[brendan]

A friend had a near mishap when heading west on the W&OD. Upon arriving at the west end of the trail in Purcellville, he was so excited to see us waiting at the bike shop that he rolled right over the elevated seal in the pavement at the end of the trail without seeing it. He did manage to recover without dropping the bike, but it was close…

[img]http://media.mcenearney.com/pics/community/4240/28299//crop/386,305[/img]

Also, I believe that part of whites ferry road may be private property, so I doubt you’d get much traction trying to increase the safety there.

Brendan

[brendan]

Another +1 for peroxide (oxyclean powder creates this in solution) for glove-stink. I also rinse off my helmet’s padding and straps when I get home otherwise I get helmet stink and white salt crust on the black straps.

Also, ew.

Brendan

[brendan]

@CCrew 16444 wrote:

Bike lane on Fairfax as you come off the Custis connector, right at Glebe Road crosswalk (eastbound side of Fairfax).

Looks like someone dropped about 50lbs of coarse gravel right in the bike lane. Been there a few days, was hell on 23’s this morning riding the race bike as you pretty much have to get in the right lane to avoid it. Where to report it would be nice…Thx

Gravel still there yesterday.

[brendan]

Related: anyone else often check to see if the car stopped behind you in the right lane (or over into the bike lane) is planning a right turn and decide to move out of the way to let them make a right on red? Anyone ever been honked at for not doing this?

Brendan

[brendan]

The arlington->whites ferry->leesburg->arlington loop ride (whether it be via road or towpath on the MD side) is my go-to weekend ride. The ferry operator asked me a few weeks ago (on a particularly cold yet muddy day of towpath riding) if I biked everywhere. I told him mostly yes. He then asked if I had a car. I said yes. He said, “oh, good, that’s a relief.”

Heh. I guess he was really asking if I was one of those bike-crazy weirdos…or maybe he was just worried for my safety…

Brendan

[brendan]

My advice would be to come up with both a C&O-towpath-based route as well as a non-C&O route. If it has rained significantly a day or two before my ride, that may discourage me from spending too much time on the towpath. For speed, comfort and safety reasons. Some sections become quite mucky. My difficult mud experiences have been the 5-10 miles east/south of whites ferry on the towpath – I haven’t ridden west/north of there on the towpath.

brendan

[brendan]

Wow, how could I have forgotten the vultures??? I asked a couple people if they’d seen it who biked by around the same time, but they hadn’t noticed. Before I got up close, I thought I saw a pile of garbage off to the left, and was was startled when I realized there was a vulture with its wings completely outstretched presiding over the carnage/feast with his friends. Was going a bit too fast right then to stare, though, and clicked my eyes back to the road with a slight shiver.

We got to brandywine a bit late, so there was no cowbell warning, just a turn and an “oh crud.”. Or perhaps something slightly more colorful. But we did get back in time for the last bit of soup before they put it away.

brendan

PS – did any one else have trouble finding the wegmans stop?

[brendan]

1. There are a lot of concrete seams on the custis trail in that section, most filled with a rubbery compound, but often wider than a road bike tire and very easy to get a tire stuck into – seems like a safety issue to me.
2. Painted stripes are notoriously slippery when wet – when sticking to the right on certain roads, I always keep off of the painted white line, for instance.
3. Over the past year, I’ve slowed my downhill speed in the Veitch through Lynn St. section. Is it the new signals? A couple close calls? Probably both.

Brendan

[brendan]

@baiskeli 6906 wrote:

Try this:

http://www.wikihow.com/Trigger-Green-Traffic-Lights

Thanks. The road was recently repaved, so I can’t even start to guess what kind of loop it is and where the loop is. I just move up past the stop line (which, thankfully, is recessed quite a bit from the highway) and gesture to my “rescue car” when it finally arrives that the driver should pull all the way up to the stop line. They figure I’m being crazy until they finally pull up and the light starts to change…so either it’s a not-very-sensitive loop system or there’s a lot of coincidences…

Brendan

[brendan]

@RESTONTODC 6750 wrote:

Here is an another excuse you can used if you get pull over by a cop for running a red light.

According to VA law effective July 1, 2011

“Motorcycles, mopeds and bicycles may treat a red light as a stop sign if their bike fails to trigger the traffic light and they have waited two full cycles of the light or two minutes, whichever is shorter.“

http://www.dmv.state.va.us/exec/notice.asp?id=113

You still need to watch for cars.

Any regular MD->VA passengers of the ferry at Whites Ferry notice that the signal from Whites Ferry Road across James Monroe Parkway, where you have to make a left to get into Leesburg, only seems to change when a car (finally!) comes up behind you (or comes to the non-turning lane on the other side of the highway)?

http://maps.google.com/maps?q=whites+ferry+road+and+james+monroe+highway&hl=en&client=firefox-a&gl=us&t=h&z=16

Brendan

[brendan]

@CCrew 6644 wrote:

It’s not “bad” as much as it is inefficient. And many of the folks here have been riding long enough to know that the people that buy hybrid bikes tend to run in two classes. First are the ones that buy it and find the inefficiency to be unbearable and give it up, and second are the ones that realize the inefficiency and move on to something more efficient. Hybrid’s do tend to be a “gateway drug” to cycling. You love it and go on to something harder or you realize it’s not for you. DismalScientist’s comment I’m sure reflects that experience and really isn’t off base.

I’ll disagree a little here. I’ve done all of my century rides on a hybrid (2009 Gary Fisher Kaitai). I bought a road bike this spring primarily for time-limited endurance rides (e.g. the total 200 in june), paceline work (you can’t draft *all* the time), and for hill training with shop rides. I ride my cargo bike (which is hybrid-esque) almost all the time now for general transport, solo weekend rides (e.g. arlington->C&O->leesburg->W&OD->Arlington loop) and non-shop group rides. Took it to Iowa last month and rode RAGBRAI with it. It even got it’s first official century ride on the third day of RAGBRAI (I’m so proud of it!).

It might be just me, but I find the upright position much more comfortable for long riding, even though it’s less efficient. Besides, a bit more work per mile is better for my health targets.

Oh and lastly: I’m still not entirely comfortable with the road position while navigating in urban traffic. I feel like, and this may just be psychological, a higher position make me more visible and/or gives me better views around me.

Brendan

[brendan]

@tdp 6534 wrote:

I live in Rosslyn and commute to Dupont every day by bike. It’s about 20-25 minutes, 2.5 miles. I go over the Key Bridge, down M Street (at 8 AM there aren’t many cars out), and then up Florida Ave. Very easy. You could do the reverse, no problamo.

I wear a reflective vest when I ride since I ride on the street through Georgetown. I feel safe. The rest is done on sidewalks.

Which route out of georgetown to florida do you take? There are several… I was going through the park for a while, but now I just make the last left before penn. ave and haul up the hill to P, then a right. More work, but I find the park path a little narrow when pedestrians are about…

B

[brendan]

Padded bike shorts?

[brendan]

@CCrew 6006 wrote:

Came through there yesterday, had two ladies standing on the corner in the middle of the sidewalk ramp. Absolutely refused to move for me.

My worst? Coming off M Street onto the Key bridge headed toward Rosslyn. You not only are mixing it up with the cars which by that point are sensing freedom from the gridlock on M, but you’re trying to get across the right hand merge land on the other side to get up on the bridge.

I don’t even bother any more, I just go to the sidewalk west of 34th St and cross as a pedestrian and take the sidewalk across the bridge. Granted, the cargo bike can’t quite keep up with the mini-interstate traffic across the Potomac. In addition, I find the left turn from the road hard to judge well, partly due to the road surface and curb layout.

Brendan

[brendan]

@americancyclo 5998 wrote:

Ahh, that would do it. I assumed she was a NVRPA staffer b/c of the beat up pickup truck.

There was a NVRPA truck with people taking surveys last week at W&OD and Belmont Ridge Road, just east of Luck Stone Quarry – the intersection with the double stop sign and the charlie brown shirt stripes along the intersecting road. An aside: ah, Virginia, way to make an industrial mineral extraction operation into a scenic overlook!

http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&ll=39.063707,-77.510937&spn=0.007014,0.016512&sll=38.910154,-77.231633&sspn=0.22494,0.528374&t=h&z=17

Brendan

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