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I’m too hairy and lazy to shave. I can hardly stay on top of keeping my face smooth.

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bikes@vienna or mt airy cycles up near frederick.

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I’ve seen a handful of people riding e-bikes on the W&OD over the past few years. None were going so fast that I couldn’t pass them though.

I look at it as a positive. If it helps get more people out on bikes, using them for errands and commuting, thats a win for the cycling community at large because it increases demand for bike lanes, paths, gets drivers used to seeing more bikes, etc. I’d much rather see someone commuting to work on an e-bike than in a car.

I do think that there are going to be issues in the future with MUPs (like the W&OD) as the e-bikes get cheaper and faster… most paths are not designed for traffic maintaining 30+mph.

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Also note that you don’t need to ride up to the park to get to woodford from the W&OD. There is a gravel trail that connects the W&OD to Electric Ave (right at the bend where the two are close). Look to your right as you ride along the chain link fence. Right the end theres a white concrete abutment, the trail is right in front of it. That was part of my old commute (my office was right at 7 and 123).

Your route looks doable. The Gosnell section from 123 across 7 is pretty heavily trafficked though, especially at rush hour. Another option is to follow the W&OD across Maple Ave, and then get into the Vienna back roads behind the shopping centers off 7. There are a few pedestrian paths that can be linked on a bike, and then you could cross 7 at Spring Hill and ride down Greensboro.

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For anyone interested in conditions out west, I rode from Old Reston Ave out to route 28 this afternoon to see how things are. The trail is 95% clear. The other 5% still contained rutted snow and ice, but almost always had two clear tracks through it that were at least 12″ wide (usually 2 ft or more though). I was on a road bike with slicks and did perfectly fine.

The only tricky thing is going to be when the temps drop. There was a lot of snowmelt on the trail, I suspect that things will get icy in places early in the morning and later in the evening.

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That dirtworld article is somewhat out of date. Trails have changed a lot, plus they have you riding the gravel road by the dam rather than the sweet singletrack off to the southeast.

Lake Fairfax (part of the Difficult Run?Colts Neck loop) is my local trail. I actually created a map for it recently, since I know it quite well and haven’t ever seen a good one:
http://img146.imageshack.us/img146/889/lorolakefairfaxmapwip13.jpg
The up to date version usually lives on our local trails wiki here: http://www.logoffrideon.com/trails/index.php?title=Lake_Fairfax

The “loop” usually entails continuing up the doubletrack to where it intersects the CCT (at Carpers Farm Way), then following the CCT south to the W&OD and looping back to the Ice Rink lot. You can also follow the CCT north to Great Falls (which is what the dirtworld article is saying to do). These days, with all the new stuff at Lake Fairfax I generally stay within the park rather than looping it out though.

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I’ve been rear ended on the W&OD 3 times in the past few years, all by roadies stealth-drafting me (i.e. they snuck up and hung 4 inches off my wheel without saying anything). I’ve subsequently lost my sense of humor about it, and ask that they not do it, and if they persist will do everything I can to convince them that it isn’t a good idea. This includes wild speed swings, weaving, pretending intersections are clear and then jamming the brakes at the last second, practicing my stoppies in the middle of the trail, etc.

My personal etiquette on catching up to someone is to either immediately pass them or hang back about 15-20 yards. I’m actually mindful of women riders; I generally never follow them at dusk/during the winter, for the reasons you articulate (though its usually hard to tell if a rider is a lady from 10-15 yards back when everyone is decked out in winter clothes).

@CCrew 1600 wrote:

As a cyclist concerned about personal safety I’d be most concerned about the ped that only comes in view at the last minute or is even vaguely questionable. In my experience though with 10k miles commuting on the bike this year? The most dangerous are the jogger running in the same direction with the iPod blasting that u-turns without looking, or the ped walking Fifi on the 20′ retractable leash on the other side of the trail.. The Fifi one cost me a shoulder reconstruction and 6 weeks off the bike in May, and not so much as an “I’m sorry” from Fifi’s master.

Ugh. Headphone wearing joggers are bad, but the retractable leashes are downright evil. I had it out with an old lady in Reston a few years ago, who had stopped on the right side of the trail to chat with her friend, while her little dog was off in the bushes on the left, with the retractable leash going across the entire trail right at neck level (she was up on a slight hill). Saw it at the last second and managed to slam my brakes on, but it could have been bad.

My personal philosophy is that I never swerve to avoid people. If a jogger makes an abrupt u-turn in front of me, I’ll hit them. I know too many folks who have swerved to avoid someone doing something stupid, and crashed and badly injured themselves as a result. If I’m doing down, I’m taking you (and/or your little dog) with me.

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Looks to me like you just screwed it out.

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A few weeks ago I was riding the W&OD out in Loudoun County. I ran into a confused looking old lady driving towards me on the W&OD immediately before the bridge over 28. She had just done a 3 point turn in the middle of the trail. I threw up my hands in a “wtf are you doing” expression and she just laughed and accelerated around me. Very surreal.

As womble pointed out, some people are dumb.

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Whats the process if you signed up, but got laid off from your job between then and the actual day? Can I still ride to the stop and get my free tshirt?

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I’m Chris. I live in Reston. I got into biking after about 12 years of skateboarding (quit skating, needed an outlet for physical activity and picked up mountainbiking). When I bought my townhouse in Reston 5 years ago I decided to try bike commuting, and I ended up enjoying it a lot. From there I started dabbling in road cycling, and now I pretty much ride everything (mountainbikes, dirt jumpers, downhill, commuting and road riding).

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@Dirt 404 wrote:

I’m considering equipping my Surly Big Dummy with a 3 foot diameter, 15th Century, Chinese gong.

Thats almost as good as the guy I saw on the Capital Crescent a few years ago riding down the trail with a huge ghetto blaster bungied to his rear rack, blaring “eye of the tiger” at top volume.

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@Just161 383 wrote:

How many times do you/should we ring the bell to pass? Ringing 3-4 times seems like you’re mad or upset or something, but ringing once could go unheard or be mistaken. Twice?

I’d say it depends on how loud your bell is. I use incredibells (which are quite loud) on my fixies, and I usually only ring them once. The only times I use them more than once is situations where I want to give a lot of advance warning, so I ring them once fairly far away (10 seconds or so) and than again when I’m closer and about to pass.

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Yup, bells are great. Though I’ll admit that not all my commuters are equipped with them (something I should probably rectify). In addition to the advantages Chris lists, they are also audible much further away which is nice for alerting dog walkers well in advance (who sometimes need 5-10 seconds to reel in their 30 foot leash and get their dog under control).

That said, I have to say that I’ve had no issues calling out “on your left” when riding my non-bell equipped bikes. I also don’t bother with giving an audible warning to people with headphones on (I figure if they really cared about that sort of thing they wouldn’t be wearing frigging headphones) and people who are running right on the dividing line (I haven’t figured out why people do this, but they are too random about which direction they move when I give a warning so I usually try to pass them as quickly and stealthily as possible on whichever side seems to have more room).

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I’ve been commuting for a several years now and think this time of year is always the most dangerous on the trails. There are a lot of new riders out there and traffic is suddenly very heavy, especially in the afternoons.

My cyclist pet peeves:
-Announce when passing. Very few cyclists seem to follow this rule. It drives me crazy. I’ve had many occasions where I called out to a pedestrian ahead and moved left, only to almost collide with another cyclist who was stealth-passing me.
-Give room to me when passing. This seems to be against the roadie code or something; it seems that roadies always want to buzz by extremely close, even when there is absolutely no reason to do so.
-Don’t pass when you can’t give everyone room. i.e., please don’t swerve into oncoming riders to pass someone. I’ve been forced off the trail a few times by people who did this.
-When you enter a path, at least glance both directions and make sure you aren’t riding right in front of someone. I took someone out two years ago when he tried to enter the W&OD at speed off a side path without looking. We both went down and were fortunately unhurt, though he ended up with a destroyed front wheel.
-If you are going to draft off someone, ask permission and let them know you’re there. I’ve been rear-ended a few times by people who snuck up and hung on my wheel. I didn’t know they were even there, slowed down and was suddenly rammed. I’ve pretty much lost my sense of humor about cyclists drafting me now, and will do my utmost to screw with anyone who tries it.

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