[krazygl00]

@pinkfootedgoose 85074 wrote:

I am a decently experienced rider. I commute to work every day – rain or shine – and ride a road bike in the evenings for exercise. One evening last week during my 2 mile commute from work, I almost got hit twice – both times by bicycles! When I commute, I adhere to traffic signals rather obsessively, but I do so consciously as to make my trip mindless. While I understand the reasoning of the experienced riders who choose to go through red lights – because they know what they are doing, I worry that as more people take up bicycling, they also take up this practice – and blow through red lights without experience. I fear this may become a serious problem. No longer is it one, experienced cyclist who chooses to go through a red light knowing the risk and looking for cars and cyclists, now it is an inexperienced rider on a Bikeshare with headphones on blindly riding through a red light on Pennsylvania Ave. It is unrealistic to expect others to take up my “stop for every single red light” approach, but something needs to be done to encourage safe riding.

I think it is a stretch to try to find a hypothetical causal link between the lone, experienced rider blowing a red light and CaBi riders blithely gliding through them because they saw someone else do it. Of course if this becomes the case we will quickly see Darwin in action.

There is the old idea that a person is not stupid but people are. Still while this is an interesting concept in describing crowd behavior, it improperly and unfairly aggregates the mind of the individual. Even the vast throng of “inexperienced riders” is comprised of thinking individuals. When viewed from afar the throng appears mindless, but its behavior is governed by thousands of individual decisions. To say each of these riders will make the decision to simply ignore red lights is like saying they’ll each decide to start juggling chainsaws. Well, that analogy’s been done…

[ATTACH=CONFIG]5583[/ATTACH]

[krazygl00]

@ThatGuy 84889 wrote:

So I was just wondering how badly was I scammed. How much was the bike worth with the parts below?

Current Set up:

-Shimano 600 Groupset
-Shimano WH-RS10 Wheelset
-Truvativ Elita GPX Crank Set
-Hutchingson Top Slick 2 Protect Air Tires 700×32
-Tektro RL340 Ergo Brake Lever Set
-Speacialized Bodgeometry Drop Handle bars
-Selle Italia Saddle

Original Specifications:

http://www.trekbikes.com/us/en/bikes/2011/archive/trek/xo1/#/us/en/archive-model/details?url=us/en/bikes/2011/archive/trek/xo1

It sucks that he misrepresented the bike and said the components were all original. But if the frame is solid and the components are not too worn then you didn’t do that badly. There is nothing inherently wrong with the components other than some of them may be approaching end-of-life. When they wear out you may be hard pressed to find compatible replacements, and once you veer from that there go the floodgates and you have to start replacing others to preserve compatibility. To avoid that scenario and replace components with exact matches you’ll have to start rummaging through bins at bike co-ops and yard sales. You’ll have to grow a beard. Get some SPD sandals. And maybe a clip-on eyeglass mirror.

[krazygl00]

This is a great write-up on locks and thieves, that I think someone (I forget who) posted to this forum a while back. Thanks, forgotten mystery poster!

http://thesweethome.com/reviews/best-bike-lock/

[krazygl00]

This is a great write-up on locks and thieves, that I think someone (I forget who) posted to this forum a while back. Thanks, forgotten mystery poster!

http://thesweethome.com/reviews/best-bike-lock/

[krazygl00]

If the fitness center in the mall is across from your office, are you in one of the Stafford buildings? There is a fitness center in Stafford I that has a super-low yearly rate. PM me for details.

[krazygl00]

@baiskeli 84817 wrote:

I think this should be officially a celebration of the lesser-known event that, coincidentally, falls on the same day: Bike Home from Work Day (BHFWD).

Man, screw those BTWD losers! Everyone knows that BHFWD people rule!

[krazygl00]

Awesome run-down VVill! Should this be a sticky? And if so, in Commuters or General? What say you all?

[krazygl00]

@scorchedearth 84689 wrote:

Me: Walking down Connecticut Ave near Dupont Circle after getting a donut for dessert.

You: A tall woman salmoning up Connecticut Ave on a CaBi with earphones in.

I hope you live, lady because you’re insane.

You’ve had an encounter with a Beautiful Godzilla. Did she have a small dog or a baguette in the basket of her CaBi?

[krazygl00]

@PotomacCyclist 84483 wrote:

Great to see that cyclist passing on the MVT right into a blind turn (southbound, as the trail heads away from the Gravelly Point parking lot at the wooded area). I had slowed down behind a runner. I didn’t want to pass there because I had no way to see if anyone was heading in the other direction. Then some guy passes me and the runner and heads up that small incline, where the blind turn is located. He just continued on his way as if this was normal.

If there had been oncoming bike traffic, there’s no way he could have avoided a collision. After I made it past the blind turn, I passed the runner. I saw an oncoming cyclist about 40 feet ahead. This was around 7:30 pm. There was still plenty of bike and runner traffic on the MVT at that hour. It’s insane to be passing on the trail at blind turns like that.

Ugh. I don’t know why it is so difficult for people to restrain themselves, have a little bit of patience, and for this relatively short stretch of the MVT act as if they were riding under a yellow flag. Take the opportunity to give your “massive guads” a rest so a little further down the trail you can “drop the hammer” for your next super-awesome sprint to victory. What a newb move.

[krazygl00]

@Harry Meatmotor 84605 wrote:

per teh intarweb parlance: sorry! img taken w/ potato.

The Imgur is strong with this one.

[krazygl00]

@Harry Meatmotor 84589 wrote:

All i gotta say is this morning was:

Ever-so-slightly blurry. What did you drink last night? :p

[krazygl00]

I’ve done the five boro and the FreshBikes ride (last night was my first); I actually rode up on last night’s accident after the fact by minutes, I’d say. The ambulance heading there passed by me somewhere on Military Rd.

While I’m not sure whether or not the ride’s days are numbered, I would say the demographics between the two don’t really compare. Five boro had far more novice jackassery than FB by orders of magnitude certainly. And if you’re like me and uber-slow you’ll find yourself in the back with few riders around so less to worry about.

[krazygl00]

This is my medical alert bracelet.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]5526[/ATTACH]

[krazygl00]

I’d like Strava to just send a curt yet polite salutory text to my friends who ride by so I don’t actually have to talk to them.

[krazygl00]

@hozn 83775 wrote:

The reasons *I* would want a tapered HT (may be the same as vvill, we often agree) is that almost all of the full-carbon disc-brake forks out there are for (1.125-1.5) tapered head tubes. The exceptions are the Spot fork and the new/upcoming (maybe released now?) Ritchey WCS fork. The tapered HT is especially a requirement if you want a thru-axle fork.

I don’t know if I can feel the difference in tapered HT alone. Certainly my new bike has a much stiffer frontend than previous (Enve 2.0 straight-steerer fork), but it’s a completely different frame/fork with different wheels (45mm 28-spoke vs previous 50mm 20-spoke), so hard to know what is the making it feel different.

That makes total sense. My own carbon (with al. steerer) disc fork is 1.125/1.125 so it didn’t occur to me that this configuration would become scarce. I’m trying out a 2007 Kona Major Major to replace my 2004 JTS with cracked frame. It is an awesome frame but I’m considering two factors that may be at end-of-life, the first being the non-tapered head tube and the second being the 130mm dropout spacing with disc brake option.

[Author]

Posts