Will and Beyond

Biking on the Highway

I recently found out that my fear of driving on the highway is a far, far, far, distant second to biking on the highway.  (Unless it’s during BikeDC, that’s awesome.)  The 14th St. Bridge is bikable, but apparently you need to know HOW to bike it.

If you just bike down 14th St, you’ll start to notice that cars are going very fast.  You’ll look around and wonder if there’s a bike lane.  Then you’ll realize that you just biked onto I-395.  At this point, your eyes will go very wide, and you’ll pull over onto the shoulder.

The shoulder at this point is about 6 inches wide.  You’ll wait until there are no cars in the right lane, and you’ll quickly turn your bike around.  Very slowly, walk back the way you came.  Peer over the bridge to your left; nope, still too tall to jump.  At some point, you’ll come to a tunnel which goes under the US Financial Management Service building.  There will be cars coming very fast out of this tunnel.  You don’t want to go in there.

Looking down, you’ll see that there’s only about a 20 foot drop into the garden outside of the US Financial Management Service building.  Wait for a lull in traffic, swing you bike over the ledge, and drop it as carefully as you can.  Jump down.  Go home, celebrate, you’re alive.

See the map above?  Follow those directions.  There’s a sidewalk path that does go over the 14th St. Bridge, but you need to make a turn off of 14th to get onto that.  Do that.

That red circle is where you should jump into, if you get yourself into a situation as stupid as mine.

Bikeshare god mode

I’ve thought up a brilliant idea for bikeshare: god mode.  Only bikeshare gods would be allowed to take the last bike from a rack, or fill in the last slot.

I volunteer myself to be the only user with this power.

Biking the W&OD Trail

Adding to my list of trails biked around DC; the Washington and Old Dominion Bike trail.

Ray and I set out early Wednesday morning (starting at 6am, since I had to get back for group meeting…) from Gravelly Point, headed briefly on the Mt. Vernon Trail, connected to Four Mile Trail, and then set off on the 45 mile long W&OD Trail.

Aside from the length, it’s a pretty easy trail.  It was built over the old W&OD Railroad, so it can’t support much elevation change.  The difference between the highest and lowest points is only about 150 meters.

I’ve now set new records for the most biked in one stretch, and in one day, at 103.2 and 111 miles respectively.  Definitely a major contributor to 500 Mile May, which I’m doing again this year.  It had been about 2 months since I bought the new bike, and now it feels nice and broken in.

I definitely want to do this again this summer.  We only stopped for five minute breaks here and there, we wanted to do it all in one bang.  I hear there’s a good BBQ place in Purcellville (the end of the trail) and stuffing myself with tons of rich heavy food before biking another 50 miles sounds like a terrible idea which I should probably try.

Good times.  Except for the extremely well-defined sunburn as a result of tight pants/jersey and forgetting sunblock.

New Bike

After doing so much biking, I decided I deserve a new bike. Also, my old frame was too small for me, and even with the seat well above the safety line, it was killing my knees. Here she is!

After trying out a few different bikes at Revolution Cycles, I decided to go with the Trek 7.3 FX. I’ve only logged 57 miles on it, but it’s been fantastic so far.

So much lighter than my old one, and I splurged (even more) and got clip-in pedals/shoes. After only one harmless mild fall, I’ve got it down pretty well in terms of getting in and out of the pedals. Looking forward to many miles.

Sadly, my old bike didn’t have a name. That was silly, and should be remedied this time. I’m tentatively going with Aura, the Titan of the breeze. I can’t finalize that until I read into her background, so into Dionysiaca I go!

New bike is so fast!
Racking up miles I go zoom!
I’m fast like the breeze

Godspeed.

Bikeshare Tracking

Bikeshare has started keeping track of more stats from their rides. I’m not sure how accurate it is, but they explain how they get the numbers:

Here’s how all these statistics were calculated:

For miles traveled, we determine distance by drawing a straight line from your start and stop stations.

For carbon offset calculations, we use the goDCgo‘s Carbon Calculator to determine your CO₂ output, using 7.456 mph as an average cycling speed. Next, we determine the CO₂ output of a midsized car traveling at 21 mph for the same distance as your trip. Subtracting your output from the car’s gives us your carbon offset.

For calories burned, we start with base equation of averages where a 180 lb person traveling at 7.456 mph burns 43 calories per mile. Your calories burned are equal to 43 calories multiplied by your miles traveled.

Lastly, for the Advanced Calorie Calculator we use the number of minutes (converted into hours) then multiplied by 7 calories per kilogram (0.4536 per pound) per hour.

I probably go faster than that, but weigh less than that, so maybe it averages out? Anyhow, it’s a rough estimate, and cool to see numbers.

That top ride is my standard Rosslyn to Georgetown trip to avoid having to take the shuttle in the mornings. It’s quicker too.

Tracking things is fun
Glad Bikeshare will give aid to
My obsessiveness

Godspeed.

Flat Tire

Along my trip this morning, my back tire picked up a screw. I learned from last time, and had a spare tire with me at least.

That sucked, but I had the tools with me to fix it: spare tube, tube changy thing (apparently called tire levers, makes sense), and a hand/CO₂ pump. It was on the rear tire, which is more of a pain, but it was doable.

The annoying part is that 5 different cyclists passed me as I was fixing this along the bike path, and not one asked if I needed help. I didn’t this time, and I wasn’t actively waving anyone down, but frustrating nonetheless. Biker etiquette anyone?

A screw in the tube
Had the tools, didn’t need help
They’re jerks nonetheless

Godspeed.

BikeDC

A couple weeks ago, Amy, Cody and I did BikeDC. They seem to have taken the info off of their website, but Cody tracked us with his iPhone, so you can see the route here.

It was a great time, with lots of roads and highways closed off for us to bike on. We started down Pennsylvania Ave, went through DC to the Theodore Roosevelt Memorial Bridge, went up and down the GW Parkway for a while, to the Iwo Jima Memorial, then the Air Force memorial, and ended back in DC at Rawlins park.

An excellent ride, and aside from Cody’s flat tire towards the end and a minor wipeout as a result, it went smoothly. It also helped add to 500 Mile May, yay!

And we’re off!

We were playing a game where you got a point for every person on a bike you high-fived. Cops and recumbent bikes counted for 2 points. Amy and Cody stopped playing pretty quick, but I ended with 19.

Tandem bikes, and pseudo-tandem bikes:

Taking Capital Bikeshare the whole way; impressive.

Iwo Jima:

Air Force Memorial:

The finish line!

Apparently two people did the whole thing on a unicycle, wow. Amy saw them at some point, but I missed it.

Very fun times. Looking forward to next year!

Biked 20 miles
Even some on the parkway
Yay for closed off streets

Godspeed.