[Bilsko]

Ben,
Here’s a calendar I threw together that highlights a few of the group rides in the area – by no means an exhaustive list, and it really only covers shop/organized group rides. For weekday daytime rides, you’ll find a lot of people head over to Hains Point to do loops. Many of the racers/competitive riders will train, but there are plenty of people out for a more leisurely 15mph ride too.
It may be useful:
http://bikearlingtonforum.com/showthread.php?2520-Washington-Area-Group-Rides-Public-Google-Calendar

[Bilsko]

FWIW, CWG reported today that the temperature spread between DC and Antartica: 200 Degrees.
I’ll repeat, there was a 200 degree difference between two places on our planet today. That’s pretty incredible. ( I know, I know, it happens all the time, but not usually with us at the ass-end of one of those 200 degree spreads)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/capital-weather-gang/post/south-pole-weather-200-degrees-of-separation-from-washington-dcs-scorching-heat/2012/07/17/gJQAzq4BrW_blog.html

Oh, and also, Google released some new Streetview images today. Also for Antartica. http://www.google.com/culturalinstitute/worldwonders/scotts-hut/

[Bilsko]

I will be coveting this today:

http://www.cycleexif.com/edoz-bicycles

[Bilsko]

I did the WAGBRAD II (or was it III – I think it was two or three years ago) and like you point out, the toughest road stretches were along the 2-5 o’clock positions (along Minnesota Ave, in particular and then getting from there to American Legion).

I was curious so I found out that 495 is 64m around ( link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interstate_495_(Capital_Beltway) ) which means that a 100m+ circumnavigation will have to add a few miles of detours to make the full Century. I’ll be happy to contribute to route planning

Either way I’m game.

[Bilsko]

I’m in the middle of a quill–>threadless conversion myself. Right now I have a Nitto Pearl quill (110mm) that is just too long and am waiting for the 22.2mm quill–>1 1/8″ threadless adapter to show up in the mail this week (this one: http://www.universalcycles.com/shopping/product_details.php?id=23896 )

Its an old ’78 Schwinn Super le tour, and the headset measurements are all odd (31/32″, really…really?) so I’m crossing my fingers that everything will work.

If it does work, I’ll be more than happy to let you try out the old quill stem, if its something that will fit. Diameter is 22.2mm and reach is 110mm – oh and the clamp size is 26.4 (another odd measurement – fortunately there are quite a few people making 26.4mm bars – Somafab makes the good middle-of-the-road stuff, Nitto has the high-end stuff. Search universalcycles for [26.4]

[Bilsko]

I just came across Bishop’s work the other day. This CX bike he made is stunning:
http://www.cycleexif.com/bishop-bikes-cyclocros

For more custom work, see Horse Cycles, up in Brooklyn. Some good looking builds there too. And kind of cool to say that you rode a Horse along the 15th st cycletrack. Or, better yet, rode to #fridaycoffeeclub on a Horse.

[Bilsko]

Mondays are conspicuously blank on the group rides calendar. It’s actually one of the most convenient days for me. Would love to find out if anyone is riding. Lately I’ve just been doing HP laps on Monday evenings.

[Bilsko]

I had forgotten about these bikes:
http://www.innercitybikes.com/bikes/

Added to my covet list.

[Bilsko]

@vvill 25198 wrote:

Unfortunately I think it’s closer to $2k still… hence why I wouldn’t want to lock it up. Maybe in a few more years they’ll be more ubiquitous.

The BMC’s look really slick. They list CycleLife as a Dealer – anyone know if they have any Alfine’s in stock for testing?

These guys also seem to have a stable of belt-drive internally geared hub rides: http://www.joe-bike.com/ – I’m thinking the Norco and Civia brands. Any word on build quality?

Separately, on my list of Coveted bikes ( I know, I know, everyone else on Bikeforums has linked to this bike at some point in the past 5 years…)
I’d be happy giving my money to Mr. Yamaguchi for just about any of his frames.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]1351[/ATTACH]

[Bilsko]

Unfortunately they closed up shop and are no longer building any frames…and the webpages is not coming up on the Wayback machine, so I don’t have any details. Great looking bike, for whoever out there is riding it

[Bilsko]

Well, there goes the rest of my afternoon.

A few years back there was an outfit in Texas building custom frames – Moyer Cylces: One of the frames had this beautiful criss-cross design for the seat stays:
[ATTACH=CONFIG]1347[/ATTACH]

Looks like this close up:
[ATTACH=CONFIG]1348[/ATTACH]

[Bilsko]

@jrenaut 23865 wrote:

For those with kids – last weekend we went to Yards Park for the first time. It’s very bike friendly, and my kids LOVED it. We’re going back this Saturday around 930am, and I think it might get to be a pretty regular thing.

What else?

I’m definitely onboard for kid-related get-togethers. Maia is just a little too young (and I dont have a trailer/kid’s seat yet) so I may not show up by bike, but I’ve been keen to get over to the Yards with her.

[Bilsko]

A uesful link to keep on top of cycling-related legislation is: https://scout.sunlightfoundation.com/
Search for a term (any term, doesn’t have to be cycling related) and you can set up notifications when related legislation (on the Hill or in State bodies) comes up.
You can set up the notification specifics: Email, RSS, etc.

[Bilsko]

Ballpark amount for the fitting session? (Assuming just fitting, no bike purchase) Are we talking a hundred bucks expensive or two or three hundred?

[Bilsko]

@SteveTheTech 23825 wrote:

For the fun of it I swapped out the Looks for the old double sided SPDs with my new road shoes…that was by far the worst decision I have made on a bicycle. Hitting the mark with the tiny little cleat and nothing to guide me in was a disaster. At one point I hit a speed bump while not clipped in to either pedal (after half a mile of trying) and fell off the saddle. They are going back into the box and into storage. I’ll learn to love the Looks or swap to Frogs at some point.

Those cleat covers work wonders. I keep them in my back pocket, I was actually able to run about a 1/2 mile in my road shoes with the on. I had to actually sand a small portion of the rubber down on the edges as it was starting to peel a little. They seem to really improve the balance of standing in them. At least on dry concrete…I cannot imagine anything helping the traction on wet granite.

I got my Look Keos in the mail yesterday and installed them last night. I went for a quick ride around the block as the sun was setting and (despite almost getting run over) didn’t have too much trouble getting clipped in.
This morning on my ride to work, I did have trouble taking off with cars behind me at a couple of lights. I’m changing to the KEOs from a much older set of Look Delta-model pedals and it seems to be a bit tougher to get clipped in.

Yours is the second recommendation I’ve read for the cleat covers, so I’m going to spring for those soon too.

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