[Bill Hole]

I’ll reply to my own question in case someone else needs to know. This AM Beach Dr. was closed from Stony Brook to 355/Grosvenor, and looked like it was closed beyond 355 as well. The road is rideable, but has lots of small debris like leaves and twigs. Some areas have sand and mud. There’s a tree down and blocking the road just south of Connecticut, but you can ride under it if you duck.

Sligo Creek Parkway in Silver Spring was also closed, but there are no blockages.

[Bill Hole]

@culimerc 34533 wrote:

On a lighter note, as I passed they were loading the bike into the ambulance, nice of them to make sure it was ok too.

When I was hit 12 years ago, the EMTs put my crunched bike in the ambulance with me and left it outside the emergency room doors. A friend picked it up later and took it home for eventual repair. This was in Montgomery County. I don’t know how common this is, but I appreciated it. Of course, if the bike was still ridable it might not have been there when my friend came for it.

[Bill Hole]

What I like are the buildings that install their bike racks in the garage, and then post signs at the garage entrance saying “NO BICYCLES ALLOWED”. My current work site is a fine example of this.

[Bill Hole]

I find it too hard to use a mirror mounted on a regular bike, but they’re very useful on my recumbents because they are more in my line of sight. I have a Take-A-Look mirror on my helmet and it’s massively useful on either type of bike, especially as I stiffen up with age. Also, the Take-A-Look is almost indestructible. I knocked it off once while riding and it was run over by two cars. I bent it back into shape and it was good to go.

[Bill Hole]

@GuyContinental 21030 wrote:

I used to do Clarendon Custis – CC – GTB to Silver Spring and do miss it. It was a super pretty and interesting way to get to work even if the GTB gravel sections resulted in a filthy bike. I never liked my last miles into/out of Silver Spring on E/W hwy, often resorted to the sidewalks!

I used to commute the opposite direction to Court House from Silver Spring. I usually work in Rockville now, but when I need to go to the home office at CH I just ride through the city. Knocks 5 miles off the one-way trip and keeps me from having to replace my tires after the gravel on the GTB rips out the sidewalls. If I do decide to ride on the CCT for some reason, I bypass the GTB by riding Jones Bridge to Bethesda.

I wish they’d build the Purple Line already so we’d have a usable trail between SS and Bethesda.

[Bill Hole]

Living in MD, I don’t get the “opportunity” much to climb 41st St. But I’ve attempted it twice on two different recumbents. Got as far as the hard left turn on the trail and couldn’t make the turn at such a low speed without keeling over. Someday I’ll try it on a regular bike and see if it makes a difference.

[Bill Hole]

I use the trails both as a biker and as a ped., and I’d like to add three points to this discussion:

1. I hate it when riders pass with no audible warning. It startles me and my wife, and it’s just foolish and dangerous.

2. “On your left” confuses peds. I’ve had way too many of them veer left when they hear the “left”. Either a bell or “Bike passing” works better – it lets them know I’m coming and they can use their common sense to know which side I’m on. The one exception to this is when I’m passing one of those numbskulls who run up the middle of the trail or street (i.e. closed sections of Beach Dr.). Then I let them know which side I’m passing on – could be to the right.

3. People who wear earbuds or headphones on the trails and streets are a hazard to themselves and everyone around them. That goes double for cyclists. Cyclists who wear phones while they’re riding are candidates for the Darwin Awards. I’ve been flamed to a charred pulp for expressing this opinion on other bike forums, but I’ll suffer some singed eyebrows for the truth.

[Bill Hole]

@WillStewart 14654 wrote:

Another question might be:

– Should we be considering widening the scope to a Washington Area Recumbent Club?

There already is one: WHIRL (Washington’s Happily Independent Recumbent Lovers). It includes a listserv and a Saturday AM ride in Rock Creek Park.

http://www.recumbents.com/whirl/

[Bill Hole]

I’ve tried a lot of alternatives, and the only thing that works for me is a set of chemical toe-warmers. It took awhile to figure out how to place them so that they got enough O2 to heat up but were close enough to my skin to warm my toes.

[Bill Hole]

My wife has tried recumbent trikes. In fact, we have a recumbent tandem bike that doesn’t get ridden much. She doesn’t like riding with her legs out in front of her. I’d rather get her onto something like one of the Sun recumbent trikes because they have a wide gear range for our hilly neighborhood, and because they’re harder to flip, but she’s not interested. She wants something that’s like a regular bike with two wheels in the back. They’re available online, but she (rightly) wants to try one before buying.

[Bill Hole]

Thanks for your responses. I’ve been at both Bikes@Vienna and Mount Airey in the past and haven’t seen any adult non-recumbent trikes at either, but I’ll give them a call and see if that has changed.

[Bill Hole]

I hate riding on the sidewalk and avoid it if possible. But part of my commute takes me a short distance along the Pike, and I use the sidewalk. Rockville Pike terrifies me. As another rider said, look for side streets and trails (after the sidewalk I zigzag over to the Trolley Trail). If you do ride the sidewalks, be extra vigilant – drivers don’t expect a fast-moving bike on the sidewalks and driveways and parking lot entrances can be lethal.

[Bill Hole]

@bArlington – don’t be complacent about riding on the bike path. In the most recent incident involving someone I know, he was hit while crossing Little Falls Pkwy on the CCT. He is now recovering from a broken pelvis. And one day last week I broke my usual rule of staying on the road and rode on the Sligo Creek Trail instead of the parkway, and was rewarded with a right hook as a nimrod turned right into a parking lot across the trail. He just missed me.

Bottom line, they’ll get you no matter where you ride – assume the worst and always have an out.

[Bill Hole]

Could be a pedal or even a loose cleat. I’ve been fooled by both into thinking my BB was misbehaving.

[Bill Hole]

Thanks for the info. I think I’ll ride up to the Silver Spring bus chaos next weekend, find an idle bus, and see for myself how it will work with my fenders.

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