[Colin B]

Current rumor is that the ribbon cutting will be on October 11th.

[Colin B]

Hiya,

WABA communications person here. I don’t know whether the advocacy action you’re referring to was a WABA one or not, but wanted to clarify a couple of things.

WABA doesn’t sell or share our email lists at all. I can’t imagine BikeArlington does either, but they can chime in to confirm. Tools like change.org or thepetitionsite.com do sell email addresses (in fact, that’s basically the entirety of their business model), so all bets are off from there.

But, if you took an action through WABA or another local org, the likely explanation is far less nefarious. There are a couple of ways taking an advocacy action can result in getting emails from politicians:
– Usually, when you take an advocacy action, what you’re doing is sending an email to one or several recipients (elected officials or agency staff or whatever). In that case, they’ll obviously have your email address, and often will add you to a mailing list. You should be able to unsubscribe from those lists fairly easily.
– The other thing that can happen is that if you submit public comments to a government agency, those comments and your contact information, become part of a public record for that project. Usually public comments are posted online in some inconvenient format like a giant PDF, but it is possible to scrape email addresses from a document like that. As agencies are moving towards better transparency and more open data, this sometimes means that your email address is easier to scrape from publicly available information.

Hope that’s helpful. Shoot me an email if you have questions: colinbrowne@waba.org

[Colin B]

I’ve got 60mm ALX fenders on one of my bikes. they’re great, and the install feels a lot more solid than the Cascadia plastic or SKS longboards I have on other bikes. Only catch is that the front is really short. If you use a front bag or a rack mounted front light, it doesn’t really have enough coverage to keep road junk off of them.

VO fenders are good and long, but I’ve broken two sets of them, and would not recommend them for a bike that’s going to see any abuse.

[Colin B]

I can’t even begin to describe how much I love never having to worry about batteries.

Based mostly on Peter White’s info I have two bikes with dyno setups: a Luxos B wired to the Shimano Alfine dynohub with a Secula plus on the rear and an Edelux 2 wired to a Shimano DH N-80 with a toplight line plus on the rear. the beam patterns on the Edelux and Luxos are pretty close, and it’s definitely worth the extra few bucks for the Schmidt. the plastic body of my Luxos has cracked already. if you have fenders, go for the Secula plus on the rear, it’s amazing—feels like wider than 180° visibility that is bright but not blinding. The drag on both hubs is basically not noticeable until you hit about 20mph, at which point I get some vibration up through the handlebars.

The Dhn80 is laced to Dyads, like you are suggesting, and they’ve been awesome. built them 2 or 3 years ago, ridden on single track, with 50lbs of groceries (not at the same time), toured on pavement and gravel, never had to true them once. They do kinda weigh a ton but who cares.

if you’re mechanically inclined I recommend building the wheels up yourself. it’s a fun and sort of zen experience if you’re Will to spend an afternoon and a few beers at it.

[Colin B]

a comfier ride helped me a lot. My skinny tired hipster fixie got unpleasant fast as a daily commuter.

A rack to take weight off my back and some wider tires made a huge difference for me.

[Colin B]

I’d second the Brookland suggestion. I lived there and worked on the Hill for about 3 years. Commute was 15 minutes, mostly on the Met Branch Trail. Easy ride, there’s a grocery store right on the route, easy to bail to the metro if the weather doesn’t suit you.

[Colin B]

Seems like the trade off is weight. I’ve got a Showers Pass Portland jacket that’s kept me totally dry through a couple of winters now. It’s a bit heavy but it breathes well and the waterproofing hasn’t failed me yet. The real revelation for me though was a $25 rain cape (only available in the UK for some reason?) It’s kind of like wearing a tent, but surprisingly doesn’t feel like it slows me down much. That, combined with fenders, has kept everything but my pant cuffs dry through all sorts of downpours. Plus, since it’s open on the bottom, you get all sorts of airflow. I often have to pull out an extra layer so I don’t get cold when wearing it.

[Colin B]

I really enjoy South Cap Bridge > Firth Sterling > Sumner > MLK > 4th > Oxon Run Trail > Oxon Hill Farm > National Harbor. Complete route here: http://twowheelsnotsix.wordpress.com/2013/08/23/southbound-goose-chase/

[Colin B]

Hi everyone,

That was our bad. The link is now in the resources menu. Thanks for catching the error! [ATTACH=CONFIG]5977[/ATTACH]

[Colin B]

I’ve got a smallish kryptonite lock that fits perfectly in the Velo Orange Croissant bag (http://store.velo-orange.com/index.php/vo-crossaint-saddle-bag.html), along with a clif bar and a small 1st aid kit. The buckle closure is a little more fiddly than those u-lock mounting brackets, but the upside is that the lock doesn’t rattle at all.

[Colin B]

Yep, or the Mt Rainier Bike Coop.

[Colin B]

Had a standing desk for a couple of years now. Easier to stay awake, multitask & focus on active things. Harder to focus for long stretches of reading or writing.

It does keep the legs fresh for the ride home.

[Colin B]

I think the plan is that there will be a cycletrack from Union Station up to M St, but not likely to be done for a while.
http://www.nomabid.org/2013/05/first-street-ne-construction-begins-next-week/

2nd St NE is a functional if not entirely convenient workaround.

[Colin B]

I built up a wheel with the Shimano DH3n80 last summer, it’s been great. You can find them on sale for less than $150, usually. I noticed the drag for about a day, now I can’t feel it at all.

I’ve got a Spanninga headlight that I grabbed for $25 from Velo Orange (not sure if they still have them), thinking I would replace it with something fancier, but it’s bright enough for winter commuting and getting caught after sunset on the C&O, so I’ve never gotten around to it. The power switch on the top of the light turns off the headlight and the Busch & Muller Toplight Line Plus bolted to the rear rack, but I never bother to turn it off anymore.

I think it’s the best safety investment I’ve made in my bike.

Weakest point in the system is the electric cable from the tail light to the front light, which can be vulnerable to poorly thought out bungee cords on the rack, or when locking rusty signposts. Sturdy wire helps.

[Author]

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