[Greenbelt]

What’s useful for zombie attacks, also useful for DC area commuting.

[Greenbelt]

Will miss the Greenbelt meeting sadly, will be on vacation. But anything you can to do light a fire under our local officials — who seem to mean well, but haven’t taken a lot of leadership lately in my opinion despite some low-hanging fruit opportunities — would be welcome. Would it make sense to inform local officials of the meeting?

[Greenbelt]

[ATTACH=CONFIG]342[/ATTACH]

On the way home on Tuesday, my rear tire literally bubbled up. This picture shows a flat spot or bulge developing after the first few miles (hot pavement, mid-afternoon sun on the MBT).

By the time I limped in to my LBS after about 12 or 13 miles, the bulge was 3 inches long, and a half inch of extra tire depth. It felt like riding on a tire with a square spot — made a lot of noise every rotation and bounced. Shop mechanics said they’d never seen anything like it, but suspected it was a design or manufacturing flaw triggered by heat.

These were there new tires I just put on a couple weeks ago. I wish I had taken a picture of the inside bubbles when we took the tire off, because now a couple days later the tire looks normal.

So anyways, I went back to a standard cx tire on the rear. There’s no evidence of the front tire doing anything similar, so I left that one on for now. But I want my $50 back from specialized! Those were expensive tires to mess up after a couple weeks just because the pavement was too hot? Gimme a break. Anyone heard of anything like this?

[Greenbelt]

Beautiful. Something about cross bikes — they insist on going off into the grass at the slightest excuse. Or with no excuse. They get twitchy.

[Greenbelt]

Speed enforcement on the Parkways. They’re supposed to be park roadways — scenic, relaxing, available to all users (that is, with facilities for bikes, hikers, horseback, you name it). They’re not supposed to be superhighways. Weren’t designed for ultra high-speed, high-flow car traffic. Speed cameras, traffic calming lane improvements. Let the people have their parks back — not get bullied off them by speeders.

[Greenbelt]

Amazing that a 5.8 100 miles away could cause such a commotion. In California, that would have been a total ho hum. I tried to explain to my co-workers that a new steel and glass building can handle that amount of shaking no sweat. But oh well, they were out in the streets!

Was a great ride home for us, except that the Capitol police blocked all the streets around the Capitol. We scooted around the jams, though. Beautiful weather and fun the ride above the traffic jams.

[Greenbelt]

Awesome live (and free) coverage of the U.S. pro cycling challenge: http://shacktracker.usaprocyclingchallenge.com/

I don’t want to be a spoiler, but you MUST watch the last 5 or 10 km of today’s stage, with the uphill finish in Mt. Crested Butte. Awesome to see the TDF podium attacking the final climb with the very best U.S. riders and a great Columbian team.

[Greenbelt]

My LBS owner is a huge bike enthusiast, of course, and continually proclaims on the wonderfulness of cyclists and bike riding, and decries the dangers posed by inattentive or aggressive motorists.

One day I mentioned that I see quite a few ****heads on bikes, too.

She replied: “I know! Thank God they’re not driving cars or we’d all be dead!”

[Greenbelt]

[ATTACH=CONFIG]337[/ATTACH]
Maybe not quite as bad, and no offense to real hippies…

[Greenbelt]

@Dirt 7279 wrote:

I did a ride last week in Costa Rica that had a fairly long section (400 meters) with 27% gradient. It was steep enough that I had to be careful to dodge the rocks falling down from the guy riding up in front of me. It was kind of interesting.

Pete

Wow — pictures forthcoming I hope? Was this the volcano?

[Greenbelt]

I posted this in another thread, but more on topic here. The “Rapha Continental” dudes (one of whom must have a substantial trust fund, as they seem to exist only to ride the most awesome routes and take slick video…) have been riding the U.S. pro cycling challenge route with a guy from Velonews. Spectacular scenery in the series. Here’s stage 1: http://velonews.competitor.com/2011/08/news/video-velonews-and-rapha-continental-ride-stage-2-of-the-usapcc_187084

[Greenbelt]

@Jsnyd 7305 wrote:

on that note. Is it dumb to not shave my face? After all, Im not doing it for aerodynamics

I don’t know — the beard didn’t seem to slow down that dude on those videos showing the U.S. pro cycling challenge course:
http://velonews.competitor.com/2011/08/news/video-velonews-and-rapha-continental-ride-stage-2-of-the-usapcc_187084

[Greenbelt]

I justify the time like this. Before bike commuting, my (car to) Metro commute was 50 minutes each way, and I usually also did a 30 minute workout each day. Total combined commute and workout time: 130 minutes a day.

Now, I ride 65 minutes each way commuting (which is my workout). Total combined commute and workout time: 130 minutes a day.

Plus the workout is way better.

[Greenbelt]

@eminva 7233 wrote:

All right, I’ve got to ask the opposite question . . . how do you know when your tires are worn out if you AREN’T getting flats? My tires have 3900 miles, show no bald patches like Pete’s photo, although they are sort of “flattening” in the middle like in Pete’s photo.

Thanks.

Liz

Impressive. That seems like a lot of miles. I seem to wear through tires in 2000 miles or less. (Course I probably weigh more…)

[Greenbelt]

Scream like a teenager in a horror movie maybe most effective?

When I’m startled by a car I usually just end up with a shouted “Hey!”

[Author]

Posts