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@pfunkallstar 14357 wrote:

There is a rad dude who is always heading into the District in the evening when the weather isn’t that bad. Can’t imagine what it is like in there in the summer though – Holy Sweaty Pants Batman!

Pants?

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We got a weehoo (http://www.weehoobicycletrailer.com/) and really love it. The 2 year old can just get strapped in and come along for the ride, or I can put the 5 or 7 year old in and do a long ride on the W&OD. When we go out as a family the older ones can do 8-10 miles, but taking them on a solo trip in the trailer lets them pedal with a lot more range (upwards of 20 miles). It’s not light (I think it weighs more than my bike), and you can feel the extra weight on the hills. Once they’re big enough to pedal you can definitely tell when they’re pedaling and when they’re just watching the scenery. It comes with panniers so you can stuff things way down low in the back. I haven’t seen anything else that can be used with such a wide range of ages; the recumbent design can be used with kids not ready to balance, but the pedals let older kids participate without getting bored. It’s got a low center of gravity so it’s fairly stable. My only regret is that we didn’t discover it earlier.

This, of course, is not helpful for putting 2 kids on one bike. I don’t know of a good solution for that since the end of the pashley u+2. You can try to get one of those second hand, but they’re like hen’s teeth.

There’s http://www.trail-a-bike.com/products/trail-a-bikes/folder-tandem/ but you reportedly need to be fairly solid to keep it stable with that long a train hanging from the seat.

Another option is an ordinary tandem bike with a single trailer on the back. At least one has to be pretty big for that to work.

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@dcv 14265 wrote:

this should be harder, i think?

Is that the trail between twin branches & w&od? not sure what it’s named; turquoise maybe?

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@dasgeh 13445 wrote:

I don’t love my car, but I do love the butt-warmers. If only they’d come up with butt-warmers for the bike.

MCL1981, PrintError or vvill — could you jerry-rig something and tell us all how you do it? Bonus points if it has an auto-shut-off once you’ve started riding hard.

I am not built for winter.

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@MCL1981 13323 wrote:

From my experience on the tow path (which is only between Swain’s Lock and Georgetown), BUG SPRAY. And do it when there aren’t bugs. Forget the heat. The bugs will kill you before the heat does. They don’t bite or anything. But picture your car after driving through a huge swarm of knats. That will be your face and frankly the rest of your body too. When you get home, plan a decon shower with a garden hose outside.

+1 … my bike has come off that trail looking kind of furry.

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@DSalovesh 13127 wrote:

I’m sure it is illegal, and it’s also not a good idea. I’m sure there would have been some explaining to do if I had been caught but arrest or charges are unlikely, and at 3-4 AM when I did it getting caught was pretty unlikely too. Morning rush slows traffic to bike-safe speeds too, but the drivers are irate and unpredictable.[/quote]

In this area it’s illegal. In some of the flyover states biking on interstates is legal (presumably because there aren’t many alternatives).

Quote:

The problem with most road facilities is that they’re built around the assumption that vehicles will be moving at 50-70 mph with 100-200 bhp to power up elevation changes.

I’d actually argue that most non-road facilities are worse than roads, because they don’t care to spend the money to flatten them out. E.g., compare the custis to 66, or the MUP along 7100 that plunges down into streambeds while the adjoining road is flat.

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@DismalScientist 12722 wrote:

I think this depends on the neighborhood in question. Many of the back streets in Arlington don’t have sidewalks or have discontinuous ones. People often walk in the middle of the road and, frankly I don’t see this as really an issue given the limited vehicular traffic, including bicycles.

Well, when there’s no sidewalk my comment doesn’t apply. But in general, yeah, it’s a big issue when you’re going along and a ninja appears out of nowhere in the middle of a street. (Whether you’re driving a car or on a bike.) I don’t think these guys understand how invisible they are–at least bikes are legally required to have reflectors.

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@txgoonie 12701 wrote:

I’d like to see a little more emphasis on the rule that pedestrians are supposed to walk against traffic. There are a lot of streets in the area where sidewalks aren’t available and many occasions where, even if there is a sidewalk, peds, especially runners, chose to run in the street to avoid congestion/bad paving/etc. In my travels, it’s a very commonly broken practice and a super unsafe one. Either stronger language than “walk facing traffic” or a callout somewhere in the graphic.

I’d like to see a little more emphasis on the rule that pedestrians shouldn’t be in the street when there’s a sidewalk, even if they’re a jogger and they just don’t like the sidewalk.

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A really big window.

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@Greenbelt 12484 wrote:

It’s completely open at the back, though…

If you call it “venting” you can charge more for it…

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it’s possible the trail largely predates modern concepts of liability

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@Greenbelt 12396 wrote:

Except for the occasional floods, we have had great weather this winter so far. However, that “gale conditions” thing sounds a bit more challenging for next week!

Take advantage of the mid-50s forecast for the next few days!

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now I’m starting to wonder if I’m confused–what the heck are we talking about?

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I don’t have a chainguard, and I do have a couple of pairs of pants with grease stains on the calf. I don’t generally wear anything for which that possibility would cause concern.

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@americancyclo 12063 wrote:

I’d love to hear how other parents found that balance.

Never did. Our two oldest are big enough to start riding solid distances (8-12 miles) and we just got an iGo for the youngest, and have high hopes that we can all ride together far enough that it’s a noticeable trip. We’ve had a back-of-bike seat for a long time, but never felt comfortable taking it fast/far. Also, by the time the second one was old enough for it, the oldest wanted to ride her own bike. And while going places with a young one on training wheels is fun, it’s not much in the way of exercise. (It’s absolutely amazing how far high-pressure tires can coast behind a small bike that’s being pedaled furiously.) So, yeah, the only answer I have is time.

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