Off Road Apostasy....

One ride was all it took. Goodbye gears.

Clapped together the Unit with some spare parts (a wheelset I built earlier, some RaceFace cranks and stem, Azonic bar from my KM, an Oval Concepts seatpost I pulled from my fixie, an old but still good SID sussy fork, to name a few) and not-so-spare parts (a new King headset that gave me a little trouble on the pressing in), slapped on the obligatory FTYTV sticker, and presented it to my girl on Friday evening for her first off-road single speed ride on her first off-road steel bike, clipped into her first off-road clipless pedals. I set her up with a 32:18 till she gets a better handle on her out-of-the-saddle climbing proficiency.

With Jonny B., we started at Difficult Run at Great Falls and rode portions of the CCT till we hit Route 7, then connected to the Colt's Neck branch that heads to the Reston Ice Rink. After a short water break, we turned around and came back. My girl took to the SS bike like the proverbial fish to the proverbial water, stomping up the hills and ripping down same, smiling the whole time with that look we all flashed the first time we reveled in the pagan pleasures of gearless enlightenment. I was truly surprised by the speed she carried on the downhills. The clipless experience went smoothly, with the sole and minor exception of one slo-mo mishap at a wobbly palate mud crossing.

We managed over 15 miles on the out-and-back, arriving in the parking lot as the last rays of the sun dissolved in the darkness seeping into the evening sky. Not bad for a first run. It was interesting to see how certain sections of the CCT had taken shape since late last year when DT and I had measured out and marked the pre-trail miles in preparation.

Next in line is Schaeffer Farms...yee ha!

(Pic at right is of the hi-tech homemade headset press, a.k.a. the Warranty Voider. It can be temperamental at times, but does the trick nicely with a bit of patience, and comes in somewhere around $115 less than this less portable model, though it probably doesn't work as well as this economy version. I installed the crown race with the help of a length of common PVC tubing.)

Transporting an Explosif...

Yeah, I know, it's a Unit, but it was supposed to be an Explosif, at least at the start. You see, the 16" Explosif frame I ordered for my girl turned out to be kid-sized, so I had Mike at Pedalshop order up this baby-shit brown 18" Unit frame, since no 18" Explosif was to be found anywhere (and the brown is actually preferable to the iridescent tiger beetle green of the Explosif). The 18" Kona Explosif and Unit models are dimensionally comparable to a 16" On-One Inbred (go figure), hence the undersizing error on the original frame order.

Took the W&OD from Vienna out to the shop in Ashburn, meeting up about halfway there with Jonny B. at the bridge over the Fairfax County Parkway. We hit the shop, picked up the frame, strapped it on, and headed back, stopping briefly for a beer and some grub at the Old Dominon Brewing Company, a critical co-sponser of the Pedalshop racing team.

New on the beer list was an Imperial IPA with the tongue tiring tag of 29,035 FT Double IPA. Since this ale makes liberal use of Summit Hops, I guess the brewmaster decided a little homage to Mount Everest was in order and decided to dub it accordingly. Weighing in at a liver-bruising 9.5% ABV, I wish I could tell you what a fantastic beer this pub-only ale is, but, unfortunately, the over-the-top-with-hops elixir hasn't found its way to the taps yet. The brewery is waiting until another keg kicks to make room at the bar, so I had to "settle" with an Oak Barrel Stout. I've got my fingers crossed that a keg will run dry overnight, since the team meeting is at the brewery tomorrow afternoon.

The ride turned out to be a little over 36 miles in some pretty nice weather; cloudy off and on but warm all the same. I did get some friendly comments and smiles from other riders; seems you need a frame (or some other incongruous object) mounted on your back to elicit anything approaching conversation from dedicated roadies, who normally are loath to open their mouths for fear of incurring additional undesirable wind resistance.

The frame is a real beauty, nice and light, and features nicely-machined sliding dropouts. Single speed only, so no excessive cable stop braze-ons to shred the flesh. Going to be sweet once I get it built up. With a little luck, it'll be ready before next weekend.

POSTSCRIPT: Those of you locals who don't road-ride and want to give the dirt a rest (mud, in some places) would do well to head over to Frederick to attend the Maryland Brewer's Springfest. What's that? You can't make the fest? No worries; check out this handy reference site for a list of other beer tasting events on the horizon—just hover over the "Calendar" link on the left and choose your month. (Mark your calendar now: the Old Dominion Beer Festival turns ten this year; it's listed for June 23 - 25.)

A Streetcar Named Denial?...

On the contrary. Seems the board members in bike-friendly Arlington County are taking all that crazy talk about peak oil seriously. Rather than sitting back and waiting for some deus ex machina to glut the "free" market with affordable space-age alternatives to the internal combustion engine and/or gasoline, or worse, pretending that rising oil costs are just a speedbump on the road back to cheap, easy motoring, these local elected officials have decided to emulate Portland, Oregon, taking a page from the past as a stopgap measure.

It's all part of a master plan to revitalize (read "gentrify") the area, which, of course, necessary means new condominium complexes piggybacked onto thousands of square feet of retail space à la The Market Common in Clarendon.

But the streetcar idea is a bit of a mixed blessing. It appears that the proposed line—just under five miles in all—will run in the "curb lanes" along Columbia Pike, areas that could, if I'm not mistaken, be allocated to bicycle lanes. And that's not all. From the County Board meeting of April 13, 2006:

"Members of the Arlington Bicycle Advisory Committee have raised concerns that the streetcar tracks would be a hazard to bicyclists riding along Columbia Pike and crossing the tracks at intersections. They are also concerned about maneuvering around vehicles that are stopped to pick up and discharge passengers."

The board's response?

"While the situation is not ideal for cyclists, streetcars and bicycles do co-exist in cities around the world. Some strategies that will be studied further include using “flange fillers” to reduce the gap between the tacks (sic) and the roadway and designing stops that will allow bicycles to travel behind the station. Additionally, the Columbia Pike plan calls for the establishment of parallel bike routes in the corridor for riders who are not comfortable riding on Columbia Pike. Staff will be working this summer to create the first of these routes on 12th Street South between South Quincy and South Cleveland streets."

Okay, maybe not ideal, but if the streetcar must supplant precious biking space, at least the board is willing to provide a "parallel bike route" alternative. And you have to admit, the streetcar has an undeniable nostalgic quality that might appeal to some who aren't quite ready to adopt the bicycle as the ideal solution to local traffic woes.

POSTSCRIPT: Just when it looks like automobile makers might be coming out of their hydrocarbon-induced comas to offer more too-late hybrid models, Mercedes comes to the rescue with its new seven passenger GL-Class SUV. With an available 5.5L V8 gasoline engine, this baby abandons all pretense to responsible motoring. And Mercedes isn't worried that skyrocketing prices at the pumps might scare off potential SUV buyers, apparently sharing the opinions of people like Karl Brauer, editor-in-chief of auto industry darling Edmunds.com. According to Brauer, a jump of even as much as 25% in gas prices would represent only a "hiccup in (the) financial picture" of luxury SUV owners. Very comforting to know that the wealthy can continue to waste resources with the same sense of entitlement they muster when accumulating control of them.

And hey, with a starting price of about $55k for the GL-Class, that 3D Spaceframe from Jeff Jones is looking more reasonable every second...

POST-POSTSCRIPT: As further evidence of Arlington's commitment to the biking lifestyle, check out this clever idea, brought to my attention by that most excellent fount of local cycling politics, The Wash Cycle. Let's hope the rack heads are attached to the poles more securely than they appear to be in the picture.