[mstone]

@Riley Casey 28129 wrote:

Thanks for the update. I’ve driven the Denton to Dewey trip so many times I’d love to ride it once. Interesting that your Garmin thinks that Dewey is 12 ft below sea level.:eek:

They added predictive logic.

[mstone]

I get in the street in stringfellow court & cross that way. It isn’t pleasant, but the best I can say about the pedestrian signal is that the county at one time planned a crossing there and either ran out of money or forgot to finish after putting in the signal. The road is wide/clear enough there that you can see what’s going on and plan accordingly. Once you’re across the road is plenty wide enough for cars to go around. Where stringfellow can get dicey is further south at the light on 50; whether I stay in the street there or hop onto the mup depends on what time of day it is–mostly the danger there is of the “getting almost to a red light and then having cars zooming on all sides if it turns green” sort, exacerbated by a sound wall that hampers planning ahead. The lanes are wide enough it shouldn’t be a problem, but people are dumb. If it seems too busy you can bail to the side path on the east side and cross 50 as a ped. South of 50 stringfellow has sidewalk / path on both sides until fair lakes.

[mstone]

@vvill 28111 wrote:

Thanks very much for all the input!

I’m now planning to take FFXCo Pwky to Stringfellow, and try some of the backstreet/bike paths in the neighbourhoods west of Stringfellow/north of 50 (not much Street View around there but Satellite View seems to indicate paved paths), hopefully pop out at 50/Lees Corner Rd, cross at the ped light and use the service road FFX_Hinterlands mentioned to get to Galesbury, then see if I can get through to Waverley Crossing Ln to Walney. (I have recessed MTB style cleats on my road bike.)[/quote]

If you really want to do paths, your best bet is probably stringfellow to the first right on coralberry, then make your way over to foxhole and the path that goes by lee’s corner elementary. (You can see the relevant paths on google satellite view.) It gets a bit steep/rough in spots but isn’t too bad, though will be fairly slow. Cross hollinger & go right to cross at lee’s corner. Don’t try to ride down lee’s corner north of 50; it’s the one stretch not marked as rideable in google for a reason (it’s narrow, with a bad sightline around the corner and cars going too fast). From galesbury take the short stretch of trail to get to waverly crossing and cross walney there. But, if you’re over at lees corner rather than stringfellow at 50, it’s probably quicker to just skip galesbury and take lees corner to fillingame right to walney. (South of 50 lees corner is wider and calmer–parked cars/residential–than just north of 50.) The longest part will be taking the trails rather than stringfellow to 50.

Quote:

mstone – thanks for the tip about the ped crossing on Stringfellow. I might just use the traffic light to get across, and then walk the bike down Stringfellow a bit until I can cross safely.

Note there is no paved shoulder there, and the gravel mostly disappears also–plan to walk in the grass.

[mstone]

I would not go anywhere near lee’s corner or 50 in that area unless it’s a sunday morning. You want stringfellow to poplar tree to walney. At peak rush hour, stringfellow can be dicey, but there is a really screwed up MUP north of 50 and a sidewalk on the south side. Note that when you’re crossing the FFXCo Pkwy there’s a pedestrian signal only on the east side of stringfellow, but there’s no actual path south of the Pkwy so the signal is just there to trap you; best bet is to cross in the street, and then switch to the sidepath if the traffic gets dicey, especially at the light at 50. There’s a sidepath on the south/west side of walney, but the street itself is fairly wide and rideable. Flatlick is pretty easy to ride, but there are a couple of stream crossings that you’d want to avoid on a road bike and cleats (one you’ll have to portage over stepping stones, the other you can ride through). Worst is that flatlick will dump you out at walney & westfields in a spot that’s nearly impossible to cross. (Two multilane roads intersect, no crosswalk or pedestrian signal because, hey, roads are for cars. Ironic that there’s a trail intersection there, MUPs along the roads, it’s marked as a bike route in google maps, and THERE IS NO MARKED CROSSWALK ON WALNEY AT ALL BETWEEN THERE AND 28.) Best crossing for walney is at one of the low-traffic intersections between walney & westfields, but it’s also doable at poplar tree if you’re ready to run through the (at this time of year) waist high weeds to get to the MUP; I assume they didn’t bother to pave a curb cut because that would encourage people to cross the street.

Side note: the city folk complaining about bike lanes don’t know how bad bike infrastructure can get.

[mstone]

bring a really big bottle of lysol…

[mstone]

@jrenaut 27788 wrote:

I thought WMATA was ADDING bike parking, not taking it away? Was that only inside the DC limits?

The individual bike lockers have mostly been a disaster–very underutilized, relatively expensive, and space hogs. They’ve been putting in more traditional bike racks and experimenting with secure bike parking which can handle more bikes and offer far more flexibility (so you aren’t tied to one station).

[mstone]

If you only tour on smooth surfaces, I can’t help but wonder if the loop around your driveway gets old, and if you ever yearn to go a bit further.

Back in the day I used friction shifters on the down tube. It worked, but brifters are just so immensely more convenient that I use the gears a lot more–which my knees really appreciate. On the other hand there’s the weight argument (on a steel loaded tourer you’re ready going to notice the weight of the shifter?) the complexity argument (of course it’s more complex–it does more; if you want simple I’ve got a balance bike that’s right up your alley) and the cost argument (this one holds water, but few people admit that they’re going with bar end shifters because they’re too cheap to pop for brifters).

[mstone]

@Jason 27719 wrote:

I have a feeling that most people who ride a CC or LHT dont actually do any “touring” but instead ride around their town for the most part. As a result, I feel 90% of the CC and LHT owners would be better served by the brifters anyway.

So would 99% of tourers; unless you’re touring internationally in third world countries, it’s pretty hard to screw up an sti to the point that you can’t limp to a place that visa and mastercard can’t bail you out. It’s more a matter of custom than necessity.

[mstone]

@krazygl00 27301 wrote:

There is no such thing as an interesting helmet debate. (Clicks link anyway).

There are actually a lot of interesting new points in that thread.

Made you look?

[mstone]

the pcbs have mostly sunk. just don’t disturb the sediments.

[mstone]

@KelOnWheels 27214 wrote:

Where do honey badgers go?

Honey Badger don’t care

[mstone]

@KelOnWheels 27091 wrote:

Oh no, I was not ELITE. I should have called it a saddle. Why is a saddle on a seatpost?

If you want to sound more continental you can call it a “saddle pole” or “saddle pillar”.

[mstone]

hey, if we want to really start talking about cyclists making the club look bad, can someone tell me why they even make semi-transparent white shorts? darn things are a menace and should be illegal.

[mstone]

@baiskeli 27022 wrote:

Here’s my example to other cyclists – you can not only respect the signals and laws, you can go out of your way to be safe. I never cross against the counting-down red walk signal at Lynn St. (technically illegal anyway), only on the green at the beginning of the cycle. I can wait a minute. No need to blow through there.

There’s no way. We don’t get enough crossing time as it stands, and they factor the 30 second countdown into the available time.

[mstone]

@eminva 26973 wrote:

You must have started in the winter, so kudos to you for keeping at it through three seasons

Point of order: winter was canceled last year. I wonder what we’ll get this year.

[Author]

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