Month: August 2016

Milestone No. 2: Big Nellie Turns 40

Big Nellie is my Easy Racers Tour Easy recumbent. I bought her in 2001 or 2002 when I thought The Mule was on its last legs. (At the moment, The Mule is laughing in the shed with over 41,000 miles on its odometer.)

So today, with trumpets blaring as I rode between the scenic warehouses of Old Town Alexandria, Big Nellie turned 40,000 miles. She was quite impressed with herself. On to the next milestone later this week or early next week. Stay tuned.

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Milestone Number 1

August will prove to be a month of milestones for biking and me. Today is the first of what I hope to be four milestones this month.

Today marks my 100th bike commute of 2016. I have reached 100 faster a few years ago but given the amount of time off from work I took this June and July, I am a bit surprised to get to 1oo in the first week of August.

I worked 131 days so far this year. 10 of those were telework. I drove 21 times, mostly because of ice and snow. The rest of the time I biked.  The commutes were split among three bikes: 28 commutes for Little Nellie, my Bike Friday; 36 times each for The Mule, my 25 year old Specialized Sequoia, and Big Nellie, my Tour Easy recumbent.

I expect the next milestone to occur on Monday. Stay tuned.

Today’s News: Annoying, Depressing

Cement Truck Parking

The Mount Vernon Trail is one of the most heavily used trails on the East Coast. Ab28624928742_d40e68caa3_zout two miles from my house, the trail merges with Northdown Road. As
you can see from the picture, at this point, the trail and road are only one lane wide. It is in fact a trail not a road. That didn’t stop this cement truck driver from parking in the trail. I’d use the words “middle of the trail” but the truck obstructed the entire trail. Every last inch. Perhaps the driver thought “Hey, look at this trail. It’s the perfect width for parking my truck.”

Trail users had to dismount and make their way through the mud on the side of the trail. It was barely wide enough to get by.

I may be making a big deal out of nothing but this is the kind of disrespect that bicyclists and bicycle infrastructure routinely get, especially in places like Fairfax County. All this truck driver had to do was park where I was standing when I took this picture and trail users would have had free passage.

Death by Parking

Earlier today, a 92 year old driver was parking his SUV in an alley a block from the Mount Vernon Trail in Old Town, Alexandria. He hit a parking attendant, then he hit another man, killing him. How the hell you can kill someone in an alley that is about as wide as the trail in the picture above is beyond me. Why in the world does Virginia allow 92 year olds to drive?  Will somebody from the DMV show up at the funeral to explain this to the loved ones of the deceased?

I’m Walking Here

Meanwhile in the 400 block of North Union Street an SUV was parked perpendicular to a house. It’s front end completely obstructed the sidewalk. Sticking in the ground next to the front bumper was a sign that said “No Not Block Driveway.” There is no end to the entitlement mentality of the landed gentry of Old Town Alexandria.

$2.5 Billion for Nothing

On Friday evening at rush hour my family and I drove to Tyson’s Corner. (This is the first time I have driven to Tyson’s in a year. It will be the last, but that’s another story.) On the way we got on the Beltway at US 1, just west of the Woodrow Wilson Bridge. Traffic heading to the bridge from Virginia was backed up for miles. In all six lanes. The bridge is only a few years old. The project to rebuild the bridge and the adjacent roadway and exits cost about $2.5 billion. The rationale was that this would relieve congestion. Trying to relieve congestion by adding more capacity is like trying to achieve happiness by buying more stuff. If only I had one more lane! If only I had one more HDTV!

The bridge was designed with the capacity to carry a Metro rail line. This has yet to be implemented. Already people are calling for the rail line space to be converted to car lanes.

 

July – Going Long

July was my biggest mileage month in ages. Maybe forever. I rode 1,183 miles. Most of these were as part of my bike tour of Wisconsin and Michigan which totaled 832 miles. The other 351 miles came as a result of 11 bike commutes and yesterday‘s weekend ride.  One of these commutes was to and from the mechanic instead of home. Another involved riding to my wife’s office to rendezvous with my kids to see a Nats game.

During the month, The Mule crossed the 41,000 mile threshold. The Mule abides.

For the year I have ridden 4,555 miles. 2,807 miles were just from bike commuting 96 times. Even though it’s 25 years old, the Mule accounted for 46 percent of my mileage. Big Nellie, which is about 14 years old, did 25 percent of my miles. Little Nellie, my folding travel bike, bagged 18 percent of my miles. That left only 11 percent for my Cross Check. I am just not riding teh Cross Check much on weekends. I am thinking of using it for commuting in a month or so.

I have only done a three event rides this year (Vasa, Five Boro, and DC Bike Ride).

I didn’t do any hiking in July. I mean to fix that next month.

Also, I  signed up for three century rides in September and October. I will almost certainly do the 50 States Ride in September and the Great Pumpkin Ride in late October.

According to the fitness center scale at work, the bike tour took well over ten pounds off my “engine.” I suspect measurement error. If the scale isn’t broken, I am down in the low 190s. When the trip ended two weeks ago, I was probably in the high 180s.

Maybe I should quit my job and market the Rootchopper Weight Loss Plan in which you eat enormous portions of cheese laden food and drop 20 pounds in less than two weeks. The secret sauce (as it were) is to ride a 70+ pound bicycle 73 miles per day.