[skins_brew]

Don’t get me wrong, I will ride in the rain, but there is no way I am riding on a busy ass road in a torrential downpour. To each his own. I have a wife and two kids that depend on me, so I make sure my V8 Chevy Silverado has PLENTY of gas for those super rainy days Don’t worry, I will give you guys three feet and then some.

[skins_brew]

What is the rule for scooters in bike lanes?

There was an old man riding one on Penn Ave a few weeks ago. I pulled up to him at a light and said, “You know this is a bike lane, right.” He told me that if the scooter is under 49cc, he is ok to ride in the bike lane. Is that true?

[skins_brew]

@Supermau 97318 wrote:

Sometimes I still catch myself saying I hate cyclists, but then I realize it’s just those entitled pathletes that I’m referring to…the clueless ones who make dangerous passes then stop right in the middle of the path to check Strava. 😡

I’ve also graduated to Lycra, riding on the actual road…at least the ones that feel safe, and I’m keen on going clipless but I’ll probably hold off until next spring. It’s funny how things begin to change once cycling gets it’s hooks in you.

Sometimes I will see a cyclist and just say, “WTF are you doing?”

Example, on saturday I was over in Rockville. It is like 11am, the weather is nice, and Rockville is congested as usual. Here comes some guy in lycra on a road bike riding down Rockville Pk. He was in the right lane, and he was well within his right to be there, but I just thought to myself, “Dude, wtf are you doing?”

Same goes for earlier in the year. Back in April and May when we were getting slammed with those rain storms. It was one of those 20 year storms and I opted to drive to College Park Metro. I am on Rt 1, right in front of UMD, waiting to turn onto Paint Branch Pkwy. It is like 8am, raining like crazy, traffic like crazy, and here comes a guy riding north on Rt 1. He looked well prepared for the wx, but dude….come on….I don’t want to see you die…

[skins_brew]

I use to hate cyclists. I would curse them on beach drive and any other time they were in the roadway. “Use the sidewalk, it is like a little road for bikes” I would say to myself.

A few years later, here I am, riding 150-200 miles a week to work.

Another funny thing, during the evolution, there were many, many things I said I would NEVER do, but ended up doing anyway later on. Such items include-
-Cycle shorts
-riding a road bike
-clipless pedals
-helmet mirror

[skins_brew]

I joined the all star team, or maybe it put me on there automatically, I don’t know. My week off with the zombie virus hurt my Sept mileage, but, oh well.

I managed to enter Aug mileage. Should I bother entering anything else? I just run a simple cateye cadence computer, so i don’t have details of exact mileage or each day, but I did keep track of when I hit 1k, 2k, 3k. If I go back and backfill, I could probably add another 2.4k to the total.

Worth it? Would this help whatever goal we are trying to achieve?

[skins_brew]

FML…I could see my breath this morning. :mad::mad::mad::mad:

[skins_brew]

OK, I created a NBC account and logged all my Sept miles. Do I have to join a team or something or am I good to go. It says my local challenge is WABA.

[skins_brew]

@Rod Smith 94943 wrote:

I hope you feel better soon! Oh by the way, are you on our National Bike Challenge team?

Drove/Metro’d to work on Friday due to the blistering, and even left early due to an intense headache/ hand and foot burn. Most of the blisters have subsided and are now just nasty red marks, but they kind of moved onto my face. If it wasn’t for my receding hairline and half ass’d attempt at a beard, people might think I was 18 again!

Thanks for the thought, I might ride in on Monday. I mowed my lawn today, so my feet are not that bad off.

I never joined the NBC because I just found out about it. Figured, no point in entering at the end, but when I dug deeper (weeks after I found it), I saw that it was totally geared to let people in until the end.

Man, I long to ride my bike. I feel like I have gained 20 lbs in the last week

[skins_brew]

Man, did I royally screw myself over with that post above ^^^ 😡

I made that post on Monday. On Monday evening, I was feeling a little sick. Tuesday, a little sicker, so I drove to the metro. Tuesday evening, really sick! Took off Wed and Thu due to the fact that I caught Hand, Foot, and Mouth disease from my kids! Today is Friday, and I feel OK, no more fever or chills, but my hands and feet are covered in ultra painful blisters. I cannot even walk to the shitter with being in a decent amount of pain. Going to be out of the saddle for at least a week 😡

Karma is a SOB!

[skins_brew]

I am a bit under 40 miles round trip, like 38-40, depending on route. Usually takes about an 1:15-1:30, depending on how many traffic lights I hit, which can really add to the time. Yea, three hours commuting is a good bit of time, but let me break it down.

So, I live in Calverton, MD (technically silver spring, I am close to Beltsville). My options for commuting are:
-Drive to MARC train, about an hour door to door, $125 a month. Take Metro to office in Fed Triangle, at least $100 a month for that. (I use to have a junk bike at Union Station, and would probably place another if I started taking Marc again.
-Drive to Greenbelt or CP Metro, an hour door to door, about $264 a month.
-Drive to work, $520 in parking along, plus gas. You are looking at about an hour commute, probably more in the afternoon. Yea, this option BLOWS.

Now, I can bike to the MARC station or Metro to save gas or parking fees (at metro, parking is free at MARC). Door to door time is like an 1:20.

Or, I can bike the entire way, which is only a little bit more time. I get a workout in, and I am not crammed into a train car. I save a decent amount of money, as bike upkeep is pretty low if you take care of your things. I strive to commute five days a week. Sometimes it will be four days if my legs are really sore or if I have to stay late, but it is rare. The five day goal is hard to maintain in the cold, as I am a complete and udder sucker when it comes to cold weather. I fared OK this morning though, and it was in the low 50s.

I didn’t start riding 40 miles a day over night. It took a few weeks to build up, and even now, my legs are still sore as hell on Fridays.

[skins_brew]

Yea, “Otis Mountain” as I call it, sucks :p Seems like there are a million comcast trucks buzzing the hell out of me along Otis in the mornings.

Where in Riverdale? He is not going to save a ton of time with the Hyattsville Trolley Trail, but there is a chance he might be closer to that than the NE Branch. The HTT is on the map (I submitted it to Google Maps a few weeks ago ), it it looks like the southern terminus is not “connecting” correctly to US RT 1. I will see if I can submit a correction.

Here is the HTT. Runs from Queensbury Rd. to RT 1.

https://www.google.com/maps/place/Hyattsville+Trolley+Trail,+Maryland/@38.9564855,-76.9376376,17z/data=!4m2!3m1!1s0x89b7c72089a2a827:0xf4eb2e0e3b6c547d

When is the WABA Happy hour at Franklin’s? I am dying to stop in there

[skins_brew]

@dbb 93999 wrote:

Alas, my morning commute was not a missed connection.

Coming up the ramp from the MVT to the 14th Street Bridge, I felt my rear tire go soft.

Not wanting to do bike maintenance on the bridge, I did the walk of shame to the benches by the snack bar at the Jefferson.

The tire’s failure was a small piece of wire that was a bear to get out.

It was likely my time as I’ve not flatted in about a year, validating my investment in Gatorskins.

A number of cyclists checked to see if I needed help. Thanks to all for checking on me.

Why don’t you flip your bike over so it is upside down, or at least on the side. Resting it on your the rear derailleur like that is asking for serious trouble.

[skins_brew]

I would have followed him. If he was on a recumbent, he wouldn’t have been hard to keep up with.

[skins_brew]

It was 60 degrees this morning, which to me, is a bastard of a temp. Just cool enough where I am going to be really cold in short sleeves, and two warm if I wear a jacket. My jacket is an REI one that has windstopper panels in front and spandex/poly in the back. I opted for a merino blend long sleeve shirt and a dry fit short sleeve over that. I was pretty cool for the first 3 or so miles, but got comfortable after that.

With that said, I am a real wiener when it comes to being cold! Summer, please don’t go!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Here is hoping for a scorcher in Sept!

[skins_brew]

@dasgeh 93300 wrote:

How about, if you don’t have wheels, stay out of the cycletrack? I’m pretty sure there’s explicit law to that effect. Does anyone know where it is for DC?

It is a cycletrack. Key word, cycle. I have seen a few people jogging on the 1st street cycletrack and I will usually remind them that the “sidewalk is over there.”

Now, the NE Branch Trail. That is a MUP. Big difference between a MUP and a cycle track.

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