[jabberwocky]

@JorgeGortex 202156 wrote:

Do you know where that nickname came from?

I think he adopted it on the old (now defunct) MORE forum; when I first met him back in 2003, he went by peterbeers there, but a year or two later he changed it to dirt and went by that everywhere since. He drove a bright yellow GTI with the license plate “Eat Dirt” for a long time (which he still has, though I don’t think he had that plate anymore). He may have adopted dirt as a monicker before that, but thats as far back as I’ve known him.

Pete was one of a kind, a longtime friend, and when I got the call from the hospital my stomach knotted. Theres a Pete-shaped hole in my heart that I’ll probably always feel.

Pete spread a lot of love and wisdom around during his time here. Ultimately he left the world a much better place than he found it.

[jabberwocky]

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I commuted from Reston to Great Falls for years, and rode around Great Falls after work when the weather was nice. The bad news is that its a pretty cycle-unfriendly area. Neighborhood roads don’t usually connect together, which forces you onto main roads, which are narrow, hilly and full of rich assholes driving like rich assholes.

From the Georgetown Pike/Old Dominion intersection, you have a few options. If you are unconcerned about time and willing to ride off road, the best option is to do a short run on Georgetown Pike to the top of the cross county trail, and ride that to the W&OD. Its definitely not gonna be quick and somewhat weather dependent (can get muddy and has some stream crossings), but its zero road riding. Not sure what kind of shape the CCT is these days, its been a few years since I rode it (I started working from home and moved out of Reston in 2017). The northern section could get gnarly, but I have ridden it on a cyclocross bike with road tires before.

Option 2 is Old Dominion just over the bridge, right on Peacock Station to cut the corner to Towlston, then follow Towlston across 7 (where it becomes Trap Rd), keep following to where it becomes Beulah near Vienna, then make a right on Clarkes Crossing and drop down to the W&OD. I don’t have much experience with Towlston at rush hour, but its been tolerable on weekends for me.

Option 3 is above, but after hitting Towlston, make a right on Leigh Mill, drop down the hill and then do Kelso-Brian Jac-Trotting Horse-Fairpine-Forestville and cross 7; Forestville becomes Beulah after you cross. Then left on Atwood, go Carrington-Bixler-Tuba-Shouse and pop out on Trap, then follow above. Basically a more roundabout version of the above route. I used this a lot on weekend rides (coming to Georgetown Pike from Riverbend) and it was enjoyable.

I’m not really aware of any other routes, aside from getting really roundabout and, say, heading north on Riverbend Rd and looping around to the village and into Reston that way (my old commute did a lot of those roads). Thats gonna add a lot of miles to an already long route, and I can’t really say that the roads are any better.

Best of luck!

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I asked because I’m genuinely curious; I don’t ride in the city these days but the fatal collisions that I’ve seen circulate this year seem to happen much more often at intersections where they are probably caused by intersection design and general inattentiveness than speed. Obviously speed makes everything worse when a collision does happen.

I’ve commented a few times before that I’ll take a driver going 30 and paying attention over one going 20 and not any day of the week. Its really hard to enforce “pay attention to whats going on around you, idiot” though, whereas speed is relatively easy to enforce (not that we really do).

[jabberwocky]

How many of the pedestrian/cyclist fatalities this year have been due to speed versus things like turns at intersections and running lights and such?

[jabberwocky]

The reality is that drivers have had it their way for so long that any change that might inconvenience them is met with howls of protest. And its hard to make everyone else safer without inconveniencing drivers in some way.

[jabberwocky]

@ginacico 181674 wrote:

Also, the deputy sheriff who wrote the citation asked me to remind cyclists riding the W&OD in Loudoun County that they should stop at road crossings where there are stop signs.

…Yeah, that sounds like Loudoun County alright. :rolleyes:

[jabberwocky]

Damn, that really sucks. I live in downtown Leesburg so thats my neck of the woods, and I ride bits of Dry Mill fairly regularly. Its indeed a lovely road and popular with cyclists, but has the problem that a lot of Loudoun roads do: people driving really fast on roads with poor sitelines. If you don’t mind me asking, exactly where were you hit, and going what direction?

I really hope you weren’t too injured; the bike damage definitely shows a really serious impact. Bikes can be replaced, and with the driver at fault their insurance will hopefully be taking care of it.

[jabberwocky]

I lived around the corner from there for years and some of those roads are my old commute. Hozns route is what you want to do. Depending on where you start, get to browns chapel (there’s a path over the dam if you need it, both Bennington Woods and lake Newport are fine too), cross baron Cameron to north shore and loop to temporary and then drop down old Reston. Don’t bother with paths. All those roads are very cycle friendly and popular bike routes so cars are mostly used to cyclists.

[jabberwocky]

This is the one I’ve been riding almost exclusively since moving out to Leesburg.

Its a Motobecane century ti frameset, built with an ultegra hydro groupset. Its wonderful fun on the farm roads west of town and surprisingly adept on the pavement as well.

[jabberwocky]

I’m guessing that 13 is where it ends, since thats where you literally can’t add another step on a typical 11-23 roadie cassette. Although I guess they could just start adding larger gears to the back. We can look forward to an 11-32 being the smallest cassette you can buy in 20 years, I suppose. :p

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