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http://www.consumersearch.com/bicycle-locks

I have an On-Guard Beast U-Lock that was rated pretty well a year or two ago. They also make one that has a mini u-lock and a hardened steel chain.

The really good locks make it so a very good thief must work for 3-5 minutes to open them. The idea being that they’ll look at that, then choose to move on to a bike with a less formidable lock. A great bike thief can probably open anything. A lesser lock makes their job easier.

When running away from a bear, you don’t have to be faster than the bear…. just faster than one other person in your group…. two people if the bear is really hungry.

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Newport Beach, California. Lovely place, but it is CRAZY to go there on the 4th of July weekend. Imagine Time Square on New Years Eve, except everyone is barely legal, almost naked and drunk. I didn’t enjoy that kind of thing when I was a kid. It gets “point and laugh” value these days. I guess I never really related to going to a nice place for the express purpose drinking beer so fast that you can’t taste it and being “seen” by whatever form of humanity attracts you.

Home Depot in nearby Costa Mesa actually had a whole section devoted to selling funnels, plastic tubing and the valves needed to create beer slamming paraphernalia. I laughed at that one.

Almost any other time of the year it is wonderful.

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If there’s air outside, I ride. I adjust my expectations for speed and distance based upon conditions.

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Pretty much all beach bike saddles are 14″ wide.

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Beach cruiser saddles are supposed to be too low. Have you ever tried to get correct leg extension on a bike with a saddle that is 14 inches wide? And on another note, I don’t really *tell* my father-in-law anything.

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I like me a good beach cruiser when I’m on vacation.

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Most of the hills are not long in this area. I’m someone who seeks them out. West street (On one of the routes I gave you) is one of my favorite hills in the area. It is part of my daily commute.

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Maybe we travel through that intersection at different times. I encounter traffic on Scott street going both directions on an almost daily basis. I see close calls with bikes fairly regularly where the bicycle ignored the old stop sign that was there and blew through in front of cars. I’ve also been hit twice at that intersection by cars turning right on red. It isn’t as bad as Lynn street, but it is still worthy of a light and a bit of extra enforcement in my book. I’d love a bit of enforcement on Lynn street for both cars and bikes though.

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I’m working on a route from Arlington to Yellowstone National Park.

Oops. Wrong thread. Nevermind.

On topic: DaveK has a good route. I’ve used it often.

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All joking aside, I think it is great that we’re getting some local enforcement at these intersections. It helps people be aware of how dangerous those places are.

Like I say every year during Bicycle Safety Week (I’m not going to call it “bust a cyclist but ignore the drivers week” like I usually do), it would be good if they gave similar warnings to cars on the dangers of turning right on red without stopping, looking or both.

Doing part of the job is a good thing. Doing the whole job will have to remain a dream of mine.

Love,

Pete

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@ronwalf 5629 wrote:

Are you looking at the asymmetrical version? I bought the IQ Cyo from Peter White. Besides the standard dynamo-goodness, I love the sharp vertical cutoff when I’m biking on the trails. Just like a car headlight, it keeps most of the light on the trail and out of oncoming sets of eyes.

That might be a downside on the road, so I keep a PB Blaze in blink-mode on my handlebars to “wink” at cars.

That’s exactly what I’m looking at. I was just getting ready to pull the trigger on a system when I broke the frame on my commuter. All efforts went into replacing that. I still haven’t come up with a good replacement yet.

I like that Peter White sells the tools needed to use the fork ends as the + and – terminals for the light with internal cable routing. It is expensive and time consuming to do that, but a totally elegant way to set up the lights. The idea being that the quick release wheel will be truly quick release and not require you to unplug the lights before removing the wheel.

DaveK: I love the idea of the MagicShine. It is definitely the most bang for the buck. I’m also happy that your house didn’t burn down.

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There’s much more motivation to keep up when the e-bike rider is a hottie of ones’ preferred gender aboard.

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Fantastic post, Miss Nice Lady. Many years of happy cycling to you.

@acc 5573 wrote:

… and then find out the W&O simply ends with a restroom. If this is a preview of heaven, I’m in big trouble.

While I’ve ridden past that lovely monument, I’m relatively sure that I will not encounter its pearly-gated counterpart.

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Here’s how I ride the beginning of your route most days: http://ridewithgps.com/routes/537548

Cameron is kind-of busy at the beginning, but there is room for bikes on the road and I have never had a problem.

Here is my favorite route from the W&OD to Providence: http://ridewithgps.com/routes/537589

This is a less pretty way to get from the W&OD to Providence, but it is shorter: http://ridewithgps.com/routes/537599

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Welcome to the DC area. I live near Providence Rec Center and often ride through Old Town on my way places. The easiest route would be up the Mount Vernon Trail to 4-Mile Run Trail and then onto the Washington and Old Dominion Trail. At the end of the commute, there’s a route up West Street in Falls Church and then some small back streets that get you to Providence.

There are shorter routes through Alexandria to get to the W&OD Trail. I’ll try and map out one or two that I use often. There are some quick variations that you can do at the Falls Church end, but none are as pleasant as the ones that I’ve discussed.

I’ll play with some GPS maps and post up a few options.

Pete

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