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I wasn’t around these here boards last year, so I am new to this game, but I think I would like to play. Cavaet is that I don’t have a bike set up for snow so a snowy winter will chew up my miles.

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I saw a grand total of 11 cyclists this morning on my commute between Reston and Crystal City.

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@dkel 99571 wrote:

Yeah, disappointing. I rode in 42 degrees last week (or the week before), and felt fine, even in shorts. Today…not so much, even with similar temps. Maybe it has something to do with humidity or something. Anyway, I’d be very interested in trying out your Northwaves. I don’t know my sizing (part of the problem in getting something else) but I suspect 48 would only be slightly too big for me. Maybe I could meet you at VTCC next week.

I think cold feels colder after it’s been cold for a while. When we have that first cold morning or two, the ground is still relatively warm, and is giving off that warmth, but after it’s been cold for a while, the ground and everything else has given up it’s heat, and so it feels colder, or at least it does to me.

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There’s nothing like 39 and drizzle/light showers for a good time.

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@rcannon100 99264 wrote:

What bicycle should I recommend that a friend purchase for a four year old. Yup, that’s pretty much all the info I have. Ideas that come to mind include

• Get a big wheel
• Get a balance bike
• Get a bike with training wheels

Suggestions, parents?

Definitely a balance bike. We started our son on a balance bike and when it was time to transition to a regular bike, the transition took about 10 minutes. In that 10 minutes we taught him how to start a bike from a standing position (i.e., how to get the pedals moving). That’s all he needed to learn since he’d already learned how to balance and steer (ok, he needed to learn to use the foot brake, but that took about 30 seconds).

Get a balance bike and you’ll avoid training wheels (and I don’t think training wheels are very helpful because the child doesn’t learn to balance, so transitioning from them is difficult).

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@ShawnoftheDread 99182 wrote:

Tonight I rolled through Falls Church on the WOD and at every street crossing the cars in both directions waited for me.

Did you put your karma to the test by rolling up to Shreve to see what would happen?

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@skins_brew 99127 wrote:

If DC would just start issuing CCW permits, the problem would correct itself….

No, it wouldn’t, and there’s not really any objective evidence to demonstrate this.

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@Steve O 99073 wrote:

I didn’t hear you yell anything. I yell, “Door!” if I’m with or near other cyclists to warn them. If by myself I might yell, “Heads up!” or “Whoa!” or “Yowza!” I try not to yell “*$&#,” which might just make them hate us cyclists more. The idea being to get their attention that they’ve made a bonehead move that has endangered someone without too strong a recrimination. I want them to feel apologetic, not defensive.

Question for Forum: What’s the best thing to yell when almost doored?

Whoa…WHOA! is what typically comes out when it’s a door or any other situation that might be dangerous, and it typically engenders the reaction you describe here – peeps usually are apologetic, whether they verbalize it or simply demonstrate they same with body language. That’s the reaction I want, hoping the person remembers next time he/she is in that situation.

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That was one solitary commute home. On the WOD I saw a grand total of two bikes between Banneker Park and my home in Reston, a distance of about 13.5 miles.

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@ShawnoftheDread 98851 wrote:

If only there were a nice, solid bollard there.

Heheheh.

They should place the bollard in the middle of the sidewalk, that way, we could merge this thread with the Wilson Ave bike lanes thread.

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@Terpfan 98734 wrote:

Me (spoken aloud): Holy… Buck.
You: Literally, a giant buck in Belle Haven Marina near the MVT.
Me: Speeding up as I realize you’re actually running in my direction rather than away from me for a solid 50 feet or so.
You: Mercifully stopped short of me by 10 feet and stood there looking like a silhouette from The Hartford’s logo.

Let this serve as a warning to all, it’s deer rut season and they are fearless.

Yesterday morning there was a buck to greet me at the top of the hill astride to Buckthorn Ln on the WOD. It just stood there and watched me as I rode by…didn’t flinch. And I heard LOTS of tromping around in the nearby trees during the last 45 minutes of my ride home last night in the twilight/dark.

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I noticed this Friday evening and this morning, but attributed the lack of crossing light to the fact that no cyclists or pedestrians were at the intersection when the light changed, so maybe it did not get triggered.

Update: the walk signal was working this evening, so I think the “problem” was along the lines I outlined above.

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@pfunkallstar 98489 wrote:

I proudly sport shorts down to freezing or so – I was born with this leg hair, I will damn well make use of it.

Haha…Once upon a time that was me as well, but my knees no longer appreciate temperatures below 50.

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And this morning the shorts issue didn’t come up because there simply weren’t any riders out there. I guess a combo of the temps and Halloween kept a lot of people home. I enjoyed the open space and thought it felt really good after my body warmed up a couple miles in. I wore two layers, booties, bandanna on my head, and only liner gloves under my regular cycling gloves – and that all worked out just right.

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@Starduster 97781 wrote:

[ATTACH=CONFIG]6894[/ATTACH]

(Insert lyrics from a Manfred Mann song covered by Springsteen here)

Yeah, but in bringing this to the conversation it becomes even murkier and more controversial. Because really, is Manfred Mann singing “revved up like a deuce” or “wrapped up like a douche” during the chorus? I’m guessing the low lumens, anti-headlight crowd goes with revved/deuce, and the mega-lumens, a headlight for every household crowd sides with wrapped/douche.

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