[dkel]

@Dirt 71331 wrote:

I love and respect all mankind.

And corporations are people, too.

So I’m told.

[dkel]

So jealous! All I picked up on my bike today was a bottle of degreaser and some black peppercorns!

[dkel]

@dkel 71190 wrote:

Light rain, but I was prepared for that (except I don’t get fenders installed on the new bike until I stop by the LBS on my commute home!), and the temp seemed stable. I guess I’m just lucky.

I didn’t feel so lucky on the way home(!), but I did get my fenders on.

[dkel]

@mstone 71226 wrote:

The other piece is that at 20MPH it’ll take you 15 feet to stop, so you have 0 chance of avoiding something if you can only see 15 feet ahead (plus reaction time). At 12MPH you’re probably ok seeing to 15 feet as long as the pavement is dry and your reaction time is good (and your average isn’t based on speeding up down a hill ).

All excellent advice. I was just estimating my lighting distance in my earlier post…I don’t feel like a lunatic out there, so maybe I am illuminating more than I think I am. If it stops raining, I’ll measure it.

Regarding speeding up down a hill: I try to improve my average speed by going UP hills faster!

[dkel]

@mstone 71219 wrote:

At 20MPH, 15 feet is half a second. At 15MPH, 15 feet is two thirds of a second. Apply your own speed & response times and then buy the appropriate light.

If I get a 12 mph average for my nighttime commute, I feel like I’m going pretty fast for the conditions. Thanks for the math; that puts it in perspective.

[dkel]

@rcannon100 71197 wrote:

The goal is not to blind oncoming cyclists. This can be achieved in a number of ways.
* First, no strobes on the trail. Just dont do it.
* Point your beam down towards the trail

I know the lighting thread is a favorite(!) on the forum, and I don’t want to prolong it unnecessarily or backtrack to prior threads, but since I’m still relatively new to riding at night, I’ll just go ahead and ask: how far down is “towards the trail”? I find that my cone of light doesn’t help me very much at 6 feet ahead of me, but it’s great at 15 feet ahead. Beyond that, my light isn’t bright enough to make a lot of difference, so I never turn it to a higher angle. Do some riders feel there is benefit to pointing their bar light straight ahead? That doesn’t make sense to me. In general, I am coming to understand that oncoming lights don’t bother me personally, but I get positive response from most other trail users when doing all the etiquette things I’ve learned from this forum, so I do them all, all the time; it’s no trouble for me.

I also show no mercy to ninjas (if I did, I really wouldn’t be able to see them).

[dkel]

My commute on the WOD seemed quite nice! I leave later than everyone else (my youngest doesn’t leave for school until almost 8:30; alas, no FMCC for me ) so I only counted eight humans, four dogs, and one bicycle over 7.5 miles. Light rain, but I was prepared for that (except I don’t get fenders installed on the new bike until I stop by the LBS on my commute home!), and the temp seemed stable. I guess I’m just lucky.

[dkel]

@TwoWheelsDC 71022 wrote:

Worst case, you don’t get a pointless prize and your teammates mock you mercilessly.

Alright. You’ve convinced me (in a weird, warped way…). I’m in. In lieu of flowers, the family requests you make a donation to WABA.

[dkel]

@dasgeh 71013 wrote:

Hopefully those babies you had have grown into happy, healthy bike riders. You should bring them to Kidical Mass Arlington rides (ok, we don’t have one scheduled, but we might have one January 1, 4 or 5 — holiday lights ride/Resolutions ride/collect donations for food bank).

The kids now ride big enough bikes that we can all ride along together; in fact, that’s what got me back on the bike this summer.

Thanks for the Kidical Mass invite. We all did the Arlington Fun Ride in October, and it was fantastic!

[dkel]

@culimerc 71003 wrote:

We’re all going to die!!!!

I’m really thinking hard about signing up, but having never ridden through an entire winter, and I’ll admit I’m fearful. That said, I’ve ridden five or six days a week for almost three months now (cold, windy, and rainy days included), and I’ve been ok so far. Is personal fortitude the most important element in this competition? I may have some of that. In any case, I’ll be scouring previous posts about winter riding, guaranteed!

[dkel]

@rcannon100 70962 wrote:

the question is, what were you riding before? What makes this bike so much faster for you? Why did you select the Quick?

I was riding a Trek 7500 that I got in 2001 before my wife and I took a cycling trip in Italy. The trip was fantastic, but we had some babies not long after, and I didn’t get back on that bike till this summer. Getting the Trek back out was what caused met to start commuting, but with suspension on the fork and seat post, and running pretty big tires, etc., the thing weighed 36 pounds. So the Quick is the same style as the Trek, but with a carbon fork and no suspension, it’s only 16 pounds (if I weighed it right: all I have is a bathroom scale). That difference alone makes me faster: my average speed over the commute is up every time, and I save a minute or two of moving time. The bike’s performance on the hills is the best part, and that’s where I’m probably making those better times (seems like every ride I get a PR or two on one of the Strava segments!). So I’m finding it magical. In case you’re wondering what will become of my Trek, I’ve already fixed a crate on the back so I can do all my local errands on it, and I may use it to start trying to learn something about doing my own maintenance, too. Life is good!

[dkel]

@dbb 70927 wrote:

I rang my bell first, and came close to ringing hers but a moment later.

A similar thing happened to me this morning: the gentleman was moving leaves from his yard on one side of the WOD to the curb on the opposite side of the WOD, and didn’t hear–or didn’t understand the significance of–my bell (twice). He turned around and there I was, buzzing him inadvertently. I felt bad, because I really don’t want to be “that guy on the bike.” It’s becoming clear to me that if someone isn’t using the trail, they won’t respond like a trail-user to those around them, even if they are physically on the trail (if that makes sense).

[dkel]

@KelOnWheels 70838 wrote:

Pictures, man, we need pictures! Welcome! You’re just in time to sign up for Freezing Saddles!

[ATTACH=CONFIG]4204[/ATTACH]

My wife says I have already “dorked it up” by putting the rack on the back, and it doesn’t have its fenders yet! Such is the life of a commuter…

[dkel]

I registered for the forum today because I couldn’t resist chiming in on this thread (and it’s a great forum, generally!). I only started commuting (Falls Church to Vienna) in September, but this morning was my first commute on my brand new Cannondale Quick. It added 1.5 mph to my average speed, and knocked a couple minutes off my travel time. Magical! I can’t wait for tomorrow’s ride!

[Author]

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