[DanB]

@Emm 119074 wrote:

Costco has an XL diamondback carbon road bike for $1,000, well under its MSRP.

Only one size available: X-Large. Bummer.

[DanB]

I’m not slow. I’m not fast. I’m somewhere in between.

Does that make me half-fast?

[DanB]

This morning at 6:25:
To the friendly biker (wearing red) who gave me a big wave and a friendly greeting on the W&OD between Gallows and the beltway bridge, sorry I gave such a halfhearted greeting in return. I later thought maybe your enthusiasm was due to the Bike Arlington jersey I was wearing…? (Thanks BTWD golden ticket! ) Let me know if you’re on this forum, and I’ll try to wave back next time.

Later this morning:
To the woman jogger who notified me of an obstacle ahead–which turned out to be a pickup truck–as I crested the Castle Brandymore bump. Apparently some workers (I assume) had to access the grassy space on the other side of Four Mile Run and were using the trail bridge to get there. It wasn’t a problem, but I appreciate the heads-up!

[DanB]

Just want to throw this out there …

The concern of the City of Falls Church Police Department:

… the intention was to slow the cyclists because as you can imagine, commuters (in a car or bike) can hyper-focus on time and efficient of a crossing and not expect a community supporter and/or other cyclist to suddenly stop or walk out in front of them mistakenly.

Bike commuters’ concern:

… numerous trail users nearly ran over the cones, lost their balance, and had to stop in the street to navigate oncoming traffic in the middle of the unexpected obstruction.

Would a reasonable solution/compromise be locating all tents on one side of the crossing? That way people, many of whom are concerned with swag (that includes me!), don’t have to focus on tables on both sides of the trail as they approach the pit stop. The Bikenetic gang can still line up on the other side of the crossing …

I think there would be enough room to put the tents/tables near the curb on both sides of the street with a walkway down the middle. There would be no need for cones, because the number of people walking across the trail crossing would be very limited. Sound crazy?

[DanB]

If the cones show up again, maybe someone needs to pull a Casey Neistat.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bzE-IMaegzQ

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[DanB]

@mstone 116018 wrote:

Hey at least he wasn’t ticketing people the way he was for BTWD 2013…

One of the Bikenetic gang did tell me that he was stopping bikers for things like wearing headphones …

[DanB]

@TwoWheelsDC 115906 wrote:

EFC (where I was registered), didn’t get set up until 7am, so that put me behind in my tour, but I caught up with Dismal there and we hit Ballston and Shirlington, where I won a BikeArlington jersey!

Congrats! I also got a golden ticket at Rosslyn and snagged the last medium BA jersey they had. Thanks, BikeArlington! (I hope it fits… I just looked and see that the only other jersey I have is a large. Hmmm.) I’ve been wearing the same jersey since I rode an MS150 ride back in 2003.

This was the second year I couldn’t find the EFC pit stop. I’m beginning to question my sanity… or my vision. Around 7:15 I rode Sycamore St. from the trail under I-66 up past Washington Blvd, and I didn’t even see anyone setting up. Can anyone hazard a guess at what happened??

I’m glad Bikenetic is getting so much love on this thread. They deserve it for showing up in force. Probably should have tried the graham cracker cookies, but I had just downed a bagel from Merrifield. Thanks for offering them anyway!

Other edibles: Clif Shots from Performance at Merrifield (for another day), great coffee at Rosslyn, good mini cupcakes at Georgetown (but I wasn’t sure if the little decorative disc on top was plastic–ate it anyway), and the mango fruit juice at National Geographic was very thick and tasty.

[DanB]

I’m sure you’ve all probably received the email from WABA …

They note that VDOT will be holding three meetings next week. I plan on going to the one at Oakton High School in Vienna.

Who else is planning on going?

[DanB]

@Steve O 101217 wrote:

Caution: treacherously slippery wet leaves on the Custis switchback at Lyon Village this morning. Use extreme care.

I noticed that on the ride in yesterday, too, but–props to whomever maintains that stretch–it was completely cleared in the pm (before 5:00).

[DanB]

After crossing the interminable light at Gallows on the W&OD at about 5:30 last night, a biker passing in the other direction was considerate enough to say “Jogger ahead!” while at the same time not being considerate enough to cover his 2 mil. candlepower headlight.

Sure enough, there was a ninja in my lane just ahead–and I was prepared! I grabbed the spare reflective band (thanks, Bike Arlington!) from my jacket pocket and slowed down to say “Good evening. Would you like a reflective band for your arm?” I was going to say how I could barely see him from behind and how dangerous that was, but I was sidetracked when I realized I knew him. He happens to be the only guy I personally know who jogs that stretch. Well, we chatted for a minute or so, and I went on–still with the reflective band in my possession.

Well, I thought, since I know him from church, I’ll appeal to a higher power. By that I mean I’ll suggest to his wife she could get him some reflective gear for Christmas.

[DanB]

Let me be the first to say, “Thank you!” for those passing out blinky lights, reflectives and good cheer.

It was good to meet a few of you from the forum there, including dbb, OneEight and Henry. (Henry, I still don’t know how many posts it takes to lose the pesky ‘Junior Member’ under my name. Apparently 38 posts is not enough! :p)

[DanB]

@Sunyata 98584 wrote:

Apparently all the early morning commuters thought it was too cold out, since I only saw a couple of other cyclists on my route this morning.

I noticed that there were fewer people on the trail, too. I was #38 on the Rosslyn bike counter (at 6:38) this morning! Usually I’m somewhere in the 60s. But this might be attributed to the fact that I was rather early. I took a short detour on the C&O Canal in Georgetown and still had to wait a minute until my card would let me into the underground parking at our building.

[DanB]

The pedestrian signal stopped showing the ‘walk’ sign when the light turns green for traffic on Fairfax Dr. I’ve only noticed crosswalk buttons for crossing Fairfax Dr and always thought the ‘walk’ sign was automatic for bikes on the path. Am I missing something here? Does anyone know what changed?
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[DanB]

Would this work for the Greater Washington area?

The reason Idaho is interesting is they have a law that folks like to call the Idaho Stop Law which permits cyclists to treat a red light as a stop sign and a stop sign as a yield sign. And so what that means is if a cyclist comes to a red light, they can stop. If there’s no one around, no pedestrians and no cars that would have the right-of-way, they can go through as if it were a stop sign. If they come to a stop sign and it’s a similar situation, no one else has the right-of-way, they can treat it as a yield sign.

Mary Lauran Hall from Sharing The Road: Adapting To A New Culture Of Cycling

[DanB]

Sorry I won’t be able to help out, but I will try and push back my commute so I can swing by and say ‘hi’!

[Author]

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