[Steve]

@lordofthemark 81602 wrote:

I had meant to do a true winter commute – but at least I have gotten a commute in BEFORE BTWD.

Awesome job! I’m just curious, are you going to DOT? Is it not easy to just take NJ from Eye st all the way down? Just trying to undestand the exact route and see if there’s an easy way if you don’t like 3rd.

[Steve]

I’m guessing this is a paved road/trail question, but if not there is always the option to take the Custis to Quincy -> Miliarty -> Chain Bridge -> C&O -> back to MVT via any of the bridges.

[Steve]

I also think, at the risk of painting with too broad a brush, that we are generally a convenience society. For most people in most places, driving is by far the most convenient mode of transportaion. I know we think about traffic and lack of parking and everthing like that here in DC, but in *most* of the county, driving is the quickest and easiest, albiet expensive. With our lean toward convenience, I think it is difficult to encourage using alternative forms of transportation, when the main form, driving, is fairly easy.

[Steve]

I’m no mathmatician, but aren’t two unicycles just a bicycle?

[Steve]

Seriously though, I hate this question sometimes, becasue it’s not even the real question. The real question is “why don’t you drive to work?” That’s what they’re trying to ask. Becasue nobody ever sits with a microphone at the exit of a metro station and says, “why do you metro to work?”

People ride to work for lots of different reasons. I’m not totally sure why I do. When I moved to Arlington I walked to work. Then I moved and metroed for a while. Then I rode a motor-scooter for a bit. Then I moved again and walked again for a few years. Then I moved and a mix of metro and riding, but riding only a time or two a month because it was fun every once in a while. Then full time when metro was no longer a good option when work moved (2.5 hours with metro and shuttle mix).

I never had a car because when I moved here I walked across the street to work, and it seemed like too big an expense for how little I would use it. Riding has just filled the commuting void at a time where nothing else makes sense, and buying a car still seems expensive. If I could walk or easily metro to work, I’m sure I’d do it fairly often, perhaps even the majority of the time again, but for now cycling works.

[Steve]

To get there.

[Steve]

In case you hadn’t seen yet, Ohio Drive is now closed to cars (not sure how long this will go on due to Cherry Blossoms, but my guess is a few weeks?). Anyways, I rode around the cones right in front of a motorcycle cop and he had no problem with me doing so. I’m posting more as an FYI that you might want to have an alternate route in mind in the event that you run across an officer that doesn’t see things the same way. In the past it seems like 99% of people can get thru without a problem, but just in case…

Everything else on my ride was clear and dry today for the most part.

[Steve]

@dcv 80685 wrote:

What about taking 4th Street north to Pennsylvania Ave, cut across the white house.

Yep, this is the way I go. 4th is pretty low traffic and often very wide. It also has a nice bike lane entrance into the Penn cycletrack.

[Steve]

@vvill 80599 wrote:

I already hit my knees occasionally on the unused cable stops on my (converted SS) bike that is slightly too big for me, so I think it’s more to do with how I pedal when I’m out of the saddle.

Yea, I could definately see that, especailly on too big a bike. I love my DT shifters though. My only complains is that shifting while pedaling is not the easiest thing in the world, which can cause some problems especially when going uphill. For my riding style, that’s not the biggest deal in the world, but I could see others disliking it.

My knees/thighs hit the levers on my bar-end shifters more often than the DT ones. Again, I like the shifters enough that this doesn’t bother me, but it’s a little drawback. They are easier to use than the DT though in terms of maintaining pedal stroke.

All in all I’m with rpiretti in that the benfits are great. Getting right into the gear, coolness (ha!), and just the feel of bar-end and DT shifters is awesome. I find the biggest benefit that if you are like me and use a tripple in front, that using a friction shifting bar-end or DT shifters is SO much better than STI levers in terms of actually getting into gear.

[Steve]

@TwoWheelsDC 80494 wrote:

I can almost complete my AM and PM commute without blinkies! And my main headlight has gone almost totally unused since DST.

DST brought my morning commute back into the complete darkness, but my afternoon commute is completely without blinkes. I guess you take what you can get…

[Steve]

@Dickie 80476 wrote:

First days back in the saddle in a month and I spot eminva last night, possibly dkel on the Custis and Dread this morning… nice to see friendly faces after a tough month. Oh… sorry, pretty sure I caused the snow!

Welcome back! And don’t worry….on the 16th I cleaned both my bikes. It snowed 8 inches the next day. I felt very guilty.

[Steve]

@vvill 80258 wrote:

parts like the brakes

I won’t tell 1/8 if you don’t….

[Steve]

I don’t know if it’s a deal (I have no idea how much it *should* cost), but there is a bike frame maker down in Richmond that I happened to see is now doing seat stay splitter installs for $140. Just in case anyone is looking to convert to a belt drive, below is a link to their photos about the install….

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.659984997381296.1073741836.196430017070132&type=1

[Steve]

@vvill 80177 wrote:

That’s one reason why people will buy mostly-assembled complete bikes online, strip them for the groupset and then sell off the frame/wheels.

Yea, it’s pretty crazy that you can get a $750-800 Shimano 105 complete bike off nashbar when the 105 groupset alone is probably like $450-500. Now that I write it like that, it seems that I have some shopping to do…..

[Steve]

When I was young, we used to play a game in our neighborhood called “Bike Wars.” It was basically tag on bikes, and once you got within a bike length of someone they were considered “tagged.” It involved a lot of hiding, riding thru neighbors’ yards, etc.

Those bike wars were more fun than these ones…

[Author]

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