Tag: bike commute

Very Nearly Unhappy Hour

Whenever I go for a ride, I always check that my tires have air and that they are spinning freely. This morning and evening were no different.  It looked like there was rain in the area so I rode Little Nellie to work.  The rain stopped within five minutes. The ride was pleasant and uneventful.

The work day ended with my officemates and I going to a bar around the corner for happy hour. I had a couple of pints of (Shiner Bock and Fat Tire Ale).  I didn’t get on the road until 5:40 or so. 

I made it about halfway home before it got dark and I had to turn on my headlight. It has been a couple of weeks since I rode this long in the dark. The trail was swarming with ninjas. I managed to miss six of them before reaching Old Town.

The Mount Vernon Trail hits Pendelton Street at a T. To my left were a line of parked school buses with their headlights on.  I rode just past the stop sign (first mistake) to get a look to my left around the buses. Then I looked straight. There were two cyclists with headlights turning from the street on my right onto the trail. They were passing directly in front of me. I veered to my right to avoid them. Then looked left again to make sure the coast was clear. Then I hit something. It was a flexipost (a sort of flimsy bollar) that had recently been place in the middle of the street. I stopped immediately and righted the post. Since I was in the middle of the street, I quickly re-mounted my bike and continued on my way. Everything seemed to work fine.

And it did. I got through Old Town in one piece and even managed to avoid my seventh ninja of the night once I was back on the trail. 

Once at home, I opened my shed. I lifted the front end of the bike off the ground to hang it up. The wheel made an odd rattle. I looked down and saw that the quick release on my front wheel was not closed. The flexipost collision had pried it open.  I don’t want to think what would have happened if the front wheel had come off while I was riding. This would be hard to do since the tire is too fat to clear the break pads, but surely a pothole or a good yank on the handlebars could have brought an unpleasant result.

So I am adding checking my quick releases to my pre-ride check list.

 

 

Seattle, You Can Have Your Weather Back

The day dawned cold and sunny. I had missed a magnificent sunrise. The weather report was for cold rain in the afternoon and evening so I rode Little Nellie. The ride in was nothing special. I did get to see a bald eagle at the Belle Haven nest,  So that was something.

When I left work in the evening, it was sprinkling out but I was prepared for the worst. For the first half of the ride the wind was blowing me around but the rain was pretty much as no show. When I approached Old Town, the rain started coming down. Sideways off the river from the east. The drops weren’t big but there were billions of them. I was surprised that the weather wasn’t really bothering me. This may have been because there was nobody else on the trail. At all. Anywhere. Maybe they are on to something.

 

Cars and Cannons

I stayed up late to watch the Academy Awards. As a result I was operating on 5 1/2 hours of sleep when I headed out into the cold morning on Big Nellie. Winds were light so the ride in was not too difficult.

There are two fly over bridges at the airport. The bridges carry the Mount Vernon Trail over airport access and egress ramps.  Just as I finished riding over the first bridge, a guy on what looked like a mountain bike but with bigger wheels passed me. He was tall and was wearing a backpack. I couldn’t see around him. As he passed another bicycle came from the opposite direction. To avoid a collision he cut back in front of me just missing my front wheel.  When it comes to down hills, faired long wheel base recumbents are king.  I rode up the second flyover bridge right behind Backpack Lance. I couldn’t safely pass him so I had to ride my brakes for 1/4 mile.  Really considerate of you Lance. Fair warning. Next time you get the bicycle death ray.

I heard that a car drove off the Memorial Bridge into the Potomac River last night so I was hoping to see the car nose first in the river. No luck though. Evidence of where the car blasted through the side railing on the bridge could be seen but the car had already been removed. Apparently the driver was not seriously hurt (which is something of a miracle)

A Long Way Down

The ride home featured a wave to Bob (“Don’t Call Me Rachel”) Cannon of the Friday Coffee Club as we passed between the Memorial and 14th Street Bridges.  The sunlight lasted so long tonight. I didn’t need a headlight until I was well south of Old Town. As I enterred Belle Haven Park, I spied an osprey about ten feet up in a tree next to the trail. He was facing toward me with his back to the river.  Ospreys look pretty impressive until you see one next to a mature bald eagle, that is. Then they look like wimps.

As I rode past Dyke Marsh I was treated to an rising full moon. It was orange and a damned impressive sight. I’d have taken a picture but that would have required photographic competence of which I have none.