[CCrew]

Bikely got bought last year by a company called Future Publishing and became http://www.bikeradar.com

[CCrew]

Airzound for the win

[CCrew]

I’d be Surly too if you stuck a pedal up my butt!

NICE bike!

[CCrew]

@StopMeansStop 4197 wrote:

The wife dropped me off at Spokes in Vienna where I picked up my new CC back to Arlington.

My legs are humming now! Is riding a drop down that different than a hybrid/MTB in terms of muscle usage?

Actually, yes – position makes a lot of difference. Even shifting forward/back on the saddle can. My guess though is that it’s a new bike and you were having a bit of fun playing, because Vienna to Arlington is primarily downhill!

Congrats on the new bike. You know pictures are a requirement or it never happened, right?

[CCrew]

Thanks for the heads up.. Just saw this on CL and was going to cross-post it here. Agreed, looks like a potential safety issue.

[CCrew]

I have a set of meat tenderizer Specialized BMX pedals that people can borrow that will cure you really quickly. I had to give up on them for the very reasons in this thread. Things are brutal!

http://www.specialized.com/us/en/bc/SBCEqProduct.jsp?spid=41893&menuItemId=0&eid=367

[CCrew]

@acc 4100 wrote:

Beats me, there’s an “S” squiggle marking on it and the words “bodygeometry.” My approach was to go into the shop, talk to one of the women who worked there, and ask a lot of questions. I think I got down to three choices in my size and then looked at the pricing. The brand names are unfamiliar to me, probably a good thing. It’s worked out fine, I rode more than 80 miles over the holiday weekend and have no complaints.

Happy trails,
acc

Sounds like a Specialized saddle to me….

[CCrew]

@acc 4074 wrote:

Also saw some sort of animal that looked like a beaver but I find that hard to believe.

Groundhog maybe?

The W&OD Deer and I are not on good terms. I see usually at least 10-15 every morning. I’ve collided with them twice. They seem to deal with avoidance by cutting back in front of you, invariably at the last moment.

In October of 2009 I was cooking down the trail at about 3am, just east of Hunter Mill right by the little bridge over Difficult Run. Ran smack into a herd at about 20mph. I remember one in front of me, but the next thing I remember was coming to being flat on my back and looking up at the moon. Bike was destroyed – frame buckled right behind the head tube. And I was in agony. I actually don’t even remember doing it, but gathered myself and my bike and walked back to Reston, loaded the bike and went home. Don’t remember the drive either. Got home and passed out on the couch. Wife saw all the battle damage on me and couldn’t wake me a couple hours later and panicked and called 911. To this day don’t remember any of it. Turns out I had a bad concussion, and I had badly torn the rotator cuff in my right shoulder and the collarbone was cracked.

I limped along until May of 2010 dealing with the pain (lots!) and finally let them operate to fix it. 6 weeks later I was riding again, albeit still not 100% to this day. Worst part was in about August of last year I was eastbound about the same time of the morning between Sunset Hills and Sunrise Valley and had another one jump out from the low gully on the right that I never saw coming. Fortunately I was able to turn with her and ended up hitting her and going down albeit not doing the flying endo deal so just a bunch of blacktop rash and serious panic.

Now I ride in the am with over 1200 Lumens of LED’s blazing, so I can see eyeballs glowing several hundred yards out. And the beauty of that is that they see that much light coming at them and they freeze. But you’d also be amazed at just how many critters you actually see at night with that much candlepower.

Then in Feb of this year got a good sized deer @55mph with the car about a mile from the house in the wee hours of the am – $4k worth of damage. So $10k worth to hit one on the bike given medical bills and $4k in the car. Deer and I are NOT friends.

The baby foxes right now are just the cutest things in the world!

[CCrew]

@Mark Blacknell 4088 wrote:

@Em – in my view & experience, a backpack is preferable to a messenger bag. It’s a bit easier to control the load positioning, and you can get backpacks with padding that preserves some spacing between your back and the pack as a whole.

I’ll respectfully disagree. Aren’t opinions great? (grin)
I find a backpack bulky, cumbersome, and hot. If you need to get to something quickly it has to come off.

A *good* messenger bag isn’t in your way, holds a ton of stuff and doesn’t slide around. Now when I say a “good” bag, I’m not talking the Timbuk2 wannabes or stuff that half the places sell as a messenger bag. They should be called messenger *style* bags. Personally I use a Chrome Citizen, but companies such as Crumpler, Mission Workshop, all make nice ones. Chrome is what a lot of the bike messengers wear. Messenger bags frequently get a bum rap with cyclists as everyone and their brother sell bags claiming to be messenger bags and in reality they’re just a fashion accessory and not functional. Like buying high heels with cleats

Paramount is the bag having a sub strap that goes across your chest, and a bag that’s designed to go across a specific shoulder which means there will be right and left versions. On my Chrome, I can unsnap the chest strap, spin the bag to the front, open it, spin back around and keep on getting on without even stopping. And I carry a Macbook in a Booq case and an iPad most of the time, in addition to a change of clothes, tools, tubes, pump, and assorted junk.

I have a bike with rear rack, and the Topeak trunk bag and/or separate panniers. I find the aerodynamics annoying, weight on the rear wheel unacceptable, and the bike top heavy when loaded.

Just personal opinion

[CCrew]

Black. And Black. Classic color, never out of style.

Colored bar tape. Red would be good.

[CCrew]

My wife swears by her Trek Inform saddle: http://www.bontrager.com/model/09441

Terry also makes some nice womens ones.

[CCrew]

Extra points if they can thin the deer herd between Vienna and Reston.

Fairfax county tried, but I dunno if they could hit the side of a barn – shooting from the inside

[CCrew]

@StopMeansStop 4062 wrote:

I’m 5’8 with a 29 inseam (need to remeasure that again). So i probably should try a 52 as well?

Keep in mind that pants inseam isn’t the same as cycling inseam. Cycling inseam is essentially pbh (pubic bone height) . Best way to measure is to stand against a wall and pull the spine of a book up as high as you can physically get it then measure to the floor. It’s a much more accurate measure when trying to gauge standover height.

Good fit calculator here:
http://www.competitivecyclist.com/za/CCY?PAGE=FIT_CALCULATOR_INTRO

[CCrew]

Thanks Joe. Curious, just how busy is that trail? I’ve also heard that parking can be a bit of a challenge? I know there aren’t a lot of trails in Baltimore and wondered if it took the brunt of the local cyclist traffic. Is it shaded, or more open?

And yeah, C&O was a mudpit this weekend. Fun at first but got old fast. Keep in mind though we were at the north end up by PawPaw, not the pretend C&O that the DC folks see :p

[CCrew]

@DaveK 4023 wrote:

I don’t need another bike, I don’t need another bike….

…what are you asking for it?

You’re trying to convince yourself around fellow addicts.. N+1 baby..

Now you know why I have 14 in the garage…..

[Author]

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