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@mstone 64775 wrote:

any visible change?

The timber-deck bride was replaced. Everything is nice and smooth.

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The road was open today. (I’m not sure when it reopened–sometime between last Friday and this morning.)

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Got my first flat during a commute today and realized the inflator was at home. And I was in a hurry because I have to coach my 7 year old’s soccer team today. At least the tire went flat while in the rack at work so I wasnt stranded somewhere. I hopped on the metro and all will work out ok.

Sent from my SPH-L720 using Tapatalk 2

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@mstone 64575 wrote:

The pricing sucks for a group on bikes vs a group in a car.

If you arrive in a car with four bikes on the rack and four passengers and then park at the first lot in the park after the gate, you pay $10 total. If the same four park in Front Royal and ride in, you’ll pay 4x$5=$20. Nuts.

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@mstone 64307 wrote:

Please, present an argument for why a red hand (blinking or otherwise) means “walk”. Make sure that you account for the instruction manual printed on the side of the signal. Until you present that argument, it’s obstinacy, not unsettled.

This isn’t a great argument, but at the intersections further up the hill, there are both red flashing don’t walk signals and green/red bike signals. Yesterday I noticed that the bike green changes to yellow the same moment that the car light changes to yellow, which is also the same time the flashing don’t walk becomes steady. Why shouldn’t I reasonably conclude that where there isn’t a separate bike signal, that a flashing don’t walk means that bikes can proceed until the solid “don’t walk” that comes at the same time as yellow for the cars?

Like I said, not a great argument, but it passes the laugh test.

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I apologize to all those who thought a rattrap bucket of squeaking bolts was coming down the Custis trail this morning. I’ve been commuting on a carbon road bike the last couple months because my cross bike has been acting up. I finally stripped it down to the bare frame, cleaned everything and reassembled. One big problem had been creaking from the rear wheel. I oiled each spoke at the rim and hub, hoping that would help. Well it did–for about a mile. Then it was back to being the loudest, pingiest, squeakiest bike on the road. I’m not sure what to do with that damn rear wheel. I’ve got my first cross race of the year on Sunday, and I’m going to throw the cross clincher tire on my road bike rear wheel. I’ve got a set of cross tubulars, but I keep procrastinating on stripping the glue off the rims to reglue them, and now it’s too late to do it for Sunday.

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@jabberwocky 63133 wrote:

My favorite deer experience was commuting home on the W&OD several years ago. It was just after dark and I was on the stretch just north of Hunters Mill Road. As I was cruising along, a tiny fawn jumped out of the brush and started running down the trail just in front of me. For maybe 10-15 seconds, we paced each other perfectly; I actually could have overtaken him, but I held my speed and he clearly couldn’t go any faster (though he kept looking over his shoulder at me). Eventually he veered across the trail into the bush. It was pretty cool. I could almost have leaned forward and petted him.

I’ve had numerous close calls with larger deer, but haven’t actually hit one. I have a few friends who have though, including one who hit a deer at like 30+mph while descending on his road bike near gettysburg. He survived but the bike did not.

I rode alongside a fawn a couple weeks ago in exactly that same spot.

And last Monday, I almost got taken out by a deer just west of the water fountain near the pond on the Custis trail that comes between the s curve of death and the Two Sisters hills. She jumped the low rail fence onto the trail about 10′ in front of me.

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@bikerman 63076 wrote:

Perhaps I missed the thread about this, but the Custis bike path through Arlington is covered in blue spray paint. It happened earlier this summer, but I assumed it was just chalk and would eventually wash off with the rain. The paint has been there about two months now and appears to be permanent. It appears to be for a running event earlier this summer and there are multiple arrows at several intersections along with multiple mile markers painted on the path and various words of encouragement, such as “You can do it!!” painted on the path. Needless to say, it is ridiculous that some idiot thought he/she could paint the path for the rest of us to look at it every time we take a jog or bike ride for the next several years. Do organizations need permission from the County to hold running events on the trail? If so, do we have any idea on which organization decided to paint the path and can we force them to clean it off?

I have no problem with permanently marking the start, finish, and mile markers of USATF certified courses. (There’s an elaborate procedure to certify the length of running races, involving a calibrated bicycle, multiple passes, and precise identification of start/finish/mile markers, such as “Start is 13’6″ north of utility pole 123 and 23’2″ south of the sewer grate in front of 234 Main St.”)

But anything else should be done in chalk.

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On Friday afternoon, I talked to the crew doing the construction, and they said the road would be closed for another month or so.

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They were back up this morning.

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The repaving is done from Private Drive (just west of Issac Newton) in Reston to at least Fairfax County Parkway. (I don’t know what’s going on west of the Fairfax County Parkway because I get off there.) Pavement is nice and smooth. Yesterday, they opened it up a little too soon after paving and I thought I was riding through sticky chocolate sauce, but it was firm by this morning and I didn’t see any grooves from skinny 120 psi tires.

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I was passed by a bike on the uphill going east on the WOD just after the belway and before Virginia Lane. The rider certainly didn’t look elite, and he passed me pretty quickly. I tend to go hard up that hill, so I was quite surprised. When he turned right, I noticed the massive rear hub and noticed he had an electric bike! I made a point of catching up to him and passing him on the stretch from Shreve Rd. to the Route 7 bridge.

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I understand the frustration with shoalers who are slow after the light changes, but what about when I know I’m going to pass them soon anyway? For example, I’ve been rapidly gaining on someone before the light turns red. It seems that passing when stopped at a light is the safest place to do it.

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@ShawnoftheDread 60792 wrote:

Yes, one of the stopped cyclists was still on the phone getting help when I went through.

When I went through, the EMTs were carrying a board to the downed cyclist, but he was trying to sit up while all those helping insisted he stay on the ground.

I found the commute on the Custis at 8:15 this morning very difficult. Maybe it’s my cheap sunglasses, but the constant contrast between deep shadow and full in-your-face sunlight was tough. I made a pass when I was in a sunny spot and didn’t see a huge gang of high school cross-country runners coming the other way. I got back in time, but hadn’t realized until that point how bad visibility is. I also have trouble going home sometimes coming down from the top of the hill up from Rosslyn toward the Italian Store. The walkers in the shadows hugging the sound wall just seem to disappear.

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If you want to leave the area, supposedly Whiteface Mountain in Lake Placid, NY, is the same average grade (8%) and length (13k) as Alpe d’Huez.

http://www.northeastcycling.com/Global_Climbs.html

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