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Bar mitts are great… they mean I needed to order bar-end brake levers, new brake cable / housing and bar tape. Plus I was able to get a new 11 in 1 Park Tools hex wrench thingy.

$52.13

God bless NashBar.

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Bar mitts arrive tomorrow.

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@Crickey7 102574 wrote:

According to the forecast, I will only get 40% wet tonight.

That is only because the other 60% will be frozen.

Lovely day for a ride!

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@baiskeli 102581 wrote:

Whatever you do, don’t get a bike from Singapore, Hong Kong or North Korea!

Except this bike. You may purchase this bike from Singapore. It is pretty.

I am another no racks, no fender (I actually use an sks s-blade on the rear) rider. A good backpack/messenger is a must if you prefer this setup. Your future path/route could make a big difference in what works for you.

Any old bike will work a large majority of the time. I’d suggest giving it a go with what you currently have before deciding it can’t do the job*.

*My Advice is moot because:
I haven’t ridden through a winter here yet
My bike is far too hipster
Who uses bullhorn handlebars?
Two speeder? What the hell is that?

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@Dickie 102396 wrote:

so the higher powered lights are helpful when in auto traffic but not accessible to switch easily on the fly.

Really? I have been very comfortable with about a 200 lumen light and I do all my riding in auto traffic. I always assumed the high lumen stuff was for people who have to actively light their own path since the trails had no street lights / ambient light.

Whatever keeps us all riding and safe.

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@lordofthemark 102381 wrote:

Duh, 1910. When the LES tenements had people living multiple people to a room, in response to a desperate housing shortage triggered my mass immigration (far worse than the overcrowded garden apts pearl clutchers from Baileys to Annandale kvetch about) That was not changed by gentrification but the movement of people like my grandparents from places like the LES to less dense urban areas in Brooklyn and the Bronx. Manhattan continued to lose population after WW2 when the suburban wave hit. More recently it has grown.

It may be we are still growing less dense in recent years – not every places is one of the top metros – folks in Fargo and Omaha and even Dallas keep moving to big suburban house, and its not like even here there aren’t building new houses in loudoun (and Charles? and Stafford?)

True. My point wasn’t that the large drops from the early 1900s were due to gentrification. It was more along the lines that
1) Increased density isn’t necessarily good after some point.
2) DC is an exception to the national trend, but DC has a very different history than many other cities in the US. So thats not shocking.
3) Home values going up and people “moving in” to a city doesn’t necessarily mean that population density increases. If the people that move in take up more space and new larger buildings are not created density can actually go down. Given that DC can’t build up and the immense cost of buying individual plots, there is an upper bound on density in DC proper that is easier to hit than other cities.

*Edit – On Topic!

These pants rock. Especially for the price. Water resistant? feels like it but not yet tested, windproof lovely lining. Sizing will make you feel like a giant.

The Sparse lights rock. I will probably put together a short review of them but generally – They make you SUPER visible. They are no good for trails/paths. You need street / ambient lighting still. They look awesome and feel like you could hurl them down an elevator shaft and they would still work.

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Keeping in mind we are actually getting less dense as a country.

“In the US as a whole, population-weighted population density fell by 16 people per square mile between 2000 and 2010, while in metropolitan areas it fell by an enormous 405 people per square mile.“

Like for reals, our modern city living is super spacious compared to the past.

Gentrification means tiny units converted into larger units that house smaller families.

Fairfax County is goofy. Near Dunn Lorring, Huntington and the Vienna Metro you are starting to see them finally start to pack it in a bit, Seven Corners is very dense. Although the county appears to be failing miserably at the Franconia/Springfield Metro. I might also just be saying that because I live there (Vienna) and like to imagine a day in which those areas are more densely populated with a less car centered focus. Then you have Clifton. Clifton is just the middle of nowhere.

As a side note, if people keep flattening the post ww2 homes on cottage street in vienna and replacing them with those enormous houses the average yard size will be equal to that of those in Arlington and could just turn into nearly townhomes.. cause damn they build to everrrryyyy edge of that lot.

Additional side note – My mom had a house off of Fulton St near foxhall road and across from Wesley Heights Park. It was every bit as suburban as my father’s home in Springfield. The difference of course is how close much more dense living arrangements were in DC vs Springfield. I actually taught myself to ride a bike in the backyard of that home off Fulton. O, the memories. South and West of AU is like DCs little suburbia.

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@jrenaut 102148 wrote:

Nope. If I meant that, I would have said that. Precision.

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Or perhaps more literary, Le mot juste.

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@dkel 102051 wrote:

Beard, FG bike…just sayin’.

Seriously, though, is anyone on this forum really a hipster? Everyone I’ve met has serious disqualifications, suburban living being a common one, and age being another.

My last two purchases made me a hipster… but the nearly THREE WEEKS for delivery (thanks, UPS Surepost) has turned me into a retrogrouch.

Now let me check the temperature in my house using my Nest app….. And now I’m just a millennial again. Damn.

But seriously…. Cyber Monday deal that will finally be arriving today. That is torture.

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@jrenaut 101578 wrote:

Then how come nearly everyone around here is so bad at it?

For the same reason there are lots of really bad cyclists on the various MUPs on 75 degree Sunday mornings.

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I forgot to charge my headlight last night and realized it only when loading up the bike for the commute this morning. I was instead stuck with de-icing my popsicle of a car.

I then proceeded to hit every single light green and get to work in 8 minutes.

Take-aways:
1) Karma will get back at me. The commute home will take 25 minutes to go 4 miles. I can feel it. I will be left thinking.. well I could park the car and run-commute……..
2) Fear not future unknown FS teammates. I have new lights on the way that will only require me to remember to charge them once a week. This is the 2nd time I’ve done this. Clearly I have an issue with remembering to do things.
3) Driving isn’t nearly difficult enough to be any fun.
4) When I saw “ice pellets” as the current form of precipitation in Fairfax at 5:45am on wunderground I thought… That has to be a lot of #5 and #9. But sadly I get zero points

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@dplasters 101025 wrote:

I have purchased the Sparse Bike Lights .. from Urban Outfitters… effectively for 30% off.. which is a solid deal.

But I purchased bike lights from Urban Outfitters for crying out loud. I am so hipster my inseam just shrank ironically.

Bah. Your level of hipster from just a few days ago is nothing! You just bought the most ridiculous shoe covers ever imagined and they are made from artisanal wax coated cotton (using a quaint Scottish method of some variety). I can only assume they come with a plaid shirt and organic, sustainably produced jeans made from cotton plants that are grown using free range non GMO cotton seeds whose lineage has been traced back to the original cotton plants of the Indus river valley.

Step your game up.

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Tires?

I see only tyres.

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Newbie?

I’m a n00b.
Rod is 1337.

and the cake is a lie.

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@jrenaut 101056 wrote:

Exactly – my commute last year was 7 miles round trip and I didn’t get out on many long extra rides but I was a solid contributor to my team because I rode every single day and because I rode the miles I said I was going to ride going in. You only hurt your team if you say you’ll do 150 a week then you do 25. Also RCannon may hunt you down.

Ok this is what I hoped it was structured like but didn’t want to assume.

I’m all for happy hours… that occur at Black Fin on Gallows, the Mosaic District (Fairfax), Sweetwater, Artie’s at Fairfax Circle, Anything downtown Vienna… All you urban people. Everyone knows the real cyclists live in suburbia. Obvi. Bike lanes pft… who needs those?

Sidebar – I would like some bike lanes.

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