[GuyContinental]

@jopamora 30811 wrote:

If you see someone on the side of the road/trail twanging and squeezing all the spokes on his rear wheel, please say hi.

Perhaps if I’d caressed my spokes this morning I would have identified the offender before it popped its nut.

Also, I’m not removing the spoke- it’ll be there and tensioned so if something gives elsewhere in the wheel it should take the strain (and no longer be loose). It’ll also be taking nearly it’s share of the vertical load in an average rotation. At worst I think that I’m currently distributing the overall load of the wheel on 27/28 spokes- which 27 is fungible based on the relative tension on the other side of the wheel.

[GuyContinental]

@Dirt 30783 wrote:

Even when I go into a new shop… in a different city… I rarely feel like I’m getting hit with one attitude or another. Maybe it is just me and my approach to things.

I feel like this a lot more now than I used to. I think that the reason is that my bike technical knowledge has vastly expanded over the last few years (I’ve always ridden but never *really* wrenched until about 5-6 years ago). There are so many technical issues in cycling that it’s super-easy to stumble on a new subject about which you have little knowledge- the shop staffer then has to explain it to you using small words and they can easily come off as patronizing if they don’t adequately calibrate their customer education-o’-meter. I’ve seen many well-intentioned shop guys go from high-end tech/gear conversations to remedial edu-ma-cation in a flash- the cyclist feels stupid and newbish, the bike guy kind of loses interest beyond the pitch and suddenly rapport is busted. The customer leaves feeling like they were mistreated.

A rider that spends lots of time in the saddle and really knows bike anatomy simply isn’t confronted with these ego-bruising scenarios very often so rapport stays strong and the conversation at a high level- bike guy to bike guy. I’ve learned to let the ego go a bit- I know lots about bikes but that Sr Shop Tech is going to know tons more so I ask lots questions and laugh off my ignorance rather than nodding and smiling while thinking “WTF is he talking about…”

Then again, Dirt’s secret may be that he carries and distributes pink fuzzy bunnies wherever he goes…

[GuyContinental]

@vvill 30776 wrote:

Agreed. Nothing wrong with having horses for courses. Part of the fun of cycling I think. One of these days I’ll have enough bikes to ride a different one to work each day.

I hit that mark long ago… not sure I could stomach a 25 mile pavement ride on a MTB SS. Also on days 6 & 7 I’d be on a unicycle (one for each day) that might take awhile, especially on the 16″ wheel one.

[GuyContinental]

@thecyclingeconomist 30728 wrote:

Back to whining: I hate earbuds… they cause so much grief on multi-use paths.

Ooo you had me at earbud. For that your are forgiven one strobe blinding.

In our defense I think that you said that you forget to turn off the strobes sometimes…

[GuyContinental]

@thecyclingeconomist 30712 wrote:

As I have invested in legit lights for year-round use, I am not going to use inferior lights which make it so I can’t safely see my surroundings simply because others don’t have lights that properly light up their surroundings at night. As I said, I’m probably being stubborn on this, but with good reason. I attempt to maintain an 18-22mph avg. on the MVT when safe (yes, I ride for exercise…on every commute. I have a schedule, a goal heart rate, I do sprint intervals, leg-drops etc etc.) Low-powered lights simply do not come close to having enough penetration to make my field and depth of vision sufficient for a safe athletic ride. This is regardless of what other’s lights are like. (I also understand that it’s unfortunately a real investment to purchase a real lighting system. It took me years of slowly wasting money on 100 to 400ln producing lights, only to realize that I needed to buck up and put the money into a sufficient water-proof lighting system. One with a separate flood and spot, casting between 1000 and 2000 effective lumens depending upon the mode.)

OK- so I’m a light hater with a set of 400ln dual MTB lights because I ride lots o’ miles on areas of the W&OD where there aren’t a whole lot of lights and I do so at 5 and 6 am. Right now in the “shoulder” season I get away with a low ln Frog light beacuse the inner sections of the trail are reasonably well lit. In about a week I’ll have to convert to the full set so that I can see out past Vienna. My rules for bright lights are:

On a trail
1. Angle down as far as you can and as right as you can
2. NEVER use a ft high ln strobe on a trail. You will kill the ninja that I suddenly can’t see… via my body
3. Unless conditions are dangerous, always cover your lights for oncoming (you get no points for covering a strobe, I’m already blind)
4. Run the lowest setting possible
5. Have white in front, red in rear and some sort of side light, preferably orange but you get bonus points for COLREGS compliance
On a road
1. Be as visible as you need to be
2. Try and keep your beams lower than eye level

So, why is a trail different from a road? Someone already mentioned the night sensitivity but most major roads also have side markers for orientation (the nice white line)- you can take your eyes completely off the road but still stay on track simply by following the line (not a great idea but better than being blind) On a trail it’s super easy to end up in the weeds…

The fact that you’ve been yelled at, not once, but a few times suggests a light adjustment might be in order- if you hit me with a 400 ln strobe I’ll definitely yell*- usually something like “I’mmmm blinnnndd!!!” or “THE SUNNN IT’S THE SUNNNN!!! ARRRGHHH!!!” (but I’m not a cusser…)

Also, training in the dark on the MVT is definitely not Kosher- waaay too many ninjas out there. If I remember correctly you located yourself somewhere up towards King’s St- I think that there are some nice hilly road routes through “Beverly Hills(?)” that will give a nice workout without too much traffic exposure. I recently discovered that it’s actually 1 mile shorter for me to head through the Arlington Hills of Lorcum and Military than to stick to the Custis- but it’s a much better workout.

*WWDD? Probably not yell… sigh…

[GuyContinental]

@Dirt 30395 wrote:

Think GuyContinental and I crossed paths near Custis Mile 0. He was churning up the hill and I was rolling down. Sun was in my eyes, but it looked like him.

Yup- actually I had a double-Dirting yesterday, we crossed in the am on Van Buren.

[GuyContinental]

Yup- actually I had a double-Dirting yesterday, we crossed in the am on Van Buren.

[GuyContinental]

@creadinger 30651 wrote:

This is unrelated to the general discussion of this thread, but the coming cold air driving softer people inside has been mentioned a few times lately.

I just have to say for the record that not everyone will stop commuting this fall because of the cold. I grew up in central PA and can handle the little bit of coolness that DC winters bring. I mean really, it’s more like cold spring. I will not be commuting this winter because of the lack of sun. And NO it’s not because I’m afraid of the dark!

End of overly sensitiveness.

Awww- It’s the fair-weather warriors on bike and foot that will be driven inside. Most of the BA folks will be out, partially so we can belly-ache about it on-line and generally feel smug.

I’m not afraid of the dark either… I’m afraid of what lurks in the dark!

[GuyContinental]

@jnva 30639 wrote:

This is why I prefer going down the middle of L street. This happened to me this morning – double whammy Maryland driver and a BMW!

It almost seems cute going that slowly- out here in Loudoun there are 2 downhill right turn lanes on my commute where folks do that to me where I’m going 30 and they are going 60. Usually they have to accelerate more than they thought to blast to past me and then slam on their brakes halfway into the right lane to make their turn. I usually get forced into traffic (that’s also moving at ~50-60)… big ol’ pucker factor. Might have to get a camera just for show and tell.

[GuyContinental]

Rear-blinker angst? That seems a bit excessive, especially since they were capable of just passing you- probably as Dirt said, the 4th or 5th blinkie that they’d ended up behind. For my part, as someone who passes much more than I’m passed I can’t think of many instances where a blinkie in ninja-land was anything but appreciated. Also, I tend to leave mine on blink mode despite being on the W&OD because I start and end on major roads and changing the pattern to solid is kind of tough to do. Maybe I should reconsider but I can count on one hand the number of times that I’ve had someone draft me while commuting in the last year.

On the whiner topic- I do get worked up over a few things but they are all filed under the “safety of me and mine” column. Some of these are generic- e.g. dangerous passes , using double-earbuds, or failure to at least acknowledge traffic and rules of the road. But lots of them do have to do with lighting- blinding strobes, failure to dim lights, failure to use lights (ninja-style). Any one of these in the right situation could honest-to-goodness kill me (or someone around me) so I feel pretty justified in getting worked up about them. However, there is a difference between merely getting angry and trying to do something about it- if I see something really bad and have the opportunity to chat with the offender, I do. Otherwise it’s not worth the ire… I just think WWDD (What would Dirt Do) and roll with my not as cute version of fluffy bunnies while trying to set a decent example.

[GuyContinental]

@consularrider 30574 wrote:

I’m a little confused about which intersection you mean. Both Washington Blvd and 10th St have left turn lanes onto Clarendon/Wilson, but Fairfax Blvd is 50 feet of one way westbound when it intersects with Wilson by Northside Social. With the left turn backups at each of the first two intersections, unless I can see absolutely no west bound traffic on 10th, I have started to opt to bear right on 10th from Fairfax, staying in the right lane. Then I will line up in the right hand lane on Wilson at the traffic island and go through on Wilson’s signal taking the right hand lane for the short block until I get to the bike lane on Clarendon after the Washington Blvd intersection.

My bad- the first left is onto Kirkwood from Fairfax but until I just looked at a map I thought that Kirkwood started at Washington Blvd. I live in Lyon Village so I take a left onto Kirkwood, a right onto Washington and then a quick left onto 13th st. and then into the neighborhood. It’s almost exactly the same length as heading down Custis to Lee but requires less effort EB (in the morning I go down to Lee). In winter darkness Lee to Highland is safer (but barely) so I generally stick to the trail as long as I can.

[GuyContinental]

@zanna_leigh 30559 wrote:

Passing

Bicyclists may overtake and pass another vehicle only when safe to do so. Bicyclists may pass another vehicle on the right or left, and they may stay in the same lane, change lanes, or ride off the road if necessary for safe passing.

A person riding a bicycle, electric personal assistive mobility device, electric power-assisted bicycle, motorized skateboard or scooter, or moped shall not travel between two lanes of traffic moving in the same direction, except where one lane is a separate turn lane or a mandatory turn lane.

So, in gridlock you can’t “pass on the left” because that would be “traveling between two lanes” but you can cruise all the way up the right side (barring doors, pedestrians, etc) because that is passing on the right? I can think of many places where a right turn lane suddenly appears which, if traffic were stopped would convert your OK right side pass into a “between lanes” pass and thus illegal. I suppose that in that circumstance, for full legal compliance, you would stop before passing the last car in the new lane…

I have a left side complication with this that I go through every day- Fairfax Blvd heading EB before Clarendon “Circle” there is always a back up of cars turning left on 10th- I tend to signal over for two lanes and then cruise up the right side of those left-turning cars stopping in the “box” well clear of the left-turners (FWIW I don’t impede either he through traffic or the left-turning cars). Reading the above I think that I’m OK as long as the through left lane is in motion (because I would therefore be “in” that lane). Were it stopped, I’m suddenly in the “between lanes” again. Hmmm I’m not a fan- cruising up the stopped traffic there is unambiguously safer than crossing when it’s going 50mph and trying to “own” a lane at rush hour.

Have I mentioned how much I HATE “Clarendon Circle”? Every time I go through there I think “this can’t be right…”

[GuyContinental]

Just ran across the suggestion to use SPD sandals plus neoprene or GorTex booties- apparently it works great in the super wet pacific NW winters because the sandals happily drain whatever comes their way while the booties keep the feet warm. Nashbar sandals are only $50… LINK. Of course good Gore-Tex booties aren’t cheap.

This solution probably isn’t for me but could be done inexpensively for sure with 6.5-8 mil neoprene diving booties.

[GuyContinental]

@pfunkallstar 30296 wrote:

I love my Lake CX140s – I bought them on Nashbar at the beginning of summer – DEAL! I wear a US 11-12 normally and a 46 allows for plenty of sock room. These things have made winter biking fun.

Drat, Nashbar has them at a reasonable price but they only have little sizes (39-43) and 50. So, if you have itty bitty wittle feetses (or really big ones) you now have a way of keeping them warm. LINK

[GuyContinental]

@Dirt 30247 wrote:

If price is really a factor, get a good set of flats and use snow boots… or winter hiking boots.

Getting a *deal* is a factor, not price…

Are there other warmish reasonably stiff winter riding boots out there that I should be looking for? (I’ll spray insulate and duct-tape my old MTB shoes before I ride 50 miles a day on flats)

[Author]

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