Ride Home 9/5, Ride In 9/6 and Ride Home 9/6: Live, from the bike shop

I'm writing (or at least starting to write) this post from a bench in the back of the bike shop as I wait for Kirby, my "delicate flower" Brompton, undergo minor surgery- the replacement of his right pedal. It had been clicking for the past two rides and I learned that he had a busted pedal bearing. Poor little guy.

I've since left. Everything is better now. The remainder of this post was written from my couch at home. 

Last night I didn't ride Kirby. The ride itself wasn't super memorable, hence my lack of super memories, which are like regular memories, but in them everyone is wearing a cape. I had left work earlier than usual because I had to get home to take care of the dog (EtP) prior to heading back out again to spend the evening with my wife and a former UN Secretary General (SPOILER ALERT: Not Javier Perez de Cuellar). Traffic seemed lighter than usual and I rode through Dupont Circle to 19th Street, a street that I'm really coming to love. Sure it's full of buses and drivers who aren't looking for bicyclists and pedestrians who see bicyclists but ignore them anyway, but it seems like a pretty direct and fast way to get from north to south (carpetbagging?) if you're willing to mostly mix it up with traffic for a couple of blocks, namely between L and Penn.

I'm thinking that maybe we should just add "unless you think you're special" to the bottom of each traffic sign. No turn on red unless you think you're special. Yield unless you think you're special. Stop unless you think you're special. That way, we can at least make evident who thinks that he's special and judge them overtly.

Down Penn and past the White House and then down 15th and on Penn again across town to the Capitol. For as 'bad' as the Pennsylvania cycle track is, I sure love it. I don't know if that's Stockholm syndrome, the soft bigotry of low expectations or if I've got a real deal Petrarch-Laura situation going on. I don't know if I like riding in the bike lane in spite of its flaws or because of its flaws or whether it has nothing to do with it's flaws (or flossing) and everything to do with the fact that I get to ride past fancy and important buildings while looking at other fancy and important buildings, all within the relative safety of a somewhat separated bike lane. Look at me, all waxing and stuff.

I rode up Capitol Hill (fun fact: somewhat hilly) and down East Capitol. Little doing. I then took Bikeshare back to the thing (thing being the word I use to describe the thing I went to with the Official Wife) and then we rode home together on Bikeshare. We rode past Union Station, which was (and is still) in the process of being striped after being paved. There will be bike lanes! And this is fantastic! And I will add one more sentence just to use one more exclamation point! Though, I've got to admit that I'm going to miss (sort of) the wonderful and terrifying affair that was riding through the bumpy, ruddy, complicated mess of lanes that was the old Columbus Circle. But my missing it is nothing in comparison to the vast utility of bike lanes, and maybe even some bollards.

Here's a picture of the soon-to-be bike lane. I saw it this morning:

So stripy. 

This is the west bound lane. It'll be on the very inside of the travel lanes, next to the brick plaza nearer the station. The bike lane starts after the intersection with Massachusetts and 2nd Street NE and it ends at the Met Branch Trail entrance at First Street NE, rather than continuing on down Massachusetts. So it's kind of a bike lane that appears from nowhere and disappears from nowhere, which isn't exactly great. But when the First Street NE cycle track qua Met Branch Trail (yeah I used qua. what are you gonna do about it?) is completed, it'll make a little more sense. The eastbound bike lane doesn't hug the curb like this one does, instead existing between the right turn (?) lane and the central travel lane. Here's what that looks like:

I'm ready for both of these lanes to be striped because even tonight, with the spray paint on the ground, drivers felt no compunction to not drive in them. Perhaps thicker white paint will do the trick. Or those painted bicycle people.

I took New Jersey Avenue again because if something is worth doing once, it's worth doing twice or something like that. Today was less crowded than yesterday and I didn't mind it nearly as much. R Street was also less crowded and at the time I think I recall seeing some stuff that might have been worth blogging about, but apparently not. I guess I could make something up. Um, I remember feeling like I was riding pretty quickly, so that definitely seems like a kind of fabrication. Most of my ride, I was consumed by the clickety click clicking on what turned out to be Kirby's right pedal. Clicking is one of the more annoying sounds one's bike can make, along with squeaking, squealing, gnashing, thudding scraping, scratching, noshing and grinding. There's not a lot you can do when your bike makes weird noises. Maybe you can ignore it, but maybe I can't. I tried to discern what it was. The clicking seemed to stop when I wasn't pedaling, so I donned my deerstalker, and decided it had something to do with the pedal. It turned out it did have to do with the pedal (see opening paragraph, those of you who read this from bottom to top. Also, why do you do this?).

How did the people at 10th and R NW get that stop light put in? It's a T-intersection and I have no idea why there's a stop light at all. They must have some serious political pull. Overall, I think there are two many stop lights in general and there's not nearly enough creativity when it comes out our traffic control solutions. There should just be a stop sign on 10th and no light on R. Otherwise, it's just a waste. I demand a redress of these grievances!

It's been interesting trying to learn how to ride the Brompton, with its two gears and tiny wheels. I've been "spinning" a lower gear, turning the pedals over at a much higher rate. I think I pedal about three times as much as I normally would on the other bike. It's just different and it'll take some getting used to and I don't necessarily mind it, but it's probably the most marked difference between riding the two different bikes.

And now, on to the ride home. I left work late (oh yeah, sorry about not writing up these posts at lunch. It's still add/drop and I'm unpleasantly busy for too much of the day. Please address you angry letters to the university president. Or maybe, don't write those letters because, you know, remaining employed and such), taking the usual route down Massachusetts. A rode next to an out-of-service bus. Why is any bus out-of-service during evening rush hour? I don't understand. I turned left at Garfield, detouring through [neighborhood between Wisconsin Avenue and Connecticut Avenue] and then through Adams Morgan, across Euclid Street to 7th, the part of 7th called Georgia Avenue, parallel to Howard University. There's no bike lane on Georgia Avenue, at least until south of Florida Ave. I don't especially like that. South of Florida, it's pretty breezy and I didn't mind the breeze-itude, which is not a real thing. I am, however, beginning to get mildly upset about the idea of wind once again hampering my commute. It's gusted a few times in the past couple of days and I simply don't care for it. I rode to Bicycle Space where they, after some time, replaced my busted right pedal (For those of you reading from the bottom, please see the middle paragraph and then the first paragraph. Also, please prepare for a question).

After the bike was fixed, I rode down 7th to Mass, Mass to 6th, and 6th to E, which I took back over to and around Columbus Circle, down Massachusetts and basically to home, after stopping briefly as a market by Lincoln Park, which stocks, amongst other things, fancy cheeses. I've long been seeking a local corner store replete with fancy cheeses and I'm grateful I've finally found one. There's no point in living not near a place that sells fancy cheeses.

I shall leave you now. Thanks for reading.

Ride In 9/5: Mops and Buckets

I managed to leave my wallet at home. First time I've done that in a while. Normally, it's a belt or socks that I forget. I guess you can leave your wallet at home no matter how you get to work (bus, horse, dirigible), but it somehow seems worse that I don't have it for my bike rides. Mainly for the lack of ID. Oh well. I'll do my best not to get amnesia on the way home.

With Capital Bikeshare, you can get dockblocked. With Bixi in Montreal, you can get dockblocquebecois.

I rode part the park and down Massachusetts to the still not yet fully paved Columbus Circle and I battled buses and taxis for space, but mostly just stuck in the middle of the right lane because traffic was slow and I didn't want to get hemmed in by a driver who thought that there'd be room for both of us. I watched someone I presume is a new bike commuter try to sneak past traffic on the right and then bailing to the sidewalk when he realized there was no room and then getting off the sidewalk half a block later and then weaving to the left side of the street, only to find himself once again stranded on a median waiting for traffic to clear so he could move again. Dude, I think you're over-thinking it. As do your legs and lungs, your ability to see traffic patterns improves the more you bike to work. You learn to pick your spots and the times to hustle and the times to relax, the places where it makes sense to filter past slowed traffic and the places where there's no point in rushing. It's not always faster to rush.

I decided to take Massachusetts to New Jersey, a diagonal avenue of no small importance, but amply roomy enough to accommodate bike traffic without currently hosting any bike lanes or sharrows. This was my first commute on New Jersey Avenue, NW. It was fine. It'll be better when there's bike lanes. It got a little sketchy around the intersection with New York Avenue/the highway entrance, but from there to R Street, it was basically fine. New Jersey intersects with R between 4th and 5th street NW and after my left turn onto R, it was fairly familiar territory.

I've never noticed this before:

The thing on the left

It's the Shaw Historic Bike Tour. Has anyone ever taken the Shaw Historic Bike Tour?

I did not stop at Kafe Bohem. I wanted to stop at Kafe Bohem. If Kafe Bohem takes off and DC develops a taste for Central European coffeehouses, someone should really buy the vacant Eastern Thifty Market across from my house and open a Hungarian kávéház. You'll make all the money, or at least all of my money.

At different times during this ride I found myself behind riders who were traveling a pace much slower than I normally would but rather than pass them I decided to follow behind (not at a lurky distance or anything) and just go slower. Much as choosing a different route can break up your routine, so can choosing a different pace. Variety is the pumpkin spice latte of life.

I don't think there will be a post tonight. See you tomorrow.

Ride Home 9/4: Remember that part in Starship Troopers? Yeah, that was awesome

I took a Myers Briggs test and I got B-I-K-E.

One of the worser habits you can develop as a bike commuter is racing cars. I found myself racing a Honda CR-V with a Yale license plate holder. The driver passed me on Mass before Idaho, but I caught up at Wisconsin. She stayed in front on the Massachusetts descent, in spite of my righteous and very bikerly aerodynamic tuck and was in front of me at California, but by Florida I had managed to get in front of her thanks to a "parked" car (blinkers somehow excuse all lane blocking sins. Blinkers are the papal dispensations of automotive lighting. This and other asinine quotes can be found in my new monograph title This and Other Asinine Quotes: A Judith Regan Joint, forthcoming) in the right lane which pinched car traffic but allowed me to get by. "Take that, CR-V driver!" I thought. Ultimately it makes no difference if you "beat" someone in getting to [random location] because that's not what bike commuting is all about (to find out what bike commuting is all about, do the hokey pokey on Bike to Work Day. Then, nirvana) and racing doesn't really accomplish anything. It's not like a driver is going to say at the end of it "Gadnabit, that there bi-see-clist done did get somewhere faster than me in my auto-mo-beel and now I'm gonna get me one of them there bi-see-culls and then I'll start getting places all fast and whatnot." Mostly because most drivers don't speak in goldpanner patois. But also because people don't make transportation decisions based solely on the consideration of a random sampling of speed. If that were the case, everyone would fly fighter jets to work and everyday we'd have yet another Goose situation. And this is why you shouldn't race drivers. Or something.

I rode through Dupont Circle (not well, I might add. Sorry, drivers) and then down 19th street (sorry, Circulator driver. I didn't know you weren't using your turn signal unironically) and we had a situation in one bicyclist decided to ride in the left travel lane and two other bicyclists (one of them me) decided to ride in the right bike lane and two full travel lanes were taken by bicyclists. One way streets are tricky, especially ones that intersect other one way streets which alternate in the direction of traffic, but I'd like to make a suggestion that the standard side on which bicyclists should ride is the right side, excepting for any left-side cycling infrastructure. I think that this is more in keeping with the longheld American tradition of slower vehicles traveling on the right. Just a suggestion. I'm open to hearing opposing viewpoints (and dismissing them, in another fine American tradition). Of course, had I taken my own advice, I wouldn't have been able to make the green light to make my left turn onto Pennsylvania Avenue. This means I embraced yet another longstanding national tradition, that of total and rank hypocrisy. I will now chant USA until I drift asleep.

But first, more blogging! Pennsylvania and across past the White House. Today's thought about the White House: that glass has to be bullet proof, right? I wonder if there was any tension with the historical people who were all like "no, we must use the original glass!" and the Secret Service all like "nah, dude." White House NIMBYs are the worst.

I rode behind a woman who was on a folding bike during the the time I traversed the high single digit blocks on the eastern half of Penn. She was chatty, at least to non-bicyclists. She informed a driver that he had a green light. She informed some pedestrians that they were in the bike lane. I've become less chatty over my years of bike commuter, having decided that people simply don't want to hear from me. Perhaps my folding bicycle will reverse that. The smaller the wheels, the bigger the mouth, maybe?

This is mean and I probably shouldn't admit it but the times I'm most likely to not jaywheel through an intersection is when a driver creeps up behind me to try to make a right on red and I'm blocking his turn by remaining in the bike lane. Like I said, mean and pretty petty. But this is what happens when you read one too many comments on how bicyclists never follow traffic laws. Sure, I'll follow your laws. And we'll all live with the consequences. MWAHAHAHAHAHA. (Maniacal cackling is difficult to render in print. I have no idea how the closed captioners managed the RNC convention)

I stopped at the dry cleaners to pick up a pair of now-mended pants. The cleaner initially denied that they were there. I gave him every phone number I had. I then tried my last name. Only upon the description of the pants and mending they needed was he able to find them. Don't throw out your dry cleaners receipt, ever. As for wire hangers, well, that's already been covered.

Cross Check rode well and I think I might take it again tomorrow. I do suspect that it needs a tune up and there's a decent chance that on one of these rides home I'll just divert to BicycleSpace and leave it there and ask them to give it a look. I think that the bottom bracket needs replacing. Or maybe just cleaning. I'll defer to the experts. I've been riding the bike pretty hard for about 18 months straight and it could use some love and attention, as could we all. Maybe this week.

Ride In 9/4: Ermine Girls

A vain question asked in vain: do my calves look as awesome as the rest of #bikeDC's? Because you guys have some awesome calves. And please be assured that I'm talking about your leg muscles and not your baby cows, who I only find mildly awesome looking. Also, do you know that Colorado Springs has a Ride Your Horse to Work week? I assume that riders get a free pair of chaps if they sign up for one of the pit stops. Mare the road. More foaling, less shoaling. And we're off to a propitious start.

Muggy as all get out this morning. I think the humidity exceeded 100% and I was a drippy mess as C+C Music Factory prophesied. I rode the Cross Check instead of the Brompton because I suspected that it might rain later and I still don't have a waterproof or water-resistant bag for that bike. Also, I was transporting a lot of stuff and needed a bigger bag than the drab green canvas Army/Navy surplus messenger bag that I normally use on the rare occasions when I need a messenger bag. I might be in the market for a new bag and recommendations are welcome. It needs to be big enough to hold work clothes (including a welder's mask), a u-lock (why not a me-lock?) and between 1 and 4 crowns of broccoli. 

Blind item: I saw a certain person when I was riding to work. 

Usual route and up 11th. I don't know if I rode any faster on the Cross Check than I had been on the Brompton, but that doesn't really matter, since bike commuting is judged on artistic merit rather than technical skill. Well, it's actually not judged at all but I've hired actors to stand along my route to hold up score cards as I ride past. One of these days I'll get a perfect score. Even the world of fake bike commuting artistry judging is notorious corrupt and I can never seem to "win" without bribing someone. Maybe I should ask them about my calves. 

It was allegedly Terrible Traffic Tuesday. And I learned from this article that the average traffic delay (presumably just for drivers, since I don't think we're averaging across all travel modes) will rise (cue panic!) from 20.4 minutes to 25.8 minutes, which sounds terrible until you actually think about it and realize that it's just 3 more minutes in the morning and 3 more minutes in the afternoon. 3 more minutes of delays during your drive you get your own alliterative doomsday! Now I'm not suggesting that 25 minutes of sitting in traffic each day is something to scoff at- indeed, I loathe driving in heavy traffic and that's why I try not to do it ever- but I think that 3 more minutes (on average) isn't exactly the end of the world. If could accept 10 minutes, you could probably accept 12. And if you can't accept 10 minutes, then why drive? I mean, it's not like a secret that there's a lot of traffic. For example, if I couldn't accept sweating, I wouldn't bike. I'd either have to find another way to get to work or I'd have to learn to deal with it. Or maybe I could form a political interest group with the sole purpose of getting the government to install oscillating fans on every parking meter. I might do that anyway. There's no schadenfreude here. I'm not happy that people are unhappy and I don't hate cars or drivers. I just think that maybe sometimes (read: all of the time) life has trade-offs and you have to decide what's the most important. There's no such thing as a free lunch. At least figuratively. I've had many free lunches lately (new student orientation) and, figuratively, I've probably packed on a few extra pounds lately. I guess that's the trade-off of eating free lunches. It might be time for ingestion pricing.

I saw a woman riding in mismatching charity ride kit. Her shorts suggested that we cure diabetes and her jersey suggested we cure something else. She's right: we should cure both. I'd participate in a charity ride called Ride For The Cure because The Cure is pretty great. Lycra optional, eyeliner mandatory. 

R Street, then Massachusetts. Definitely easier to make it up the hill on this bike. Would be even easier still if there were a gondola.

Ride In 8/31 & Ride Home 8/31: Lil' Miss Nature Skills

Let's start with this: I love bike trailers. Sure, I don't have one. But let's say I was going to get one. It would need to be pretty big. Because if I had a trailer, I'd really want it to be substantial enough to carry a trunkload of goods (perhaps a trunkload of trunks, if I were in the business of hauling trunks) because otherwise, what's the point? You could just use panniers or bungees or backpacks, but sometimes when you want to bring a lot, you'd need more space than those can provide. That's why I think the Wandertec Tuba is pretty badass. Here are some things I would put in a trailer of this size:

• tubas
• multiple toy poodles
• folding bikes
• amphorae of exotic olive oils
• trunks full of other trunks full of smaller trunks full of matryoshka dolls. 

Essentially, I think something like this would be a practical necessity if you desire to haul many things and don't want to have to use a car or a team of oxen. And since there are many people who lack oxen and are trying to go without a car and are still desirous of being able to schlep (Andy and Frank Schlep are world famous utility cyclist brothers) large items, this trailer seems like a worthwhile investment for you. I'd like to thank Ted from BikeShopHub for letting me know about the trailer and I wish them the best of luck in bringing the Tuba to a mass audience. 

As for the bike commuting, I rode the Brompton around Lincoln Park, up Mass Avenue and then around the newly (partially) paved (!) Columbus Circle. 

I hope that the next time I ride around here all of the paving will be completed and there will be stripes on the road, include striped bike lanes, which are planned. The road construction around Union Station has long been a bane for drivers and cyclists (and the bane might continue for cyclists until the stripes go down- it's a bit of a cluster without lane markings) and I'm glad that we're almost at the point where it won't be completely terrible. 

E Street to 11th to G Street to 15th. I might have gotten stuck at each red light. As far as I can tell the lights are optimized for bikes, but they don't seem to be optimized for cars either. Another example of big government regulations stifling our freedoms. 

Riding in front of the White House I was flagged down by Laura on her way to coffee. She asked for a Brompton folding demonstration and I managed to almost sort of do it without screwing up too much. There were many more folds and unfolds over the course of Friday Coffee Club and I think I've finally figured out how I'm supposed to do it and can maybe do it without incident. Also at Friday Coffee Club was Ben, whose Mars Needs Mechanics just "dropped." And Jon showed up with one of his extremely cute little daughters. And I met for the very first time (in real life) longtime tweep Mary Lauran from AmericaBikes. A fairly eventful coffee, it seems. 

Afterwards, Chris and I rode down G to 20th and then across Penn to L street, where he turned to head to work and I continued onward to Massachusetts. He was on his new Disc Trucker, a definitive Bike for the Rest of Us, even though when I test-rode it, it wasn't really the bike for me. I like me bike to be tiny and bright blue, thank you. 

Up Mass, almost turned into by a church van, and then a long haul up the hill. It seemed slightly easier than the day before, but it's still going to be a challenge on the small wheels. I guess I have no choice but to get better at it or go slower. 

After work, I took the same route home, at least for the first part. I had to stop halfway down Mass to readjust my seat, which wasn't exactly pointing straight ahead and was a little askance causing me some discomfort. Thereafter it was a fine ride and I alternated between street and sidewalk as the traffic conditions mandated. I skipped Q and instead elected to ride through the circle, down 19th street (past the Jamba Juice and The Palm- there's synergy there for people who like smoothies, steaks and lobbying!) and made a left onto Pennsylvania. I think 19th street has become something a revelation for me. It's way faster than taking Q across town to 11th, at least on a Friday of a holiday weekend when there's no car traffic. The only thing I don't like about it is how I don't know what side of street I should ride on. M is one-way west, L is one-way east, K is both ways and so is Pennsylvania, meaning that if I stick to the right, I find myself in the right turn lane at M, which is kind of inconvenient and if I stick to the left, which is the side of the street I'd like to be on where I eventually turn left on Penn, I'll be in a "go fast lane" of traffic. I normally start on the right and work my way over left after K and that's generally is ok, assuming that I can merge. 

Pennsylvania was quick, as was 15th as was Pennsylvania on the other side of 15th. For a few blocks I rode alongside an open-top tour bus, though I don't know what was said about the John A Wilson Building that caused so many tourists to snap pictures. "THE Kwame Brown? Fully-loaded!? I read about this back in my hometown paper" says no tourist ever. 

I rode in queue behind some other cyclists most of trip, but I don't remember where they went and then I made it up Capitol Hill without incident, dodging the tourists and the joggers and the staffers (oh my).

On East Capitol, I saw a guy riding a Brompton in the other direction. His was black and had the trekking handlebars and I think that we nodded at each other simultaneously, which makes us simultaneously huge dorks. 

Fin.