[Bill Hole]

AAA’s insistence on supporting cars at the expense of bikers, peds, and transit is the reason I dropped my membership and joined Better World. If you are an AAA member, check out Better World, switch to them if they meet your needs, and, most important, tell AAA why you’re dropping them.

Bill

[Bill Hole]

Some good points here. I have a partially crushed L4 vertebra that gives me a lot of trouble. To me, what helps are:
1. Higher handlebars. I use a hybrid for commuting. I can’t ride a drop-bar road bike more than a few miles without extreme pain.
2. Core exercises. Build up the core to support the back.
3. Proper fit. Experiment on your own (raise/lower seat or bars, move seat fore and aft, etc.) or get fitted by someone who knows what they’re doing.
4. Building up. I can ride up to 25 miles or so on the hybrid now. When I started on it, 10 miles would do me in. Riding every day strengthened the right muscles to support the position.
5. Doesn’t help for me, but a friend with a hinky back tells me that changing position a lot will help. Stand for a while, use bar ends to change your angle frequently, whatever works.
5. If all else fails, for longer rides go recumbent. I can ride all day on a recumbent without back pain.

Finally, get those x-rays. Make sure you don’t have some structural damage that could be made worse by riding or PT.

Bill

[Bill Hole]

Timely review for me. I ordered one yesterday before seeing this thread, mostly prompted by the road-rager I keep encountering on my morning commute, who has yelled at me while pacing me for blocks, and has tried to force me off the road. Time for evidence gathering.

[Bill Hole]

You could do what I did – wreck your car and not bother to replace it.

We’re a one-car family now so it’s bike or Metro, and I’d much rather bike.

[Bill Hole]

I just replaced the wheel set on my commuter for this very reason. After three spokes, I saw the handwriting on the wall and bought a set of 36-spoke wheels. I squeezed and plucked the spokes to be sure they were tight before mounting, and I expect them to work much better than the Shimano HR-500’s that came on the bike. This is the second bike I’ve bought in recent years that required new wheels because of spoke breakage. I have little faith in original-equipment wheels.

The longest-lasting wheels I’ve ever had were the set I built myself in 1981 for my old Falcon 10-speed. They’re still rolling.

[Bill Hole]

A few years back I rented a bike on the big island of Hawaii and went off to visit volcanos. I had no bike shoes and it was too hot for sneakers, so I wore flip-flops. Everything was OK until I flatted and discovered that the spare tube provided with the bike was worthless, and that I was out of cell phone range. I had to push that damn bike three miles back up a mountain until I could call for help. Never, ever, push a bike three miles up a mountain wearing flip-flops! Blisters galore!

[Bill Hole]

@consularrider 86697 wrote:

Well, I did win a water bottle two years ago.

So did I. Such excitement!

[Bill Hole]

I’ve sworn off Gatorskins. The first pair I bought, one tire had its sidewall hopelessly slashed after less than 100 miles. Recently another one with less than 500 miles on it decided it didn’t want to stay seated on the rim anymore.

I recently put Armadillos on my commuter. One has already flatted (less than 100 miles) due to a glass shard in the middle of the tread.

I had Kenda Kwests on the commuter before that, and they lasted over 4500 miles of abusive riding before the sidewall went south on one. Slow tires, but sturdy.

[Bill Hole]

@dsilly 61791 wrote:

It would actually add a few miles to my commute (Takoma to Arlington), but would be much more zen than my current route through Manor Park, Petworth, Columbia Heights and Adams Morgan.

Sounds like my route before I started working in North Bethesda: Piney Branch -> 13th -> Colorado -> 14th -> Columbia Rd. -> Ct. Ave. -> Fla. Ave -> P St -> through G’Town to Key Bridge. Really not a bad route, especially in the AM. PM could get a little tricky due to some narrow, crowded roads, but at least I didn’t have to stop once a week or so to fix a pinch flat or to bolt something back on after the trail rattled it off.

[Bill Hole]

@Rotund Baker 61693 wrote:

New to this forum, so hello everyone. I was wondering if there anyone knows if there has ever been consideration to building a bike only lane next to Beach Drive. There are bike commuters on that road every day and I bet there would be more if there were a dedicated bike lane.

Most of Beach Dr. parallels the Rock Creek Trail, which is unmaintained and unrideable for much of its length. Beach Dr. itself is too narrow for bike lanes, and the presence of what’s left of the trail is probably seen by the powers that be as a good excuse for not widening Beach to accommodate a bike lane.

I commute every day on Beach between the Beltway and 355/Grosvenor, and it’s really not too bad during rush hour. I’ve also commuted through the city to Virginia on Beach and the trail, and Beach isn’t too bad until you get down to Broad Branch where traffic gets a lot heavier, and you have to choose between angry drivers and potholed and cratered trail. I ultimately gave up that route and find it safer to ride through the city on regular roads.

There was a lot of talk a few years ago of closing off Beach Dr. in DC to motor vehicles, but the proposal was shot down. Too bad, that would have created an ideal cycle commuting route from Silver Spring and points north.

[Bill Hole]

You asked about the Joseph A Banks no-iron shirts. I wear them, and they really are no-iron. Pull them from the dryer and hang them up right away and they’ll look fine. Brooks Brothers shirts are also good about not wrinkling, but they’re much more expensive.

For commuting, I roll the shirt and underwear together and the slacks separately, stuff them into a plastic bag for cleanliness and dryness, stuff that plus a bag of toiletries into a small duffel bag, and stuff that into my panier. Works great. Dress shoes stay at work, shower flip-flops are locked to the bike rack with a cable that I also use to secure my front wheel.

[Bill Hole]

One of my recumbents uses 650c on both ends. Tire choice locally is abysmal, but shops often have tubes hidden away down in the dungeon. I buy all my tires and tubes online, and there is a good variety available, including racing tires and some fairly robust tires for touring/commuting. As for performance differences, it’s hard for me to judge given that my 700c hybrid bike has wide, low pressure commuting tires mounted. Anecdotal evidence I’ve seen in forums is that 700c will be a little faster, but I doubt if the difference is all that great. Keep in mind that if you go to a smaller wheel, you may have some adventures trying to find brakes with the proper reach unless you replace your frame and fork with ones intended for use with 650c wheels.

[Bill Hole]

These are common restrictions. Many buildings restrict bikes to the freight elevator. I can see the sense of that – people get nervous about standing next to a dirty, greasy commuting bike (that describes my bike, anyway), the management doesn’t want their nice elevators to get marred by our tires, and more. I don’t have a problem with this as long as the freight elevator is easily accessible.

[Bill Hole]

I second Liz’s route. When I work in Arlington I use part of her route to get there from Silver Spring. The only change I would suggest is that you might try staying on 13th until Florida, then cutting over to 14th. The bike lanes tend to disappear on 14th in Columbia Heights, and you can expect long waits at the lights through there. 13th is narrower, but the traffic is pretty slow along 13th with all the stop signs. Try both ways and see which you prefer.

[Bill Hole]

Montgomery County police ain’t care. They’ve never followed up on any of my calls. One of the many things that make me wonder why the county gets recognized for being good for cyclists and peds, when it is easily the most ped/bike hostile jurisdiction in the area.

[Author]

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