[BobCochran]

Well, Maryland has a lot to offer, too, even though I know you seem to be looking mostly at Virginia. Consider University Park, College Park, and Beltsville. Even Greenbelt. Two metro stations — Greenbelt and College Park — are quite close together. You’ll be close to Proteus Bicycles. There are accessible trails.

Bob

[BobCochran]

Here is my idea. Have you used this chain for a long, long time without ever cleaning it and lubing it? If so, you might have worn out the chain and the cassette (the little cogs on the rear) and the chainrings (big rings up front.) Not cleaning the chain, casette, and chainrings can cause them all to wear out. And the chain skips or otherwise misbehaves. I am really bad about drive train cleanings myself, and the last time I brought my Giant bicycle into the shop for a tune up, the chain and rear cassette had to be replaced. I’m trying to do better in terms of frequent cleanings.

Bob

[BobCochran]

I wonder if it is possible for a group of cyclists (defined as: whoever volunteers) to work out an agreement with the County to repair hazards like this, using tools and materials provided by the County. That might be the fastest way to get a hazard repaired or otherwise attended to. It would be a little more complicated to work out than the adopt-a-road litter pickup program that Maryland seems to have. These repair expeditions can teach a lot of skills that can come in handy to the repair crew in some other context, at a later time.

In my area, I bicycle across the Elizabeth Spellman overpass almost daily and I sometimes see litter and broken glass there. Perhaps I can find the time to do some cleaning up. The overpass bridges at Good Luck Road and Route 495 have a lot of hard-to-see shattered car parts — including entire front bumpers — scattered on the shoulders of Good Luck Road, and those could use removal and sweeping up too. Maybe I can see if Prince George’s County will send a cleanup crew there.

Bob

[BobCochran]

@JimK 146054 wrote:

The only person who stopped to check on me was a homeless guy who vowed to stay with me until the ambulance arrived. The cyclists who went by just kept going. In my experience, that was quite uncharacteristic. Most people at least ask if you need help.

Oh wow, yes, not getting any help from other cyclists is unusual. I’ve often had people ask me if I was okay if I seemed to be doing something unusual — like walking my bicycle instead of riding it. (I tend to walk it in some locations where I can’t see if pedestrians are nearby and/or the path is very narrow. My balance is bad and I always worry about hitting kid(s) or other pedestians when I ride near recreational parks.) I’m glad you were able to get to your phone. That was quite fortunate. I think you can just tap the “Emergency Call” button on the phone’s screen and first responders will be able to find you even without your speaking anything. Of course, you will need a pretty new phone that has an E911 capability.

Do you also have a “RoadID” thingie — from roadid.com? Could be helpful.

All the best to you, I hope you heal very quickly.

Bob

[BobCochran]

@hozn 146039 wrote:

I just decided to do a 1×11 for my road bike when/as I upgrade it to hydro.

@hozn — Can you explain what you mean by “upgrade it to hydro”? I think I understand the bit about “1×11”: you are saying you want one chainring up front and 11 cogs on the cassette, right? Tell me about the hydro bit.

Thanks!

Bob

[BobCochran]

JimK, I’m really sorry to learn about your crash and I hope you heal up fast. How did you get to the hospital — did you dial 911 on your cell or did someone get help for you? I’m asking because I wonder how quick rescue personnel arrived.

I had a crash like that too several years ago when I made the mistake of bicycling on a section of concrete sidewalk on Route 193 near Mandan Road. I broke my left thumb and had fair bit of road burn. Now I make every effort to avoid sidewalks.

I agree with KLizotte that trails, once built, tend to be neglected and there needs to be a way to fund and perform maintenance on them to avoid accidents like this. Perhaps groups of riders can volunteer time and labor if localities will provide the materials and tools needed for repairs. It should not be that hard to remove and replace small sections of damaged concrete to prevent accidents like what happened with you. The skills needed may have to be learned by the volunteer crew, but it can be done.

Bob

[BobCochran]

Thanks, Kitty! You make good points about hydration and getting electrolytes that I too am starting to appreciate now. I will pay attention to these and to training.

I hope your new bicycle is working well for you. You can always change the stock gearing to something that feels better for you. One of the people at Proteus suggested I change out my smaller 34T chainring for a new 36T. I said sure, and the new ring plus the suggestion that I need to use the smaller chainring as part of learning how to use the gears has helped me.

Bob

[BobCochran]

I agree with everything that KLizotte says.

[BobCochran]

@Kitty 145961 wrote:

Last year I found the “Big Book of Cycling” at the Arlington Public Library and it was a godsend! It really helped with all the little things that makes cycling and training easier/more comfortable/safer that I either never considered, or thought to ask.

Kitty, thank you very much for mentioning that. I have wondered about that book for a long time. Also others from Rodale Press. I do feel unable to make up my mind about Hurford’s “Fuel Your Ride”. The author is one of the very few I’ve contacted over the years who refuses to answer questions. This and one particular experience with an electrolyte-replacement suggestion from Hurford sort of makes me question bicycling tech books from Rodale. They don’t seem to be updated very often, either. Well, improving my mind with bicycling books never hurts. (Smile.)

Bob

[BobCochran]

Yes — while in the 50 States ride I was constantly trying to catch up with groups of other riders, and pushing myself to crest the sometimes surprising hills of the District. Monday I felt wonderful and I thought my riding was better in terms of performance and enjoyment. Indeed for this week I must be feeling a “50 States bonus”. Long rides and not wanting to lose the group have dividends, if I push myself.

Bob

[BobCochran]

I think the advice to ship your own bicycles to Seattle is a very good idea. It makes a lot of sense to use machines your are already fitted to and know well.

Is this your first trip to the USA? Speaking as an American who has traveled to London and the Southwest of England quite a lot, I’d probably want an organized tour led by experienced British cyclists if I were going to try London to Edinburgh by bike. Even now — and I’m speaking for myself. Traveling to England doesn’t mean I know the country well. So I’d try to get into a tour before going off solo on my own. You should consider the same thing for Seattle to Los Angeles. Maybe Adventure Cycling offers package tours, I don’t know.

And to speak to the actual topic…I don’t know that you can purchase a bicycle that fits you and is in excellent mechanical condition for USD $120. I have doubts about that, but I can always learn from fellow forum members. It’s not as if I’m a deeply experienced bicyclist or bicycle dealer.

Good luck to you!

Bob

[BobCochran]

Thank you! I know I’m not going to succeed as a racer, forget that. I just want to ride long distances and also to effectively replace my car with my bicycle. I’d like us all to have a cleaner world and my car is not helping that happen. My pedaling is.

Thanks

Bob

[BobCochran]

An IT budget is just one aspect of this. Perhaps a larger aspect is finding a volunteer or volunteers who have the time to do administration, hardware, and software troubleshooting, and to implement new technologies as desired or needed. It is one thing to serve lunches under a tent for an event. It is quite a lot more complex to back up a database server or troubleshoot why it is down. And then what does an admin team do when the web server is attacked in some way. When you need to replace 4 hard drives that night, where does the money come from and how will the new devices be obtained? The skills needed are tough to come by. The people who volunteer — and it would have to be a volunteer team — can easily be opening themselves to a lot of criticism when the site goes down or has problems for whatever reason.

Suppose persons A and B volunteer to be the forum technicians/maintainers/troubleshooters. These people both register for the next Cider Ride. The night before the ride, an operating system update is applied to the only server and suddenly the php binary crashes. It won’t load and start up, and the operating system update can’t be rolled back, which means the forum goes down until the cause is figured out and a fix is applied. Persons A and B are going to miss The Cider Ride and will be most unhappy.

Funding is definitely an issue, but people resources are potentially a larger issue.

[BobCochran]

Thank you! I’ll check into this!

Bob

[BobCochran]

@peterw_diy 145877 wrote:

Maybe it’s time for a new provider, perhaps one that supports https? (Am I the only nerd wondering about tapatalk and the Jan 1 iOS https App Transport Security deadline, https://techcrunch.com/2016/06/14/apple-will-require-https-connections-for-ios-apps-by-the-end-of-2016/ ?)

I totally agree that https support is needed, and a responsive provider that has the skilled staff able to fix web service issues. Web services are tough sometimes.

Bob

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