[jabberwocky]

@hozn 150339 wrote:

What I would really do is just ride the CCT down from Great Falls, though I think I am missing some of the nuance of your ride logistics, since you said you were intending to ride the CCT.

My impression was he wanted to ride from his house to the start of the CCT in occoquan, then ride the entire CCT north, then wanted the easiest way home from the end of the CCT in Great Falls.

The route I gave is the best “all pavement” route I know. The problem with Great Falls is most of the continuous roads are high traffic, hilly and have no shoulder (i.e. most of Old Dominion, Georgetown Pike, Springvale, etc). And most of the neighborhoods don’t connect to each other, so its hard to avoid the main roads. I’ve ridden parts of Georgetown Pike and Old Dominion, but I wouldn’t want to do it for long if I could possibly help it.

Now, another option I’d consider is retracing the CCT to Leigh Mill, jogging through that neighborhood there (Kelso to Brian Jac to Trotting Horse to Fairpine to Forestville), crossing 7 at Forestville (which becomes Beulah), left on Atwood, then Carrington to Bixler to Tuba to Shouse to a right on Trap, then following my directions from there across 267 to the W&OD. Its a longer route, but the only part thats even slightly questionable is the short section of Beulah, and you’re mostly downhill there. If I was planning a route for someone who was really nervous sharing the road with cars thats what I’d recommend though (short of just riding the CCT all the way back to the W&OD).

But the route I posted above will certainly take less time than that. The north end of the CCT tends to be slow. Lots of rutted rocks and rubble.

[jabberwocky]

@ursus 150318 wrote:

Since you mentioned the downhill parts, it is quite steep uphill on the initial section of Peacock Station.

I try not to think about the uphill parts.

[jabberwocky]

-Exit the park and continue on Old Dominion for a mile or two (until you’re over difficult run). There is a small shoulder. Its not awesome but its not bad.
-Right on Peacock Station. Lovely road.
-Right on Towlston. No shoulder but fairly lightly trafficked. Be careful.
-After going straight across 7, becomes Trap Rd and gains a lane and a nice shoulder. Also downhill. Go veeeeeerry fast. Note the shoulder vanishes for the bridge over 267. Theres a fancy new path there that I’ve never used.
-After crossing 267, stay right to follow Trap Rd.
-Go straight over Old Courthouse. Road becomes Beulah. Marvel at the fact that this road has changed names 3 times so far, and none of them were at the only turn.
-Right on Clarks Crossing. Moar downhill fun.
-Clarks Crossing dead ends at W&OD. Make a left for victory.

EDIT: Just a note, I’ve ridden this route several times before, and its not bad at all on a weekend. I would probably not do it at rush hour, where traffic on Old Dominion and Towlston would make it a little more harrowing.

[jabberwocky]

I had Lakes for many years, and they are fantastic for warmth but I found their build quality to be a bit questionable (mine were held together with shoe goo after a few seasons).

I replaced them with a pair of Northwave Celsius Arctic boots a few years ago and like them a lot. Equally warm and comfortable but they have held up far better (other than being a little dirty mine look the same as new after 3-4 winters of commuting).

[jabberwocky]

I’ve almost been hit a few times by some idiot in an ELF riding down the shoulder of route 7.

[jabberwocky]

I’d look at the radpower ( http://www.radpowerbikes.com ) bikes. They are very reasonably priced for what you get and are geared towards being useful commuters (integrated rack, come with fenders and such).

[jabberwocky]

I used to cross that intersection as part of my daily commute, and I can definitely say that cars running the red is pretty frequent there. Its one of those that I always make sure cars are gonna stop no matter what the crossing signal says (and even then you have occasional close calls).

[jabberwocky]

E-bikers taking Strava KOMs/QOMs = LOL. I encourage the hell out of this practice.

[jabberwocky]

@MikeS 148387 wrote:

I can’t be responsible for other ebikers, but otherwise I’m trying to be good trail user.

And I can’t speak for anyone else, but it sounds like you’re a responsible rider and I’d have no issues sharing the trail with you. Glad the new bike is making the commute manageable!

[jabberwocky]

@TwoWheelsDC 148138 wrote:

It’s not pedestrians’ responsibility to wear reflective gear just so you can ride faster (but again, what about all those other hazards?).

Sure, they aren’t obligated to make themselves easier to see at night. Just like I’m not obligated to avoid shining 2000+lumens of light in their face. It would be nice if they were considerate enough to purchase a 10 dollar reflective vest to wear over their black sweatsuit, because then I could be considerate enough not to have to blind them, but here we are.

[jabberwocky]

The official line on most mups like the w&od is “no motorized vehicles period”. Some e-bike riders seem to interpret that as not applying to them. FWIW, I seriously doubt it will be enforced unless you ride like a total asshat.

I do get apprehensive when people talk about “keeping commute time reasonable” with an e-bike on trails because even a non motorized rider can push the limits of safe speed on mups; adding a motor to cut the commute down sort of implies you’ll be going pretty fast which is usually not very safe (or completely unsafe on more heavily used parts of the trail, which most everything inside the beltway is).

[jabberwocky]

Electric bikes/e-assist/e-cars like the elf/etc on MUPs is a whole complicated issue on its own, but painting riders as “lazy” and berating them is just wrong. In the grand scheme of things, much better someone ride an e-bike than drive a car.

Theres probably gonna be a point where the community and managers have to address it and I don’t know how thats gonna shake out. As e-bikes get cheaper and faster and more widespread, we are absolutely going to start seeing serious conflicts on the trail. The fact is that the W&OD is among the best MUPs in the area and even it just isn’t designed to handle high speed traffic.

[jabberwocky]

Its also why its a really bad idea to try and follow someone through an intersection without slowing down. Countless times I’ve seen cyclists on MUPs see traffic slowing for a rider ahead and they sprint to try and make the same opening and go through at full speed.

[jabberwocky]

@vvill 146805 wrote:

Is there any issue storing hydro disc brake bikes like that? Thought I read something about it once

I’ve never had a problem, and half my bikes have hydraulic discs.

[jabberwocky]

I store mine similarly and have for many years. Current setup:

[img]http://i.imgur.com/ZAtIxKN.jpg?1[/img]

The hooks are from Home Depot and are plenty heavy duty. The bike on the left is 45-50 pounds. Alternating front wheel and back wheel lets you get them pretty close together (the room is 150 inches wide and I have 10 bikes across it).

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