[Brandon]

@Steve O 190297 wrote:

I actually find auto-pause to be irrelevant for city riding and commuting (it’s more relevant for training and racing and centuries). I’m interested in how long it actually takes me to get somewhere, same as when one drives. Knowing that I was moving for 21 minutes of my 24 minute commute isn’t particularly useful information. It takes me 24 minutes to get to work. Full stop.
I can just imagine a car commuter with auto-pause:
“How long does it take you to drive to work?”
“17 minutes. Unless I count sitting at the traffic lights, then it’s 35.”

Unless you’re me and use that “feature” to continue justifying my bike commute to my wife. “It takes me an hour and 10 minutes door to door to commute by bike. It takes me an hour door to door by metro, so therefore it’s only taking me 10 additional minutes!” *excluding stopped time which pushes it to ~1:20 at which point my commute becomes “an hour and a half?!”

[Brandon]

@DismalScientist 189497 wrote:

A wise man once said that shit flows downhill.

This explains so much since the W&OD and Custis trails are sloped towards DC

[Brandon]

I saw it the other afternoon, it was in fact covering a cable. For a generator. That was parked next to the trail, but on the other side of the trail. Why they couldn’t place it closer or maybe in that huge fenced off lot they created, I don’t know. But it’s been a couple commutes and I haven’t seen it lately. Hopefully they learned their lesson on just moving the generator (it was on a trailer!) closer to where they needed it.

[Brandon]

W&OD from Vienna to the Custis was fine, a lot of areas had a light layer of snow that made for some slow going. The pedestrian bridge over route 7 was a little dicey. My commute from Vienna to Le’Enfant Plaza via W&OD, Custis, to MVT was about 2-3 mph slower than normal.

[Brandon]

@bentbike33 188005 wrote:

Westbound, the bike/ped bridge and ramp give you a nice break before the Brandymore climb. Also, once you get to know the route better you’ll find the bit between Patrick Henry and McKinley is a hoot. I recommend exiting the Custis to Fairfax Dr. right after crossing under Harrison St. (the underpass west of St. Ann’s), then taking Jefferson (the first right off Fairfax) up to 11th. I think that climb is a bit gentler, although the elevation gain is no different.

Thanks, I’ll give that a shot this afternoon. I did find the Patrick Henry to McKinley section to be fun, but it being my first time on the route I wasn’t able to take full advantage of it haha

[Brandon]

@Sunyata 187989 wrote:

I hate that section of the W&OD, especially coming westward on the way home. I may try this detour on the way home tonight and see how it compares.

I tried this one on the way home (westward) on Tuesday. I have mixed thoughts on it. I actually got off the Custis by St. Anne’s and went up to 11th there. I was totally unprepared for the number of steep hills going west on 11th and then up the hill from McKinley up to the pedestrian bridge. The actual signed detour doesn’t really add any hills, it’s just annoying. That said, even though bentbike’s detour had more hills, for some reason it seemed to take less energy out of me than the slog of that gradual hill. I actually felt better going into the Brandywine hill than normal. I’ll probably mix it up between these different ways just on a lark.

[Brandon]

Still open this morning

[Brandon]

I’ll jump in here. On 1/11 I did my first half century and stopped at Caboose on my way home for a beer, believe it was the Citra Session IPA. It was good, better than I expected, but felt so heavy after 50 miles. The bartender gave me a couple other tasting glasses for free since it was my first time at Caboose.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]19181[/ATTACH]

[Brandon]

Wow, I got stuck behind that thing this morning when it went up the trail to the TR bridge. It was breaking boards on that short section as well. At the top they stopped and waved me by, I assumed they were fixing something up there by the road. Not that they made a mistake and meant to take the left :confused: Glad I learned the alternate TR bridge route today. I’ll have to take that or try my hand at going from Memorial to Custis via Fort Myer, Iwo Jima, 110 from the other thread. Hopefully there will be someone who knows what they are doing in front of me that I can follow 😎

[Brandon]

Wow, I find it ironic and hilarious that a thread about changing a name from something ebike centric spawned multiple pages on BMI I think ebike threads just have a natural tendency to go multiple pages lol. I know BMI isn’t an ideal measure and I am a larger framed guy so I’m not too worried if I never make it into normal range. Even at my fittest in college, I was high normal/overweight from playing sports, but I’m also not an outlier like Lebron James or anything. And as long as life insurance companies still use BMI, it makes it an easy goal measure. It’d be great to eventually maybe get a rate reduction in the future (I think you have to have 12+ months at a weight before they’ll adjust premiums).

Amazingly my first name (Brandon) isn’t taken, but my email address is already linked to NovaEbike. Don’t really want to create a new email for the new account. Can mods really change a name?

Also, I really do appreciate all the support and likes from everyone here. The community has been great and very welcoming through my journey.

[Brandon]

@Nadine 181201 wrote:

How about Clydesdale?
Making you giddy is quite a recommendation! [emoji16]

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I really considered that but if I actually do end up meeting my weight loss goals I’d be in the same predicament haha.

@Judd 181197 wrote:

You definitely weren’t fat when I met you a few months ago. I think the mods have the ability to change names. I’m a big fan of using first names. I get to say, “hi I’m Judd. I’m Judd on the forums.”

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Thanks Judd, my BMI is still about 15 lbs north of the “obese” line and then I’d have another 40 or so to get out of the “overweight” category. Realistically, if I can get below 200 hundred I’d be happy. You make a good point about the first name though, I’ll have to see what’s available. Although LeprosyStudyGroup is really a great name too!

[Brandon]

Ok, so I don’t really know the trails in Arlington too well. I commute most days eastbound from Vienna on the W&OD then link up with the 4MRT and then take the MVT north to 14th st bridge. Going home, I take the MVT north from 14th and up Custis to the W&OD. Twice this week, I tried going from the MVT, across these crosswalks then to the memorial bridge and down Ohio Drive (surprisingly pleasant, I just took the lane, no cars). But I was not really happy with the two crosswalks from MVT to the memorial bridge and having to take Custis eastbound to do so. So, for those of you more familiar with the area, how would you get to memorial bridge from the W&OD/4MRT? One time when the 4MRT was flooded out, a kind soul showed me how to take Eads over to the Crystal City connector and I hopped back on the MVT there, but that’s been the extent of my exploration. I’ve also considered taking Custis to crossing the key bridge and then following the river on the DC side, but I’ve never done that either, been playing with google maps to get comfortable.

[Brandon]

@jrenaut 179633 wrote:

According to Twitter, GW Parkway is flooded at DCA. Likely to affect MVT as well.

yep, it was flooded on the road last night on my commute home. there was some debris on the trail, still there this morning. what was more dangerous though were the cars that decided to start bailing out of the GW parkway by driving up the grass and across the MVT intersection with the 4MRT to get over onto the airport road.

[Brandon]

@ebubar 179608 wrote:

I’m curious how much the replacement parts were and if they were covered under warranty (mainly the motor and controller). I’ve gone through normal bike bits and pieces so know about those costs. Just not sure on motor and controller replacement costs. Cheers and see you on the roads!

They were really good about covering things under warranty, I didn’t really pay for any of those even though I bought the bike from them as refurbished. It can be tough getting them to actually send things, you really gotta stay on them. When the first motor went out, they sent me a new motor and controller (in case that was the issue). The actually just sent a full rear wheel with the motor in it. I cracked a rim as well (rear) and tried to buy one from them (just the rim), it was on backorder but when it came in, they just sent it to me for free. To my surprise, they just sent me another rear wheel with a motor in it. Thus, all the extra parts.

[Brandon]

I bought a Juiced Cross Current for my 40 mile roundtrip commute last year. I was doing ~200 miles a week on it for about 9 months until I lost enough weight and was strong enough to move to a regular bike. It was up to the task in my opinion. I commuted all summer and winter on it. The only battery degradation I saw was during the extreme cold snap in early January. I kept it (and charged it) in insulated workroom but it was only heated when I was in there. During that cold snap I had to move the battery and charger into the house to get a full charge. I’d also say that I had the 17.4ah battery and that would be enough to go one direction in full assist without range anxiety on the way home. But if you hang out in level two, with the occasional jump to level 3 or sport, you’ll easily be able to do your whole commute on one charge cycle which will extend battery life.

As far as maintenance, I went through a motor and a controller in that time. I also broke the frame where the seat tube goes into the frame which was bizarre. You’ll go through some spokes, I relaced my wheels with 11 gauge spokes and that stopped them breaking. If you go with the Juiced, I’ve got quite a few spare parts I can sell you. I’ve got 2 extra motors in wheels, an extra controller, brake pads, etc. Hell I’d even sell you my battery. It’s all been taking up space in my work room collecting dust since April.

[Author]

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