2011 Commuting (Looong Overdue)

I've been commuting to a new job since late 2010, so it's high time I update my commuting route and associated travails. I now bike from my house in Tenleytown to one of several northbound red-line Metro stops. That's the short leg of the commute. Then I bike from Shady Grove Metro to my office, just about dead-on 5 miles. That's the lovely* bike lane shown above. My wife, upon seeing it for the first time when she drove me to work one day, was duly impressed with my obvious safety, the white line surely a clear demarcation point for out-of-control texting motorists.

Nonetheless I have pretty much adventureless commutes on this section, except when the DOT decides to put those orange barricade thingies directly in the bike lane, and I have to ride around them, which entails riding left, as there is no curb, and into a traffic lane.














Once the bike lane summarily ends (a common feature of bike lanes) I have the option of continuing on the road (after hopping into traffic/dodging right turning cars, since the bike lane was continued, up to its terminus, to the RIGHT of a right-turn bay), or hopping onto a sidepath. I do often take the sidepath as there are never more than 2 bikes on it (including me) and no more than one arm-swinging morning walker. It's actually a bit of a pastoral section of road, with some sort of county-run (?) orchard, so there is the rare greenspace, complete with the occasional buzzard overhead, and dead, decaying goose on the path itself (preceded by enough goose-poop to fertilize said orchard).

Then it's into the industrial park itself, complete with moving van companies, and soon-to-be second tattoo parlor. It's an interesting place to work as there is an airfield nearby, so I get three parts flat-bed trucks and one part Corvettes and other super cars owned by those who can afford planes.

So that's my commute!

*Inasmuch as any bike lane can be considered lovely.

"So I Just Have To Ask..."

[ <--not my bike]

"So I Just Have To Ask..." said a woman riding up to me on her very nice looking and very expensive looking Trek road bike. I was in front of the National Cathedral here in DC, a favorite place to visit when starting or stopping a ride (I'm only a half mile or so from it). So we chatted about my Bike Friday. She asked how I liked it, which if course I answered in the affirmative and did all I could not to brag on it like a proud parent whose random kid just did something great at such-and-such elementary school. She also correctly guessed I am a commuter. I guess I can't hide my stripes!

As it turns out, she is a triathlete, hence her gorgeous, tricked-out bike. She had done an Ironman (IronWoman in her case!) and "thought she'd better have a suitable bike". Furthermore, she works at the National Cathedral as a fundraiser. How cool is that? You can't beat a folding bike for ice-breaking. Folding bikes: short in stature, long in conversation. Hey, that's a good tagline. I wonder if I can sell it to Dahon or someone? Bidding starts now. Please send money to me directly. Aaah, who am I kidding! Just send it straight to Bike Friday so I can get the Speeding Tikit model I am dreaming about these days.

Summer, Fare Thee Well

Officially summer doesn't end until September 21st, but with temps right now in tolerable range, I bid adieu to the heat and humidity. Yeah, summer will give one last try in the coming days to give the Mother of all heat wedgies, but it's a lamentable last gasp of desperation. Fall will come striding in, an with it, the finest riding weather of the year!

I've got an inkling to do an overnighter on the Pocket Crusoe along the C&O Canal towpath. I did a warmup ride this weekend, and discovered that riding the trail in my slicks is about as much fun as puberty. So, instead of riding the trail due west, I am going to ride west on MacArthur Blvd, then pick up River Rd. Waaaay out there, River becomes a tiny little tree-lined road that should be beautiful in the fall. At some point I'll duck over to the trail to camp out, and ride a bit of it to take in the Potomac River. and the canal. The hard packed dirt you see in this picture isn't so bad (minus the embedded rocks you have to dodge), but as the trail rises up to meet each old lock, the grade gets covered in loose gravel--not the finely crushed gravel as found on the Great Allegheny Trail. That stuff is smooth and secure. No, this gravel is more like large fish tank rocks and it does its best to dislodge me from the bike by playing tug-of-war with my front tire. Hence, I'm thinking to ride the road. Buying new tires with some grip is not immediately in the budget, especially considering the little used they would get. Most of my riding is road and paved trail. But, some expanded tours could be in my future. Any excuse for a bike ride!

Where Has My Tikit Gone?

No, thankfully it hasn't been lost or stolen. But where have I taken it? Let me count the ways...er, places:

1. On the Maryland Ride-on bus front rack.
2. On the Maryland Ride-on bus, covered, inside the bus!
3. On the Maryland Ride-on bus, uncovered, inside the bus!
4. Inside the library and parked under the table.
5. Inside the Safeway grocery store, down the aisles and through the checkout, wheeling along all the way!
6. Inside the office, parked under my desk. (Okay, very pedestrian when it comes to Tikits and Bromptons and the like. So sue me.)
7. Inside a sushi restaurant. This was the best. The staff wanted to check out the bike, so I ended up giving them a fold/unfold demo right there in the restaurant. They all rolled it around. One gentleman, possibly the owner or manager, was interested in folding bikes and had been doing a little digging around. I gave him several brand names to check out and dissuaded him from the "A-bike". Sorry, folks. I hate to discriminate against a fellow folding bike, but c'mon. Pee Wee Herman wouldn't be caught dead on one of those, not even in a darkened movie theater, doing...nevermind. This manager/owner was trying to show me via his laptop some brand he had seen that was from england. "Brompton?" I offered. "Strida?" Nope. He never could find the webpage where he had seen it, and I couldn't help as all his google search results were in Japanese!

Where it has not been:
1. To a bike shop. I've been able to dial in the shifting well enough with just the barrel connector, so the chain stays on the sprocket where you put it; no wall climbing down a gear or bungee jumping up a gear. The shifter is still tight--it takes effort to downshift (move to a larger sprocket) but I'm used to it now. At some point I will see if I can loosen it up. I don't know if the cable just needs some more slack, or what. I don't think there is friction because it shifts pretty smoothly. It just takes a little muscle to get it to the next index point on the shifter. Shifting up is still tight but much easier with gravity on your side.

I have found the Tikit to get more comments than my Pocket Crusoe, and that's cool. The Crusoe is generally my higher-speed, free-time bike for trail rides and zooming around the city for exercise or longer distance destinations like going across town. So I am happy to be off to the races on that bike. (Why is cross town always so much farther than going downtown or uptown? It's a good thing Billy Joel didn't fall in love with a crosstown girl. They'd have never seen each other!) The Tikit is the attention gravity point. People get sucked into its event horizon and I strike up lots of conversations. It's great fun, even at 05:30 when I catch the bus. That's all folks. Whatever your ride, ride it!

Tikit to...Read?

Today I did some urban limit testing with the Tikit. On my commute to work, I folded and covered the bike for the bus portion to see if the driver would let the bike on that way. Recall the near disaster in a previous post where the bus rack swing arm fell off the front wheel and I was lucky to still have a bike and not a failed science project!
Well, the driver didn't flinch as I boarded the bus. I got a seat at the front with room to hold onto my bike. The front seats face out to the aisle so there is not a seat in front to cramp the space. I don't know if I can squeeze into a standard seat (with another seat in front of it) with the Tikit. That's a project for another day. So, complete victory for the Tikit design (at least with this particular driver). The fold is super fast and so is using the attached bike cover. Less than a minute, probably, to fold and cover.
Onto a store report. How would the folded Tikit be greeted in a city business? I tested the waters at our local DC library branch. Again, not even a batted eye as I wheeled the folded Tikit into the library. It even parked neatly under the table where my wife and I sat. Praise again!
All in all, I have no complaints. The shifter is loosening a bit (as it has required some force to downshift), and after properly inflating the tires today, it rides a HELL of a lot better. It felt so slow before, and when I finally took my floor pump to it, I found out why. I don't think there was more than 25 PSI in either tire, and these are rated for 60-85 PSI! Thank the tube Gods I didn't pinch flat. I now inflated the tires to the low 80's and they feel fast and firm, with just a touch of give to help on the city streets, smooth as they are :). Green Gear, great job on this bike.

Aardvarks Travel Well

This is the inaugural multimode commute report on the Bike Friday Tikit. Thumbs up! There are things about the shifting and the feel of the bike overall that need to be dialed in. The tires are a little too soft, so I will pump them up. I find them bouncy right now. The grip shifter is really tight. It takes some force to downshift. I think that will loosen up as I use the shifter more. It might be my imagination but it seems even a scad looser already. Oh, but the actual use on mass transit itself...

The Tikit kicks ass for use on the Metro Train. I have read just about every blog/review/comment on the web about the Tikit, and a few people have said it is hard to roll when folded. Hogwash! This thing is easy to roll and easy to turn while rolling. I can even wheel it right on and off the train. The "gap" is no problem at all. I imagine a Brompton rolls easier overall, on its rack casters, but I doubt it could roll over the Metro platform/train gap.

Now, Bike Friday have made an upgrade/fix to the Tikit. The "handle" for rolling is a sort-of triangle on the frame, pointed to with the red arrow above, and known as the "aardvark". This replaced an older style handle that was recalled as some developed a crack over time. The new design corrects that, and makes a full loop handle. I think this new handle helps in holding onto and turning/pushing the folded Tikit. So thanks to the aardvark, I was rollin' easy.

As a reminder, my commute involves train and bus. So, A+ on the train portion. Scare on the bus portion! I used the front bus rack again. When I got off the bus to retrieve my bike, the spring-loaded swing arm on the rack that fits over the front tire, had slid off the tire. So, my bike was just hanging out in the wheel wells of the rack., possibly one big bump away from unintended flight. I damn near flipped when I saw that. It seems the tire is small enough that the swing arm had slid down the tire. (see green arrow pointing to swing arm in the pic).

The first time I used the rack this did not happen. So, I think I need to ensure the swing arm is really mashed down good against the wheel/on top of the front fender. This last time I think I was trying to get it to hug the tire below (in front of) where the front fender stops in front of the fork. Big mistake that could have cost me a bike. I don't imagine the Tikit would fare well hitting pavement at 55 MPH. "Uh, driver, can you stop so I can retrieve my bike from I-270?" Good luck on that one. Can you say "contemporary metal tubing wall art?" Whew!

Tonight I drive back with the bike safely in the car, so no worries. (there is no bus on Saturday and Sunday mornings when I get off work. It doesn't come for another 1.5 hours, so I shuttle myself on weekends). Given this scare with the Tikit, I will strongly consider using the bike cover and taking the bike on-board if I can. Most of the drivers are cool, and this morning the driver even asked me a bike question (about my helmet-mounted mirror) as I left the bus. Sounded like he did/wanted to do some riding. Alright! Happy riding everyone.

I Only Have Ice For You

This winter thing is getting a little old. Specifically I mean the daytime runoff that becomes nighttime ice. I don't have studded tires, and right now I am riding 1.35 inch, basically slick tires. Coming home from work the other day, at 0600 hours, I was dodging ice flows like the Titanic could only dream of. But it does get to be a pain when you have to hop off your bike a few times when the ice blocks the whole street. Give me some more snow, but hold the ice, please. ``````````````````````````````````````````````photo from: http://www.varsitybike.com/

All-in-all, with reduced speed and the usual vigilance, winter riding in snow is not so bad, even on relatively skinny tires. Bikes and the humans who steer them can really do a lot if confident and careful. But it does send shivers to think about smacking the asphalt in a nanosecond if I were to hit an ice patch. Riding down the lonely office park boulevard this early morning that thought was in my head as I raced (okay, pedaled judiciously) home, and noted some of the street lights are burned out. This creates wells of shadow. I was on a keen crow's nest lookout for anything that glared and sparkled or otherwise reflected more light than a well-behaving, dry piece of asphalt ought to.

My hypervigilance paid off, and I was soon safely ensconsed in my bed for some much needed rest after a 10-hour shift. Hitting the bike after 10 hours really does feel great, though, and it's a nice preamble to a hot shower and bed. It's too bad that the last three trips of my work week will be by car. Unfortunately, on Saturday and Sunday, the bus I take does not start to run for over an hour after I get off work in the morning. Call me crazy, but I ain't waiting around for that. So, I shuttle myself up with the car on a Wednesday or Thursday, bike back, and have the car waiting for the Saturday trip back home to DC, and again on Sunday. My only recourse is to occasionally ride the whole distance back to DC, or at least back to the first Metro rail stop. I plan to map out a good route, and try this once the weather is nicer. I wouldn't mind the miles, but the time would kill me!

So the ice is a beast, but the cold is survivable, with thermal layers and a facemask. The bike seems to tolerate the cold just fine. We typically don't do insane cold here in DC, and that helps. But please, take the ice elsewhere! I am looking forward to days when I need give no thought at all to roadway glaciers. But I am sure by then I will miss the cool riding temps. Oh well, you can't have your bike and ride it, too. Wait, that's not right...Oh, time to quit my grumblings and ride. Happy cycling all!