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What’s up guys? I missed last year because I was in Antarctica so I’m looking forward to competing this year.

I live in Del Ray and will be doing my sleaze and grocery trips in that area. I don’t really commute at all, but I plan on doing the daily sleaze rides at least to get those easy points which is a first for me in this competition. Otherwise I’m a randonneur so I will definitely be doing a few 100+ milers which will boost my point total too. I need to get in shape for the upcoming season as well as keep my monthly 200K streak going.

Question for you guys that ride literally every day for years – do you ever go away? I missed January 1st this year because my wife and I were in Philly visiting her sister. No bikes to be had and no where to ride them which would not have been a hassle for everyone. Oh well.

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@anomad 150878 wrote:

As winter sets in I signed up for transit subsidy last week. I don’t have studded tires right now and I kind of dread the idea of fat biking 12 miles one way if conditions are sh!t. We’ll see what the weather brings the next couple months. I know winter moisture in the form of snow is beneficial to the environment, but I am secretly hoping signing up for metro subsidy will prevent snow and enable me to ride all winter in relative comfort.

I think the snow-as-beneficial-to-the-environment is primarily a western thing, mostly because it acts as a longer lasting water supply during the dry months. That’s not so much of a problem here, and in fact with all the salt and crap they throw down on the roads when they think it’s going to snow, I think most plant life shudders at the thought.

Anyway, welcome to the forum! I don’t commute much anymore, but I am on the MVT some mornings. My guess is you’ll find the variability of the winter weather here most annoying. Cool one day, 65 degrees the next, a day of cold rain, then cold and windy the next. Also, when it does snow here, it turns to ice within a couple of days and hangs around for weeks, which is the worst.

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@sjclaeys 150395 wrote:

I’ll let the author of the comment explain what group they were referring to, but it was still making a generalization.

I was talking about exactly what I said. A change in the administration. We haven’t had a change like this in 8 years. So in my opinion there’s likely to be a lot of new to DC drivers who could get confused and do stupid shit. It’s possible the amount of new people coming in is less than I expect, but apparently there could be a few thousand new staffers, and most of those will cluster in the center of the city. Could 1 bad driver mess up an entire day’s commute. Yes. And considering some of the “circles”, one-way roads and bike lanes in this city confuse the shit out of long time residents it’s possible that the new comers will also get extremely confused. Is bad city driving limited to Republicans? No. e.g. MontCo. How’s that for a generalization?

If I’m wrong about the newcomers, great. Generalizations? Whatevs. We humans evolved to generalize and prejudge things in the environment to quickly assess – will it kill me and/or can I eat it. It’s in our DNA.

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@bobco85 150258 wrote:

While Part 1 was humorous, Part 2 was a little scarier. I did not review my footage until this afternoon, so I was able to see the full story using both front and rear cameras.

On our way back from the Zoo Lights, we were heading east on T Street NW when we came across a lost and aggressive Land Rover driver. Luckily, I did manage to get the license plate # as shown here (front and back of Land Rover on either side):

As we approached T St/New Hampshire Ave, the driver of the Land Rover proceeded to drive through the stop sign without stopping, turn left onto New Hampshire Ave which is one-way the OTHER way (note the Do Not Enter sign), stop, go into reverse, and nearly hit the pedestrian who was in the crosswalk.

After crossing 16th St NW, we encountered another driver who had parked (hazards on) in the bike lane, so one-by-one the members of our group started going around. As we did this, the Land Rover driver came up fast and would have hit Nadine had Judd (behind her) not yelled out, “hey, Hey, HEY!!!” which caused the driver to stop and Nadine to move back to the right out of potential harm’s way.

The Land Rover driver then waited for the rest of us (Nadine, Judd, and myself in back) to pass the bike lane blocker car (I did not get the license plate #), and as we prepared to turn onto the 15th St NW cycletrack, as a final “yes, an idiot is in control of this vehicle,” the driver proceeded to stop almost completely in the crosswalk at the red light.

To the driver: Look, I understand the stress and embarrassment from driving in a city with which you are clearly not familiar especially after making stupid mistakes. However, that does not give you the liberty to act aggressively at nighttime towards other drivers, cyclists, and pedestrians just so that you can get where you want to go that much faster.

Isn’t the city going to filled with idiots like this over the next year or so with the change in administration? Not to mention that many of the incoming people may be less likely to have ever heard of a bike lane, or realized that people do in fact ride bikes after age 8.

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While driving up PA Ave SE eastbound in the vicinity of 30th St. SE

To the dude riding on PA Ave… you’re a beast to be riding up those hills toward Suitland. Especially on such a chilly, wet morning. I wasn’t tough enough to ride on days like today, even when I was commuting to Suitland a few days/week. I also didn’t feel comfortable enough to ride up PA Ave. I went up Mass Ave (bike lane) or Good Hope Rd (much wider lane). However, I have to say that no amount of toughness or determination will help you on a dark, rainy morning such as today when a driver hits you because you’re wearing dark clothes and have NO lights! I really hope you read this because on a busy commuter artery like PA Ave it’s only a matter a time before you get hit by somebody. Seriously.

Please PLEASE get some lights and reflective gear. I don’t understand how people think it’s a good idea to be on a bike in the dark with no lights!

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A related aside….

If you look nearby in the streetview picture you can see a bike sharrow painted in the right lane and the “Bikes May Use Full Lane” sign… whomever decided to put this stuff up needs to be made to ride up and down Silver Hill Rd and then tell us that it’s safe enough to be considered a bike route. It’s absolutely ridiculous! It’s a 6-lane highway with lots of turns and cross traffic, and cars weaving in and out of lanes, all while going 50mph. I would absolutely take the sidewalk if I had to go this route everyday, as the person above was doing.

I did some other digging for Maryland’s bike transportation maps and Silver Hill Rd does not come up as a bike route AND it’s in the red F category for bicyclist comfort, cause of all the drivers racing around at 50 mph in heavy traffic. What the hell?? Is this a case of PG County padding their “bikeable county” stats?

http://maps.roads.maryland.gov/cyclemaryland/

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I’ll bring back the Operation Deep Freeze prize this year AND I’m really hoping to make it to the happy hour to award it this time assuming the moving bits on my bike don’t blow up on the way.

Anyway, ODF will be 1 or 2 prizes for the coldest ride and the longest ride on the coldest day type of thing.

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@eminva 146546 wrote:

In a conversation with my boss, it became clear she was very mistaken about what “Bikes May Use Full Lane” meant.

Let’s hope she’s not confused by other plain language signs such as “Stop” and “Yield to Pedestrians in Crosswalk”. Sheesh!

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@Steve O 148971 wrote:

Posted last February 27

Good lord, what the hell have we done?!

Actually since I didn’t participate last year, I think I can reasonably claim non-responsibility.

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@DrP 148850 wrote:

I have seen squirrels do that, a lot. Often has me worried that I might hit one. I haven’t seen a Crazy Ivan do that move. Yet. I am sure I have not seen all types of Crazy Ivans. Could be an interesting study – the different types of Crazy Ivans.

Trust me, it’s not interesting. It needs to be stopped. If I was the more typical 150lb cyclist I would probably be hurting right now.

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Early this morning westbound on the Custis near the Catholic Church. Thanks for calling your pass, but I’d REALLY appreciate it when after you pass, you actually get around me before merging back into the right lane. If I have to brake and do an evasive maneuver when you pass me it’s not a pass, it’s called cutting me off.

Found connection: Similar area on the Custis – To the 2 ladies walking my direction. Sorry I came up behind you a little fast, but I was using the hill to slow down while trying to conserve momentum as I waited for the oncoming cyclists to clear before passing you. You don’t have to apologize for being there and I hope in our pleasant exchange I was able to get that across.

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I don’t go through there often, mostly because the bottleneck sucks, but in my experience there is barely enough room for me to slowly pass the occasional oncoming pedestrian or cyclist without needing to come to a stop. And I’m a big guy with wide drop bars. 46cm I think. It could be that the cyclist behind you didn’t expect you to stop because there wasn’t a reason to.

Of course one should always be READY to stop, which this person clearly was not.

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Not really unfortunately… In the most recent dream I can remember I was asking whether the dog had her cleats on. Cause she was outside and dogs need cleats to be outside.

Anyway, sometimes after a full day of riding and spending hours with the white and yellow lines of the road beaming into my eyes I have trouble getting them out of my head. They tend to factor into dreams more than bikes do.

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Thank you all! I will click on some links and send in some complaints now.

I’ve also been meaning to complain about how many drivers feel that the stop signs on Commonwealth are suggestions and tend to “roll through” at 15mph. My fear however is that APD will use it as an excuse to target cyclists who use Commonwealth frequently too. Oh well.

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@BobCochran 145711 wrote:

Related to this, which shops in the DC-MD-VA area have a lot of experience with generator hubs? Or individuals who have built the generator hub wheels since it really comes down to the skill of the wheel builder.

Bob

Hi Bob,

I had my Schmidt SON hub built up in a wheel by Bill Mould out of Spokes Etc on Quaker Lane. I also had them drill a hole in the fork crown so I could mount the light there. Once you get the wheel built, the wiring isn’t too hard.

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