balto charlie

I heard. What a stupid thing to get busted for. She seems to be a good Mayor.

balto charlie

99 is more scenic,less traffic but narrow, 144 has a shoulder, more traffic and faster traffic. Rush hour 144 is better for sure. Wknd, it's a toss-up.

balto charlie

I thought it meant greasy cyclist

balto charlie

Hey Josh, welcome to the club. BF seems to work well at home for me but sucks at work. How's your new light. Have you had it in the rain? I've heard it has a bit of an issue in rainstorms. Easily fixable but you have to take it apart. I like my Fenix but tonight I almost got hit TWICE. One from the side and one HUGE SUV turned left right in front of me. Almost head on collision! Almost put the bike down. Barely able to unclip at last second. I couldn't even flip him off as I was wearing lobster gloves. I am going to order a super illuminating vest. It's going to be major Fred wardrobe upgrade.

NoRacer

Personally, I don't care for reliance on reflective vests. I see a guy on my route (saw him this morning) that only wears a reflective vest. He's not very visible unless light is shining right on him.

I really like my Dinotte 800 and 400 lumins headlights. On high, they demand attention. MVs stop 100 yards away while they wait for me to pass.

In the rear, I have the Dinotte 140 lumins tail light flashing. I still get comments about how bright it is even in the day.

My lighting system is completed by reflective ankle bands and wrist bands from Nathan. The backpack has a set of these, too.

I've had no problems with visibility since adopting this system.

balto charlie

I think reflective stuff is important for cars approaching from the side which is what happened in the first near collision. i do have reflective ankle bands and strips on the back of my jacket. maybe some wrist stuff would help. The second near mishap would have been helped by more front lumens. I have 2-200lumen lights on my bike and helmet. I don't know how they missed that. your 1200 lumens are significantly brighter tho'. Usually cars give me the benefit of the doubt when they see me coming. Sometimes they give me too much space. I always feel a little foolish when they wait...wait and wait some more thinking I am a moped/scooter/motorcycle. Then I peddle on by.

maxine

Or you could get one of those vests that has both reflective tape AND lights built right into it! They probably weigh a ton, though.

I wear an Illuminite vest, and ankle bands. My garment bag has reflective stuff on it. I sometimes fret about getting better lights -- the ones I have are fine for my commute, which is mostly well-lit and with big shoulders (or slow speed limits where there isn't much shoulder), and I know it like the back of my hand, anyway. I doubt they'd be much good for any truly dark night-riding, especially in unfamiliar areas, but I seldom do that.

I'm just mentally exhausted at the thought of dealing with the mounting of battery packs and wires and whatnot else . . . When you have to ride a tiny bike, real estate is tight!

NoRacer

My battery packs stay on the bike.

My bike is on a tarp in my living room suspended upright by a trainer that has become my work stand. The bike is right next to an electrical outlet, so I plug my bike in for a recharge at the end of the day.

I do have to fuss around a little with the batteries for the tail light--a necessary evil, I suppose. One of the chargers that I have here at work says that it uses 1.4V DC @ 525mA for 4 batteries. It'd be great to find a charger that would recharge all 4 NiMH AA batteries without me having to pull them out of the holder. I may even be able to hook up a connector to the holder, so that I wouldn't have to remove the holder from the bike while it charged. Wouldn't that be something?

balto charlie

Fenix takes very little space on my bars and helmet.

Since I ride 2 bikes everyday I need to yank my light off bike 1, jump on the train and remount onto bike2. I have to have my batteries and lights as 1 unit with very quick release(velcro). Thus the Fenix. I have to remove the batteries at the end of the day to recharge.
AA NiMH batteries should be charged as individuals. The better chargers will charge 1, 2, 3 ...etc. When the charger senses a full charge on individual batteries they stop charging it but continue to charge others. Cheap chargers charge batteries as groups thus overcharging some.

NoRacer

I have a Radio Shack charger at home that does them individually (4x1 bay). The charger that comes with the Dinotte 140L tail light charges two at a time in two separate banks (2x2 bay).

The lithium-ion batteries are charged as a single unit even though internally they are separate cells. I wonder why NiMH can't be charged the same way?

Nevermind... found this:

https://www.powerstream.com/NiMH.htm

NoRacer

Here comes 14,000 miles. When will the insanity stop?!

greaterbrown

Sorry, NR. Now that I've read this:
https://davesbikeblog.squarespace.com...ns-part-i.html
I'm just not impressed.

NoRacer

I'll set my sights on world records once I retire.

greaterbrown

GB's December Rando Ramble is this Sunday Dec. 6th:

Patuxent River Dreams. 102 miles
We'll roll safely out of south Baltimore down to Laurel on scenic Race and Brock Bridge rds. Then we'll skirt the Patuxent and make 8 river crossings as we head northwest. The last leg along Frederick ave. takes us back to the city. Lunch in Glenelg. Rest stops at 25 and 79 miles.
Leader: Bob Wagner bobwag@gmail.com READ THIS BEFORE RIDING- https://tinyurl.com/RandoRideNotes

cue sheet is here: https://docs.google.com/fileview?id=...OGVhNTcx&hl=en

HC203

Unlikely that I can do the rando, just can't get away for all day excursions. I'll be riding on Sunday but more like 50 miles.

Pulled a calf muscle in the pool on Wednesday, trying to ease it back into service. Not used much in cycling but still hurts.

HC203

I'm sure all his miles were flat.

NoRacer

[fingers tapping]Tap... tap... tap... [/fingers tapping] Waiting for some snow to ride in.



Back to Twitter for now.

NoRacer

It has started. And, so it shall be.

greaterbrown

Good snowy commute this morning. Wet, but good.

NoRacer

Bob,

Thanks for leading this ride. It was an exciting/hair raising/white knuckle ride that I soon will not forget. I don't know how we stayed upright on a couple of those icy descents.

Sorry we didn't complete it as cued, but I still got 101 miles in by the time I arrived home. (36.95 for Part 1 / 64.83 for Part 2)

greaterbrown

I guess enthusiasm has its drawbacks. A good ride, none the less. Thank you!
BTW. 91.5 miles for me.

HC203

I was thinking about you guys yesterday, out there on the ice. Myself, a bit concerned about ice, not snow but ice. I just keep thinking of Barry's fall last year on Falls and his lengthy recovery. How many showed up?

balto charlie

Wow, you guys rode yesterday. I went for a walk in Patapsco park. Great weather. There was a lot of ice on the sides of many roads around the park. Glad to see you survived. This AMs commute had lots of black ice.

NoRacer

Just Bob and me.


I drove in this morning so that I could survey my route. There was too much black and glare ice on my route. Hoping that another day of sunshine and evaporation will help for tomorrow, but I won't hold my breath. I think MDSHA will be happy just to worry about motor traffic.

NoRacer

Wow! What difference between yesterday and today! I rode in to work and most of the worrisome spots on the road were ice free. I suppose what helped is the temperature being above 32F in conjunction with motor traffic and salt.

Though hard to admit by some, there is advantages with motor vehicle traffic. Motor traffic keeps the roads cleaner, through friction and pressure melts ice, and helps to migrate ice melting and traction aiding solids.