[jabberwocky]

Pretty much all the fairfax county parkway trail crossings suck. Those are especially awful though, as you noted. Sightlines are poor and cars absolutely fly around those ramps.

Crossing signals would be nice, but I suspect a lot of cars would ignore them. The intersection just north of the W&OD (New Dominion) was part of my old commute, and while it has both a crossing signal and a no turn on red for cars coming onto 286 from New Dominion, cars would routinely ignore both (often at very high speeds).

[jabberwocky]

@hozn 114697 wrote:

I am curious about the re-centering of hydro brakes; if the rotors fit within the caliper will the auto-centering take care of small (e.g. 1mm) differences in rotor position? (@jabberwocky?)

I’m honestly not sure about that; I have lots of bikes and lots of hydraulic brakes, but zero experience swapping wheels between them. For alignment I tend to just loosen the caliper bolts slightly, squeeze the lever, retighten the bolts (with the lever held) and that works to center it pretty well.

I will say that different brands/models run at different distances from the rotor. My older Avids seem to be pretty generous. My formulas run the pads much closer to the rotor and would probably be much more sensitive to tiny changes between wheels.

[jabberwocky]

You may have to adjust the caliper each time you swap wheels. Disc hubs and rotors are all slightly different. Whereas wheel one is perfectly aligned, wheel two might rub (which is why the calipers have the ability to shift around a bit).

[jabberwocky]

I’d get to the C&O/Cap Crescent, cross the river at Chain Bridge (there is a pedestrian ramp up from the C&O to the sidewalk on the north side) and from there climb 41st (have fun!), then do Glebe to Williamsburg to West St to the W&OD. Its a rolling route and Glebe sucks, but Williamsburg/West has a bike lane almost to the W&OD. From there its a straight shot out to Reston

As Tim noted, thats a long ride. I live in Reston and my place to Chain Bridge is 18 miles.

[jabberwocky]

The secret is to not have kids, and therefore be perfectly fine with leaving a smoldering wasteland to the next generation.

[jabberwocky]

@hozn 114453 wrote:

That may be true; I’m talking about my Jabberwocky, but my Voodoo before that had a 72º HTA and GT Avalanche had a 70.5. My full suspension DB Sorite did have a 69.5º HTA; that definitely felt quite different too (though obviously a lot of differences going on there).

My main trail bike (Ibis Mojo HD) is about a 66º head angle. Its definitely a handful on tight, twisty trail and takes a bit of work to keep the front end down on steep climbs, but it more than makes up for it everywhere else.

[jabberwocky]

71 is awful steep for a modern MTB. Even more racy XC oriented bikes are usually under 70 these days.

[jabberwocky]

48h on a 26″ rim is crazy high. Thats a lot of holes through the rim. My understanding is that moving beyond 32 on a 26er rim started to compromise the rim strength just because the spokes are so close together; at that point you’re usually better just going to a heavier duty rim if you want more strength rather than throwing spokes at it.

175 kgf is awful high too. I’m not sure what spoke/rim they use on that wheel, but my MTB wheels are usually built to 115 or so, and I doubt adding spokes increases the required tension.

[jabberwocky]

Just to be clear, I don’t disagree that cyclists do a lot of really silly things for style.

[jabberwocky]

95% of your braking ability comes from your front wheel anyway, the redundant brake on the back wheel of a fixie seems pretty pointless. The only reason I’d bother with a rear brake on a fixie is if its a flip flop that I sometimes run as a singlespeed.

Now you crazy mofos with no front brake I shake my head at.

[jabberwocky]

@TwoWheelsDC 113941 wrote:

I’m also pretty sure there’s a fairly large contingent of geared riders who run right/front left/rear, as that’s a fairly common setup internationally. I think Will runs this setup.

I think thats how motorcycles are usually setup (front brake right), so people with a motorcycle background often prefer that.

[jabberwocky]

Right hand straight out. I experimented with both when I started riding on the roads, but quickly figured out that most people have no idea what the left hand up signal means. The right hand out one is much more readily recognized IME.

[jabberwocky]

@dasgeh 113785 wrote:

This is one of my pet peeves about cycling there’s no requirement that you do your own maintenance to bike. Some people just don’t do their own maintenance. And that’s fine. As long as you have some way to deal with hiccups, you’re fine. (Just like with a car!)

I’m probably colored by the fact that I started my cyclist life as a mountainbiker. When you’re 6 miles (and 2000 feet of vertical) of rugged, rocky singletrack away from your car and you pinch flat, your only choices are to fix it yourself, hope another rider with a tube chances by who is willing to fix it for you, or spend your next few hours pushing your bike off the mountain. Which sucks.

Even now, I commute in more suburban areas (reston and great falls) where buses aren’t really an option. If I can’t fix something myself, I’m hoping I can get my roommate on the phone to give me a ride (which is 50-50 at best) or walking home. I don’t leave home without being prepared to deal with common issues, like flats and minor adjustments. The pack I wear on the mountainbike has a little more equipment in it, like extra cleats for my shoes and quicklinks for chain repair. I hate cutting a fun ride short because of a minor mechanical.

[jabberwocky]

If I’m out in the woods and need to work on something, I usually just find the nearest low branch and hook the nose of the saddle on it. Failing that I flip the bike over. I prefer to lube the fixie chain with one hand slowly turning the cranks while the other drips lube onto the chain.

[jabberwocky]

@dasgeh 113744 wrote:

You don’t ride an ebike with hydraulic brakes. I think the other kit we had had the stick ons and they work fine.

Is removing the wheel difficult (I genuinely don’t know)? I generally assume patching a tube requires getting it out of the tire anyway, so swapping a tube isn’t any more effort. In fact, if I’m commuting and I get a flat, I generally just swap the tube because it saves me trying to find the puncture and everything. Though I do check the tire either way to see if something is still sticking through. Then I inspect the tube at home and decide if its worth patching.

I keep a seat bag with a small multi-tool, an extra tube and half a dozen glueless patches in it on the road bike at all times. I’ve had good luck with those park glueless patches. The only failures I’ve ever had were large pinch flats (slices) that I probably shouldn’t even have tried to patch in the first place.

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