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@Harry Meatmotor 100249 wrote:

Shimano explicitly warns against using their IGHs for anything more than lightly spirited riding, even the nicer alfine hubs aren’t meant for MTB use. The rohloff hubs do tend to hold up under heavy abuse, but you’re definitely going to pay for it up front and through maintenance in the long term. I will say that holding a $1400 hub as nice as the rohloff in your hand is pretty cool – they’re built like a luxury wristwatch. I can’t even begin to imagine how difficult it is to overhaul one, though.

Because of dust and maintenance, SoCal mountain bikers have been experimenting with IGHs and belt drive — and mostly doing pretty well. Shimano has to consider the largest riders, especially if they’re tinkering with lower gearing. If that’s not you, you’re unlikely to have problems with a Shimano IGH, even outside its designed use.

Plenty of 50 year old 3-speeds have been working fine with no maintenance at all. This is typical of IGHs, even Rohloffs. All most of them need is oil changes — once every few years.

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Thanks Greg & WABA, for today’s last minute email blast!

Everyone – if you haven’t sent in your comment, please do before tomorrow:

http://org.salsalabs.com/o/451/p/dia/action3/common/public/?action_KEY=16829

“Once this corridor is upgraded, citizens will live with it for the next century. Let’s get it right.”

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scoot,

I went to the Greenway meeting in Charleston SC a couple of weeks ago. Sorry to be so late with a report but I’ve been busy since. I hope to post on our blog as soon as work quiets down for the holiday.

Anyway:

Do you have additional intel that the greenway will not be considered for the northern segment in Tier II, in spite of its inclusion in the southern study? That’s what the sample comment implies…

Absolutely not. It could certainly be included, especially if there’s enough clamoring for it. This is why we’re asking for support.

I haven’t read the studies. Do they consider potential future trails along these rail ROWs, or are they only concerned with impacts to existing trails? If the latter, then ECG effectively would be ignored because so little of it exists presently.

This is about incorporating future trails, or anything else for that matter, into the new SEHSR corridor. We’re in the early steps in the planning process. It’s up to us to keep the pressure on at each step, so the things we want are included.

So please, everyone, send a note to info@dc2rvarail.com or use the online form at http://www.dc2rvarail.com/contact-us/

Did you see the recent Rails to Trails magazine?

“How Rail-with-Trail Is Transforming America” (PDF)

More soon!

@PotomacCyclist — thanks for posting.

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@Sunyata 100192 wrote:

I have Raleigh Misceo 4.0 with the 11 speed IGH. I ended up getting a super deal on it from my (used to be) local shop in Lynchburg, VA, which made it about $400 cheaper than the Breezer. And I can not praise that bike enough. It is AWESOME.

I almost bought one for a MTB, figuring I could get a better fork if necessary and still have a good belt drive IGH MTB for well under $2000.

Alfine-11 bikes couldn’t be marketed as MTBs so they called it a trail & path bike or something. Then they changed that model. It was a great buy while it lasted, so congrats!

For commuter bikes, the Breezer looks great, also the Trek Soho.

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Why We Don’t Need Rain Bikes Any Longer

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@dasgeh 99407 wrote:

The article also mentioned it was a group of cyclists crossing, and it sounds like the injured was mid-group. So the lead car was probably stopped or slowing for a not -insignificant amount of time.

Was the cab driver playing with his phone? Did police bother to check?

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@Brendan von Buckingham 99357 wrote:

At minimum they should add a stop line 20 or 30 feet back from the crossing and tell cars to stop at the new stop line. That way, when a car overtakes a car stopped for people in the crosswalk, they have at least some chance of seeing that and stopping in time. As it is, with cars stopped right at the crosswalk, there’s no margin for error when the second lane doesn’t see/know there’s people in the crosswalk.

Does DC or VA law apply in Nationalparkistan?

Last session we tried to pass a law making it illegal to pass another vehicle stopped at a crosswalk. (Good grief, why ELSE would a vehicle be stopped at a crosswalk?)

We’ll probably try again this year, but I haven’t heard of an actual bill yet.

If you’d like to help, come to Richmond this Sunday.

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@Brendan von Buckingham 97850 wrote:

Driver has been arrested, and get this, charged with Murder Two. They must have video of the accident or a passenger willing to testify against the driver?

http://www.popville.com/2014/10/props-to-the-cops-arrest-made-in-hit-and-run-where-cyclist-was-killed-at-8th-and-s-st-nw/#comments

Or a previous DUI, as is the law in CA, and a case to be made elsewhere: “…a previous DUI conviction, and the subsequent required alcohol education, is considered an adequate indicator to suggest “implied malice” in subsequent DUI arrests involving the death of another party.”

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Unfortunately, nearly all the lights sold in US shops are round beams with MTB heritage, inappropriate for road and commuter trail use.

Why can’t our local shops carry “shaped beam” lights? Maybe it’s our job to educate them about it, or simply buy from sources like Peter White until they start to care.

I’m as guilty and frustrated as anyone, with my super-blindomatic Princeton Tec. I try to shade or cover it, but wind up going off the trail steering blind and one-handed.

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I spent 10 days in NYC in June, riding every day and having a ball.

Your best bet is probably the waterfront paths, great rides with great scenery and few hassles. It’s nice to ride over the bridges just to do it, but don’t feel you have to — just pick a route, and take the subway to/from the start and finish. The Hudson River path downtown is where the most “life” is.

Even the Brooklyn side is great to poke around, especially Brooklyn Bridge Park and DUMBO.

Plan your routes well unless you have a thick skin for city traffic and seriously potholed streets. NYC is not like DC, for either street condition or traffic. The major Avenue bike routes are more than fine.

Note that Citibike extends north only to 59th St. — south of Central Park.

Riding around Central Park is fun, but can be hectic, with a mix of meanderers and Cat 6es.

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Roll straight on the slippery stuff, aiming for the next drier patch to do your braking and steering adjustments.

Use drier patches to scrub speed off and ra-aim to roll straight through the next slippery patch.

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Thanks baiskell, we can’t repost that enough!

It’s great to re-stage that locally, for local context, publicity and awareness — not just from media coverage but participants becoming evangelists. It’ll also help kibosh the “but that’s in Yurrup, an’ we ain’t like Yurrup” attitude.

Roanoke sparkplug River Laker did the car-sized space frame thing a few years ago, inspired by one in Montreal a few years before that:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VXK673rfCB0

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@mstone 95431 wrote:

Big problem is that two-lane roundabouts are much worse than single-lane roundabouts, and more lanes than that is a circus. Combine that with VDOT’s “never met a road that couldn’t use more lanes” philosophy and the possibilities are much more limited than they should be.

The two lane ones where you can exit the roundabout from the left lane are an abomination. I don’t recall ever seeing these in the UK. Sadly they’re popping up like weeds all over the US, like around Bellingham WA. VDOT has been doing these too.

Can we embed Google maps here?

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@PotomacCyclist 95413 wrote:

The plans for Water Street at the Southwest Waterfront (The Wharf) include a shared space design, where pedestrians, bikes and cars will mix in a common zone. It’ll be a few years before that’s completed, so we don’t know how well it will work just yet. Maybe these designs work better when there are also bike trails/lanes nearby (but not in the middle of the mixing zone/shared space)?

It can all be in the mix like Granville Island in Vancouver BC, which has a cement plant with trucks coming and going, along with tourbuses and everybody else walking, biking and driving around. And it’s one of the world’s great waterfronts.

I spent a week or 2 there every summer for 9 years, with a bunch of architects/planners and engineers — a real treat for all of us.

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@dplasters 95391 wrote:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-vzDDMzq7d0 let me know when they try this

Has anyone else here spent much time riding and driving in the UK? Roundabouts are SO MUCH BETTER.

bobco85 — you rock! Thanks.

BTW you don’t need more than one lane because roundabouts reduce the almighty “seconds delay at intersection” which is what drives road-widening to begin with.

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