[Phatboing]

@dasgeh 79127 wrote:

2) What are your thoughts on flat bars? Could I build up a CX frame with flat bars and (cheaper) flat bar hydraulic brakes?

Thanks to all of yall. I’m bummed that I can’t shop more in person (i.e. ride more), but at least I have yall!

I haven’t used flat bars in a while, but I found them uncomfortable for longer rides. I’ve since settled on swept-back handlebars. I’ve Salsa Woodchippers on the Fargo and briefly on the Pompino – I use em in the drops, and that sweep puts my hands in a wonderfully stress-free position. Ditto the FME bar I have on the Troll, which has the added advantage of being able to take flat-bar hardware, so if it turns out to be horrible, I can swap out the bar without having to change levers.

[Phatboing]

@rolo 78906 wrote:

Falls Church -> Reston via W&OD

I got on the trail close to Shreve Road which was snow blown all the way to Sandburg. Some icy spots, but easily doable with studs.

….

From Little Falls Rd. to Citizens’ Bridge, there is none of this snow-blown goodness, but the snow’s been packed down and the ice is still crunchy. With fat and/or studly tires, it’s easily close to the regulation amount of fun.

[Phatboing]

@eminva 78889 wrote:

My friend who lives near the Sandburg St/W&OD crossing just sent me a message that a huge plow went through there on the trail this afternoon! Can anyone confirm? I will try to check it out in the a.m. If I have time.

Liz

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Something of that nature, yes. Why they left the Sandburg to Gallows stretch untouched, though, is baffling.

[Phatboing]

@hozn 78879 wrote:

Yeah, I saw the W&OD was plowed through (?) Falls Church! Awesome. That was one of the worst sections last time. I might ride tmw and take the gamble on the rest just being a bit slow.

It was plowed until citizens bridge, but after that, just a sheet of crunchy goodness until Lee.

But the ice was rough and my tires had traction, and the cracking ice led me to play the ‘let’s pretend we’re on a frozen lake’ game

[Phatboing]

From Falls Church, going west:

On the W&OD, people have stomped down a track that’s vaguely passable on tubby tires (passable in the “you won’t get stuck in the snow” sense). This continues on until Shreve. Between Shreve and Virginia Ln, there’s less of a stomping pattern, so the snow’s significantly more annoying.

Of course, unless you intend to take a really long time to commute, avoid the trail.

Surprisingly, even Idylwood Rd wasn’t clear.

The Gallows bike lane is a gross slushy mess.

[Phatboing]

It happened again. Of course it happened again.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]4887[/ATTACH]

[Phatboing]

The W&OD going west from Falls Church looks like this:

[ATTACH=CONFIG]4886[/ATTACH]

Bring a fatbike.

[Phatboing]

@PotomacCyclist 78526 wrote:

Be careful when they start producing offspring. They can get rather aggressive then.

Can confirm. Dusk, around Great Falls: the geese cross, with family, from the river into the canal. You know how, when bicycling or pedestrianing, you get all angry and want to smack the face of drivers who stray into the crosswalk even after seeing you? That’s what the geese seem to feel about errant cyclists.

[Phatboing]

@eminva 78486 wrote:

At the risk of making myself COTD (Curmudgeon of the Day), I think sometimes we are so used to complaining we miss the rare opportunity staring us in the face.

That seems to be the opposite of curmudgeonly. Hear hear.

Is this the area they plan to cover?

(have they talked about when they’ll be getting in touch with cyclists?)

[Phatboing]

@dasgeh 78392 wrote:

Not gonna lie, I kinda wish I didn’t know about this: http://www.bicycleage.com/

$20 for bike wash? What’s next? $40 for a pint of elbow grease with 4% off on a can of can-do spirit?

[Phatboing]

If it’s Pittsburgh and crazy hills you seek, have I got an event for you!

[Phatboing]

Going from Falls Church to Tysons, it’s pretty nice if you have knobby tires. Snow’s fluffy, ice is crunchy, etc.

Two potentially dodgy patches: just west of Little Falls Rd, and another patch east of the Shreve Rd intersection. There was a fair amount of slush accumulated there yesterday, and it felt like it had turned to ice.

The Gallows bike lane is clear, but slushy and gross.

[Phatboing]

@cyclingfool 78244 wrote:

Nice. 1x? setup I take it by the lack of a front shifter? Do you like those bars? Are they Salsa Woodchippers? They’ve always intrigued me.

Technically, yeah – 5-speed IGH. The bars are indeed Woodchippers, and I love them, though less so on this bike. (They’re best when you use drops as the primary position, which I haven’t done here, and I’m not a fan of the way this setup feels when riding on the hoods)

@cyclingfool 78244 wrote:

As for the eTrex, I have not played around with navigation too much yet. It’s easy to drag and drop gpx files, say from RideWithGPS, and follow it as a track (which you can set up to give you audible warnings when you stray too far off the track [e.g., miss a turn, I presume], but that’s not exactly turn by turn direct from RWGPS. I’ve read about some workarounds that allow you to see distances to next waypoint, for instance, with waypoints at each turn, or even get some turn by turn instructions, but they usually involve BaseCamp or Training Center, so it’s not just a simple download situation either. IOW, pure simple turn by turn using tracks downloaded from RWGPS or similar are probably handled better by an Edge.

Thanks. The Edge Touring to smash together the best features of both the eTrex and the Edge, so I’m going to start convincing myself that throwing another $250 at bike things is just a standard everyday thing.

[Phatboing]

@Fast Friendly Guy 78228 wrote:

I have both eTrex VISTA (which I used for mountaineering before I got the Oregon 650) and I have the Edge 810 for cycling and navigating on two wheels. I tried using the etrex for cycling–bought two kinds of handlebar mounts, and I can tell you there’s no question that the Edge is the way to go for cycling. I plan routes using ridewithgps, download to the Edge 810, then use the maps and displayed routes to help guide me (one example is on Strava art rides). I’m buying Garmin Euro maps for my Edge 810–for a week of bicycle touring in Spain with Karen B this summer–wouldn’t do it any other way!
Dave

Ah, thanks.

Spain! I’m very jealous now.

I’m leaning towards the Edge Touring, I think, if for no other reason than for the WSGFABR feature:

With round trip routing, you can tell Edge Touring how far you’d like to ride and then choose from up to 3 ride options that will bring you back to where you started.

[Phatboing]

@cyclingfool 78182 wrote:

I’d be happy to answer other specific questions, if you have ’em.

Have you ever used it for navigation? What about planning rides with RideWithGPS and plunking them onto the etrex?

And in keeping with the thread, here’s my ode to clutter:

[ATTACH=CONFIG]4846[/ATTACH]

[Author]

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