[brendan]

@S. Arlington Observer 133788 wrote:

Sort of desparate for news of S Eads Street in Arlington, especially heading north from the 4MR trail. Would very much like to resume my cycling commute. Anyone been there in the last 24 hours or so?

I had to Elite your post because you posted at 12:01am on 2/1.

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[brendan]

Riding home from Herndon in the unexpectedly more intense snow, I had no particularly scary moments on the W&OD and Custis…that is until I started down the Rosslyn hill. A lot more slick than expected. I even ended up sliding slowly across N Scott street against the light. Even at slow speed, I could not, foot down, stop the bike from forward motion and felt that if I fell on the trail, I’d keep sliding into the street…better to do that upright. Luckily no cars were coming.

The parts of the Rosslyn hill that had barriers on the north side of the trail were pretty snow free, so they served as a nice slide-free regrouping area.

Anyway.

Inside DC was hit and miss, I had to walk up 29th to Q from M St – the big dummy, even severely loaded down in back, couldn’t get traction on the rear wheel going up the hill.

And by Q St. things were getting really icy, so I ended up alternating sidewalk walking/street riding depending on conditions or incline. Finally went down trying to slowly turn left on 11th St from Q St. Bruised knee, but much more bruised ego. Made it home safe. Shower, dinner, beer and…studded tires now mounted.

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[brendan]

Yesterday’s late morning-ish commute…

Got on bike, headed south on 6th St NW a block. Turned west onto Rhode Island.

Ugh, the wind. Wow, I’m going to be late for the 1pm meeting. Yup. Key bridge crossing was cruel. I even had to keep pedaling down the hill from Vienna to Reston to keep the bike moving!

Two hours and twenty plus minutes later, in Herndon, I was a few minutes late. And exhausted. And joined the meeting in my bike clothes.

[The evening ride back was nice, though.]

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[brendan]

@dasgeh 129176 wrote:

So I’m going to reverse my MO and suggest that you head over to the Facebook Women & Bicycles group (I’m forever telling people there to come here). There are women-focused maintenance classes at various bike shops and coops (Phoenix and Velocity). People there know more details.

I second the recommendation of the Facebook Women & Bicycles group. They are very informative and supportive (or so I have heard).

Also: I routinely ride out of the city on longer rides (commuting and recreation), so in addition to riding with a chain breaker tool, I generally keep a couple of the KMC Missing Links with me (see here: http://kmcchain.us/connectors-list/page/2/ ). Popping a pin out of a cranky/broken chain is pretty easy. Seating a pin back in just right is rather hard, especially away from home.

Having these quick and easy links on hand for both home installations as well as field repairs makes me a lot less stressed (and a lot more likely to make it home on my bike). Just make sure you get the right ones for your chain/cassette (9, 10 or 11-speed are different links). They’re on amazon and available at many shops.

Brendan

[brendan]

@TwoWheelsDC 128749 wrote:

If I had a spare wheel, I’d definitely set it up solely for trainer use, since you can’t (or rather, shouldn’t) use a trainer tire on the road, and switching wheels is easier than switching tires for the times you want to take the bike outside.

I found that switching rear wheels sometimes leads to minor irritation with slightly-off shifting. Addressing the issue required only fine adjustments to the barrel adjuster(s). But I had to do it every time I was going from wheel to wheel.

It shouldn’t require it…presumably the cassette should be anchored in the same place…but I ran into that issue switching out wheels in the past.

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[brendan]

@hozn 113846 wrote:

You need a Crank Bros Speed(ier) Lever. Those make mounting tough tires/rim combos not only easily doable buy quite …. speedy!

I have gotten faster at changing tubes, though I still spend time to make sure I understand the reason for the flat. Have had too many times where I miss the piece of wire/glass and just immediately flat my new tube.

Second that recommendation. I have some pretty tight 26″ tires on my 26″ rims, until then I assumed tight tires only happened on 700c road rims. Took me about 30 minutes before the speedier levers to get them off, repairs and back on. Lots of grunting and cursing. Less time now with the speedier, and I appreciate the built in knuckle protection. Great bikearlingtonforum recommendation!

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[brendan]

@mstone 113019 wrote:

A couple of people did unsafe passes on me yesterday. Part of the spring wakeup, I assume.

Yup, time to seasonally adjust our trail safety strategies…

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[brendan]

@Terpfan 112969 wrote:

Yep, my legs are still feeling it. Couple that with the “oh it’s warm out, let’s take a run/walk/ride” crowd that’s gone for 1/2 of the year and the warmth wasn’t really that entertaining.

At TR Island, another cyclist was coming up the parking lot so I had to stay the trail portion there (southbound). When I got to the point of crossing the parking lot, I went slowly to make the hard right into lot to stay on trail seeing two women walking from the other side. As we meet, one woman decides to move further right (my left) and the other stutter steps about 5x and goes left (my right) forcing me to literally stop given the delay in moving/moving into my path.

But, they were outdone by the folks I ran into by the Memorial Bridge tunnel. Two guys decide to dismount their bikes and walk through, so I ride very slowly behind them. As we get out of the tunnel, they decide to stop and chat so I ring my bell and proceed to go left around them. Before making the move left, I check my rear. Low and behold, a runner is there attempting to pass me. I may have mumbled a wtf aloud. But seriously, what a tool.

Yup.

Thursday was my first “I’m cautiously overtaking a slower trail user in front of me, calling pass, ringing bell and then glancing over my left shoulder to find someone overtaking me at speed as I’m about to swing out” of 2015. But at least that was on the wider W&OD so it wasn’t a tragic incident.

I need to get back into the habit of checking behind me earlier so I can keep myself out of the collision zone. Even though it’s a shared responsibility for the person behind me to understand that I’ll need to move left to overtake the person in front of me as I approach them, so…perhaps it should be wiser to delay their own pass…

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[brendan]

@PotomacCyclist 112973 wrote:

[ATTACH=CONFIG]8246[/ATTACH]

Tires snakes. Why’d it have to be tire snakes?

[brendan]

I ate gravel several times today, but didn’t crash once. Silly wind.

B

[brendan]

@hozn 112862 wrote:

Agreed: cycling caps are not hipster any more than using a u-lock makes you a hipster.

Artisinal U-locks, on the other hand…

B

[brendan]

@Boomer2U 112835 wrote:

I always have one in my saddle bag, after learning the hard way by snapping my chain once and having to hoof it home.

I usually keep a couple sets of 9sp and 10sp kmc missing links in the bag. Along with tire boots, patches, cables and more tools than anyone should bike with. I also learned the hard way how difficult it can be to cut a gear cable with only a knife and still be able to get it through the housing…the cable was dual headed, so one end had to be cut somewhat cleanly…

[brendan]

@vvill 112815 wrote:

So other than Old Ox, what spots up around Reston to Leesburg (and Purcellville even) are worth visiting? One of these days I plan to make a trek up there and metro back from Reston (or get my wife to pick me and the bike up).

I rode DC->Purcellville (and back) to pick up four bottles of liquor from Catoctin Creek distillery last fall.

Ok, I rode to ride, but I picked up the bottles to brag (and to drink). Plus, it was a warmish day and they had some nice cocktail samplers for the halfway point…

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[brendan]

@Greenbelt 112792 wrote:

Important safety tip: do NOT dial the 800 number. This video was produced by 20-somethings…

Boo, video deleted.

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[brendan]

Rode south on MVT around 2:30pm, then north on MVT around 7pm after the rain. The slog north of the airport was a slog both ways. Clearly I had somehow offended the gods.

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