[slowtriguy]

I rode from Ballston to Falls Church City via the Custis and W&OD around 1600-1630. The trails and city roads were largely fine on standard CX bike tires — they had all been treated and/or plowed. There were scattered brief patches of crusty snow and some wet spots that may well be black ice later, but nothing longer than a few meters straight, and these were largely under overpasses in the shade.

Happy riding, everyone!

[slowtriguy]

I rode from Falls Church to Ballston 0720-0755ish, on a Kona Jake with stock tires. Route: Falls Church city streets to the W&OD from Spring to the Custis, then Custis to Vermont St., then city streets to Ballston near the Metro. Overall, conditions were fine, with mostly light and relatively smooth snow on the trails. City streets in Arlington were a bit dicey near Washington-Lee High School but otherwise fine.

Stock tires on a Kona Jake.

Lots of tire tracks on the trail, so though I only saw one other rider, I know there were lots of us out.

Happy riding, all.

[slowtriguy]

Though I could do without the scratches, I am grateful to be part of a welcoming and empathetic group!

And I’d like to thank Fast Friendly Guy for a fast ride with a very friendly chat on the way home tonight – great to talk with you, and I love the turkey.

Happy riding!

[slowtriguy]

Can I join the club? I, too, took a tumble last week – went down on the W&OD simply due to inattention. Both my bike and I were fortunate to get only scratches, but I was pretty sore for a few days. Back riding again, thankfully.

I’m glad to hear folks are recovering!

[slowtriguy]

So much for racing home to beat the storm… 15 minutes into a 25-minute ride, the skies opened up and I had to take shelter under an overhang along Westmoreland. After 10 minutes, it abated just enough to run into Tri360, hang out, and pick up a few necessities. 15 minutes later – blue skies and sunshine and odd ground mist.

I heard a tree crack and fall just as I turned the corner onto Westmoreland – glad I wasn’t 10 seconds faster. Thankfully, it didn’t hit anyone or block the whole road but it was a good reminder that maybe I shouldn’t try to beat the storm next time.

[slowtriguy]

I was riding along this afternoon, feeling my itchy eyes and stuffy nose. I looked down and thought, ‘My tire isn’t usually that yellow…’ Nothing like a little pollen to make my grey tire a bit brighter… Thanks nature. Or something.

[slowtriguy]

@Crickey7 114099 wrote:

Has anyone on the board ever gotten caught out in a hailstorm before? My car has dents from one hailstorm, so I imagine it would hurt.

Ooo! Ooo! Pick me! Pick me!

I’ve ridden in a hailstorm with pea-sized hail. That was not one of my brighter moments. It mostly stung like crazy until I was able to bail out into the shelter of an overpass. I’ve since amended my personal “don’t ride” rules to include active hailstorms.

Bigger — much bigger — hail has been deadly.

[slowtriguy]

I’m going to have to cancel – some urgent family business cropped up. Sorry I can’t be there.

[slowtriguy]

I’m in

[slowtriguy]

I rode the W&OD and Custis 0715-0815 today between Virginia Lane and the Fairfax Connector and back. It started out as just slushy sleet but was snowing heavily by the end. The trails had NOT been treated but were rideable on semi-slicks with a bit of care. It’ll be worse later that’s for sure.

I saw only one other rider but lots of runners. Rock and Roll prep > snow, I guess.

[slowtriguy]

@rcannon100 110040 wrote:

Ballston is one of the busiest metro stops. One of the flaws to metro is how people interface with it once it gets suburban. Tysons has no pedestrian access. Others have massive one level parking lots (the parking is good – aggregating traffic into the city – the design is terrible). Ballston is a massive transit station. And yet there is no KISS and RIDE. They dedicated a lane there for parking – but they give you no where to go when you are picking people up – and no safe way of doing it. So yes – that lane as become a defacto kiss and ride.

Over and over these are design issues. These are infrastructure issues. People want to use the public transportation. But the design is not great. We are a one car family. We use the ballston metro all the time. I double park there all the time. There is no good alternative. They should have created a kiss and ride, like they have at the rest of the outward stations. But they didnt.

People want to use public transportation. Making it hard to do so is dumb. It’s not the patrons fault.

Fair response, and sorry I was snippy in my post.

I guess I see two sides to this one.

On the one hand, Ballston is a major hub, and The Powers That Made These Decisions should have done a better job of building into it the surface transportation infrastructure to handle access. It is crazy not to have a true Kiss and Ride facility there given the amount of such traffic there. This is something that really needs to be addressed.

On the other hand, what is the point of having rules if they aren’t enforced consistently? I ride through this block pretty much every commute, and I regularly see folks — no doubt merely trying to get through their days — doing things that aren’t consistent with the rules, and that in some cases put themselves or others in danger. And I regularly see police officers there apparently doing nothing about it (that’s partially why I was so shocked tonight), which drives me nuts. Must be my idealist side — why have rules if they aren’t enforced consistently?

If it were up to me, we’d find a way to reconcile the reality and the rules. I can envision at least two end member ways to do that: either (1) the rules would be enforced to the point that folks would change their behavior to follow the rules, or (2) the rules would be changed so that folks’ behavior defined the new rules. Practical answers probably lie somewhere in between.

So: how can the reality and the rules be reconciled?

[slowtriguy]

I never thought I’d live to see this, but I actually witnessed an Arlington parking control officer forcing people NOT to double park across from the Ballston Metro.

I was close enough to hear the disbelief in the driver’s voice: “But I’m just waiting for my wife!” “Not here, sir. You can’t park here.”

You mean it’s NOT a block-long kiss and ride double parking zone? Could’ve fooled me.

[slowtriguy]

Custis and W&OD were mostly fine from Fairfax in Arlington to Oak in Falls Church at around 1800-1830.

There’s still dangerous ice in the outside corner (westbound side) of the turn just west of Brandymore Castle hill but the patch near the basketball court was better.

The Falls Church Icefield between Great Falls and Little Falls is still super-slippery. I had to walk it on semi-slicks.

There were spots turning slushy but otherwise nothing too bad.

Good riding with you, Subby!

[slowtriguy]

Ride report W&OD->Washington->Westmoreland->Van Buren->W&OD->Custis->15th->Stafford, 0755-0825

90% clear and dry pavement, but with many short ice patches along the W&OD between the Ohio overpass and the Custis turnoff.

The most treacherous bits were in a stretch about 30 meters long near the shelter between Great Falls and Little Falls:

[ATTACH=CONFIG]7984[/ATTACH]

and at the corner by the basketball courts near EFC:

[ATTACH=CONFIG]7983[/ATTACH]

I was riding semi-slicks and crashed on the patch between Great Falls and Little Falls, but thankfully it was slow speed, so nothing’s broken on the bike or or on me.

For those headed westbound, watch out for a bad patch of ice in the westbound side of the corner just west of the Brandymore Castle hill. There’s another patch on the west end of the bridge across the Glebe offramp from 66, as reported by consularrider.

[slowtriguy]

Would it be permissible for me and Miss Slowtriguy to join the group for the last stop? The full loop would be a bit much for her, but I think she’d be up for a shorter Pi Day ride, considering this is one of her favorite shirts…

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