[oldbikechick]

I rode on the bridge in the morning and the evening. I was paying attention in the morning since I had read the articles and it was exactly as described. Towards the middle of the bridge – they have closed off one car lane on each side and about 4 feet of the sidewalk next to the car lane. There is still plenty of room to bike and get around pedestrians. I was only on the south/east side of the bridge but I think it was the same on both sides. In the evening I had completely forgotten about it and was thinking about something else and I know I crossed the bridge, but I have no recollection of it, so I don’t think it affected me much!

[oldbikechick]

All my favorite sports have high barriers to entry at the moment : skiing – requires snow and mountains, in short supply around here. Horseback riding, requires getting and maintaining a horse, which is expensive and time-consuming. Tennis, fewer barriers, but need to find a place to play and a person who can play when you can, at your level, etc. What I love about cycling is that barriers are practically non-existent. Once you have the bike, it requires relatively little maintenance, you can just keep it in the shed and when you want to go, you go. And I can get my bike ride in while commuting, basically needing to find no extra time in my day. So, until I retire and buy a ranch near some mountains, cycling it is…

Edit to add that when I had the good fortune to be able to live in a place where I could both cycle and go horseback riding, those two sports were a great combination. Horseback riding is great for strengthening the core, and working out your upper body, which is a great complement to cycling.

[oldbikechick]

You might also want to check out the route during the day if you haven’t already, so you’re familiar with it. I find that riding in an unfamiliar place in the dark is much scarier than if you’ve been there before in the daylight. The first time I rode through Lyndon Johnson Grove on Columbia Island (trying to find a way from the 14th St. bridge to Columbia Pike) I was really freaked out because I had never been there before and it was pitch dark and deserted. When I saw the place in the daytime, I couldn’t believe I had found it so scary.

I also rode the Rock Creek Trail for the first time on a deserted winter night and I thought it was pretty creepy. But I’m comfortable with my regular route on the MVT (trollheim boardwalk) even though I’m sure it is equally creepy in the dark to someone unfamiliar with it.

[oldbikechick]

As a slow person who therefore gets passed a lot, I personally prefer the bell. Of course any way someone calls the pass is preferable to not calling it, but the verbal ones can sometimes be startling. No matter how many times it happens, I still jump out of my skin sometimes if someone shouts something while they’re passing, especially if it is when they are already right next to me. I also prefer to use the bell myself when passing pedestrians and on the rare occasion when I pass another cyclist. I don’t have a loud voice and 90% of joggers and pedestrians have headphones anyway, so it’s just easier to ring the bell.

[oldbikechick]

Phoenix bikes was able to add a brake to my daughter’s bike, which I think is 16″. The problem is that brakes here do not seem to be made for little hands. So, they had to put the brake on without much leverage so that she could even reach it to squeeze it with her little hand also having to wrap around the handlebar grip. So, the brake is not all that functional. But, we knew that going in, it is more for the comfort of having a hand brake, which she had on the bike she learned on in Europe. I would be interested to know if it is possible to find kid-sized brakes here.

[oldbikechick]

Ok, I guess I’ll take the metro then, even though I already ate the afternoon candy bar I can only justify if I’m riding up the Custis.

[oldbikechick]

@dasgeh 112375 wrote:

You’ve cited the correct section of law, but your interpretation is not settled law. It all depends on whether the blinking-hand-with-countdown means “Don’t Walk” or something else. This section of code was written before the existence of the blinking-hand-with-countdown light. VDOT documents make it unclear what the blinking-hand-with-countdown means. And Arlington engineers think that it’s legal to enter the crosswalk with the blinking-hand-with-countdown, and have designed the intersection assuming such. At least some in ACPD think that it’s not legal to enter the crosswalk with the blinking-hand-with-countdown.

In other words, there is no clear answer on this one. We really, really, really need a bike signal here. I believe it’s part of the plan for the “Lee Hwy Esplanade, etc etc” project, but it couldn’t hurt to write in to advocate for putting a bike signal in sooner than later.

Yes! A bike signal would be nice and unambiguous.

[oldbikechick]

I commuted to work for the first time in a year today and it was great to be back in the saddle and see how things have changed on the route. At the Lee/Lynn intersection, I got to the crossing just as it turned to the countdown and went across with 18 seconds left or so, of course keeping an eye on potential right-turning cars, as always. As I went across, I got beeped at by a driver in the second right-turning lane, which made me wonder if something has changed there. Do they now get some sort of signal when the crossing light changes from walk to the countdown? Or is that when the “don’t turn right” signal goes away for them? Does this now make drivers think that they don’t need to yield to crosswalk users or that we are now jaywalking? Or, maybe the guy was just being a jerk? Or are we really not supposed to cross after the counter starts counting down? I always assumed that was not the case since in some places, there is no walk signal at all, just the countdown.

[oldbikechick]

Thanks for the feedback. Those Isla bikes look very nice. Unfortunately, my poor daughter is the youngest and therefore we can’t justify getting a fancy bike that multiple kids will use. We got my older daughter a 20″ bike at 5 years old and it was too big for her. So, that one is waiting for my daughter to grow into, but we just need a smaller one in the interim. I ended up taking a garage sale special 16″ bike to Phoenix Bikes and they put a hand brake on it for me. Now we just need the snow to melt

[oldbikechick]

@rcannon100 109712 wrote:

Go check Phoenix Bikes. They tend to have a lot of kids bikes that do not move as fast as the adult bikes.

Good idea! I will check them out.

[oldbikechick]

Today my daughter declared that it was too cold to wait for the bus at the bus stop. Then she suggested that we ride our bikes instead!

We did not actually ride our bikes, but I appreciated the sentiment. Raising them up right…

[oldbikechick]

@PotomacCyclist 108650 wrote:

Eddie Van Halen spoke last week at the Smithsonian American History Museum as part of a series on “What It Means to Be American.” Eddie Van Halen is of Dutch and Indonesian heritage. His family left the Netherlands when he was still young and immigrated to the U.S., ending up in Pasadena, Calif. He spoke a bit about his immigrant background but he spent most of his time talking about music and tinkering around with guitars and amps.

When asked if there was any advice that his father gave him that he wants to pass onto his own son (Wolfgang or Wolfie), he said you can learn from everybody, what to do and what not to do. If you make a mistake, do it twice and smile. That way people will think you meant it. He mentions a Dutch phrase (which I couldn’t quite make out). He says it means, “Just keep pedaling” in Dutch. At the 39:30 mark, to about 40:05.

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

I know there a couple Dutch speakers here. Anyone know this phrase?

It sounded like he said “gewoon doorfietsen” which basically means, “just cycle on through” or something like that. Perhaps a predecessor of “keep calm and cycle on?”

[oldbikechick]

I was feeling old the day I picked my forum name. It only became a problem when I joined Strava to do FS last year and used the same name (in first name, last name format). So, every time Strava sent me an email, it was addressed to “old.”

[oldbikechick]

I carry no tools and have no skills. I once had to ask someone to show me how to shift the borrowed bike I was riding. I feel like it would be silly to ask if they need help and then be unable to provide any. Of course if I thought I had anything to contribute (someone looked injured, lost, etc), I would ask, but otherwise, no. Given my lack of tools and skills, I of course would not at all be offended if someone offered to help me. But I would not hold it against people if they didn’t.

[oldbikechick]

@rcannon100 100129 wrote:

You can enter mileage into STRAVA manually. You MUST use strava to play (or whatever Hozn says)

I was very low-tech last year and just entered my miles into Strava. I was never a user of Strava before (or since), and it was easy enough for me to figure out. I don’t even have an odometer, I just know the mileage of my route and when I went anywhere else, I just mapped it on Google maps. Note that I was on the “slacker” team so I don’t think anyone was too concerned about the veracity of my paltry miles. Maybe it would be more of an issue if you are manually entering some sort of hard-to-believe huge number of miles.

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