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Planning on attending.

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@streetsmarts 151456 wrote:

What’s FSLNHPP?

Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk

Freezing Saddles Last Night Hains Point Party

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2016 Highlights

• Surpassed my goal of averaging an English Century a week (in miles, not in centuries) for the year with 5,243.8 mi on the bike and nearly a quarter of a work year in the saddle.
• Rode more miles in 2016 than any previous year.
• Enjoyed 88 Rides ending in or involving coffee, 71 of which were coffee clubs
• Retired my trusty Mt Shasta Capella after a quarter century of service due to a frame crack
• Got a new Surly Ogre to keep on rolling in August and exceeded 2,000 miles on it by the end of the year
• Had my second highest mileage month ever in December and 3/4 of my highest mileage months were in Winter
• Had perfect attendance for the first time in Freezing Saddles riding 1,410 miles.
• Took the time to stop more on my rides – for coffee, for conversation, to take in the scenery, to reflect.
• Taught my daughter to ride a bike under her own power.
• Rode in temperatures from 3F to 101F (higher heat indexes) during rain, tropical storms, blizzards, stinging sleet, high wind, and glorious sunshine.
• Rode with a Fairfax County Supervisor

2017 Goals

• Have another record mileage year on the bike.
• Take more days off work to ride long rides.
• Get my daughter more comfortable on her bike and go on more rides with her.
• Do a bike overnight with my daughter, try to get a mini-tour in for me.
• Keep stopping to enjoy where I am.
• Get a century (or more) in.

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I had submitted a ticket to Strava about some mile calculation wonkiness I experienced yesterday and they acknowledged they were having problems. As of yesterday afternoon they believed they were resolved (and my experience agrees with this).

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Schwalbe Marathon Winters are my go-to for studded tires. While slower than regular tires, they’re reasonably fast when fully inflated, and at the lower end they grip ice very well. For the MVT, you’ll still have problems if there are ruts as the tires are narrow enough to get caught in them. One added plus of studs, you can ride those wooden bridges on the MVT as if on rails … It also sounds like you have your own hive of bees along for the ride.

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Thanks for organizing, I plan to attend.

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I used to have an under-desk setup with a drying rack and a fan that would dry everything by quitting time, but after a year without incident, somebody complained, so now everything is in a locker at the gym downstairs.

To mitigate the damp I use a damp rid hanger and a USB powered fan attached to a 16,000 mAh USB power bank. It does the job for most normal dampness (sweat to drizzle), but for a full-on soak like today, it usually can’t get things fully dry. The damp rid hanger does a great job of stopping things from getting musty and mildewed by the end of the day regardless. One lasts 3 months and at Amazon’s price you can get a year’s worth for about 12 bucks. The fan is to get air circulating, which makes it even more effective.

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I rode in without the jacket this morning, too. It was warm enough to be a very pleasant ride. The amount of water I was wringing out of my gloves and kit this morning was comical. I’m actually hoping it rains on the way home as there is very little chance that my clothes will be dry by the time I leave.

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My chains usually last 1,000-2,000 miles with the lower number being reached more in the winter when I don’t clean, degrease, and relube the chain as often. Getting a chain checker is a good idea, basically it is a cheap piece of metal that won’t fit in between the links until the chain has stretched (mine is 0.75 in and 1 in on either side).

What’s happening is the bushings in each chain link get worn (and a lot more when there is grit in there) so the tolerances are widened. Each link may only have 1/100th of an inch of wear, but with 100 or so links, it gets big fast. If you catch it when you get to 0.75 in, there is a good chance your cassette and chainwheels are okay, otherwise you’ll probably need to replace the cassette as the gears shark-tooth out and the chainwheels if you really let it go. If you don’t replace a worn cassette, the new chain won’t fit on the cassette since it now “fits” the worn chain. You’ll get a lot of skipping. That’s why a worn drivetrain doesn’t have issues at first, but eventually it will (and when it does, there is a lot more to replace).

I just got a new bike, so my chain and cassette needs are different now (and I fear, more expensive), but on the old one an 8 speed chain cost me about $15 and a new cassette was about $20-25. Depending on what kind of bike and drivetrain you’ve got that’s the low end generally and the sky is the limit. Changing the chain is pretty easy with a chain break tool, and I’d recommend you get a new chain with quick links, so getting it on and off is a lot easier.

Learning to do this makes it easier to do the replacement on your schedule, and makes you less likely to have to replace the cassette every time. Changing a cassette isn’t too hard, you’ll need a lockring tool, a chain whip, and an adjustable wrench. You’ll probably pay for the price of the tools with the first or second replacement. YouTube has a lot of great videos to show you how to do it.

You’ll be amazed by how great a new drivetrain feels.

You can definitely wait if things are worn, but if your cassette gears still look like a trapezoid and not a shark tooth, waiting will make it more expensive.

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I have the Ogre (the 29’er version of the Troll) and I love it. The dropouts aren’t so much of a pain but they require you to change how you take the wheel on and off. Instead of moving the derailleur and jockey wheel around and out of the way while coming on from below, it is easier to come in above them to engage with the chain and slide the wheel forward. Definitely different, but doable.

The other bits, like the Roholff compatibility don’t really get in the way. The Ogre is a hell of a lot of fun to ride and feels quicker than I thought it would — I’m not suffering from any slow down even though I went from 38c to 42c tires and the Ogre is beefier than its predecessor.

The Jones H-Bars they come with are really great and allow you to switch up positions, I’d try them before you swap them out. They really are wide on the grips (like your cruiser bars — beforehand mine were more narrow), but I’ve gotten used to it and like the way it feels. I put Ergon Biokork GC1s on (designed for the more swept back position of bars like the Jones) and am still getting things dialed in, but I really enjoy the way they feel and the grippiness of the cork. Having the hand positions at the junction of the H and on the front really helps when you’ve got some serious headwinds to get into more of a tuck or if you just want to switch it up for your hands. The width of the grips also makes it feel like you’ve got nice leverage on climbs.

Both of the bikes have a million braze-ons. Multiple water bottle cages and so many rack options. I’ve loaded the thing down pretty heavily and it never complained once.

If the Troll handles like its big brother the Ogre, I’d swing by a shop and give it a try (I got mine from BicycleSpace, they have lots of Surly bikes to ride). It is a lot of fun.

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I’ve used Zenni Optical and they have a bunch of options for a low price. The ones I am wearing now are these cycling glasses that I got in June of 2015 and they’re still going strong. With lens coatings and options they cost me $46 and they’ve worked in blizzards, torrential rains, and sunny days to boot. You need to know your interpupillary distance (PD) which isn’t on your prescription (the distance between your pupils). Once you’ve got that you’re set. Usually takes 1-2 weeks to get them.

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Glad you’re back in the saddle.

I ride Washington Street often (usually if I’m behind schedule and feeling strong) — it isn’t bad if you take the lane most of the time — although there was that one time when a guy threatened to hit me with his car … Usually people are okay, if mildly annoyed. But often I’m passing them anyway. It is definitely the fastest route (saves me 6 minutes, on average). One thing of note, in talking to a really nice Alexandria PD officer who went to the trouble to research it for me, it isn’t clear that riding in the HOV lane is legal for a cyclist. It is for motorcycles, but we’re not mentioned in the code. His unofficial take is that it is unlikely you would see enforcement (and police who have been doing crackdowns on HOV violators haven’t stopped me), but you might get a ticket that may be hard to defend. YMMV.

Most mornings I take St. Asaph to Pendleton, then zig-zag to Royal. St. Asaph has some lights, so if the timing is right you can bypass some of the infinite stop signs, it also lacks the enforcement operations of Royal and Union and the poor pavement of Fairfax.

In the evenings I take Lee directly from the MVT at Pendleton (there is a parking lot that is chained in the morning but not in the afternoon, to get to Lee you have to go through it). No traffic at all, no enforcement, and it ends at Jones Point Park via a gravel path by a community garden and then you can take the “normal route”. Haven’t taken Union in nearly half a year.

Closer to home, I cross over at Tulane and then go up Park Terrace to Morningside and Sherwood Hall (and do the reverse in the mornings) but did Rootchopper’s method of Alexandria Ave to Ridgecrest for years and it is definitely more gentle (and adds about a mile). That’s about as gentle as it gets, you could also go down Shenandoah then left on Karl, right on Collingwood, and then get back on Sherwood that way if you want to avoid that hill.

Welcome to the neighborhood!

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I’ve been happy with Continental Touring Plus tires. Good flat resistance and good ride feel, might be slicker than you’re looking for if you’re doing a lot of off-road riding, but handles stuff like the C&O just fine. Also pretty inexpensive.

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The interpretation I’ve always seen for “as far to the right as is practicable” is as far to the right as it is safe for you to be. If it going further right puts you in the door zone, that’s not practicable, stay left of that line. If going further right encourages drivers to squeeze between you and cars to the left, essentially running off the road, that’s not practicable, stay left enough to stop that behavior. If you’re in a single lane road and riding on the center line making it unsafe to be passed at all, you’re probably violating the law. Of course, I’m not a lawyer … this is not legal advice.

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I plan on being there.

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