[runbike]

Hi I’m J.C. and I too enjoy riding bikes

I’m a DC native, but now live in the Westover neighborhood of Arlington (beer garden anyone?) and commute daily by bike to my office in Rosslyn. And, as my screen-name might imply, I also like to run

I started biking two and a half years ago after getting fed up with my bus commute and haven’t looked back since. I look forward to meeting everyone in the near future!

[runbike]

@scoot 129979 wrote:

I had not considered closing access to westbound Lee Hwy from that ramp as well, but after thinking about it, I agree with you. That movement also seems unnecessary. There would still be easy access to Rosslyn from either source. If coming from the TR Bridge, just follow 50 and exit at Lynn Street (or go via Georgetown as you describe). If coming from 110, use Wilson Blvd.

I agree that enforcement would be essential if the ramp were open while right turns were banned, but that would be very easy to do by camera.

Or how bout we just build a tunnel and separate modes? I think you all are underestimating how many drivers coming up from 395/Alexandria and other points south use that right turn off the ramp to reach Georgetown and other points in upper NW DC. Could you close it down and force people to take alternate routes? Sure. But then downtown Rosslyn would be a grid-locked NIGHTMARE, not to mention what it’d do to traffic on TR, Memorial bridges.

Not that I don’t get some smug satisfaction from the idea of drivers backed up for miles while I ride on by, but in the end it just means more frustrated and angry drivers that we’ll come across on a day to day basis. So instead of getting all complicated, let’s push for mode separation via a tunnel (or flyover bridge…I don’t care) that allows everyone to be a winner.

[runbike]

@OneLessCar 128412 wrote:

America’s best hope to actually REPLACE cars with a healthy, efficient alternative.

Mad props on the epic-level trolling!

I don’t think anyone here would disagree with your statement above. In fact I think quite a few on this board have given solar bike car the thumbs up on the Elf as a CAR replacement. The majority just don’t think it belongs on the multi-use trails (including the trail authorities).

[runbike]

@mstone 128042 wrote:

I’ll also remind the older crowd about how much worse it used to be, following a car. For all the complaining about EPA, it’s a night and day difference. I’d like to think the situation will only improve as more old cars are taken off the road and replaced by cars with pesky regulations that happen to pollute less.

^ This. Having live in the DC area for 34 odd years now I can attest that pollution is significantly lower than it used to be, most of it due to increased emissions standards for vehicles. There was a time in the 80’s and 90’s when you’d expect at least a dozen or more code red air days in the summer. In the past two years we’ve had none (info courtesy the capital weather gang – https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/capital-weather-gang/wp/2014/10/03/d-c-air-quality-just-keeps-getting-better-zero-code-red-days-in-2014/)

[runbike]

I’ve seen plenty of recumbent trikes that take up almost as much space on the MUPs…

[runbike]

Witnessed a first for me this AM: bicycle vs. squirrel on the Custis trail. Guy riding in front of me had no time to react after a squirrel darted directly into his path. Not quite sure if the squirrel went under his front tire or just collided with the side and got spun by his spokes. Either way the squirrel rolled a few times, righted itself, and scampered back off the path.

I’ve had a few close calls with squirrels in the past, but they’ve always turned and darted away at the last second. This squirrel just straight up went for it!

[runbike]

@btj 122476 wrote:

I’m thinking maybe making this area local traffic only during rush hour like they do on Key Blvd to keep people from cutting through. Does that really deter anyone?

I ride Key Blvd with regularity and no, a timed Do Not Enter sign does relatively little to deter cars from entering. Fancy that…

[runbike]

one other to consider: the new Yuba Spicy Curry – http://yubabikes.com/spicy-curry

Just released this year and has the small 20″ rear wheel so cargo (and kids) are lower to the ground!

[runbike]

@Tim Kelley 122265 wrote:

Thanks for sharing–so it’s a huge time saver for you and getting to the office without sweating is paramount?

Back to my 15mph vs 20mph cut off thought: if you averaged 14mph instead of 17mph over 5 miles–for a difference of roughly 4 minutes, would that dissuade you riding?

How many miles do you get out of the Stromer between charges?

Again, hard to say. 20mph is mighty helpful when mixing it up with vehicular traffic and I like the idea of being able to go fast when the trail conditions warrant it, but it’s hard to argue about an overall 4 minute difference.

Stromer can go 20 miles on a charge with the assist turned all the way up. You can stretch it to 40 if you want to work up more of a sweat. There’s also a noticeable drop in power output once the battery drops below 50% charge.

[runbike]

@Tim Kelley 122260 wrote:

Interesting–you went right from not biking at all to ebiking? What convinced you to do so? (I.E. what marketing campaign/argument worked on you?)

With a commute of 5 miles and 25 minutes that’s an average of 12 mph? Do you have a heavy cargo load, or lot of stop signs/stop lights that slow you down? I’d be curious about your ride time on the traditional bike when you start doing that.

Honestly I can’t remember all of the details, but I do remember being fed up with metrobus and thinking that there had to be a better way (driving was definitely not an option – same traffic, more expense). I had long thought about biking, but didn’t want to trade metrobus time for standing-in-shower-line time at the office and somewhere in my researching I came across e-bikes. So I found a well-reviewed model (Stromer ST1 Elite) and took the leap. 2+ years later and I haven’t looked back. I wasn’t exactly a stranger to two-wheeled transportation either, having done a lot of road biking in college and also riding a motorcycle for several years until my wife strongly suggested I cut that nonsense out

Slight correction – when I first started bike commuting my total ride each way was 7 miles. I moved offices after a few months after I started and it dropped to 5 miles each way. Looking at my data log I tend to average around the high 16’s to low 17’s in terms of mph speed. I too am definitely interested in seeing what my numbers are once I start riding a traditional bike.

[runbike]

@Tim Kelley 122257 wrote:

Thanks for the input!

A few questions:

Why do you ride an ebike? If you were feeling tired one day, but only owned a traditional bike, would you still ride it?

If your ebike assistance topped out at 15mph instead of 20mph would you stop riding a bike and drive instead?

Happy to provide my input!

I started riding an e-bike for 2 reasons – 1) to commute to and from work in the shortest time possible. Prior to that I was spending an hour and 50 minutes per day (roundtrip) commuting via metrobus; the e-bike dropped that to 50 minutes total. The e-bike also ensured I didn’t need to shower once I got to work, which would have killed most of the time I was saving by not riding the bus. 2) As my username might imply, I like to run a lot. I run about 25-35 miles per week and I couldn’t sustain that kind of training while also biking to work. The e-bike allows me to continue working towards my personal running goals while minimizing commute time.

Funny you should ask about a traditional bike because I just purchased one and intend to slowly integrate that into my commuting. Mainly on the days where I’m not running but still want to get the heart rate up with a low impact bicycle workout.

Hard to answer the last question, but it would definitely give me pause. My commute is only 5 miles, but 2 of those 5 are on neighborhood streets and I definitely appreciate the confidence I have from the e-bike when it comes to accelerating and keeping up with traffic.

[runbike]

@Tim Kelley 122249 wrote:

But doesn’t faster = harder to control? Or less reaction time available? Or at least longer to slow down and less forgiving to corrections at speed?

I think these hold true for any bicycle and goes to dasgeh’s point that you should work on regulating bad behavior (aka don’t ride fast where/when it wouldn’t be considered reasonable and prudent).

I ride an e-bike daily and the motor stops giving full boost at 20mph on the dot, although it does give a partial boost so you can cruise on the flats at around 21-22 with moderate pedaling effort. I tend to hit this regularly on my commute on the custis trail, but only in sections where you would reasonably find a semi-fit individual with a road bike doing the same.

[runbike]

@Terpfan 122038 wrote:

I was having such a good streak with drivers until I met this guy:

[video]https://youtu.be/tmkLM5ZEOi4[/video]

What a tool. Audio didn’t work, but he honks from behind me when I’m taking the lane on 18th St heading toward T to the cycletrack. Then he pulls within inches screaming something about bikes having bike lanes and not being on the road plus a few curse words. All in front of his two kids strapped into the carseats in the back. Good thing DC is cracking down on aggressive drives, SMH. (Bonus feature is the Cabi guy who blazes by me when the light turns green from my left with absolutely no warning.)

Otherwise, it was a great ride.

Did the lady in the crosswalk also say something to you?

[runbike]

@jabberwocky 121735 wrote:

Strava on e-bikes:
https://strava.zendesk.com/entries/21577916-Uploading-E-bike-motor-assisted-or-non-conventional-bike-data-to-Strava-Guidelines

I had no idea that “E-Bike Ride” was one of the categories you could select on Strava. This is honestly huge for those of us (like myself) who ride e-bikes but also want to have some log of their data. Yes you could always go the private activity route but that removes the fun/social aspect that I always enjoy (flybys anyone?). This is a game changer.

Now I guess I have a lot of past entries to go and fix…

[runbike]

@kevinal 119820 wrote:

Has anyone ridden the C&O canal recently, particularly the part from Georgetown to Chain Bridge? Give the amount of rain we’ve had over the past several weeks, I’ve avoided it for the muddy swamp I suspect it to be and have been taking alternate routes to work. However, I’d like to switch back to my C&O route, but don’t want to find that I’m up to my bottom bracket in muck.

I ran along the stretch from G-town to Fletcher’s on Tuesday. It wasn’t great (plenty of muddy spots) but it wasn’t entirely as bad as I was anticipating. For almost all of the mud sections there were narrow “desire paths” on either side where people/bikes had carved out a dry route. However, those side paths might now be pretty mucky as well given yesterday’s storms and the system that is currently approaching the region as I type this. I’d wait for the next two-day stretch with no rain (should that ever happen) and you’ll be good to go!

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