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For those who like bike related home goods–cute bike mugs at TJ Maxx Potomac Yards Arlington. Set on the left was clearance for $6, set on the right was $7.99. There’s at least one set of each left in either the dinnerware section or up front by the cash wrap.

The brand is a pretty good too(222 5th). 16 piece sets from them generally go for $150 to $200. I think i paid $70 for final sale set from them. They match the my dinnerware set so I’m happy

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@Steve O 89464 wrote:

I wonder if RaceDots could also perform this function? Not that I need to know personally, of course Just curious.

On the other hand, not using the penny could win you a Pointless Prize!

http://bikearlingtonforum.com/showthread.php?6578-Final-BAFS-Happy-Hour-Thurs-Apr-3&p=81696#post81696

some commenters on slate mentioned magnets as a way to avoid a wrinkly skirt.

I’ve already flashed most of DC via windy days outside/metro escalator winds/walking across the key bridge in the skirt. I wish I knew I could have won a prize for it had I been on a bike

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@cvcalhoun 89428 wrote:

I think you’re going to have an issue if MMR is syncing to Strava and Strava is syncing to MMR. The problem is that the program does not check for duplicates. So the rides synced from MMR to Strava will then get synced back to MMR, causing duplicates of each ride.

I am doing fine with the program just having it sync from Strava to MMR, so that all rides will count for the NBC. But if you have it syncing both ways, you may need to check and delete any duplicates that are created.

It allows for filters by date–so I did a filter for MMR to Strava that said only workouts before the date I began strava, and Strava to MMR was everything after the date I stopped using MMR. It’s actually kinda neat how they set that up…And it worked exactly as expected so no duplicates.

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@cyclingfool 89395 wrote:

If I’m reading this correctly, you were having problems syncing from MMR to Strava? I have never tried to do it that way, b/c I primarily use Strava. I have mine set up to sync FROM Strava to MMR, and it’s worked seamlessly from the get go. Syncing Strava –> MMR is useful for NBC, since NBC doesn’t sync up with Strava this year. Maybe if you try deleting your current cloud sources for FitnessSyncer and set it up fresh with Strava s your “Activity Source” and MapMyFitness as your “Destination”…?

If you don’t care enough to try, no worries. Just thinking it could save you the trouble of manual entry of miles for NBC is you’re logging rides on Strava already anyway…

So it wouldn’t sync either way when I tried an hour ago (I kept getting error messages). I logged in a min ago to check and…MMR synched to Strava within the last hour while I wasn’t logged in. Strava still hasn’t synced to MMR though, but I’ll keep trying. I also have to manually change all my MMR activities to bike rides in Strava since they got imported as “workouts”, but otherwise it’s working.

Thank you for the website–this will make things easier, once I get the kinks sorted out

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@cyclingfool 89391 wrote:

You can sync Strava rides to Map My Ride using this site:

http://www.fitnesssyncer.com/

Once you connect your accounts, I think it syncs once daily automatically, or you can go to a dashboard site and force a sync. That’s what I’ve been doing for NBC… and for Earndit, too, which I found out about and realized I could use after I started syncing.

Unfortunately, when I tried this, MMR wouldn’t sync to Strava, which might be because the MMR data calls all my activities “general”, even though MMR calls them bike rides on it’s site. Ayee. I manually entered the last few months into Strava, although I combined my commute into one ride for my sanity’s purpose.

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I have officially fixed my syncing issues with map my ride. It never did sync…ever. And then it started to either not load on my phone, or take 5+ minutes to load.

So I fixed it…by switching to Strava. I actually like Strava more anyways, I was just lazy about switching. Hopefully this helps with my bike challenge miles–it’s getting to be a pain to log in daily and manually enter them.

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This being open was the best way to go back to work post-vacation. The switchback is a PAIN when I’m riding with the 30-40 lbs of work stuff that I can’t leave in the office during a vacation.

I will miss the quiet peacefulness of Potomac Avenue in the morning…but there is no love lost between me and that switchback.

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@Geoff 89277 wrote:

Another reason for me to make trips “back home.” How do you suppose a mountain bike with slicks would work on this trail?

Much better than one with knobby tires–Chris was fishtailing and kicking up stones everywhere. He also struggled with speed though–even at his highest gear setting he was pedaling faster than me and working as hard as he could to maintain my JRA speed (10-11 mph). It may just be the type of mountain bike he has though–it’s a nice model by Scott but it just isn’t built to go fast.

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This was the view at the end of my ride last Thursday. North Central State Trail in Michigan, Mullet lake section. Notice the excited puppy who wanted to show off that he was now a water dog (and still smells like a water dog a few days later ).

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The trail was unfortunately kinda boring. Crushed limestone, flat, and mostly just passed farmland and forests. The most exciting part was 10 miles out from Mullet Lake where a farmer told me to turn back–his cow escaped and was a quarter mile ahead on the trail, and it wouldn’t be safe for me to try to pass until they got it back to the farm.

On a positive note, my hybrid finally found something it was good at. Road bikes would fail miserably on this trail, and my fiancee’s mountain bike also really struggled. My hybrid rocked it though. Perfect tire size, the front shocks were finally useful, and it was fast. Took me an hour to clean the rust off the chain and cassette the day after the ride…but worth it

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@lordofthemark 88681 wrote:

We like Del Ray. However we do not intend to rent a house or condo from a private owner (long story, PM me if you want to hear more) and would rather not get an apartment in a two family – we’d rather an apt in a building with at least some amenities. There are a few of those in the area I guess – a couple of them might work and we should look at them.

There definitely are quite a few…4 big complexes right by the metro come to mind, and The gardens at Del Ray is right by us, and its a huge complex with some good amenities. We go to their dog park, and all the residents like living there it seems. They’re in a great location too. Another 2-3 complexes are within a block or two of the Gardens as well.

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Have you considered Del Ray in Alexandria? My ride from Del Ray to SW DC is 8 miles, and it’s a comfortable ride with minimal hills on the MVT. You’re also right on 4 mile run with super easy access to W&OD trail. I commute on a hybrid, and see plenty of others doing similar commutes on bikes like mine. It’s not the fastest (~35 min, but I ride slow…), but it’s actually better than my ride to and from Rosslyn was even though it’s 2 miles longer–the hills in Rosslyn would kill me every.single.day. Because of the hills in Rosslyn, the extra 2 miles from DC to Del Ray only add 5 min to my commute time when compared to my DC to Rosslyn commute.

Plus, renting in Del Ray isn’t too pricey. You can easily get a 2 bedroom for under $1,800, some as low as $1,600. It’s a safe neighborhood, lots of families and kids, and plenty to do when it comes to restaurants, coffee shops, farmers markets and such. The buses go up and down Mount Vernon Ave to and from Braddock Metro every 15 min during rush hour, so if you live a little further away from the metro, you can still get there easily on days you don’t bike.

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Leave all your work clothes at work, or at least all the good ones. That did it for me. Once or twice in the AM when it was raining I had to make the call between biking in (and then showering and getting dressed), or showing up in jeans and changing. I found it easier to bike in than deal with the weird looks my coworkers would give me if I showed up in jeans on a Tuesday…

Also, if you’re competitive, find a friend who is almost as much of a bad-ass than you, and then focus on being more of a bad-ass than them via biking. My fiancee always harps on me about needing to bike more, and being a wimp. So I bike in thunderstorms to and from work when he chickens out just to out-bad-ass him.

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@PotomacCyclist 88391 wrote:

A June 12 article in the Travel section

http://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/travel/airlines-change-gears-on-passengers-flying-with-bikes/2014/06/12/a4d2af42-edc3-11e3-b84b-3393a45b80f1_story.html

Higher fees and worse service than before, according to the article. I haven’t tried to fly with a bike yet. If I ever do a race in a far-away location, I might use a shipping service, as someone suggested. Or fly with just the frame and rent wheels in the destination city (with arrangements made in advance). Or I would use one of those bike-delivery services that specialize in door-to-race delivery for amateur and pro athletes.

..and this is why my fiancee and I are driving 800 miles this friday to northern Michigan instead of flying. Fees for 2 bikes and a dog, on top of the cost of the tickets would make the transportation cost of the trip over $1,000 easily. Plus now we can also bring the fly fishing gear safely (they also charge extra to check that…). The bikes we’re bring arent for racing though-we’re taking a mountain and hybrid bike. We’re planning to do the north central state trail up there

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Tomorrow is one of Hudson Trail’s 20% off days if you’re a member of a local “Outdoor Clubs, Gyms, Pools, Groups, Boy Scout Troops, Girl Scout Troops, Yoga Studios, Muddy Buddy Races, Spartan Races, Adventure Races, Parks, Nature Conservancies or any other LOCAL organization or entity that is in any way associated with health, fitness or the outdoors!”. Pretty sure you could convince them a WABA membership card counts for this. It’s from 10-12 I think.

Revolution Cycles is also doing 10% off bikes and 20% off accessories until noon tomorrow. After noon its 5% off bikes, 10% off accessories. I’ll probably stop by there early to get clipless pedals installed on my hybrid so I can figure them out before I switch to riding the road bike in a few weeks. I figure at 20% off they’re still pricier than amazon, but if I buy them there they might be nicer to me when they install them and fit them for me

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@rcannon100 88282 wrote:

I could not identify them. So I am sure they were not ArlCo. I am pretty sure they were not NPS. They all had white polo shirts on with badges on their shirts. It definitely looked like a training run. They didnt look like cyclists.

I pass DC officers all the time doing training runs in DC and on some of the trails, usually around 7:30/8 am. They typically ride black trek road bikes…I can’t remember what they wear though (I usually check people’s bikes out, not the people on them). Some of them clearly don’t know what their doing at intersections, which seems to really amuse their fellow officers .

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