[Brendan von Buckingham]

That’s my commute. Merge into the left turn only lane before Kirkwood, but go straight across into the next left turn only lane for Wilson. Make the left turn like a car and take the lane. Keep taking the lane on Wilson because the lane is sub-standard width and cars hug or bounce off the curb tring to turn right on Washington.

By Starbucks they grinded off the old bike lane markings. They’ve shifted all lane markings to the left in order to turn the bike lane into a buffered bike lane. They’ve finished the buffered markings between Starbucks and Courthouse. That still doesn’t help the in/out at Starbucks. With the good downhill the safest thing to do is just take the lane and avoid the backed up traffic in the bike lane and cars coming out of starbucks. You go the same speed as rush hour traffic in tha a.m. anyway.

[Brendan von Buckingham]

My uncle is a highway engineer for Delaware. He’s highways, sign standards and intersection design. I’m like screw you old man. Wait, I’m an old man now too. Anyway.

He and the highway engineers HATE when a lane in a merge goes to waste because everyone merges early. That’s a huge amount of wasted space. Take the lane to the end, and if you’re not in the lane, leave space between cars so the merge is easy and dummies fighting over the 10 feet of space at their bumpers don’t grind it to a halt.

And that’s the key to eveything, including filtering. Space. Make space and use space, but never use all your space. If you do that the system is at its most efficient and will never stop. Traffic with space never stops. Time, speed, distance. You can’t stop time, you can’t (shouldn’t) break the speed limit, but you can always create space (distance).

[Brendan von Buckingham]

I’m an unapologetic lane splitter and filterer. Clarendon, Wilson, Key Bridge, M Street, Independence, L Street, wherever traffic is stop & go and I’m overtaking vehicles. The space between lanes is wider than the space between the car and the curb in the right most lane. I don’t have to worry about right hooks. In an emergency if my flanks are two cars there’s always a chance one of them could adjust their position (a curb just sits there like a giant endo lauch pad). No car doors when splitting. When traffic starts going faster than me I can take the center of either lane. Once traffic starts to outpace me, and lights get spaced farther apart, I stop splitting lanes and move right.

When I split lanes I’m like a twig on the stream.

I was pulled over and ticketed for splitting lanes going WB on Wilson between Clarendon and Virginia Square. The judge dismissed the ticket because I was overtaking vehicles in the right lane and avoiding poor road conditions in the curb lane.

[Brendan von Buckingham]

You: motorcyclist going eastbound on Clarendon Boulevard. You had a red at Highland, but instead of stopping you rolled through and did an RUR (Right turn, U turn, Right turn) and kept on going. Let’s be friends.

[Brendan von Buckingham]

Major: A Black Athlete, a White Era, and the Fight to Be the World’s Fastest Human Being

A great story. Unbelievable how fast they went back then. And now I know what a Scorcher is.

[Brendan von Buckingham]

I second It’s All About the Bike

[Brendan von Buckingham]

I don’t believe any of that story. It’s like some sappy, impossibly optimistic Disney movie. Like the Apple Dumpling Gang.

[Brendan von Buckingham]

I’m a 20 year commuter (never with a kid trailer) and bike between LeDroit Park, Capitol Hill and Southwest frequently for work. Take that into consideration.

Mt. P to Cap Hill with a trailer and kids is a challenge. I can’t think of a route that eliminates all problems. The most direct routes (Florida Ave, New Jersey Ave) are more highway than street, and there are several barriers (railroad tracks, New York Ave) to get across.

I like K Street NE as an east-west route between North Cap and Gallaudet. Going under the rr tracks takes some getting used to, but east of that K is wide and traffic is light.

I like 1st Street NW as the north-south route from Downtown to LeDroit Park. Traffic is light and have the easiest crossings over Rhode Island, Florida and New York. First Street NW between K and NY Ave takes you along Sursum Corda which some people might be uncomfortable with, but I’ve never had a problem during daylight. First St NW avoids New Jersey Ave where the drivers are breakneck and mean.

Zig-zag through LeDroit, which has easy neighborhood streets, and get to 4th to get you to the bike lane on 5th that runs on the west shore of McMillan Reservoir. The shortcoming is at the end of this bike lane. There’s no comfortable way to get on a west bound street above Harvard. Maybe someone else on the forum has a solution at this spot.

[Brendan von Buckingham]

I may be dreaming, but I’m in that vimeo clip at 1:50. It was one of the 5 Boro Bike New York rides. I forget the year. On one of the bridges, soome whackjob was biking on top of the center median. Skilled but whacked. I swear I passed him just as a marshal stopped him and yelled at him to use his head.

[Brendan von Buckingham]

All good info so far. You should be able to limp home on one broken spoke following all the tips. But I didn’t see anyone comment about weight, so I’ll add this.

Local wheel builder, http://www.billmouldwheels.com/school.html, has concluded that 180 pounds is the threshold when weight of the rider + portage becomes an issue for spoke tension and wheel design. Whether that’s the right number or not, who knows, but your weight is something to consider.

I recently broke a spoke right on my rear wheel right in the middle. I pulled over, removed the outside remnant, secured the inside remnant, and used a spoke wrench to redistribute some of the spoke tensions to compensate for the lost spoke. That got me home. When I got the wheel in my stand to replace the spoke, six other spokes heads at the hub were either bent or gouged. I must have kicked something up into my wheel and somehow levered it into my hub. Could have been real bad.

[Brendan von Buckingham]

Interesting that the vintage bikes were the ones most often stripped for parts. (for the most part)

[Brendan von Buckingham]

I say “Hey Red” to a guy on a red road bike with a red beard on Arlingotn Boulevard access road between Rhodes and Iwo Jima; me eastbound, he westbound. Uncanny how it’s mostly the same place, but it’s been DC waterfront too.

“Red” never says anything back.

I also yell out to “Joseph” when I pass the bar at Wilson and Adams. It used to be an old-man bar called Josephs. Same guys out front with a pitcher whenever the weather was nice. I’d call out “How you doin’ Joe” and they’d yell “Hey” back. It’s not Joseph’s anymore, and the guys aren’t there anymore, so now I call out “Where are you Joseph” when I pass by.

[Brendan von Buckingham]

Hey Guy, get outta my head.

[Brendan von Buckingham]

Showing that hidden connection between CCT and Chain Bridge is a winner. I’ve heard the legend, but never actually found it.

@DismalScientist 26832 wrote:

Speaking of walking with you bike over your shoulder, this is the path from the Chain Bridge directly to the CCT. http://maps.google.com/?ll=38.930504,-77.111921&spn=0.056019,0.035148&t=h&z=15&layer=c&cbll=38.930615,-77.111987&panoid=3xh1mliTHLM9SppnanO-zg&cbp=12,55.26,,0,5.77 Not pleasant, but doable if you don’t have gear.

[Brendan von Buckingham]

Be not afraid.
I go before you always.
Come follow me, and
I will give you rest.

[Author]

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