[vvill]

@OneEighth 25115 wrote:

I was in a car heading towards Tysons. Can’t think of a more effective way to remind myself how good my commute is. Rush hour around Tysons is unpleasant even if you can hop on some of the back roads.
Noticed quite a few riders on Westmoreland in the evenings this week. Too bad the effectiveness of good signage is limited by the intelligence of the target audience.
I’ll honk and wave if I see you again. White car. With black handlebar tape wrapped on the steering wheel (kidding).

Haha handlebar tape on a steering wheel would be awesome. A honking whilst waving driver might surprise me though! Westmoreland is regularly used by quite a few cyclists but unfortunately there’s just too many impatient/unknowledgeable drivers. I’ve recently taken to using a backstreet way home (instead of going north on Westmoreland) that has a cool cut through (looks different to that now – all gravel and wide enough to ride through easily). I love taking shortcuts where cars can’t go.

Tysons is horrid, yes. The problem is there really are no back roads! My wife used to work near the Tysons II mall when we lived close to WFC, and sometimes I’d drop her off/pick her up. There were days it would take 30+mins to go oh, maybe, 2 miles. I’m really hoping after the metro line is finished up there, traffic will get a little better and they really will try to make it more ped/bike friendly.

[vvill]

Big thanks again to Kathy for organizing! I think I actually recognize more than 50% of you now

[vvill]

@OneEighth 25087 wrote:

vvill at 1700 on Westmoreland heading toward the intersection with Williamsburg this evening? On something (possibly greenish) with a straight bar?

Mostly likely, yes if I was heading south! I probably wasn’t in a stopping mood as it was only 5 mins after some guy two cars behind me in a truck was honking and shouting “get on the sidewalk” a few yards from some sharrows and a “Share the Road” sign. The grips on my flat (riser) bar hybrid are light green. Which way were you going?

[vvill]

Some great stories in this thread. I don’t want to derail it too much…

@eminva 24999 wrote:

Was wondering about this! More info, please!

A friend who is almost as new to road riding as I am (but does a lot of fast group rides and is more into the competitive aspect) wanted to try racing, but ideally not alone. So he convinced me to sign up for a Cat 5 crit. It was fine, although I did notice quite a few dangerous passes/moves and near crashes in the first half of the race. About 1.5 laps before the end I moved out around the outside to get in near the front of the pack and shortly after there was a crash behind me. Someone hit my rear wheel during it and it freaked me out, firstly because the sound of a crash at that speed is horrible, secondly because I knew my friend was behind me, and lastly because I was afraid I’d somehow caused the crash. Most of the bunch flew by me and a couple riders shouted “don’t slow down/keep going” as they passed but I was off the back by then – I finished 27th of 49 starters, riding the last lap and a half alone. It turned out no one was really hurt (I did see one person with a bandaged knee), my friend wasn’t in the crash, and no one blamed anyone for the apparently run-of-the-mill second-to-last/last lap crash. I’d never planned on racing and my experience hasn’t changed that, but I did learn a lot from that one race. Mostly how much of a yo-yo effect there is once you’re back in the pack a bit e.g. you have to brake/coast going downhill because the front of the group is approaching a climb/turn, and then by the time you hit that part you’ve lost your momentum while the front is accelerating off. I think Dirt talked about this in another thread about watching Le Tour.

@Riley Casey 25017 wrote:

I was listening to a story on NPR this morning about how a glass of wine a day may reduce osteoporosis in older women. This of course is just one of a myriad of such stories in the press about the millions of dollars of research spent on the most marginal of outcomes when simple exercise and diet changes work the greatest improvements – for virtually free. Hmmm lets see … expensive blood pressure medication with annoying side effects or biking a few miles a day … so hard to choose. :confused:

Yeah I think part of the mentality of a consumerist society is the expectation that you can always just buy+take something to fix something.

[vvill]

I always forget to reply to the actual thread topic by the time I read all the pages.

I haven’t jumped on board carbon yet because I don’t really want an expensive bike I have to baby too much. I don’t have a ton of space at home, I do occasionally knock my bikes over, I have a cheap bike rack on my car, and I do have to lock my bike up to a shoddy rack at work. I don’t think I could resist commuting on a carbon bike if I had one. Based almost wholly on looks/brand I’d pick the Cannondale of those 5 you posted, but I don’t have much experience riding different road bikes.

[vvill]

I was flabbergasted when I first learned that you couldn’t adjust the reach on Shimano levers. That said I’m happy with mine, although I have next-to-no experience with SRAM. The one time I test rode a SRAM equipped bike I could not get used to the double-tap mechanism. I might make my next bike SRAM just for variety.

[vvill]

This thread is making me hungry.

[vvill]

Except it starts at 6pm! We’ve usually finished with dinner by then…

@dasgeh 24915 wrote:

We’ve been toying with the idea of starting a Kidical Mass Arlington (in part because it’s usually too far for us to bike to Kidical Mass DC stuff, and it seems odd to me to drive to a bike ride). Would people be interested?

I’m interested. I think I could at least get to the W&OD with one of my kids okay. But I’m not against doing a drive to get to a kids ride in Arlington in a location that suits others.

I really have no idea how long either of my kids (1 and 4) would actually be interested in being towed around – I’ve never ridden more than 3 miles with them.

[vvill]

@acc 24823 wrote:

Two years ago this week I bought my first road bike, jumped on and put in a grand total of five miles. I came home drenched in sweat and shaking like a leaf. I didn’t have gloves and my hands kept slipping on the handlebars as I fumbled with gears I did not have the slightest idea how to use. I had one water cage but had no clue as to how to drink from it as I rode so it was full when I arrived home. I refused to buy bike shorts at the LBS because I thought they looked ridiculous. I wouldn’t be caught dead in something so silly looking. When I pulled into the driveway I hit the bumper of my car because I was busy concentrating on clipping out of my pedals. I tipped over anyway.

But I had fun. I remember thinking this is what flying must feel like as I pedaled to what was probably an amazing 12 mph.

Two weeks ago I competed in a sprint triathlon.

I wasn’t very fast. But I finished.

I picked up my first road bike exactly 365 days ago today! I had no experience with modern shifters before and had to google how to use them. Braking from the hoods was awkward and scary, but not as scary as actually putting my hands in the drops (or walking into Freshbikes). It felt seriously fast though compared even to my 700x25c hybrid bike. I also wasn’t interested in road bike shorts or bibs because I thought they looked silly… and the first modification I made to the road bike was to swap the stock saddle for my hybrid’s plush saddle.

This past weekend I competed in a Crash 5 criterium (and finished). And I sometime recently passed 4000mi of riding since buying that bike, with almost 900mi of that being another new bike I since bought (now I’m thinking of buying a CX bike ). My laundry room is full of assorted bike stuff (the previous tenants, yard tools, have been pushed aside/outside and largely ignored). I’ve met great people on this board who happen to love riding bikes too, and I keep a Google calendar just for potential cycling events.

Bonus life change: I used to wear braces on one or both my knees at least 50% of the time just for walking around due to tendonitis. Now I’ll use them maybe once a month. My knees feel so much better I might even try to start running again.

[vvill]

If you are considering new at all, I’ll throw in a plug for Bikenetic. They have a good range of bikes that aren’t aimed at the road racer crowd and should suit your transportation/commuting aims, and based on my impressions, won’t try to upsell you so you should be able to get good value. They also have a lifetime basic maintenance policy with new bikes. The only other place that does that is Performance Bike and their customer service and sales staff are ordinary, at best.

[vvill]

@OneEighth 24821 wrote:

I’m kinda liking the idea of picking a day…maybe during bike-to-work month to have all regular commuters drive in…maybe with a window sticker or something that says “I normally ride a bike, how you like me driving instead?”

It would be even more fun if we all drove the speed limit and took a lane each on I-66. (We’d have to meet HOV requirements first, of course.)

[vvill]

I love the reflective strips on my 20×1.5 Marathon Racers.

Every time I go under one of the tunnels in around 4MR I’m grateful when a person in front of me (or coming the other way) has something reflective on them or their bike. Especially when your eyes are adjusted for bright sunshine. Of course, tire sidewalls wouldn’t be really useful in this situation.

[vvill]

What we really need is coded flags, like they have for shipping. Then you could identify each rider from a distance AND we can pretend we’re all pirates. Some people might want to shorten their handles though.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_maritime_signal_flags#Letter_flags_.28with_ICS_meaning.29

And some people’s handles might get misinterpreted as a message: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Code_of_Signals#Examples

@dcv 24785 wrote:

probably was me, i blew the light at N fort myer – didn’t i? i usually don’t but there were no cars, still felt guilty after. sorry i didnt notice who was behind me, what were you riding?

Yep, I think so. I was behind you from up around N Scott St somewhere, and I usually won’t overtake anyone on that stretch of the Custis (even to say hi) unless they’re going slow. I actually couldn’t even remember what your handle was here, but I had a strong suspicion that I remembered a Cinelli track bike rider from the forums! Some Google-fu led me back to the thread with your bike’s picture. I was just on my usual road bike, with a backpack.

[vvill]

Saw consular rider this morning on 4MR! A lot of us took that way in this morning, it seems.

I think I may have seen (and been riding behind for a time) dcv yesterday AM towards the end of the Custis into Rosslyn. It was someone on a Cinelli, for sure.

[vvill]

Ahh, toddlers. I swapped “yucky” <=> “yummy” half-way into bedtime reading last night and mine thought it was hilarious and insisted on keeping the swap for the rest of the book.

Anyway, back on topic… I can’t ride no-handed comfortably. I’ve found I use my right hand too much to control my balance, since I regularly use my left hand on my bell, reach into pockets, grabbing a water bottle, etc..

I read this morning that the big crash that ended up taking ~12 riders out of the TdF was apparently caused by a rider putting some overshoes in his pocket while they were going 70kph and not being able to brake in time. Not a wise choice to go no-handed or one-handed at that point in the course. One of the injured cyclists may lose a kidney. Scary stuff.
http://www.velonation.com/News/ID/12339/Poels-in-danger-of-losing-a-kidney-as-a-result-of-Tour-de-France-crash.aspx

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