[Brandon]

This is a little interesting, I used strava on my apple watch for my commute. I also play music from my phone on one wireless earbud. I can do my 40 mile RT commute (2.5 hours) along with standard watch use during the day, and still have ~60% battery left by the time I get home. That said, I did notice that if I played music from the watch or used my podcast player, it drained my watch battery VERY quickly. So based on experience, the issue might not be with strava, but another watch app you are using. Try playing music from the phone and not the watch. The watch should still let you control the phone and music playing, but it’s not using the watch music app itself.

[Brandon]

So this is my first BTWD. I want to try and hit as many pit stops as I can tomorrow morning. I bike from Vienna to right around L’Enfant plaza. Right now my list is:
Vienna (where I registered)
Fall Church (Little Falls road), is it worth making a slight detour to hit the East Falls Church metro station stop?
Ballston (never been there/made that turn off custis so that detour will be interesting)
Rosslyn
Crystal City (gotta go for the 5/5 completion this week)
District Wharf
L’Enfant Plaza (is this worth it?)
USDA (is this worth it?)
Depending on timing, I may try and hit G-town waterfront too.

[Brandon]

It was quite floody and muddy out there this morning. The underpass on W&OD at Bluemont was really dangerous. The creek flooded and brought a LOT of mud and sediment onto the path that wants to pull you down. Same with the underpass under Carlin Springs.

The underpasses on 4MRT where they’re doing construction was also REALLY muddy, not slick but it COVERED me and my bike. That next section with the dip before the right hand turn was just as bad.

And path next to the 4MR river coming up to the MVT was flooded in 3 sections, some 6-8″ deep.

So SUPER fun commute. Be safe out there

[Brandon]

that thread is all good info.

I’ll throw in my unpopular opinion here though since my commute is 20 miles each way as well. As my screen name implies, I ride an ebike. I started for fitness. I had gotten fat and out of shape (300 lbs, 6′, scary BMI). When I was younger, I had biked a lot including some commuting, so it was trying to get back into shape. When I started, I had to use every bit of assistance the bike would give me. Over the past 9 months, I’ve been dialing it back and will continue to do so until I can do my commute on a regular bike. That said, I’ve ridden regular bike some days and yeah, it’s tough. Mostly because I’m still about 50 lbs overweight. Even when I get to the point where I can commute regularly on an unassisted bike, I might still find myself taking the ebike a couple days a week. The ability to turn up the assistance level if I’m sore or mentally fatigued or even if my knees are bothering me is a great thing. (or when there’s a 22 mph headwind like today’s ride home). Some people will look down on you, but honestly, I’ve had quite a number of other commuters mention to me that they’re thinking about an ebike for their commutes because it would allow them to do it 5 days a week vs 3-4. That doesn’t mean they’re planning on flying down the trail at 30 mph, but being able to maintain 15-17 mph for 40 miles per day 5 days a week without killing themselves.

anyways, food for thought. and a plug for juiced bikes since they make a really affordable ebike with really good range.

[Brandon]

@LhasaCM 175682 wrote:

I got a bit of an indirect answer when I raised the quote about the “safety feature” and asking for examples of unusual behavior. Ignoring the part of the answer about battery life and summarizing (since I can’t pull my e-mail up from this computer and don’t feel like retyping the whole thing):
1. Initially, the motor could shut off when there was pressure on the pedals and the brakes were also applied. This reportedly has been fixed in the software.
2. They will be “releasing upgrades to the controllers in the coming weeks to reduce the number of motor shut-off instances that are not due to a lack of battery charge.”

Still unclear what behavior really is causing it, but they seem to be working to make it better. The joys of being on the bleeding edge

Ok, I’ll throw my educated guess in the ring about the “safety cut-out” feature. It’s most likely not safety for the rider, but safety for the motor. They’ve likely programmed the controller to cut out when too much strain/demand/torque is present to ensure motor longevity. For cost, weight, etc. reasons most ebike actually use a lower watt motor and then overvolt them for brief periods as necessary/requested by the rider. My guess is that since these are shared bikes, they limit their controller to not allow for overvolt and to cut out when there’s too large a discrepancy between torque and cadence so you still need to shift gears like you would any other bike. Think of driving a manual car and trying to start from a stop in 3rd or 4th gear.

[Brandon]

@hozn 174696 wrote:

From the length of this thread, I’ll conclude that we lack some data that would inform the discussion on where e-bikes should and shouldn’t be permitted (and how classes factor into this).

A few that might be nice to know:
– What are the median speeds of traditional and e-bike cyclists?
– What are the accident rates (cyclist-cyclist, cyclist-pedestrian, etc.) for traditional and e-bike cyclists?
– What are the types/classes of e-bikes actually being purchased and used for commuting?

Given the lack of data, I’d default to voting for anything that implements the class-based guidelines of California and other states. I’m also perfectly fine with the status quo, though I recognize that e-bike usage is really taking off and I suspect the status quo won’t be acceptable to most trail users for much longer.

I’d be happy to let you/anyone use my data from strava to start to put some factual detail to this debate. I have a class 3 ebike and have been commuting 4-5 days/week from Vienna to DC since July. I’m also participating in FS on Team 13, Brandon F so you get quick glimpses into data from the distance, elevation, speed graph.

[Brandon]

Any bike shop should be able to replace the spokes and true the wheel for your ebike. I had it done at bike@vienna for less than $20 with my ebike rear wheel with a hub motor but I bought the tools needed and do it myself now.

edit: You should call ahead first though and see if they have the tools to do custom spoke lengths. Most shops (but not all) will.

[Brandon]

@anomad 173747 wrote:

That’s impressive weight loss and probably fitness gains to go with it. Good on you. Weren’t you the guy trying to figure out how to haul your required wardrobe on the bike? How’d that work out?

I’m interested in your rig and whatever phog comes up with. I have an old Kona mountain bike that would be a decent platform and a fatbike that is so heavy its like riding in slow motion.

I’ve been watching the Global Cycling Network spin off YouTube channel, Electric Mountain Bike Channel. Both the presenters are accomplished cyclists and motorcyclists, like me. Although the “accomplished” part is questionable. Seems like I would find a good electric motor on the fat bike a fun half step in between the two. Or put racks and fenders on the Kona and it would be a decent car replacement for short trips to the store or whatever. I’ve been eyeballing the Luna Cycles kits now and then. I balk at the cost, but I spent more than the cost of one of the kits on the rear shock of my motorcycle and forgot all about the expense after the first ride.

Yep, that was me. I ended up just rolling some dress shirts carefully and bringing them in. When I need to do the full suit dry cleaning, I’ve employed the use of my brother-in-law who works nearby to bring them back in for me in his car.

My bike is a Juiced Cross Current. They don’t make it anymore, but now have the Cross Current S which is better/upgraded. It’s a good bike at a really good price compared to the e-bikes you see in store around here. The downside is that you have to buy direct and with no dealer network on this coast, after-sales support can be tough, but it’s getting better.

[Brandon]

@phog 173634 wrote:

My wife did some bicycle commuting to uptown DC from Northern VA last year., and wants to do more but withan e-bike kit to assist. To test the waters I just got a used 1000 watt,, 48v. rear brushless motor kit off of Craigslist that would have cost $200 new (motor, rim, tire, controller, throttle, cutout-switched brake levers, sundry accessories) (batteries not included). Her bike has 700cc wheels and this wheel/hub is 26″ so I’m putting it on an old Schwinn Frontier (small 15″ frame) bike that I had, with a new, suitable aluminum rack and panniers and some lithium batteries. When i get it hooked I’ll test it out for range and drivability on a run from West Falls church to my work near the Capitol.

Welcome! I bought a refurbished e-bike back in June to start commuting from Vienna to SW DC and lose some weight (about 20 miles each way). It’s been great and I’ve lost ~60 lbs since I started in July. I’d suggest using 11 or 12 gauge spokes for the rear wheel and checking tension every couple weeks as the torque places a lot of stress on them. I’ve broken about 10 so far. Also, since you’re retrofitting an existing bike, ensure that a torque arm is included in the “sundry” items. It will spread torque from just the axle nuts at the rear stays to a second fixed point on the stay. For battery, I got a 17.4AH battery with my bike and that allows me to go back and forth to work on a single charge easily. As I’ve been dropping the amount of assist it gives me, I can actually stretch it out to 2 days back and forth, but I have terrible range anxiety.

[Brandon]

W&OD from Vienna to Columbia Pike hadn’t been touched when I rode in around 7am this morning. It wasn’t too slick and I was fine with regular tires and giving myself more stopping distance and time. I thought I saw some pretreating yesterday from Columbia Pike to the Custis turn off. In all, the snow only extended my 20 mile commute by 8-10 min

[Brandon]

@FFX_Hinterlands 171496 wrote:

Funny I came up with Triskaidekphile as well or Triskaidekphilic. It’s not very, uh, catchy, though.

No, don’t sell it short, Triskaidekphilic just rolls right off the tongue . . . We could go by T-Kids for short though

Quick intro for me, I live in Vienna and work in SW DC. In July I started trying to get into a healthy lifestyle and lose weight so I started commuting by bike every day so I average 150-200 miles/week. I’ve got 2 young kids (1 in daycare and 1 in kindergarten) so I’ve been trying my best to get in sleaze rides on weekends or when I have to stay home with one of them if they’re sick. I’m primarily the parent responsible for childcare duties at night so evening activities are hard, but if anyone wants to do an early happy hour is along the Custis or W&OD I might be able swing by for a drink. I’ve got a little more flexibility in the mornings for a coffee club though.

[Brandon]

unfortunately I wont be able to make it, have to watch the kids while my wife has a late work function. wanted the opportunity to actually meet folks, will have to hit up a coffee club or something I guess.

[Brandon]

@hozn 170880 wrote:

Is that the downside to mineral oil (vs. dot-5.1)? I’ve never ridden below 0º and don’t plan to, so it’s not a big deal, but I was wondering if the mineral oil would suffer a bit in the cold. I still vastly prefer working with it — and prefer Shimano brakes. I want Shimano brakes and SRAM shifting.

One or two times this week in the morning I noticed my Shimano hydraulic discs (with mineral oil) to be a little stiff when I hadn’t used them in bit. But one or two pumps of the brake lever got them working again. So you’re probably right about them suffering performance below 0º but it was easily remedied. If I left my bike outside overnight I suppose it could be worse. But in an unheated/semi-insulated workshop it hasn’t been too bad.

[Brandon]

The W&OD from Vienna to the Custis turnoff is the same as yesterday, mostly covered in packed snow with some dry patches, but the overpasses and bridges are pretty clear and it didn’t really turn to ice overnight. The Custis trail from the W&OD turn off into DC REALLY cleared up from yesterday morning when I rode it. It was totally clear and dry pavement. MVT from TR island to the 14 st bridge was also the same as yesterday, some snow by the wooden bridge, but otherwise dry pavement clear.

[Brandon]

W&OD from Vienna to Banneker Park is pretty good. Less than an inch of snow, no real ice to speak of, but Van Buren St. was probably the worst cleared street I saw today. the slush at the crossings along the trail are the biggest hazard. The bridges/overpasses were all very rideable as well.
From Banneker park to the sisters on W&OD/Custis is pretty well cleared as well, it looks like they made 2 passes along there this morning, but from the sisters to the moguls, it’s a little more snow. From the moguls down to the MVT was cleared very well with salt and melting nicely. The wooden bridge by Roosevelt Island wasn’t as bad as anticipated and the MVT from there to the 14th st bridge was fantastic. The high winds swept all the snow off the trail and it was completely clear.

[Author]

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