[creadinger]

@GovernorSilver 121932 wrote:

My guess it’s another variation of “wilding”/”knockout game”, a game DC folks are all too familiar with. Also known as “violent games bored teenagers play”. Note that there are actually two victims (at least), not one.

No no no, I think it’s much simpler than that. First the vehicle makes it sound like something an old fart would drive.

So old fart, gets slowed down a couple times by cyclists on his damn roads, so he gets all road ragey, takes one look at this “Don’t Tread On Me” flag, and thinks about how he can assert his liberty to use the roads at a speed he thinks is appropriate, unencumbered by those damn hippies on bikes. Rock throwing ensues, and now he’s a soon to be felon.

Either that, or Cato Caelin(sp), and Michael Jackson are now friends and generally up to no good…. white ford bronco, one glove, etc.

[creadinger]

Thanks for the replies guys.

It’s a Thomson, which was a free replacement after the last one cracked in December. I’m open to suggestions for a new stem. Do you guys like Thomson as a brand or is there something else you like in similar or lower price range? Keeping in mind, my primary PRO for the stem is durability and strength over low-weight, etc…

[creadinger]

Knowing the competitive nature of people around here that just sounds like a challenge to ride fast enough going uphill to get a ticket. It’s certainly a gentle enough grade that I think a lot of people could do it.

It doesn’t say exactly where he was. I’m curious about that detail.

[creadinger]

On streetview there’s a small “No thru Street” sign right after Reed, but it’s way off to the right, and usually in the shade, so would barely be noticed by anyone. No other signs that I could see on streetiview.

https://www.google.com/maps/@38.836691,-77.057153,3a,90y,13.79h,89.87t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1srjVOpng0m70jYOm6yzyQUA!2e0!7i13312!8i6656

Yeah, I have to say, this is an infrastructure signage fail. As others have said, they put the new sign in the exact location that makes the asphalt connector look MORE like a road than it was before! Thanks Alexandria.

[creadinger]

@worktheweb 121003 wrote:

I was running late this morning when I got flagged down by a cyclist on the MVT this morning blocking the whole width of the trail with her bike. She needed to borrow my pump, so I was happy to help. I had to convince her to move her bike to the grass and off the trail, which took a surprisingly long amount of time to do. After a bit of pumping she got a bit more pressure in there and she asked me if a somewhat low pressure was okay, and I said it would work (and that more would be better), but not to ride off curbs to avoid pinch flats. I helped her get the chuck off the valve and started packing it up again when she said she needed it for the front tire.

You have the patience of a saint. On a related note – a couple of weeks ago I was driving near home in Del Ray and some dude rode by on a mountain bike with basically flat tires. They had to have no more than 10-15 PSI. How does someone even leave the house that way?

[creadinger]

I wish the shattered glass bottle fairy would realize that enough is enough and scatter some shattered glass bottles somewhere else! SE DC has enough glass on the roads, sidewalks, bike lanes, and trails, we do not need anymore! You hear me fairy?!

[creadinger]

@ewilliams0305 120886 wrote:

Hilarious!

??????????? I’m picturing a bunch of cyclists laughing uncontrollably while they pedal up and down a very large hill having the best of times. That would be awesome, but somehow I don’t see that happening. Haha.

I’d be up for Mount Mitchelling (6,684 ft), maybe even Haleakalāing (10,023 ft). But otherwise a) I know I can’t climb 29,000 ft in a day, and b) watching other people do it would indeed get a bit tiring.

[creadinger]

While we’re at it, can we get NPS to trim back ALL of the foliage that is creeping across the trail?

Particularly: Just south of the yellow line metro bridge across the Potomac, and near the little bridge over the Roach’s Run inlet.

Thanks to Tim’s prodding I sent an e-mail about trimming back foliage that’s encroaching on the trail. Will update if I get a response or see some action.

[creadinger]

He should keep a wheel builder on retainer for the inevitable bent rims he’s going to have in the future.

Otherwise, it’s unfortunate that sometimes people have to hit rock bottom to decide to make a change in their lives, but it’s pretty awesome that he’s doing it. I’m looking forward to seeing the man that arrives on the Pacific coast in a few months, because he will likely be very different than the guy in Rhode Island now.

[creadinger]

We used to do that to my friend’s VW Scirocco in high school. The problem was, we did it when it was parked in a full parking lot, and it was difficult to maneuver out.

[creadinger]

@KLizotte 65166 wrote:

RideWithGPS.com offers a really nice spreadsheet option; I think you can import your Strava data though I’m not 100% sure since Strava recently changed its API.

Can you please tell me where exactly the RidewithGPS spreadsheet option is? I did some searching but couldn’t find it. Maybe most importantly, is it one of the pay options?

[creadinger]

@GovernorSilver 119794 wrote:

I usually ring the bell at a schoolbus length away (which my possibly faulty childhood memory associates with 100 ft), then ring again when I’m about 5 ft. away. I just replaced the bell that came stock with my bike because it fell apart after just two months of bike ownership. The new bell is a brass Incredibell. Usually one ring delivers such resonance and volume that pedestrians immediately start moving to their right.

School buses are 40 feet long. I looked it up, but considering most tractor trailers are under 50 ft, 100 ft just sounded ridiculous. A 100 ft bus would be awesome! Impossible to drive, but awesome.

Hah! My story isn’t a passing story, but a “someone decided to draft me 3″ from my back wheel without saying anything” story. I was rolling along pretty good on the gentle downgrade heading west out of Vienna, and suddenly spotted a deer emerge from the brush on the right. I naturally grabbed some brake because I assumed said deer was about to jump into the trail, and immediately felt a bump and heard a crash. Mister three-inches-from-my-wheel rammed me and went down pretty hard. Surprised me because I had no idea he was there. I stopped to make sure he was ok and got some whining about how I shouldn’t brake so suddenly when someone is behind me (like I’m leading the peloton at the TDF or something). I commented that I didn’t even know he was there, and maybe drafting strangers wasn’t such a great idea. He was very sulky about the whole thing.

I saw this kind of thing happen in front of me recently. A few of us waited at the Gallows Rd light eastbound to get the walk sign. It turned, people took off, and at the next little road, the guy in front dared touch the brakes to check for cars from the left or right, and the guy behind him rolled up on him and crashed pretty bad. He was pretty sulky for as long as I could keep up. The guy in front gave a half-hearted apology, but seriously – DON’T DRAFT strangers that closely!

[creadinger]

@NickBull 119276 wrote:

Hey, Chris, glad you enjoyed the route. Was there enough moonlight to see how beautiful Rock Hill Mill Rd really is?

It was only a first quarter moon shining down through broken clouds, and there was also significant patchy fog on the ground as well, so no not really. I did this route in March though saw it in the daylight then at least. It was very pretty though, even in the dreariness of light rain/snow at the time.

Based on the advice from Eric Williams, I got the Luxus-U as well. I wanted a good light plus the ability to charge stuff via USB. It’s great!

I think because 90 of the 150 miles were on the W&OD I probably had the light angled way lower than I would on a typical brevet out on the roads. I was very conscious about trying not to blind any peds or cyclists coming the other way on the trail. I did experience the problem with approaching the bottom of a hill and not being able to see until my tires pointed upward again though. The helmet light was helpful for that, as well as for seeing around turns like I mentioned.

I’ll definitely have to play with aiming it, and comparing the beam height to some of you other guys would be helpful.

[creadinger]

Recap!

So, on Thursday evening around 8:30 I left Alexandria, and headed out the W&OD toward Marshall, VA to test out a bit of night riding and my new dynamo lighting system.

After a brief stop in Vienna to shelter from the weird thunderstorm that blew up, I rode virtually all of the W&OD after “closing time” and didn’t get hassled at all. I only saw a few people period. There were a few pedestrians and joggers until Reston where I saw a ninja cyclist who I only spotted because of the built in reflectors on his pedals. I thought, “wow those fireflies are flying in perfect formation, wait, that’s a bike!” There was a cyclist in Ashburn who looked like he had a car headlight attached to his bars. It was MEGA bright, but going in my direction at least. And the last person I passed was a jogger east of Leesburg, around 11pm.

The rest of the night went pretty well too. It is SO damn dark out there in the sticks! A couple of times I had to consciously not think about how my world consisted only of the cone of light from my headlight, about 100 fireflies at any one time and not the rest of the world that was pitch black and would remain that way for several hours. It’s like having mild cases of claustrophobia and agoraphobia all at once…

The cool part was taking the lane the whole time because I only saw like 6 cars and you could see/hear them coming from a mile away. Descending hills was terrifying because you really can’t see far enough ahead. You just have to ride the brakes. Out on the roads I used a helmet light to supplement my fork crown mounted headlight to see around turns and generally farther up the road.

As I mentioned on my strava activity the worst part was a run-in with a Opossum at 2:30AM, but it’s actually pretty funny already. I got back to Purcellville at 5am and started back east on the W&OD in the partial daylight. By the time I got to Clarks Gap I was surprised to see tons of cyclists heading west already. I guess a lot of people just had the day off and went for a nice early morning bike ride.

Now I need to clean up my bike and fix a flat tire. I guess I picked up a slow leak late in the ride because it was flat on Friday evening. I’m not surprised given the amount of glass these tires have absorbed in the past 4 months. I’m just glad I didn’t get a flat in the pitch blackness of rural, VA! All in all, it was a good night to get in a 150 miles of riding.

Another bonus – I didn’t get sunburn or need any sunscreen, and the temps stayed below 75 for almost the whole ride.

[creadinger]

Big plus for the Lancaster covered bridge metric century.

I haven’t done it for a couple of years, but it’s definitely worth the trip up to PA.

[Author]

Posts