[lordofthemark]

@mstone 52803 wrote:

I’m not convinced weight is a big factor here. Unless you’re very small/light, the 10 or 15 pounds you could possibly save isn’t going to make a dramatic difference in your ability to go up the hills. (Adage: it doesn’t get easier, you just go faster.) Any new non-mountain bike is likely to be geared higher than the mountain bike and, if anything, may be harder. As you noted, changing out existing big knobby tires for something with a lower rolling resistance is likely to have a large effect, probably larger than losing a few pounds from the bike. If you really like the bike, go for it (it does look nice) but nothing’s going to make the hills easier but attacking the hills and building up to it.

I’m less than 5’6″ tall. I am currently 150 lbs, but my ideal weight is more like 135 (and I think its not unrealistic to get back that). But I hear you on building up, for sure.

[lordofthemark]

@consularrider 52798 wrote:

Just for clarification, the REI website lists a Novara http://www.rei.com/product/825376/novara-transfer-one-bike-2013 sale prices at $398 (list $499) and weighing 30 lbs. This is a single speed with coaster brakes. The “Transfer” is sale priced at $693 (list $700), is a seven speed internal gear hub (IGH) with rim brakes and includes a dynamo light with a weight of 36.6 pounds. If REI has a Transfer on the floor priced at $360 I’m guessing it is a previous year’s model and probably a demo?

All-in-all, the Transfer looks like a decent basic transportation bike, but I have no experience with IGH to know how it would handle for your commute. If this was the REI at Baileys Crossroads, you should take it out and test ride it on some hills that are conveniently located next to the shopping center to see what you think.

It had an IGH, was 7 speed. This was clearance priced, I’m pretty sure its not on the website.

[lordofthemark]

@dasgeh 52794 wrote:

Sounds like you’re getting a bike with rack and fenders and all tuned up (right? REI gives you service too, right?). For $360. So if you bought a complete clunker off CL, and added rack and fenders and got it tuned up, you’d probably be in the neighborhood of $250. How much is your time worth?

Oh, and did you ride it? If you did and like it, sounds like a deal to me. Beside, ride it every day and it’s just $1/day

I was thinking of buying used from an LBS (the one in Annandale sells only used) not via Craigslist.

[lordofthemark]

I guess I didn’t make myself clear then. I guess there’s minimal chance I will be riding with groups looking to do high speeds anytime soon – though I do want to ride faster than I do now. I find hills give me lots of trouble – I find the eastbound Custis somewhat stressful – I know thats partly a matter of getting into better shape, which should come with regular commuting, but I also want a bike that makes it easier. My regular commute (I don’t know how often I will do it – I’ve done it once – lets say once a week?) includes the stretch from the Pentagon to Jefferson Memorial, where I definitely feel the grades. So I may be overly sensitive about the weight of my old MTB. (yes, several folks have suggested switching out the tires on the MTB). I picked the Novarra up, and I guess I hoped it would feel noticeably lighter than the MTB. I may have been unrealistic – and the NoVarra did have a rack and fender on it, which the MTB does not.
I can of course aim to get a “real” road bike sometime down the line. Right now I would prefer to spend less than $400.

So is the Novarra a really good deal? Should I go pick it up, assuming its a good fit, and not bother hunting for a used bike at my LBS (which specialized in used bike?)

[lordofthemark]

@KLizotte 52674 wrote:

Too bad you live so far away from work.

Working on that

[lordofthemark]

@eminva 52664 wrote:

There can be only one? Maybe you can find another before you retire so there can be at least two of you?

Congrats!

Liz

It’s a small agency. My colleague who was a regular commuter managed to inspire me. There’s a woman who is a more avid cyclist than I am, but she lives two blocks away. I think there’s one other guys who sometimes takes a folding bike on VRE, but he doesn’t talk about biking as much as the three of us do/did. I will try to inspire more people, but since this was only my first commute, well…..

[lordofthemark]

Made it back the Pentagon myself, completing the bike commute day.

1. Riding UP the ramp from the parking garage is not my favorite way to start my ride home.
2. The parking folks at USDOT nicely put a BTWD parking permit on my bike for me – I will have to find out the standard procedure for parking.
3. The I Street bike lane was fenced off for construction westbound.
4. I was pleased to note that at 7th and Maine I, of all people, was riding more VC style than some other cyclists (taking the center lane to cross to Water, while someone else was in the right turn lane, even though he was clearly proceeding through to Water) and that someone was drafting me for several blocks.
5. I still dislike riding on the Pentagon Reservation, but will have to get used to that

But all was justified by the satisfaction of completing the day.

[lordofthemark]

[ATTACH=CONFIG]2931[/ATTACH]

At Canal Park, my recently retired colleague (on the left in the red helmet) passes the baton as our agency’s bike commuter to me (on the right in the blue helmet).

[lordofthemark]

I did it!!!! Made it to work! Got the t-shirt!

I passed on Crystal City – while my bus got in on time, I didn’t want to chance keeping my friend waiting (we were also meeting another friend of his). I got from Pentagon to Jefferson Memorial early. The ride from Jeff Memorial to Canal Park was easy (easier than the ride from the Pentagon) despite an (auto) accident at I and S South Capital. We took a picture to show the passing of the baton as the agency’s official bike commuter, and there was a Department BTWD picture. I now have a nice t-shirt, and some bottled water, as swag. Got a muffin, but they were out of regular coffee so I passed on the decaf. Fitness center shower worked out fine. Forgot to wait around at Canal Park for the raffle – not sure when or even if they did that.

Next year, when I’m more of a regular, I will try to do the multiple pit-stop thing.

Looking forward to hopefully an easy ride back to the Pentagon this evening.

[lordofthemark]

@ShawnoftheDread 52346 wrote:

I find that properly folded work pants keep nicely in a small backpack or messenger bag in the amount of time it takes to ride to work.

Currently my only choice is a large backpack – I was very much planning on making things as easy as possible tomorrow by riding with no back pack.

[lordofthemark]

shoot! I forgot to take long pants in with me. And looks like tomorrow will be warm enough to make the idea of biking in long pants particularly silly. This will, thus, be my first time in a long time wearing shorts to work.

[lordofthemark]

So far I have celebrated BTWD eve, by bring a plastic bag containing two towels (the gym here will allow cyclists to use the showers tomorrow, but they have no towel service) and a chang of underwear on the metro.

This will be the first time I’ve bike commuted to work since I was in college (and rode to a summer job).

[lordofthemark]

“you can take the MVT south to the Crystal City cutoff and up the hill to the Crystal City Water Park for an extra pit stop. This would add about 2.5 miles round trip to your commute. “

I would think its faster, IF I go to Crystal City, to bypass the MVT and just head through the Pentagon lot and through Pentagon City?

[lordofthemark]

The one time I test rode this, it took me about 45 minutes. I’m probably in better shape now, but not that much, and still riding the same clunker MTB with the same knobby tires. My friend wants to be at Canal Park at 8:15 to meet some other of his friends – and since we’ve been talking about my eventual commute on BTWD for almost a year now, and I haven’t seen him since he retired, I’d like to ride with him. 7:45 should give plenty of slack for anything. I need some slack on the other side due to the unpredictability of the 29G bus (should be fast on a Friday, but part of the route is on the non-HOV lanes of I395, so one can never tell). If I get in to the Pentagon really early I suppose I can do Crystal City, but won’t have much time to hang out.

[lordofthemark]

I didn’t want to deal with navigating among the tourists back from the FDR memorial to the south side of the Memorial bridge (I’ve never ridden on the Memorial bridge, and was not 100% sure of the route, despite the DC bike map I had) and figured I would rather try a different route from the 14th street bridge to the Pentagon, which might me more useful for me in the future, as my commute would be to near the Navy Yard.

I will probably try the tunnel to Pentagon City though (I walked it long ago when I was on a contract at the Pentagon)

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