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Blossoms great on trees
On the ground they obscure glass
Glass shards cause punctures

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Southern winds blow strong
Dirt and dust on fourteenth bridge
Fast cars, dirty teeth

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Thanks for recommendations. Given that this thread is 2.5 years old, I may get the ROAM2, (even though the ROAM3 is out now), for commuting and city rides.

I’m thinking a bar mount for now. It seems more inconspicuous than a helmet mount, but given an intentional right hook experience yesterday by some stupid motherfucker in SE DC, I don’t think the bar mount would have captured the necessary information (license plate, car make, model, etc..) because the car cut across in front of me at a perpendicular angle.

Anyway, it seems like a prudent thing to do these days.

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A friend of mine from college is an atmospheric scientist at KNMI (specifically particulate matter I believe), and they’re beginning a plan to deploy little bike mounted air quality sensors around the city of Utrecht to get a real time, micro-scale picture of where ground level pollution is concentrated on the city scale.

I told her that they could totally roll that out here, because I know a ton of cyclists who would want to participate. And many of us already use GPS units, so the data would already be geolocated and time stamped.

She said she’ll let me know if they expand the study. KNMI may not be the first to do this type of work, but it’s such a great idea to use local cyclists for air quality assessments.

My guess is that smoking cyclists would not be included in the program because they may tend to skew the results towards apocalyptically smokey if the sensors are mounted behind the rider.

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@Sunyata 113252 wrote:

I do not normally travel through the IoD, but yesterday was such a nice day that I took the long way home and went through there. I was incredibly pleased to not that the traffic turning right actually did yield while the sign was lit.

That being said, I can absolutely see that this sign will mostly be ignored or even not seen since it is only lit during a short window of time. I wonder if maybe a bigger, flashier “YIELD TO PEDESTRIANS” sign would be more effective there? One that is lit ALL the time?

Yes, I feel like any other type of sign would probably be more effective there.

I drove through there on a Sunday morning recently, and I only noticed it because I had seen it while on a bike the week before. There’s SO much other stuff to look for at that intersection! A sign that’s only lit for a few seconds is not going to get my attention, especially in the day time.

That’s just my opinion of it. Maybe it was a nice idea, but in practice it’s just not effective. It may even be worse than not-effective because it may lead to a false sense of security in peds and cyclists, because they may assume that drivers see it and are paying attention to it, when in fact they do not.

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To the lady riding a dark cherry IF going south on Potomac Ave in Potomac Yard this evening – I don’t know if you understood me, but I yelled “I really like your bike!” as I rode by. It was hard to hear anything in that wind though. Anyway, I also have a dark cherry IF and there aren’t too many around, so it was nice to see. The lettering on yours looked old school. Very cool.

I hope the rest of your ride was better than that stretch fighting the wind.

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@lordofthemark 112791 wrote:

So Eye Street SE, right, not NW? Plus what you observe is what I also observe at Eye Street SE on a regular basis. I have gotten used to carefully switching to the general travel lane there. And then when I get back in the bike lane, being prepared for odd turns by motorists going to McDonalds. It is a relief when I get to South Capitol, even if I have to wait for a long light.

Yes, you are correct. I forget that the Capitol Streets divide the directional sections of the city.

Yeah, the McDonalds doesn’t help either. Also, the other day at S. Capitol, a driver pulled up to my right in the RIGHT TURN only lane, but then proceeded to go straight by quickly shooting ahead of everyone to merge back onto I st. on the green light.

It annoys me that I have to do all of this extra crap on my commute because Water Street no longer exists, but I guess it’s for the sake of progress. And let’s face it, the waterfront there did really suck. In the mean time though, it would be nice if the construction crews down there actually gave a shit about the condition of the supposedly open roads and sidewalks in that area. Those are torn to hell too.

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Maybe Eric should state in advance that if you ride with him, there’s a good chance that at what you think is the end of a nice long ride, you’ll find yourself 3-states away, with no real way to get home other than riding back through 4 more states.

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+1 for using the proper term, Canada Geese and not “Canadian Geese”, as many people call them.

An old boss of mine (Canadian) used to get really annoyed by this.

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I Street NW, heading westbound about a block east of South Capitol Street. Cars are seemingly always double parked in the bike lane in front of the apartment building there.

Me: taking the lane to go around a car parked in the bike lane.
You: going around me in the turning lane, and making the universal sign for get in the bike lane.

You are not smart, and I know you did not get the irony of the situation – me, in the “car” lane because a car was in the bike lane, and you in a car tell me to get in the bike lane…. I gave you the finger, and a few lights later when I caught up to you I explained a few reasons why a cyclist may not be riding in the bike lane. You still didn’t get it, confirming my suspicions that you’re definitely not smart.

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@wheels&wings 111965 wrote:

Hi creadinger,
Sorry to hear of your knee pain.
It’s tricky to diagnose since there are several possibilities that affect the outer part of the knee….and I’m not sure if you mean all the way on the side – the ilio-tibial band – or more toward the front, like patellar tendinitis. The treatment is completely different… happy to chat at the HH if you’re there.
I’m no expert but I’m a bit of an injury geek and my heart goes out to anyone who gets hurt – been there.
My suggestions are:
1.One of my favorite reference books on sports injuries is called, Listen to your pain: The Active Person’s Guide to Understanding, Identifying, and Treating Pain and Injury, by Ben E. Benjamin. It’s got diagrams and diagnostic tests to help you figure out what’s wrong, plus recommended exercises and other fixes for each injury. It might be worth picking up a copy.
2.If you decide to elevate this beyond input from the Forum :+), you might consider an appointment with Dr. Ayne Furman in Old Town Alexandria.
http://www.archandsole.com
She’s top of the line for this sort of injury. And since she’s an avid runner and cyclist herself, she “gets it” and won’t simply tell you to stop riding. She diagnosed an ankle injury of mine years ago after I’d been in pain for 16 months under the ‘care’ of multiple other doctors. She fixed me in a week and had me racing again in a month.
Good wishes. w&w

Thanks for the replies everyone!

Doing a little research on my own, it seems most likely to be an IT band issue. I’ve been dealing with low grade patellar tendonitis since high school (where it was a serious issue because of volleyball), so I know all about that, and it’s not that this time.

Interestingly, this issue seems to have cropped up as my participation in ashtanga yoga practice has stopped over the past 6 weeks, so maybe that was actually providing the stretching I needed to keep it in check. I need to get back to yoga anyway so I’ll try to do that sooner than later. One thing yoga has taught me is that my left hip joint is a mess (like deformed I think) causing all of the other joints to work around it, which may cause these issues.

I’m going to take a look at that book. A doctor seems premature at this stage, but thanks for the recommendation! I need to see if my uncle in law has heard of her. He’s quite old, but walks A LOT. Like he’s a weekday/weekend warrior walker, just like we’re cyclists. Over the past couple of years though, he’s been dealing with some debilitating plantar fascitis and has had to take time off, and he limps, and it’s all very depressing. He’s also very weird about treatment though, because I’ve had some minor plantar issues and more or less solved it with some Dr. prescribed sole inserts. I don’t know….

Anyway, it’s been 2.5 days since my ride and my knee feels fine right now. Last evening I did a little home workout that included some no-added weight squats and it felt good then too. So at least for now, it’s not a major issue. But now would be the perfect time to nip it in the bud! I’m trying to schedule a fitting at Freshbikes, because it’s been 6 years since my bike was first built up and fitted for me, and I have some new equipment. I’m guessing it’s primarily a shoe/cleat issue and I would love to hear what a pro thinks about my pedal stroke/alignment.

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@Boomer2U 112021 wrote:

Wow. You grew by 4 inches and gained 18 lbs in 3 months and retained the same BMI? All by just riding your bike?? Impressive!!!

And being 17 years old maybe? That is a hell of a growth spurt though.

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I will be there.

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@creadinger 103624 wrote:

As a completely side discussion to the sidebet, and no offense to Mikey for picking this stat…. but THANK YOU! The BMI is complete bullshit for people who are outside the normal height ranges (who knows what the ranges are). There is absolutely NO way that a person 6’5″ would be healthy if they weighed 156 lbs. If I dropped 100 pounds (eating disorder thin) and then had both arms amputated I still wouldn’t get down to 156 lbs. In high school I was 6’5″, a stick and I weighed 195.

Of course I am overweight, but it bothers me to be in the obese category, but anyway….

6’5″, 268 lbs which is a BMI of 31.8

So after 2.5 months of solid riding and eating better, I ended up dropping 10 pounds. Yay! That’s a BMI loss of 1.2

January was exciting. I was dropping 2.5 pounds/week and rode over 500 miles, which is a mileage total I was more likely to put out in the spring or fall in the past. The 2nd half of February and early March sucked, and I couldn’t get out much so things stagnated and I have since gained a little back. I am so far right on track for my 2015 mileage goal though, despite a 25% increase over last year’s. One thing that helped counter that loss of mileage due to snow/ice is I stopped drinking temporarily. I have some randonneuring goals in mind and it seemed like a sacrifice I could make – unlike cutting cheese from my diet.

Overall though it was very nice to see results from hard work and smarter eating. I hope to continue this trend through the spring!

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@dcv 111553 wrote:

Didn’t you show up to kill bill one day early last year?

Oiy, so that’s a thing people remember apparently. Yes, that was me. I got up at buttcrack-o-dawn 2 days in a row instead of sleeping in.

I blame my non-traditional work schedule. The every 4th weekend thing where you have Friday’s off before and after messes with your idea of a week. Oh well.

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