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I have a mesh bottle holder section on my backpack that I will often attach a red blinkie to. I need more red blinkies though. I had two at the start of the week. Now I have one, and the lens from one. I was thinking of just buying a whole bunch of them as I can always see many places to put them.

I usually run in flashing mode, as I always assumed it was more attention grabbing.

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Eeech sorry Pete. Really nice of you to save them from injury, and give them your leg bands.

I had a nice patch of road rash on my left hip after my crash in August (after buying my first road bike in July, great huh!).

I took [generic] vicodin for 3 days (for my broken arm – although my hips were the sorest and most painful part in the days following the crash), and I ended up coughing up the $ for a pack of hydrocolloid dressings (I got DuoDerm), mostly because I was sick of having to have the dressing changed so often. I don’t know if it made me heal faster and the scar still looks gnarly but it was a lot more comfortable putting on clothes, etc. and I could keep the dressing on for days at a time. I’m too much of a wuss to touch my own wounds a lot, luckily my wife was fine with helping me out there. Actually she had no choice since one of my arms was in a sling.

I slept on the couch during my recovery, firstly so I wouldn’t be disturbed by young-uns awakin’ and secondly so I could prop up my arm easier. Also made it possible to turn on a bad movie and pass out that way (no TV in the bedroom). The pain can make it harder to fall asleep.

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I was looking for those Lakes and noticed Bonktown had some Lake stuff but never the MTB style.

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I tried the coupon code but it only said “free shipping” which is already default. Weird.

Anyway, I think I’m happy with my LED “tactical” flashlights…

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@Arlingtonrider 9359 wrote:

I’ll second Ann’s comments! It was loads of fun to meet and talk with so many of the people here, all of whom have been a huge help to me. Thanks so much, Tim and Mark, for putting this together. (Mark, did you not have Ann’s Pinot Grigio ready upon her arrival? Just kidding, of course.) We all had a wonderful time, and it was great to welcome Zanna into the BikeArlington fold. There are too many names to mention, but I really enjoyed meeting everyone who was there and will look forward to seeing you all again at other rides and events, or perhaps just along the way.

Agreed. Btw, I think you should change your name to Shirlingtonrider.

@baiskeli 9361 wrote:

Also, riding up the Custis in the dark after two beers is not fun. Just FYI.

Depends on what you count as fun I didn’t mind it, though I didn’t have to go far at all.

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@elcee 9238 wrote:

It looks like Garmin is trying to tempt us with its new Edge 200. SRP of $149.99 and available now. This might just push me over the edge.

https://buy.garmin.com/shop/shop.do?cID=160&pID=90675

Hooray, < $200! :eek: I might finally join everyone and have a cycling GPS! Although you can't add cadence (which I like to have) or HR (never had but wouldn't mind having). Currently I take the GPS out of my car and put it in a pocket. It’s bulky and annoying but it works, sort of… for a few hours. I’ve actually logged quite a few miles with it on me though. I just pretend it’s 1995 or something and I’m actually ahead of the curve. I use ridewithgps as well. Strava seems ok, but I hate mapmyride.

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I love chocolate milk too although the last few years I’ve noticed I can’t take dairy as easily as I used to But I tend to eat a lot regardless of whether I’m riding a lot or not, so it’s difficult for me to tell how different my recovery intake is. I’ve never done a 250mi weekend though 😮

Nice tip on the compression socks. I have a pair I originally bought for a gift that wasn’t used. May try those.

Agree with the light riding on the next day to stretch out.

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I’ll take it. If I find I can’t use it I have a friend at work who just started bike commuting who could use it.

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@Greenbelt 9002 wrote:

I’m with you on this. In fact, I had a nice email conversation with a tire guy from Specialized — trying to persuade them to make one of their knobby CX tires with kevlar Armadillo flat protection for commuters:

Nice. Cool that they take the time to talk to their customers and get real feedback.

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I noticed Lorcom Lane (NW bound) has had its “right turn only” arrows in the right lane to Nelly Custis removed, and bike lane markings uphill the opposite way is gone too. More resurfacing there too I guess.

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Sounds like fun. I should be okay to leave the kids/wife at home for a couple hours. Drink specials ’til 8pm according to the website.

@DaveK 9236 wrote:

…

:p

I have problems.

I laughed And if nothing else it should help remind me to bring my lock. I’ll be on my MTB-commuter anyway.

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I’m still figuring out all the rain gear stuff. I’ve commuted to work 4+ days/week for the last month or so and still haven’t found a great solution. I have learned that I don’t mind getting wet, and that I REALLY need a rear fender. Also discovered my $30 ebay rain jacket works great at being a two-way water barrier… after 10 mins I’m pretty sweaty inside.

I need to remember to bring some spare gloves/shirts/etc to work. Right now I have a set of dirty sweaty bike gear hanging in my cube over the weekend. I just wore my Friday casual clothes for the return trip since it wasn’t raining when I left yesterday.

I’m curious about the deep winter commute here, when there’s snow and/or ice out there. Obviously go with studded tires, but when you put a foot down, doesn’t your shoe slip? I have enough trouble walking on ice, I can’t imagine putting a foot down at a red light/crossing while on my bike…

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Yeah it seems to be have been out for quite a few days if you’re going north/west. Watch out!

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Cool. They also recently fixed a lot of the nasty potholes on Lorcom Lane. Rode past the crew doing one of them last week, and yesterday noticed that all of them (that I was aware of) were done. All ready for the snow ploughs to make more in the coming months

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Took me awhile before I rode this stretch again, but I’ve been back on the bike now for a month. Whenever I approach this spot, I am pretty much always the person being passed, rather than doing the passing, now. It’s actually not really that much of a downhill but the median line, as painted, does force you to steer quite a bit. The concrete seam, where I crashed, is not filled with anything (I guess it wore down?).

Anyway, since then I’ve done a lot of reading about tires, etc. and ridden also on my MTB a fair bit in the wet. I think it’s accepted that a wider, lower pressure slick tire generally has more traction on flat paved surfaces. But as mentioned, wet leaves, metal, or painted surfaces can throw off any tire.

That said, I’m a little skeptical that most commutes cover only “flat paved” surfaces. I think some knobs do actually help in the wet for some parts of my commutes. I’ve lost some rear wheel traction on slicks on steep climbs in the wet and I feel like the riding surface is often uneven enough that small knobs or at least a textured tire would actually grip better on these climbs when wet. At steeper angles the tire-to-road interface is not just a horizontal line. Does anyone else think so?

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