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From page 1:

@ashleyedokpayi 90578 wrote:

I think bicyclist “experience” is a better term to use as I begin to speak with more riders instead of bike “culture”…thank you everyone for the feedback!

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@KLizotte 90535 wrote:

Very cool building and idea but it is probably impossible to use a u-lock with those racks. We have the same sort of set up in my apartment building and properly securing a bike ends up taking two u-locks (one for each wheel) and a cable lock (for the frame) because of the lack of attachment points like you get in a inverted u shaped rack.

If you have a bike rack like this:

Which doesn’t have enough space to insert the front wheel fully and there seems to be no way to U-Lock it except on the sides, then there is one way that many bikers don’t know about. Lift the front wheel well above the rack, then lower it on the other side, so the bike rack is between the frame and the back of the front wheel. See time index 1:07 of this video to see what I mean:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jIrXHCDzs_s

When using such racks, stay away from bars that are attached with regular screws, because they are easy to remove.

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@PotomacCyclist 90420 wrote:

I need to start buying more Under Armour business casual clothing. Those wicking polo shirts are so much better than cotton in the summer heat.

Modell’s has an almost see-through wicking polo shirts for $10, but they are solid colors mostly. I have used them in the 90 degrees weather and they are the best that I have tried. Not all 100% Polyester shirts created equal, some are more wicking than others. I always hold them against the light and compare different ones. This one is by far the most see-through I have seen, despite looking solid. Maybe there are ones that are more wicking than this one, but they are probably 4 or 5 times the price.

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Sorry about the OT, but I hope this saves some people from sleepless nights:

One of the major problems that I had with VLC is that the monitor doesn’t go off afterward, even after closing VLC, which makes it harder to sleep. It took me a long time to find that VLC was the cause. A restart fixes the problem, but if you go to Control Panel–>Display–>Screen Saver tab, then click on “Power”, and then just click OK on everything, it fixes the problem without changing anything or having to restart. If you go to Control Panel–>Power Options, it doesn’t do anything. You have to use the Power button in Control Panel–>Display. You could also access “Display” by right clicking an empty area of the desktop and choosing “Properties”.

To stop VLC from disabling the screensaver altogether, go to Tools–>Preferences, then at the bottom left, look for “Show settings”, and click “All”. Now on the left, click on “Video”, then uncheck “Disable screensaver”.

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Only 9 Days ago a car struck another cyclist at the same intersection. See this thread:

http://bikearlingtonforum.com/showthread.php?7255-Car-on-bike-accident

From the pictures of the broken windshield, it doesn’t look good, and there is a baseball hat over the bike, which means no helmet. I hope it’s not serious, but serious injuries may not be obvious until later, so it’s better to have documentation about the incident and the parties involved just in case.

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TJ Maxx and Marshall’s are/were selling this cheap GoPro alternative for around $40, but it’s 720p, has very poor capture at night, and doesn’t have image stabilization according to the reviews.

@Bill Hole 90364 wrote:

5. Video is stored in QuickTime format. If you want to view your video on Windows, Windows Media won’t play the sound. You should download QuickTime from Apple (or buy a Mac).

You can use VLC media player, which is free and open source to view QuickTime and many other videos and DVD’s. You can also convert video formats from one type to another(See File–>Convert/Save), but it takes a “long” time. When installing it, make sure that you don’t associate all file types to VLC, just the ones that you want. It’s somewhat harder to use than Windows Media Player and Apple’s QuickTime.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VLC_media_player
http://www.videolan.org/vlc/

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What complicates the issue of suspension is that there are “two” types of suspension, the soft, sometimes called the classic type, which compresses easily and designed for small bumps, and the hard type, which is designed for mountain biking. If you are using the soft type, and you jump from a ramp few feet high to the ground, you could hit the limit of the suspension easily, and you would feel a jolt, so these are not desirable for mountain biking. If you use the hard type on a road with small bumps, sidewalks, or gravel, it won’t offer much shock absorption because the suspension doesn’t move much, so it’s more like extra weight in this case. So the reviews that you read could be for either type, and the reviewers usually don’t mention how soft or hard the suspension is to begin with. My “cheap” $350 hybrid bike came with a suspension that is adjustable by a hex wrench, but I never bothered to adjust it. To see how hard or soft a suspension is, lean on the handlebar and press it down with most of your weight and see how far it moves.

I have read that others prefer no front suspension, and they rely on soft bar tape to do some shock absorption, which covers the entire handlebar area, so they have more ways to reduce hand fatigue, as they can place their hand on different areas on the handlebar. I have not tried a road bike, so I don’t know how it feels.

As for bike weight, it might matter if you want to put it on a bus, in case your bike breaks. Other than that, there is basically no difference in terms of weight between a 20 LBS bike loaded with 10 LBS of groceries, and a 30 LBS bike, except for one thing: rolling resistance. To understand rolling resistance, imagine rotating a car wheel by hand, then try the same thing with an 18-wheeler, would they be the same?

Two bikes could weigh the same, but one could have lower(lower is better) rolling resistance than the other. Having lower rolling resistance means you accelerate faster on flat and slightly downhill surface, it also makes climbing a bit easier. The way to reduce rolling resistance is by having lighter tires and tubes. Lighter tires sometimes means tires that can easily get punctured, but not always. Some tires have better reinforcement, so they offer more protection than even heavier tires, but they cost more. If you want better protection from flats, look for “bead-to-bead” protection. These have protection on the entire width of the tire, including the sidewalls. The 7300 comes with Bontrager H4 Hard-Case tires, which I can’t find more details about, but they seem to be decent tires. They might be too slick for riding on snow, but are more aerodynamic than knobby tires.

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By 2020, Columbia Pike would have its own streetcar from Skyline in Fairfax to Pentagon City in Arlington. More details are here:

http://www.arlnow.com/2014/07/11/virginia-kicks-in-addl-65-million-for-pike-streetcar/

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@lordofthemark 90008 wrote:

the only bike shop I know around there is Spokes.

Search for “bike” on Google Maps, and you would get all bike shops in the area. The few times I went to Spokes in Vienna and Fairfax I found that their prices for bike stuff is slightly above retail, I am not sure about their bike prices though.

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@jrenaut 90018 wrote:

Related to this thread – make sure your chain is in good shape. I don’t have good details on what happened, but my brother-in-law was in a bike accident out in San Fransisco. He’s okay, but according to the woman who used his cell phone to call his wife, his chain broke and he went over the handlebars. He lost a few teeth, some of which had to be cut out of his lip, and he broke his elbow, which is going to require surgery.

I’m assuming the chain broke and got caught in the cranks? I don’t see how else it could have flipped him over the bars. Anyway, if you haven’t done it recently, go lube your chain and make sure it’s still in good working order.

The chain probably got stiff links, combined with missing “missing links” or bad links that broke. When my chain got rusty, and I switch to the fastest speed, stiff links sometimes roll at the bottom around the largest gear in the front then going upward and under the chain on the top part of the front gear, resulting in the front gears locking up, and you can’t peddle forward, not even an inch. The only way to move the cranks at this stage is to peddle backward. It’s unnerving when it first happened to me as I didn’t know what’s wrong. I peddled backward by small amount, then forward, but nothing happened until I peddled backward quarter to half turn and seen the chain dropping. Going home and lubing the chain fixed the problem for a while.

I am sorry that this has happened to him, I wouldn’t think that something like this could happen. Cyclists need to be educated on the seriousness of this issue. Many are concerned with frame strength, but these days they are building them better than they used to.

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@dkel 89959 wrote:

Metro bus behind me at the stoplight: why are you honking at me? We’re not even moving! Oh, now that you’ve gone around me, I see that you’re honking at everyone. So sorry we can’t live up to your expectations. (At least it’s not just bikes that are the problem.)

Was he trying to make a right turn?

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@jrenaut 89939 wrote:

Is anyone else kind of terrified by the number of heat and cold records we’ve broken in the last year-ish?

Not just in the last year, but more like in the last 4 to 5 years. Before that, I remember walking a lot, and the wind was still most of the time. In the last 4 years or so, it has become windier than usual. This was great at summer time, but made winters more brutal because of the windchill. And the reason for the windy weather is that we have cold front for few days(few degrees below normal), then hot front for few days(few degrees above normal), and we are caught between these two fronts and the wind goes back and forth between them, giving us breeze along the way.

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Here is a link to the spot at Google Maps.

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Watch the first minute of this video, rocking motion is bad for the lower back. If you have the seat from your original bike, try swapping it, or buy this seat(See also this Amazon link). I use the moderate version of this seat and after about 2 to 3 weeks it felt more comfortable than bigger seats with more cushion.

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eBike for $600, but you might get what you paid for, ships from the US:

Currie Technologies eZip Men’s Trailz Electric Bicycle:
http://www.amazon.com/Currie-Technologies-eZip-Electric-Bicycle/dp/B004QHG17O

And the women version:

Currie Technologies eZip Women’s Low Step-Thru Trailz Electric Bicycle:
http://www.amazon.com/Currie-Technologies-eZip-Step-Thru-Electric/dp/B0090IBMGO

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