bike commutes
Thu Feb 13 17:00:00 EST 2020
My front brake broke today. I'm not clear on what happened, but the front wheel locked, and I (of course) went down. (If you can't steer, you can't balance. And if you can't balance, you will fall over.) I moved to the sidewalk, removed the wheel, and pulled out the brake pads. They're quite worn, but not worn down to wearing away the spring. But one corner of one pad was gone. I don't know whether it had happened then, or was just the long-term wear. (But none of my other pads has worn that way.) The spring is also bent out of shape. (The 2nd spring is from the rear brake.) It doesn't look like enough to prevent a wheel from turning, but if it is enough to press the pads against the rotor (instead of pushing the pads away from the rotor), that wheel will not roll.
In any case, I had 2 pairs of the new pads with me, so I installed replacements. Something's rubbing lightly, so maybe the wheel isn't seated quite where it was before. Or maybe these pads are thicker. I got to work later than expected, but my presence wasn't critical for anything.
Thursday 23:00
I replaced the rear brake pads at the office before I left. It occurred to me that the (enclosed) elevator lobby in the parking garage would be a bit warmer than the garage itself. (One of the garage doors is always open - barricaded - so it's losing heat all winter. Compared to outdoors, the garage is warmer in the winter and cooler in the summer. But not necessarily comfortable.) And no one else came out of the elevators before I left.
I also found a broken spoke on the front wheel. I don't know whether that happened this afternoon or it had been like that. (It wasn't the cause of the wheel locking.) Replacing it will require taking off the tire and tube - and I wasn't carrying spare spokes.
Friday 22:00
It was much colder today - 56°F/13.3°C coming in and 40°F/4.4°C going home yesterday; 36°F/2.2°C coming in today and 24°F/-4.4°C going home.
Ahead of me tonight on the Roosevelt Bridge sidewalk I saw blinking lights that I thought were a(n electric) rental scooter, and I thought "That's a brutal ride, standing there, on the bridge, in this cold, in this wind." (There's often a strong wind blowing downstream across the bridge.) When I got closer I saw that it was a Capital Bikeshare bike. After crossing the river, the trail makes a steep, bumpy (tree roots) downhill to the Mount Vernon trail. The trail is next to the George Washington Pkwy going past Roosevelt Island. The CaBi bikes have bright white LED flashers on the front, so they are visible oncoming on city streets, but I guess that doesn't help the cyclist see much. He had pulled off the trail and looked like he was going to hoist the bike over the stone wall to cross the parkway! I asked him where he was trying to get to - "The City." (We had just left DC, and) Apparently he meant Arlington; beyond the parkway we could see the towering office buildings of the Rosslyn neighborhood. Continuing on the trail looked so dark that he thought it couldn't be going anywhere useful. (The sidewalk of the bridge we'd just left is well lit (and recently upgraded with new LED streetlights); the trail - like most - is is dark. "Bikes aren't real transportation; people don't use them at night.") I told him to stay with the trail because it led to a bridge across the parkway and into Rosslyn. He was dubious, but I said "I come this way every day." Not exactly true, but it's one of my regular routes, and it was the 4th day I'd come this way this week. We rode on together, with my headlights, up the ramps, over the parkway, and back to busy city streets and traffic lights. He turned south, and I continued west.
I think the speed limit on the parkway is 40mph (64kph), but people drive much faster. And it's Friday night; drivers are even faster, and less attentive; impatient. In the dark, he very likely would have gotten hit trying to cross the parkway with a cumbersome bike. There's a center median, but it might be another barrier rather than a safe rest half-way. And I don't know what's on the other side of the parkway - certainly not a sidewalk. More likely woods and a steep climb.
I looked at Google Maps. After crossing the GW Pkwy (2 lanes each way), there's some rough, forested ground, and then he'd have to cross I-66 (the Custis Memorial Pkwy) and miscellaneous access ramps for the two parkways. No accommodation for pedestrians or cyclists. It looks like an interesting semi-wild area to explore - in daylight.
That headlight I found back in March was running down when I got home. It should have had a full charge when I left work, so the cold may be a problem for its battery.
[This entry was originally posted as https://syntonic-comma.dreamwidth.org/1120573.html on Dreamwidth (where there are
comments).]
My front brake broke today. I'm not clear on what happened, but the front wheel locked, and I (of course) went down. (If you can't steer, you can't balance. And if you can't balance, you will fall over.) I moved to the sidewalk, removed the wheel, and pulled out the brake pads. They're quite worn, but not worn down to wearing away the spring. But one corner of one pad was gone. I don't know whether it had happened then, or was just the long-term wear. (But none of my other pads has worn that way.) The spring is also bent out of shape. (The 2nd spring is from the rear brake.) It doesn't look like enough to prevent a wheel from turning, but if it is enough to press the pads against the rotor (instead of pushing the pads away from the rotor), that wheel will not roll.
In any case, I had 2 pairs of the new pads with me, so I installed replacements. Something's rubbing lightly, so maybe the wheel isn't seated quite where it was before. Or maybe these pads are thicker. I got to work later than expected, but my presence wasn't critical for anything.
Thursday 23:00
I replaced the rear brake pads at the office before I left. It occurred to me that the (enclosed) elevator lobby in the parking garage would be a bit warmer than the garage itself. (One of the garage doors is always open - barricaded - so it's losing heat all winter. Compared to outdoors, the garage is warmer in the winter and cooler in the summer. But not necessarily comfortable.) And no one else came out of the elevators before I left.
I also found a broken spoke on the front wheel. I don't know whether that happened this afternoon or it had been like that. (It wasn't the cause of the wheel locking.) Replacing it will require taking off the tire and tube - and I wasn't carrying spare spokes.
Friday 22:00
It was much colder today - 56°F/13.3°C coming in and 40°F/4.4°C going home yesterday; 36°F/2.2°C coming in today and 24°F/-4.4°C going home.
Ahead of me tonight on the Roosevelt Bridge sidewalk I saw blinking lights that I thought were a(n electric) rental scooter, and I thought "That's a brutal ride, standing there, on the bridge, in this cold, in this wind." (There's often a strong wind blowing downstream across the bridge.) When I got closer I saw that it was a Capital Bikeshare bike. After crossing the river, the trail makes a steep, bumpy (tree roots) downhill to the Mount Vernon trail. The trail is next to the George Washington Pkwy going past Roosevelt Island. The CaBi bikes have bright white LED flashers on the front, so they are visible oncoming on city streets, but I guess that doesn't help the cyclist see much. He had pulled off the trail and looked like he was going to hoist the bike over the stone wall to cross the parkway! I asked him where he was trying to get to - "The City." (We had just left DC, and) Apparently he meant Arlington; beyond the parkway we could see the towering office buildings of the Rosslyn neighborhood. Continuing on the trail looked so dark that he thought it couldn't be going anywhere useful. (The sidewalk of the bridge we'd just left is well lit (and recently upgraded with new LED streetlights); the trail - like most - is is dark. "Bikes aren't real transportation; people don't use them at night.") I told him to stay with the trail because it led to a bridge across the parkway and into Rosslyn. He was dubious, but I said "I come this way every day." Not exactly true, but it's one of my regular routes, and it was the 4th day I'd come this way this week. We rode on together, with my headlights, up the ramps, over the parkway, and back to busy city streets and traffic lights. He turned south, and I continued west.
I think the speed limit on the parkway is 40mph (64kph), but people drive much faster. And it's Friday night; drivers are even faster, and less attentive; impatient. In the dark, he very likely would have gotten hit trying to cross the parkway with a cumbersome bike. There's a center median, but it might be another barrier rather than a safe rest half-way. And I don't know what's on the other side of the parkway - certainly not a sidewalk. More likely woods and a steep climb.
I looked at Google Maps. After crossing the GW Pkwy (2 lanes each way), there's some rough, forested ground, and then he'd have to cross I-66 (the Custis Memorial Pkwy) and miscellaneous access ramps for the two parkways. No accommodation for pedestrians or cyclists. It looks like an interesting semi-wild area to explore - in daylight.
That headlight I found back in March was running down when I got home. It should have had a full charge when I left work, so the cold may be a problem for its battery.
[This entry was originally posted as https://syntonic-comma.dreamwidth.org/1120573.html on Dreamwidth (where there are
comments).]