have to pass them within a block or two. This is aggravating, as there are likely cars on my left in the travel lane that also just finished waiting at the light. In this situation, I will usually pass (without using my bell) at whatever distance I’m comfortable with.

(2) Second most common is the rider shoaling me while looking for a chance to run the light but not finding one before the green. Again, I’ll pass with a minimum clearance, usually overtaking the offending rider before they’ve cleared the intersection.

(3) Least common is having the light change right as the rider is shoaling. This leads to us trying to clear the intersection at the same time. If they were trying to shoal me on the left, I’m not moving into the door zone to give them room and they can get forced into the travel lane. If they were trying to shoal me on the right, same result, except they’re pushed into the door zone or first of the parked cars. The worst case scenario is someone getting forced into the Penn Ave bollards³ (which happened once, causing me to behave in a most un-Dirt-like manner).

In summary, I think that cyclists should always obey red lights when another cyclist has arrived at the intersection before them. Shoaling should be punishable by SuperSoaker^TM. Abiding by the social contract keeps us all safe. And I can be kind of a jerk about it.

¹Somewhat related, I’m no fun at parties.
²For example, while traveling this weekend a guy tried to push past from a later row when mine hadn’t deplaned. He was not abiding by the social contract.
³I also cannot for the life of me understand why anyone would pass the stop line on Penn ave and wait by the light pole and bollards. Have you seen how many of those bollards have been taken out by cars? Up and down that road like a third of them are bent or missing completely!

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People who have indefensibly shoaled me in the past week or so, in no particular order:

• many CaBis;
• people who can’t start without doing an awkward hop-shuffle;
• people who can’t maintain 15 mph at a minimum;
• people wearing bookbags;
• someone violating the “tights are not pants” rule;
• a pedicab;
• a mom pushing a jogging stroller;
• a Honda Accord;
• people wearing hi-viz clothing and/or who have mirrors attached to their bikes;
• a line of segways;
• people wearing helmets;

In a few days DCist will be running a story about some crazy guy in a suit, tie, and full-face downhill helmet and pads wreaking havoc up and down the Penn Ave and East Capitol bike lanes. Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain. These aren’t the droids you’re looking for. As Shaggy would say, “It wasn’t me.”

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I know that you can put one of the ebikes.ca kits onto a Boda Boda, but I don’t think they plan to offer one stock. The Clever Cycles guys offer Yubas (and Kinn, which is a less publicized American made mid-tail), and I’m sure would be willing to put together one with an ebikes.ca kit for you if you wanted one. Clever Cycles and ebikes.ca partnered on their Edgerunner offering. Alternatively, you could install a kit yourself. It’s not much harder than switching out the front wheel and the grips. All the electrics in the kit just plug together.

As far as batteries go, the ebikes.ca kits come with a standard connector pin (called an Anderson Powerpoles). When it’s time for a replacement you could get a new one from them or you could order from a third party like Ping. Ping’s batteries don’t come in the nice hard case that others do and you have to crimp on the connectors. But they’re several hundred dollars cheaper and come in a much wider range of capacities. If your commute changed and you wanted something to carry you 60-70 miles on a single charge, Ping makes it.

BionX uses a proprietary motor controller that is built into the hub motor and proprietary battery management built into the battery. So a dead BionX battery has to be replaced with a new one of theirs. The ebikes.ca kits separate out the components so a failure only requires replacing the failed component. But if the eBaks is on a BionX system it may make the most sense to stick with that so that the batteries and chargers are cross compatible.

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I hear great things from my neighbors that have Yuba Mundos (though not the electric version). The only downside seems to be that the BionX system locks you into using their proprietary batteries when they need replacing in a few years.

The ebikes.ca guys chose the Edgerunner when they decided to develop and offer an electric cargobike. Apparently, using a 20″ rather than a 26″ rear wheel gives you up to a third more torque from the motor. It also helps keep the cargo deck lower. They offer a couple of packages that seem to offer nice, well thought out builds. One offers an extended range battery (25-35 miles @~20mph). One has a more powerful battery (18-25 miles @~25mph). The third build is the most interesting. It uses a mid-drive system to drive the chain rather than a hub motor. A Patterson 2-speed freewheeling crankset allows the motor to run without forcing the pedals to turn.

If you decided you like the Edgerunner, there are two options from the ebikes.ca guys that would be worth considering. The first is their Cycle Analyst, which is a cycle computer that also reports motor and battery information. I really like knowing exactly how much battery I’ve used and how many miles I’ve got left on a given charge. The second is their Cycle Lumenator front light. It’s 1,000 lumens and, when mounted low on the bike so as not to blind people if you ride on a trail, is great for both seeing and being seen. I’ve got one mounted under my front rack and have gotten a lot of compliments on it over the years.

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On my road/cross bike I’ve got old 9 speed Ultegra (6500 or older). The rear derailleur is a medium cage and I can run a 34 tooth cassette by flipping the b-screw around so that the screw’s head rests on the derailleur hanger. The shift range is somewhat limited; I don’t cross chain within the last two gears, which takes some attention. Basically the same setup and problems as Phatboing above.

With a compact crank that gets me a 1:1 low gear, which is occasionally very useful.

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@Steve O 82699 wrote:

When this happens to me, and the offending vehicle is now stopped at the light, I just go around and get back in front of them – no cussing, no aviary gestures. Just roll on ahead as though nothing happened. With buses, you often have the opportunity to do this over and over, since they end up stopping at bus stops for passengers.

Bonus points for riding ahead to the next stop and then boarding the bus after stowing your bike on the front rack. Disembark one stop later. Repeat as necessary.

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@peterw_diy 82264 wrote:

The folks at Daily Rider were great.

I love the Daily Rider folks!

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On some of the narrower two way streets on the Hill that aren’t striped (particularly the ones that really aren’t wide enough for two cars to safely pass one another) I’ve found that oncoming cars will just stake out the middle of the road and force me into the door zone. I kind of liked the double yellow providing a clear signal that “this part is mine, that part is yours.” The striping might also cut down on double parking on the bikes-only side of the road (and now I’ve exhausted my entire days supply of optimism!).

G St is pretty quiet other than during rush hour or late at night when people are trying to park to visit H St. So I really think conflicts will be minimal. The late night crowd worries me somewhat though. There are way too many impaired drivers around H St on weekend evenings, so if I’m headed that way then I’ll just walk.

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@Dirt 82170 wrote:

New counter-flow bike lane on G Street, NE

I rode the G St lane in both directions this weekend with a novice on a CaBi. They had previously had trouble making a left onto H St from 13th due to the high volume of oncoming auto traffic and drivers behind them getting impatient to make their own left turn. Honestly, I’ve had unpleasant experiences making that turn.

They LOVED the new G St. option! It’s so much calmer than H St. and has 4-way stops rather than lights that queue anxious cars up behind you. We just took G St down to the block we needed on H St and then walked across at the pedestrian crosswalk.

Heading in the contra-flow direction didn’t seem problematic at all. I never felt like I wouldn’t be able to tell if a driver was about to pull out. And if they did you would have the option of swerving left, as that would mean swerving into an oncoming lane where you can see what’s in front of you. Contrasts favorably with potentially swerving out in front of an overtaking vehicle in a “normal” bike lane in a typical dooring situation.

I did note that the paving on G St. is pretty rough in spots. Hopefully PotHolePalooza can focus on some of the worst stretches. I’ve reported the stretch alongside the school.

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