[AMRunBike]

@cyclingfool 63060 wrote:

Something about driving your car across the country to participate in Climate Ride seems wrong. :p

P.S.-Just giving you a hard time…

Hahahaha touche! It sounds like way more fun than flying out, though! Plus, I’ll probably stay for a while once out there

@dbb 63066 wrote:

I understand there will be a shorter local ride through (or at least to) beer country on the Third Thursday of September

Good point!

[AMRunBike]

Haha, thanks, dbb! I was thinking I’d still pick WABA and probably Rails to Trails as my charities, maybe others. Hopefully that wouldn’t make me a black sheep out in CA!

[AMRunBike]

At the risk of sounding really grumpy and anti-family fun, I freaking HATE Gravelly Point on the weekends.

I get that it’s a place where families come to enjoy the weather, the outdoors, etc., but please enjoy it on the ACRES AND ACRES of grass (with picnic tables!) and not on the trail where people are training, commuting, and exercising. And Jesus H, if you’re going to let your kid ride their bike/scooter/skateboard/whatever on the trail, WATCH THEM. The young ones don’t understand the danger like adults do (or SHOULD). When I have a close encounter or almost-close encounter with a kid who’s “playing” on the trail, I always comment out loud to no one in particular, hoping the parent will at least be in earshot, that they should be very careful with their kids near the trail. It’s like a road, after all, people are using it to get from Point A to Point B, and some of those people are traveling at decent speeds on vehicles with wheels. I just don’t get why people don’t get this.

And sadly it’s not just kids who are a danger! Full-grown adults will wander into the middle of the trail without looking right/left and STOP and STAND there. Since they apparently aren’t aware of where they are, they don’t hear me when I ring my bell non-stop and say things like “excuse me” as I’m coming up to them. It’s actually unreal. I have no idea what these people are thinking. If you are at Gravelly Point for longer than 100 seconds (on any day of the week), you will realize that a trail goes through there, where people run and bike. You should then realize that you should be conscious of that trail and its users as you’re wandering around the park. But people don’t. And it astounds me every weekend.

I would love it if they put up a little fence or something along both sides of the trail just on those 30-40 yards of it that go perpendicular to the river, in front of the port-a-potties. NO CROSSING the trail there. You can only cross at the street/parking lot, where the cars are also crossing, or on the far end, closer to the river. Put a little crosswalk there for all I care. I think people would be less likely to walk into the trail and STOP if there was a crosswalk. They’d cross and get on with it. It’s not as natural to stop in a crosswalk.

Rant over. (Sorry!!)

[AMRunBike]

When running, I wave if waved at first. I have probably been known to initiate the wave, too, especially if I just came off a three-person streak of people who’ve waved at me; it’s then a reflex, and I’m like, oh, people be wavin’, yo. I am ready to wave, too. (But not in that voice. I don’t know what’s wrong with me today.)

I almost always do a head-nod-bob-acknowledgement thing, and usually a smile, too, even if I’m not waving. Again, this is when running. I do almost none of this when on the bike. Hmm, am I an a$$?

[AMRunBike]

Saw this on DCist and knew it would be in discussion over here.

Since I got my bike three months ago, I’ve never even thought about feeling unsafe on any of the trails I’ve been on (Mt. V, W&OD, 4MR, Custis, RCP), but now I feel like I should be thinking about it.

It’s creepy, and it confuses me that some people have such motivation for senseless violence in them.

I hope the guy recovers well.

[AMRunBike]

@TwoWheelsDC 52920 wrote:

Dang. I haven’t had experience with a lot of saddles, but at worst I’ve just been uncomfortable…numbness like that would freak me out. Since it’s a demo, I’m assuming they installed the saddle for you….did they check the fit of your bike, or did they just put the saddle on in roughly the same position as your current saddle? Could be that, in addition to needing a better saddle, the overall fit of your bike isn’t dialed in quite right.

Ha, yeah it was less than ideal. They adjusted the new saddle a couple of times before I left the shop with it (height, tilt, front/back). They are suggesting I do a “full fit” now, but it costs a lot(!), AND they told me last time that more minute adjustments might be a waste since I don’t even clip in (yet).

I suggested (and they agree), that when I requested this saddle to be tilted forward more, it ended up being too much, and now I’m having to put too much pressure on my hands/arms to keep myself from sliding off the front of the saddle. I would be fine with tilting it back so it’s more level, but then I feel like I’d be back to having the problem of too much pressure on my, um, “soft tissue” area, as they like to call it.

One good note is that this saddle is definitely an improvement in that I can tell I’m actually resting on my sit-bones now instead of fully RESTING on those “soft tissue” areas with the factory saddle! That was no bueno!

[AMRunBike]

So! I’m currently trying a new saddle I had put on Sunday evening. I rode about an hour and a half this morning, and my hands and arms went numb. Clearly there are still some adjustments to be made, haha :rolleyes: Going for a ~35 mile ride this weekend with a couple of friends, so hoping to get it adjusted and/or switched out before then.

By the way, I’m working with the folks at Bicycle Pro Shop in Georgetown, and they’ve been great so far. If I end up not liking this saddle even after some more adjustments, I’ll be able to switch it out for another one — ad infinitum, but hopefully not

[AMRunBike]

Happy to have met you folks last night! And huge thanks to TwoWheelsDC for riding home(ish) with me — I really appreciated it! (and, clearly, made it home safely when we parted ways) 😎

[AMRunBike]

@jrenaut 52097 wrote:

There’s a good chance someone will be available to escort you most of the way home – I tagged along with someone going the same direction from my first 2 happy hours because I didn’t really know the trails yet.

@TwoWheelsDC 52106 wrote:

Since I’m hosting and the beer garden is right by my house, I don’t have to worry about heading home at any certain time, so I’m happy to ride with you if no one else is going that way at the same time…so no need to worry about cutting the evening short.

Thank you so much for the offer, TwoWheels! I think I will plan to come and just play my departure by ear.

[AMRunBike]

I would like to come, but I’m not comfortable riding on the trails in the dark, so I might only be able to stay for one drink (I’m coming from Old Town Alexandria.) It would be cool to meet the group, though!

[AMRunBike]

@Dickie 51890 wrote:

You: Runner on 4 Mile Run.
Me: Cyclist who politely called my pass twice because it was windy and I didn’t think you heard me.

I am so sorry, you must of been having the worst day EVER! That is the only explanation I can think of for all the horrible and nasty words you called me when I called my pass (twice). I also must assume you have never heard an apology or explanation before as that seemed to throw you into a absolute rage…. I really thought you didn’t hear me, which is why I repeated myself… perhaps my chipper voice threw you for a loop. I am also sorry I have an accent which you reminded of with your degrading imitation. I will do my best to sound more American in the future when I don’t call my passes as it was obviously a really inconsiderate thing for me to do. I only hope that ruining my day somehow made yours better.

Was it a woman? I feel like I have ridden past her on 4 Mile Run before, ha. I did the same thing — called out twice — and she flew into a rage. It unnerved me!

On a similar note, I think if you are a runner and you’re wearing headphones, you shouldn’t be allowed to be pissed if you don’t hear a cyclist’s call. I’m not going to scream at the top of my lungs under the assumption that you’re wearing headphones and won’t hear me otherwise. I’m a runner, too, and besides the fact that I don’t usually like music when I run, I don’t wear headphones when running on the trail because it makes me feel much less safe. I like to be aware of my surroundings. And for the cyclists who DON’T call their passes, sometimes hearing the click-click of their hub is the only thing that alerts me that they’re coming.

Sorry, I’m done now, haha.

[AMRunBike]

Seen on the Weather Channel website just now: A Super Serious Commuter.

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[AMRunBike]

@KLizotte 50083 wrote:

Welcome to the forum. Very cool photo.

Thank you so much!

[AMRunBike]

@TwoWheelsDC 50042 wrote:

White bar tape is PRO. Even if you ride slow, people will just think “she must be on a recovery ride.”

Haha! There’s no “if” about it, but I appreciate that

[AMRunBike]

My “commute” is teeny tiny (2.4 miles!), but luckily it’s in and around Old Town Alexandria, and I see that there are two pit stops there! I will plan to hit them both and am happy to wave hello to anyone who sees me on my old red Ross Carrerra around-town bike (from the 80s – a Craigslist find). It has white handlebar tape, and I will likely look much less put-together than I do in this photo by my friend:

[ATTACH=CONFIG]2746[/ATTACH]

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