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@anomad 165413 wrote:

It’s hard to find music that is universally hated, but pop country is good place to start.

I had to pull up some old favorites this evening.

[img]https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/S3XR_LpPdG4FUaXLYFyX5Muil90MWcDc9PitXeNaaxJch9hWVWvAzLqzXXQiqg6fX8pHH-Gc_us=s512-c-e100-rwu-v1[/img]

The question is, are you talking arena metal or metal that scared your parents and your friends?

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Registered. Umm…tooth fairies and pizza … outfits … really aren’t going to work. Any ideas for a 6’3″ guy who knows next to nothing about TMNT?

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[QUOTE=Maybe. Or maybe the universe of folks willing to ride ebikes but not regular bikes is overall more risk-adverse that the universe of folks who ride regular bikes. In which case, one would expect ebike riders on-the-whole to take fewer risks (like passing on blind curves) than people on regular bikes.[/QUOTE

@TwoWheelsDC 165348 wrote:

Ehhhh…but how many inexperienced e-bike riders do you think there are compared to the number of inexperienced regular bike riders out there hitting the trails every April or so? Maybe you have 5% (just ballparking, probably an overstatement) of new riders on e-bikes going slightly faster than they would be able to on a normal bike. Is it more likely that those 5% of new, inexperienced riders are going to cause you problems, or will it be the other 95% of new, inexperienced riders? It’s like mindlessly car commuting to work every day but being convinced you’ll be killed in a terrorist attack…

I agree with both of you. I had a rough ride last weekend on W&OD due to the amount of threading, impatience and overall foolishness with regular bike riders. Never leave late morning on a nice Saturday on a long ride.

Yesterday just surprised me. Most of the e-bikes I run across are doing it “right.” But the percentage of those doing it “wrong” has been anecdotally higher than I see when April/May rolls around from regular bikes. Again, my sampling is weird because my morning ride is so early and there is usually no one out there and the afternoon is at commute time where you know the trail is busy. Again, my thought was not to disparage, but a concern that the speeds may not be appreciated.

And I had to tragically smile at the car commuting comment. The amount we worry about “terrible things” and forget over 30,000 die in cars every year.

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@anomad 165305 wrote:

Whatever people think about ebikes… They are here to stay. We better just start figuring out how to ride with them and the “individuals” using them. The ebike pilots will hopefully prove to be a similar bell curve distribution of the rest of society.

Bicycles will go the way of horses and sails in some ways.

Bite thy tongue. The velmoninati shall take thee to the Inquisition. E-Bikes are here to stay and that is a good thing. Who knows, if there is enough adoption, maybe it changes road use. One can hope.

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I also feel I should I add, I like of e-bikes. Anything that reduces cars, makes folks more aware of their surroundings and reduces the impact on our world, and allows those who would otherwise never saddle up – thumbs up. However, trails are multi-use and already potentially dangerous – ninjas. This is simply a gut feeling, but as e-bikes are new, many of their riders are not as experienced for the speeds they are traveling. Perhaps an unfair observation, but it does take some time to develop the handling skills and environmental experiences to avoid dangerous situations. We all know those moments, you look ahead and just start to slow down; intuition built over time. That dude this morning would have been seriously injured along with the runner he never would have seen.

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@gibby 165276 wrote:

Glass breaker seems to be back in action this morning. The airport underpass at Smith Blvd (the underpass at the south end of the airport that was reconstructed last year.)
Spoke to a Park Police officer who said they had done a stakeout ‘and I guess we need to do it again.’
I was wondering why I hadn’t seen any glass for a couple weeks. Guess the park police need to work on their undercover skills and actually catch this person!!!!!!!!!

Also, for those who use Holmes Run Trail, at the bridges underneath metro on the lower half after Eisenhower, there has been glass on several mornings. I have pushed it off the trail and called Alexandria police. They said they would monitor. Also, watch out for the pedestrian overpass on Seminary/395. Glass has shown up for the last several weeks. I really don’t get it.

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@anomad 165294 wrote:

How about a safe word we can all agree on?

Grouch.

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@Steve O 165295 wrote:

To complement the e-bike thread, there were two I encountered on the Custis this morning.

e-biker A (for ass) – passed me close without calling and with an oncoming walker. He continued to pass peds and other cyclists rather close without any warnings while I chased him. I caught up to him at the bottom of the Rosslyn hill at the light at Ft. Myer. He had decided to shoal everyone by going onto the roadway from the Lee-Hwy-side ADA ramp and waiting facing oncoming traffic. I politely suggested that it would be courteous of him to signal his passes, perhaps even buy a bell. He may have acknowledged that he heard me before he sped off on the green, making sure he got ahead of everyone else waiting at the light.
I noticed as I said this that I was immediately behind another e-biker.

e-biker B (for behaved) – He and I chatted briefly about e-biker A, who he called a jackass. During the short time we rode together, B played nice with all the other trail users, called his passes and then passed safely and appropriately. I wished him a good day as I went up the hill to the TR Bridge and he continued along the MVT.

Oh, and a flyby with wheels&wings!

Interestingly enough, I also had an encounter this morning at o’dark 30 this morning. It’s dark, I am usually the only out there and along comes a rider. No call out. Okay, after last weekend on W&OD, I am prepared for that. Except as he passes about 2-3 inches from me while we are on the MVT, he is not pedaling. Wait, huh? No coffee, dark, semi-groggy, I took a moment to process. I realized he was riding a throttle bike at about 20-25. So of course, I am now in hammer mode, as much as one can be at that time. I catch up and mention that A) call your pass, do not pass so close, and C) too fast for the trail at even that hour. I received a rather inappropriate hand signal; I of course took the high road and responded with an appropriate equal personalized retort to the hand gesture with a comment regarding his parentage. Not a proud moment, but I hope he got the message.

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@Amalitza 164837 wrote:

The following still applies:
I have not ridden my commute since May so I can’t guarantee current biking conditions on the side roads, but I drive hwy210 daily and the shoulder closings are still there. Don’t try to ride on it.

What Amalitza said and i did not do nearly well enough: there are alternatives, but they are not better. I hate to say it, but drive down and look forward to seeing you there.

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@Steve O 164835 wrote:

I think I may have a hockey stick around somewhere.
Although I think there was also a mild clamor for sewer rat.

Okay I will not sleep well at night after that, but this looks like a lot of fun. Lacking the creativity, will volunteer for any character, outside of a rat which apparently is Steve O’s.

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@Brett L. 164823 wrote:

I’ve heard that MD 210 is under construction, with sections with no shoulders. Does anyone have more info on where exactly that construction is located and how it might impact riding to and from Indian Head from National Harbour?

I was down there a few weeks ago and don’t recall the exact locations, but it was dicey. Although it will be early, there will be a number of cars for the ride. You could go Oxon Hill to Livingston and that drops you on 210 a few miles from Indian Head. But not as direct a route as 210.

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Would be interesting to watch the reaction when the power goes out.

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@Emm 164810 wrote:

I’m glad I’m not the only one who has done this…I now go so far as to keep 2 spare outfits at work for days when I flat out forget to bring clothing, or something happens to the clothes I’ve brought. So far this year I’ve been lucky–the slacks and shirt only got worn once, and that was because at 5 am I thought a sheer white dress and neon pink undergarments would be a good look for a day I had a meeting with the Secretary of my department. Needless to say at 8 am when I was dressing at work I realized maybe that outfit choice wasn’t such a good idea after all…

It’s also helpful to make friends with the other bike commuters in your office. Between the ones I work with, we have a spare bike lock, multi-tools, tubes, backpacks, sunscreen, and all sorts of other gear that has been passed around when one of us has forgotten something or had something break on us.

Oh you are not the only one by a long shot. This was early on at the job, and bike commuting, and how the ENTIRE office discovered I biked to work. Apparently, word spread pretty quickly when I started asking around if any of the guys had extra pants. Not exactly quick thinking on my part. I ended up with someone’s work out shorts which was better than bike shorts for meetings. But a shirt and tie over gym shorts was not without ridicule. For Christmas….they gave me a pair of Goodwill procured khakis.

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@trailrunner 164798 wrote:

Indeed. In my office, I keep an extra pair of underwear, and an extra pair of brown and grey dress socks. I have learned from experience.

Indeed, the extra pair of pants and belt as well. I can pull it off without the jacket, but without pants…awkward. It’s amazing what can be forgotten at 4:30 in the morning.

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@NovaEbike 164782 wrote:

When you say you could fit 2/3 suits and 4 shirts, did that include the jackets? If so, that would probably be perfect since I can rotate through the stock I keep at my office pretty easily.

It does include jackets. But you have really work on getting the folding technique down. I turn the jacket inside out, they lay it out, fold the arms in the middle, fold the jacket lengthwise in half, and then roll it tightly, really tight, otherwise you are only going to fit two suits.

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