[brendan]

@txgoonie 25082 wrote:

After struggling with the reach on my 105s and getting to feel Jabber’s SRAM Reds, I suddenly was, too! I’ve swapped out half a dozen handlebars trying to get the setup to work, and it just doesn’t. I’ll be in the same boat as the OP in a few months, looking to upgrade. Almost entirely sure I won’t be buying carbon — I feel I still have a lot of room to grow. But whatever I do get will have SRAM.

I’m fairly certain the index pull distance is different for shimano vs. sram rear shifting systems (though I think SRAM makes a small subset of shimano compatible parts). Also with some shimano components, the index to index distance changes over the range of index points…

Brendan

[brendan]

Back on the bike, but slow. So, see y’all around 6 or so?

Brendan

[brendan]

Does Vittoria make a non-reflective variant of those tires? If they are relatively new, might make more sense to buy the other version and sell the ones you have at half price or so. That reduces any risk of making your tires a total loss and/or a safety hazard (aside from the lack of reflective trim ).

Brendan

[brendan]

Wow, that’s bad luck and also super scary.

Though, the latter part brings to mind some words of wisdom I’ve read on the forum several times, which is: practice your commute a weekend or two before doing it on a work day…

Brendan

PS – I always feel like I should pack or repack my bike kit up before putting my bike away (like a parachute) instead of in a rush to get going in the morning. And yet, I never do…

[brendan]

Geez, does the Washington Times have a contract to have one of these anti-bikeshare articles/opinions written *every* week?

[brendan]

@TwoWheelsDC 24537 wrote:

Well, I just got married this last weekend and I’m on my honeymoon cruise in Alaska, but that hasn’t stopped me from putting some miles in. Yesterday my wife and I rented some bikes in Juneau with another couple and rode about 25 miles up to a glacier and back. Maybe the pics will help you think cold thoughts during the heat wave.

It’s been about 13 years since I was there, but I recall Mendenhall Glacier being incredibly beautiful…though we viewed it from a sea plane tour.

Brendan

[brendan]

@Dirt 24447 wrote:

I really wanna do the 50 States ride karaoke style this year. Definitely livens up the ride a bit to sing a song about each state while you’re riding on that street.

Not sure if I’ll do Back Roads this year. It is a very fun century.

Heh! I rode last year with a sound system and an on-the-fly state-related playlist.

Karaoke style would be amazing too.

Thinking of doing the back roads century again, have to check schedules.

Brendan

[brendan]

Aside from grime and UV-damage, the pie plate looks like it’s not seen too much mileage. That it’s still there and not cracked means I assume the rest of the bike hasn’t seen much mileage either?

[brendan]

@dbb 24323 wrote:

If you are an Arlington resident, please consider signing the petition.

done and shared.

Brendan

[brendan]

@jordash 24288 wrote:

Thanks for the responses everybody. I just got power back on yesterday. The bike is only 2 months old and has 1150mi on it, so the cabling quality should be fine. I noticed normal cable wear from the pinch bolt. Once I loosened that and manually clamped the calipers, it’s clear there’s something wrong with the spring because they do not return outwards. I don’t know much about how the spring mechanism works, just that it counter-pressures the two arms.

Are the two spring arms properly seated in the channels in (or against the pins on) the arms? Is the bolt on the vertex properly adjusted? On some brakes it is a tension nut plus lock nut (or lock ring) design, but sometimes the tension bolt gets adjusted too tightly if it was adjusted by someone who wasn’t aware of the two adjustments. Also, sometimes that whole bolt could use some de-rusting and greasing.

Brendan

[brendan]

Broken links?

@dbb 24277 wrote:

The saga continues. These were taken about 1630 on 3 July.

I particularly like the bike tire track in the fresh asphalt patch. The fact that it is asphalt likely means that the contractor will have to remove it in the future and replace it with concrete.

At least the sidewalk/trail has been reopened.

[brendan]

@MCL1981 24217 wrote:

They started wising up about the traffic control situation in the Montgomery Blast Radius. Cones and tape down the middle where the main road has a median. This makes it so that intersecting traffic (the smaller road) can only turn right. This significantly sped things up since nobody could actually cross all the lanes. Most people are getting the hang of it too. The main roads, people slow and stop as needed to accommodate someone waiting to cross/turn. And where the view is clear, people just roll through in groups rather than stopping one at a time unnecessarily. Friday night and Saturday were an absolute nightmare. But by Sunday, people were figuring it out.

What really gets me is once night falls. Sometimes you don’t know you’re blasting through a controlled intersection until you see the light in the top of the windshield. I went through many dark intersection without even realizing I was in them

Route 50 also has the cones through the intersections so that cars on intersecting streets can only turn right. No one on 50 is even slowing at the non-functioning traffic lights

@MCL1981 24217 wrote:

You apparently have never driven through Dupont, have you?

That’s a poorly engineered roundabout from a modern traffic management perspective. Better yet, a calmed version of the circle, which would encourage automobiles to take other routes, would be nice.

Brendan

[brendan]

We got caught in the incoming storm front walking from the 3rd district police station (needed a parking pass) to a birthday party about four blocks west of us on 18th st. When we walked outside it was a drizzle, but by the time we were halfway there, the rain/wind was so fierce that we couldn’t open our eyes and had to crouch during some of the initial gusts. There was already a tree down over the sidewalk on California street by the time got there.

Some bad timing, definitely…but we made it safe to the bar, though the downstairs was full/closed. So they sent us upstairs to the semi-open sided roof deck. Um. A bit scary, but the northern view through the open portion was spectacular.

We just had to stay on the south side of the room to avoid occasional flying bit of furniture on the north side of the room…

Brendan

[brendan]

@dbb 23975 wrote:

The lesson is one worth repeating. Inspect your bike more frequently than you probably do now.

Indeed! I’ve twice had my handlebars shift positions after hitting road debris. Luckily the one high speed incident was on a road bike and at the front of the stem, not the rear (bars rotated down, but still centered and steerable). The flat bar incident was much more dangerous (rotated out of alignment with the wheel), but happened at low speed and cause a very surprised me to fall over at about 5mph. And then amusedly nearly fall over again when trying to re-mount before realizing that the handlebars and steering tube had shifted relative positions…out came the multi-tool.

Also: recalling these, as well as my more recent and more serious crashes…clearly I really really really need to be more careful about exactly where I put my front tire. But yes, inspect, adjust and re-torque as needed.

Brendan

[brendan]

@creadinger 23530 wrote:

Hah, 100 feet??

On the MVT that would mean calling/dinging to pass the 4th person up ahead while passing #1. The sightlines and traffic on the MVT just do not warrant giving huge warning times before passing, unless you just want to constantly ding your bell every 5-10 seconds. Most of the time when I pass another cyclist I have been riding behind them for a few seconds already because on-coming traffic is in the way. So no, they don’t get multiple warnings 5 seconds prior to me passing them.

On weekend MVT rides, I ding my bell every 5-10 seconds. Which is why I almost never ride the MVT on weekends…and if I do, I don’t do it on any sort of time schedule.

Brendan

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