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@Dirt 43095 wrote:

Is there enough stretch in the shoe covers to put the warmers between the covers and the shoes? When it gets really frigid, I tape a small chemical hand warmer to the outside of my shoe on top of my toes before the shoe covers go on.

Graber also makes chemical warming footbeds that go inside. They’re quite thin. Perhaps leaving off the liner socks and using those instead might help. Perhaps you can take out the insole that comes with the shoe and replace it with the chemical one?

I don’t like the disposable options, but sometimes they are really good.

Excellent suggestions – will try both. Thank you!

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Hands have been fine with ski mittens on, but I can’t get my toes right. I have wicking socks under smartwool socks under bike shoes under hardcore barrier ELITE shoe covers and I’m still thawing my toes out after particularly cold and/or windy rides. I would do the chemical warmers, but I don’t think there’s any room in there for them.

Freezing Toes, it is!

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@dbb 42959 wrote:

As the videocam on the bike, I ask (with significant trepidation) if video is available? This might have (modest) potential for a semi-risque “Bikes of Arlington” calendar.

The pic has been submitted for the calendar. The video will be available as part of the “Making of the Bikes of Arlington Calendar” pay per view event. RATED E FOR ELITE.

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@KelOnWheels 42963 wrote:

Hello, ELITES, look at your bike, now back to me, now back at your bike, now back to me. Sadly, it isn’t pro, but if you stopped using ELITE scented bike wash and switched to Old Spice, it could smell like it’s pro. Look down, back up, where are you? You’re on a road with the bike your bike could smell like. What’s in your hand, back at me. I have it, it’s a bidon with two tickets to that bike thing you like. Look again, the tickets are now Di shifters. Anything is possible when your bike smells like Old Spice and not an ELITE. I’m on a horse.

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Early entrant for best post of 2013.

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I am excited to hear about the paving. Thanks for doing the legwork on this!

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I TORE IT UP Friday night with a hot shower and a commuter bike. I officially have a problem.

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I’m embarrassed to say that my previous record for a month was 170 miles. I tripled that this month according to Strava (542 miles). I also squeaked into the top 7,000 (out of 36,000) for the Base Mile Blast. I bike commuted every day but one. And as I alluded to elsewhere, I lost 10 el bees without really changing up my diet.

Thanks Freezing Saddles! Go Team Four CuatroPho!

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No one can draft off of me. I’m that slow. If I am drafting off of you, you are probably a runner.

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Going north past Gravely Point late this morning was absolutely hilarious. If you looked past the tears you could see the laughter in my eyes. No really.

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Me: Grinding up Wisconsin to turn right on M.

You (stately homeless gentleman): Out of nowhere and directly to me “You have titties.”

Me: PEARL IZUMI SIZES SMALLER THAN THEY SHOULD.

Signed,

Less Chubby Than He Was at the Beginning of Freezing Saddles, Thank You Very Much

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@Bilsko 42691 wrote:

Out in the Palisades means no Metro access for me – bus only. 5 and 6 are somewhat interchangable depending on weather/timing. Car is only an option when its not otherwise in use by my better half.

We lived on MacArthur right near the Reservoir when we moved to DC after college back in ’93. So long ago that the CVS was still a movie theater!

I loved it then and I still drive through there every once in a while – after our kids are out of the house I could see moving back there if we could find something under eleventy billion dollars.

When we first got there, I did the bus…it sucked. Then I started riding my bike to DuPont where I worked at the time. Then eventually we moved to Ashburn. That was 70 miles round trip in the car and probably the closest I have ever come to purposely steering in to a concrete median.

Good to be back inside the Beltway.

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1. Bike
2. Car
3. Call in sick

I have free parking, so driving has been a crackpipe that I have been trying to put down for a long time. I have biked in to work every day but one this year, so hopefully I am on my way to recovery.

I am not as anti-car as a lot of folks seem to be – it is still indispensable to me for hauling my four kids around town with all of their sports gear – but I do wonder how much I will need one when they are all out of the house.

Metro is no good for me. I love it in theory but during rush hour with the crush of humans and the terrible oil/grease smells…not for me.

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Commute was borderline religious experience this morning as I pedaled past Gravelly Point….

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So my commuter bike is obviously a gateway drug for a road bike and am plotting to convince my wife to let me buy one this spring/summer. I have fallen in love with a very specific bike at my LBS and I was wondering if anyone had any thoughts on it as a long term bike:

http://www.feltbicycles.com/USA/2013/Road/Z-Series/Z85.aspx

How do folks feel about Felt? Am I too attached? It’s probably a little on the expensive side, but I’m not sure on comps.

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Thanks again for all of the recommendations.

On Saturday I went to change the pedals out (I had even purchased a Park pedal wrench because I want to be at least a little self-sufficient). An hour later and I still couldn’t get the original pedals off of the cranks. I took my bike to Tri360 and THEY couldn’t get the pedals off either. One of the mechanics said he had never had that happen to him. They suggested I take the bike to its shop of origin (where the pedals had been removed and reattached in the last three months) and demand, at the very least, new cranks. I am not so hot at confrontation or being a nudge (or a grownup, for that matter), but I didn’t have a lot of choice. So I threw the bike in the car and drove out to the Bike Lane in West Springfield where I originally bought the bike. After a little time looking at the bike with the mechanic and the shop owner, I found myself agreeing to replace the entire drive chain (hey – it’s cheaper than a car drive train! said the shop owner) because it was not in great shape after a year of commuting as a bike noob. In the end, it probably cost me more than it should have, but parts + labor was just slightly north of $100 so it wasn’t devastatingly awful either.

So long story short, I got a purrrry new drive train, new pedals, new shoes. Went out for a test ride last night in the muck and this whole clipless pedal thing is, like, 100% easier and simpler than I had made it in my mind all those years. Seriously – it could not be easier clipping in or out. I wish I had taken the plunge sooner. I commuted in this morning and aside from realizing I absolutely need shoe covers, I was amazed at the difference in pedaling efficiency. I think I am finally to the point where I am not pushing down – just rolling along. It’s a pretty zen feeling. Of course everyone here already knew that.

Thanks again.

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