[Phatboing]

@dkel 80492 wrote:

One of these days I’ll be out early enough to ride west with Rolo or Hozn or Phatboing, but given my typical late start time, I don’t see that happening anytime soon.

This word “early”… this is the first time I’m seeing it used next to my name.

I did, however, get sucked into daily (ugh) 9am meetings until the end of April (ugh ugh), but after that, when I’m back to my regular operating hours, I’m sure we’ll run into each other without you having to change a thing.

[Phatboing]

@Harry Meatmotor 80419 wrote:

rules 8 and 44. The guys at the shop laughed when I pulled out the white Fizik tape during the initial build. “on a commuter?” they scoffed. “oh ye of little faith,” i mocked. 9,000 miles later the beaming white tape now remains triumphant, impervious.

How on earth do you manage this? The last time I put white bar tape on my bike, I got it grimy just by putting it on.

[Phatboing]

@Arlingtonrider 80195 wrote:

An early heads up on one other thing too – those who would like to have an “official” BAFS nametag should try to let me know as soon as possible ahead of time if they plan to come to the event.

I too intend for to be there.

[Phatboing]

A more realistic (in that I’d ride it vs. hang it on the wall) covet:

[Phatboing]

@hozn 80228 wrote:

I agree. It looks like a zombie bike — and not as in a bike that would survive a zombie apocalypse, but an actual zombie. The only nice thing about it are the H+ Son Archetype hard-anodized rims.

Edit: oh, and I hadn’t even noticed the stupid spoke lacing for the front wheel.

I like the crazy baroque Giger-esque lugs, mainly.

And it’s red!

I only just saw the wheel lacing though. That is welcome to go right to heck.

[Phatboing]

@DismalScientist 80099 wrote:

From the WOD, take the Ohio St. access, climb McKinley Road. At Wilson go straight across on John Marshall, turn left on Willston at the light and go straight across Route 50 at Patrick Henry. Turn right on the southern frontage road for Arlington Blvd and left on the shopping center access before the Home Depot parking lot and continue behind Home Depot to the Leesburg Pike side of the shopping center.
There is a lot of traffic after Wilson, but it is generally moving slowly.

Thanks.

That, however, is way out of my way. I’m pretty close to Broad St, so we usually just take the Rt 7 sidewalk (I know, I know), and then navigate the fragments of sidewalk until we’re in the shopping center. Less than optimal, but we get there. We bike at around jogging speed, which helps in staying alert for the crazies.

I don’t really expect FC to do anything about Seven Corners – it’s just that it’s the Worst Thing Ever, and I wanted to complain.

[Phatboing]

@Phatboing 80113 wrote:

Ha, I have beaten the tyranny of the belt holes. I have one of those claspy canvas belts that don’t have holes. Need to fine-tune your belt in preparation for a big meal? Done and done.

An example of why I’m better off writing than in person: long-delayed metaphors.

I have a friction belt, unlike your silly modern indexed belts.

I’ll go get back to work now.

[Phatboing]

@PeteD 80111 wrote:

Since I ride a lot in the highlighted area my observations:

1) Broad Street is still not a nice place to ride a bike. That should be the focus of any bike access and improvements.

–Pete

This. All the businesses are on Broad St, so if you want to direct cyclists to the local businesses, duh. I’d draw a parallel to King St, but from my experience, King St is much slower than Broad St.

Maple has light traffic, but I’ve seen motorists drive rather aggressively at times. Ditto Park, but to a lesser extent.

Right now, all the bike plans offer easy routes for cyclists to get out of FC without bothering the motorists.

I’m trying not to let myself get all worked up, so I can send them some constructive feedback.

One idea I had was that maybe a group of us could take the city planner/s out for a bike ride in the city, so they can experience first-hand the challenges of getting to even the basics. How, for example, do you get to Giant to do your groceries?

[Phatboing]

@dkel 80079 wrote:

Not only have I had to move in a notch on my belt, but two weeks ago I had to drill a new hole just to get the belt cinched enough to keep my pants up. Weird.

Ha, I have beaten the tyranny of the belt holes. I have one of those claspy canvas belts that don’t have holes. Need to fine-tune your belt in preparation for a big meal? Done and done.

[Phatboing]

@Phatboing 73380 wrote:

Why not.

174 as of 1/3/14. Target: Less than that.

@Phatboing 75457 wrote:

This comes as a surprise to me, but 169 today. Must be all those calories I burned cursing at the ice.

Holding steady at 169 (3% drop), but my waning gibbous phase has reached the point where my pants don’t hold themselves up without a belt. My BAFS prize is going to be new jeans!

[Phatboing]

Oh good golly gumdrops.

[Phatboing]

@ShawnoftheDread 80019 wrote:

Such a route doesn’t even exist for cars. Seven Corners is the worst.

Indeed. My girlfriend and I experiment with routes to get there (Bangkok Golden .. mmmmm) on our bikes a lot, but all of these fall on a spectrum between possible death and certain death.

Tear it down, do it over.

[Phatboing]

@americancyclo 79996 wrote:

Funny, I never see speed enforcement in Falls Church City on Broad St. between Shreve/Haycock and Washington. Everyone slows down driving through the tony neighborhoods between Washington and Seven Corners, because that’s where they enforce and ticket, but I routinely see people driving 40-50mph in front of Giant and underneath the Citizens’ Bridge with no repercussions.

I’ve seen a repercussion every once in a while. The downhill just before Giant is a great way to get people to speed accidentally.

Really, the place I want to see some serious improvement is the hellmouth that is Seven Corners. Make that so I can get from one side to the other without taking a circuitous back-route or fear of death, and that’ll make things just dandy indeed.

[Phatboing]

The official FC bike route is my “trails are covered with snow, must do surface streets” route. Nearly all of it is residential, and consequently places I have no interest in going to on my bike; rather, a route I use to get out of FC.

The planned sharrows are probably unnecessary – I’ve used these roads, and I’ve seen other cyclists use them, and they’re not really so heavily trafficked as to be dangerous for cyclists. It’s just a token “here’s a sharrow on a road that’s already totally fine”.

Isn’t the whole point of making an area bike-friendly to help people on bikes access the businesses in the town? A majority of those businesses are on Broad St.

This annoys me more than the current situation, because nothing changes while FC gets to pretend that it’s becoming bike-friendly.

Also, are they seriously calling Rt.7 west of the city limit a “neighboring bike route”?

[Phatboing]

@dkel 79929 wrote:

Maybe! Was that you I spoke to about how long the signal at Gallows takes to change?

Yes! I didn’t say anything because yelling out your forum name seemed stalky.

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