[huskerdont]

@eminva 132824 wrote:

Hello All —

What do you do to clean and maintain the bikes you use for winter commutes? I have an old MTB I use for foul weather commuting, but after a few years, the drive train is completely rusted up and sadly I conclude it has died a warrior’s death. I admit I was not fastidious about cleaning it after each ride, but Vienna is also extremely liberal with salt (good for being the only one who can get to work some days; bad for the bike).

Looking ahead, I will almost certainly want to keep riding through winter on some bike or another (and I should start a separate thread for that decision!), so what should I do to keep it in good mechanical order? Completely clean it after each ride? This is a bit hard to do for the morning end of the commute.

Looking forward to hearing what others do.

Liz

If there’s road salt about, I don’t completely clean mine after each ride, but I do clean at the end of each day, then relube it. No rust.

[huskerdont]

I like the inverted U racks, whether individually bolted or on a rail. Easy to use, can lock both the front wheel/frame and the back wheel, usually plenty of space. I’m sure some of those wall-mounted ones are necessary in space-constrained areas and probably work fine, but they seem like they’d be more difficult to use.

Noticed that the url for the rack standards changed.

http://www.commuterpage.com/pages/special-programs/tdm-for-site-plans/bicycle-parking-standards/

[huskerdont]

#8 on the Rosslyn counter, but I’m not sure it works all the time when there’s snow on the trail. To whoever was likely #7, you are badass. I dropped on the trail just after you at Buchanan, and even though I’m fairly confident on the Bianchi crossbike, you were a distant blur in no time.

Trail conditions were good. Nice snow. A little ice on the roads from car tires. Maybe should have taken the mountain bike with its fatter tires and lower center of gravity, but it worked out.

[huskerdont]

We’ve got three nights booked at a ski resort, so I won’t be biking to work Friday. Pity since fresh snow is fun, but old, irregular, iced-up snow isn’t.

My predictions:

Friday: 4
Saturday: 8
Sunday: nil

[huskerdont]

If one year is ST, then I want to ride 4500 miles this year. Year after year I seem to end up in the 4200 to 4300 range.

[huskerdont]

@LooseFur 132714 wrote:

After a thief entered the garage at work and stole some of parts of bikes (wheels and/or a frames) from the building’s 2 schoolyard racks, I’ve been pressing the building to invest in modern parking racks to accommodate the several commuters in the building with the aim of providing ample spaces to U-Lock secure at least a frame and wheel for multiple bikes. Trouble is, I don’t have experience with the racks I’m coming across and am unsure what to recommend.

A bit of research came up with these: http://www.belson.com/Square-U-Bike-Racks-on-Rails and http://www.belson.com/Phoenix-Rail-Mounted-Bicycle-Parking-Racks , which look pretty reasonable for an indoor garage space, enough to ward off the petty thief. I don’t want to make this too expensive or difficult for the building to install or they just won’t do it.

Any thoughts on these products or recommendations?

If you haven’t seen this thread:

http://bikearlingtonforum.com/showthread.php?9726-Brand-New-Bike-Parking-Guide-for-Developers-Available

and this document:

http://www.commuterpage.com/pages/sp…ing-standards/

you might look at them. There are examples of different rack styles in the standards.

[huskerdont]

@jabberwocky 132712 wrote:

I found a nice (though beat up) I only kept the hammer, because you can always find a use for a hammer.

Everything begins to look like a nail, I hear.

I needed a box or bunch of wood for another coldframe for the garden. Found this old food box from some grocery chain in Florida with a 70s date stamped on it. It was really tough riding home with that pig.

[huskerdont]

I used a balaclava once last year on a 6-degree morning. Hated it, stopped and ripped it off, haven’t used it since. My ugly mug doesn’t care, but my delicate flower hands, on the other, um hand…

[huskerdont]

I see people everywhere these days in their balaclavas. I don’t believe in them.

[Ex-girlfriend response: “Oh they exist alright.”]

[huskerdont]

It’s cheating if you call it a bike; it’s not cheating if you call it a moped.

Or whatever.

Depends on my mood.

[huskerdont]

@Crickey7 132565 wrote:

So, I’m thinking for the a.m.:

2 pairs socks, shoes, covers and neoprene toe covers. 2 pairs tights. Jersey, vest and midweight jacket. 2 pairs glove liners and lobster gloves. Ear warmers. No hydration. I thinking introducing cold liquids would be inadvisable, and any liquids would be cold quickly.

Let’s rock.

One pair of socks, but sat in front of the heater overnight. The winter Shimano boots. Warm toes the whole ride.

Lobster gloves instead of ski mittens. Hard to warm the fingers once.

Soft shell jacket with fleece underneath.

Pretty good, all things considered, but I was lucky enough to have a tailwind most of the way.

[huskerdont]

I’m going to repeat this and be done, maybe take another ski break. There will always be people who act recklessly and go too fast, and there will always be innocent victims of this behavior. Slowing down yourself is all well and good, but if the jerk speeding the other way on the wrong side of the line on a blind curve plows into you, well, your theory about not needing to upgrade infrastructure just got blown to shite.

Removing and rebuilding the retaining wall would be more expense than it would be worth. It’s possible the trail could be widened a bit on the Lee Highway/sidewalk side, at least at the bottom curve itself. Better mirrors are the minimum fix. I’d like to see the light pole moved as well since that’s what folks are going to run into inbound when they avoid someone. The chain link fence obscures the sight line that would allow you to see people coming up the ramp from the sidewalk along Lee. People don’t use it much, but I’ve taken evasive here before when they have without looking.

Arlington does a decent job removing the wet leaves from the S-turn itself. I thank them for that. Lots of people have told me that they’ve wiped out here. 10+ years of going through here daily and I haven’t had a problem, but you don’t design and maintain infrastructure for just one person and a few trips, you do it for the likelihood of accidents over thousands and thousands of trips by thousands of different users with different skill sets and degrees of giving a rat’s.

[huskerdont]

27 degrees and for some reason it felt colder than 19 degrees yesterday. But then yesterday I was skiing and not riding. #24 at Rosslyn; I must be losing a step.

[huskerdont]

I don’t think it’s asking too much to request to have trails reworked in problem areas where accidents occur. Departments of transportation do this all the time with roads, even if it’s driver error or rulebreaking that cause the accidents, because it’s in everyone’s interest to reduce accidents, injury, and deaths. You also have to factor in the role of the innocent victims of accidents–the people who weren’t speeding and who were following the law but were injured by someone else’s rulebreaking.

However, since it’s unlikely in this case that the trail will be improved–Arlington is doing well just to repave occasionally–I’ll just continue to pay more attention in problem spots and go about my business. I will note that I have dodged many a bullet here, even so–people coming around the curve fast on the wrong side, people entering up the cut from Lee Highway without looking, people walking on the wrong side of the trail in the blind spot. I don’t know how often accidents happen so maybe it just feels unsafe, but I’ve seen an ambulance leaving here while the rider’s bike was still lying on the ground.

As Steve O stated, a better mirror setup would help some and wouldn’t cost as much as widening the trail and removing the light post on the outside of the curve.

[huskerdont]

@ursus 131868 wrote:

Off topic post.
Heading toward DC, after the S-Curve and the I-66 underpass, I find the left turn quite frightening also since it is a blind turn.

I think you are right to find it frightening. I’ve seen cyclists down there, and have almost had collisions myself. You’ll navigate it safely time after time, but do it every day for a decade or so and your odds of having a problem go up. At this point I always have my hands on the brake levers just in case, and I tend to hug the outside of the trail.

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