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I’m out of town otherwise I would go see this. My wife owes me one movie out night (she went to see Tornado Alley at the IMAX while I had the kids). We’re nerds I guess.

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I did a similar thing, got up at 6am on Sat to ride the W&OD. It was at least 2 degrees above freezing I saw nary a soul nor ninja until Reston (one unlit runner in Falls Church but she had a bright white shirt), but on my return leg it was packed and at least 50F. I was also pretty tired by then and may have perhaps rode on the left to overtake some walkers without noticing there were two cyclists already barreling towards me. A quick steer and a sorry, no damage done although judging from the looks I got they were none too pleased. Oops. Most cyclists aren’t the smiling type anyway.

I got a pinch flat in Leesburg and it was 40F when I was changing it so that was a bit painful, and I think I need some winter shoes/shoe covers but otherwise it was a good post Thanksgiving ride and I just scraped in the distance for a metric. A shame I had to be somewhere for lunch otherwise I would’ve left later and chowed down at Carolina Bros.

Feeling grateful for the easy 55F commute in this morning.

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This is (yet another) one of those things I’ll need to learn to do properly now that I have a nicer bike and I’m riding a lot more. For my MTB + hybrid I have 3-in-1 oil I put on the chain, and I have White Lightning for my road bike (which I don’t ride much in the wet). I have nashbar’s version of the chain cleaning tool but I haven’t even opened the packaging yet. I guess I could just take my bikes to Performance for their free service but that’s a lot of hassle if nothing needs adjusting.

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Is it a good or bad thing that I’ve already watched most of these videos before?
Now they’re all collected in one convenient thread.

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This thing seems to be out all the time when I ride through, I don’t know why. It was out yesterday. The red pedestrian man lights up fine, but then when the lights turn green (for traffic), the red man goes out and the green man doesn’t light up either. It’s just all unlit.

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I timed my out time based on the radar to try to get the little window of very light drizzle and I succeeded for the first 30 mins. But yeah it in the end it was all a wash…

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@Dirt 11172 wrote:

They appear to have changed the name of them. They just call them tire levers. They may have changed the recycled content. I know REI stocks them. I’ll do some research and see if they still have recycled content.

Thanks. It’s okay, I went ahead anyway and bought a couple of the pink ones online – they were cheaper than the yellow ones.

@hencio 11178 wrote:

I’ve been using the same “quick stick” tire lever for about 10 years now. (the first one lasted around 10 years too)
http://www.rei.com/product/546083/quik-stik-tire-changer

I misplaced the quick stick at some point and bought some top peak tire levers. I broke2 or 3 of them in a matter of 3 tire changes. Eventually I found the quickstick and all was good in the world.

Looks interesting, I might check it out. I bought a Groupon for REI that I need to use one day.

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@PrintError 11161 wrote:

On days like today though, it doesn’t really matter. It all gets wet again for the ride home.

I’m banking on the 50% chance of precipitation window at 3pm…

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That’s cool. I see a lot of what look like “service workers” crossing Key Bridge on cruisers/similar bikes and they never have any bike-specific gear, let alone lights.

I’ve never dared trying to ride to Tysons Corner. Actually my wife and I have an agreement that only she will ever even drive the car in that area. Too stressful for me.

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Yeah it should really come in pink!

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@Dirt 11146 wrote:

I should add a disclaimer… I’m good friends with some of the top mgmt at Pedro’s. I loved the company and their tire levers for 25 years before I met them.

That’s cool! They seem like they have a good reputation for being green.

Btw, where’d you get the milk levers? I can’t find them online anywhere.

@PrintError 11160 wrote:

I don’t. I’m not very careful. The studded tires are a PITA, and I just muscle the suckers on there.

I did that too with my steel levers, and ended up scratching up the rims and putting multiple punctures in a nice new inner tube.

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@DismalScientist 10742 wrote:

I’ve never understood the desire to take a perfectly good vintage bike with functional gearing and convert it to a fixie. If you want only one gear, just tighten the limit bolts so you can’t shift. :rolleyes: If you want a fixed gear, just slap on a rusted solid freewheel.:p
@One-eighth:
I’ve never thought that derailleurs took all that much to maintain.

Sorry, pet peeve. YMMV.

I was always under the impression that with a proper single-speed/fixed gear bike the lack of a derailleur meant that you have a more exact chain length, thus more direct energy transfer and better pedaling efficiency?

I would really like to try a fixie but I don’t think I can justify it (yet), and I’m scared of what it’ll do to my (already bad) knees, especially with all the hills in Arlington.

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Great tip on the newspapers in shoes. Trying that today and so far seems to be going well.

I have hangers and hooks in my cube for regular clothing items. Inside out MTB shorts on a hanger don’t look too professional but I’m dressed at work for comfort anyway. I also have access to a climate controlled (computer) server room that I’m sure would dry the stuff faster but I don’t know if they’d appreciate a laundry line…

One thing I’ve found is that a little fan will help dry out some of the smaller items really quickly. I have one of these in my office cube
http://www.amazon.com/Thermaltake-Mobile-Fan-External-Cooling/dp/B00080G0BK
Geeky looking and a little noisy but very effective, USB powered, small, adjustable speed, and it lasts forever (I’ve had mine for 5 years and it still runs great.) It’s basically just a fan that you would find in a desktop computer rigged up with an adjustment dial, stand and USB power – so it’s cheap, and it’s much better than the fans that come in most of those rip-off laptop cooling pads.
I just keep it under my desk and drape stuff gloves, socks, etc. over + around it. Even soggy leather gloves can be dried in an hour. (Normally I use it to cool myself down when they go crazy with the heat in the winter.)

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Heh, I saw that car too and wondered what it was doing. I probably went thru 30 mins or so before you judging by the light (it certainly was a low traffic Friday, a bit weird). Often I’ll see a patrol car parked on Lynn St facing Key Bridge in the far left lane beside the park.

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Ack, sucks. Hope you + bike get well soon.

Incidentally I lost my favourite pair of sunglasses on this morning’s ride in. They were old Performance house brand photochromic ones I bought in 2006, cheap but I loved the fit and I’ve worn them almost every day continuously for several years (biking or not). I hooked them into my jersey at one point when it was too wet and shortly before arrival noticed they weren’t there. They’re probably in pieces on the Custis or in Georgetown now. Waaah!

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