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Thanks again, Kathy for such an awesome happy hour! Great weather for it too, you must have a direct line to mother nature!

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Later rather than sooner…… Stupid late bus

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see you all soon(ish)! On my way down from Bowie… argh

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I didn’t really choose any specific deductibles when I got my insurance through Geico, I’ll share what I have and the cost (per car):

Uninsured Motorist Bodily Injury
Current Limit: $100,000/$300,000
$18.20

Uninsured Motorist Property Damage
Current Limit: $50,000
Current Deductible: $250 Ded.
$2.90

It’s the same price across all my vehicles/drivers. I pay 6 months of coverage in 4 monthly payments, so that’s about $80 per car for 6 months of coverage. Seems worth it to me.

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I noticed all the nats are gone now. I hear a flock of cardinals ate them all.

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@mstone 33905 wrote:

Why waste the opportunity and stick to anatomic accuracy?

Why spend all the money in the first place? Saran-wrap kit!

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If that Tron skinsuit is made with reflective material, I’m in (contacted customer support, will let you know!)

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@KLizotte 33882 wrote:

What is “heavy duty boardwalk”? I presume that means wood?

heavy duty wood

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I tweeted DDOTDC, asking about the new boardwalks, their answer was that they will be heavy duty boardwalk, concrete bridges, and asphalt. I mentioned how slippery the long boardwalk just south of the Bladensburg Waterfront Park is, but got no tweet back. Granted, twitter isn’t the place to bring up in-depth issues probably. But I agree that this is a problem. I’ve ridden that existing section of trail boardwalk a few times now, once when it was quite wet. They’re as slippery as Mark Blacknell’s KOM tactics.

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For those who are showing up (or at least thinking about it!):

It’s really easy to get to by bike! And, there’s some sort of special on Thursdays (or maybe just happy hour or something) so the beer is really cheap! The wings are pretty darn good. I also had a club sandwich once that I could only eat 3/4 of, so yeah, it’s good. Git’r’done!

Capitol City Brewing Company
4001 Campbell Avenue, Arlington, VA

http://goo.gl/maps/vnFzK

View Larger Map

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For those new to the forum, the spot we visit is amazing! I had some awesome beer(s) and wings for very very cheap, I think the total was less then $10. It’s some special they run, and it’s totally worth the ~20 mile bike ride down for it

I’m already dreaming of the November and December third Thursday!

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I’d be remiss if I didn’t link some educational information for you, so I linked some good ones below.

I also know what this sounds like. This is kind of like someone walking in to your house, looking at the carpet that you picked out and are very proud of, only to have someone track mud all over it and saying, “oh, sorry, I thought it was already dirty. Who picked out THAT color?!”. I’m not bashing your bike or your decision of what to do with it, so please don’t take all of this that way. I think we’re all really interested in helping you out getting in to this passion of ours.

Sheldon Brown is considered, by many, to have been THE bike guru (may he rest in peace)
http://sheldonbrown.com/gloss_da-o.html#department

An excellent article reference/quote/plagiarism about why department store bikes are not bargains
http://forums.mtbr.com/beginners-corner/beginners-dept-store-bikes-30921.html

consumer reports:
http://www.consumerreports.org/cro/bikes/buying-guide.htm?pn=0

another excellent article with an experienced viewpoint
http://rayslifecycle.blogspot.com/2010/04/walmart-bicycle-vs-bike-shop-bicycle.html

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@khanb1 33819 wrote:

I admit that I may come off as “stubborn” in terms of wanting to do what I want to do – Such as upgrade a dept store bike with some components to a cost that’s more than what the original owner bought the bike for. From my point of view, I’ll spend maybe $300 upgrading my bike over a period of 3-4 months until I’m ready to purchase a “real” bike for $700+.

This is what I mentioned, they see this all. the. time. It’s a waste of $300 in many people’s opinions (including mine). That doesn’t mean it won’t work out for you, do what makes YOU happy! The other part is that a LBS just might not have ANY parts that will fit that bike, at all. Bike parts are quite specific, I love my LBS, but they can’t fix a spoke for me if I break one. They don’t sell Specialized, and my rims have specific spokes that they don’t carry. So I have to go where I bought it, which is a nice little LBS but isn’t as friendly or knowledgeable as “my” LBS. So upgrading the brakes, for example, on your mountain bike isn’t as simple as changing an oil filter in your car. Wal-mart might have an oil filter for a geo metro, but they won’t have one for a ferrari. A LBS just simply won’t have brakes to fit that bike. From what I’ve read about upgrading department store bikes, you might as well just burn that $300. I’ll also note that for $300, you could find an excellent commuter bike that will suit your needs and will hold up well. Phoenix bikes has already been mentioned.

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When I first got in to longer distance cycling (more than just 5 to 10 miles), I was lucky and picked up a mid level Specialized. My neighbor, who was getting in to the cycling with me, picked up a department store bike. On our VERY FIRST ride out, his crank spun off. Something to do with not having left-handed threads on one side of the crank, which keeps the side that is spinning the opposite direction of the threads from spinning off. He tried to spin the crank back on, but it would spin right back off when he pedaled.

There are interesting discussions that can happen at times over whether a department store bike is something that will work as a commuter/touring bike over long distance. There’s a pretty cool blog about someone that does exactly that. I believe, however, that the majority opinion is that department store bikes are well Target-ed (hah!) at the “casual” cyclist, someone who doesn’t bike more than a mile or two. The components, while might be brand name, are the cheapest they can possibly be made. Bike shops see this all the time, most won’t even touch a department store bike and for very good reason. After you sink a few hundred dollars in to it, trying to make it commute-worthy, only to have something (like a frame) completely fail they’ll take the brunt of your anger because you can’t just walk over to China and yell at them. I believe the bike shop was trying to do you a service so you don’t end up spinning your crank off 15 miles from home. Cranking home with just one crank is difficult to do (especially if you have a buddy laughing at you the entire way… wish I had a picture, it was classic!).

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@khanb1 33764 wrote:

Thanks! Excellent resource. Are there good discussions on bike fitting and dyi of it that can be added to the first list?

I haven’t seen any posts on how to set your bike up to fit on the forums, but there are some decent resources on the web, REI for instance has a write up. I’ve had a “pro” bike fit done and, while expensive, was totally worth it in my opinion. I’m not sure how you’d be able to do some of the measurements while on the bike at the same time, so hopefully some of the old-timers (haha like Tim Kelley) will chime in.

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