I have two options when commuting by bike.

The subway station closest to my house (Shady Grove) is about a 7.5 mile ride.  But it is not a straight shot I have to zig zag through Gaithersburg and Rockville and around the doughnut kingdom of NIST.  Takes me about 30 minutes.  My actual route is slightly different, but google won't map it right since I make some connections that are technically off road.

Home to SG Metro


The other station I can go to, Grosvenor (everybody say Grove - Nor) is about 14.5 miles.   I think I do this in 45 - 50 minutes depending on traffic lights, enthusiasm, etc.  In that case I avoid (by choice) Great Seneca Highway because of the poor bicycling conditions (high car speeds and  no shoulder) and Seven Locks Rd. (sharp hills and very poor road surface).

Home to Grosvenor

The thing I've discovered is that even with the time to change into work clothes after the Grosvenor ride (I can do SG in street clothes) it doesn't take any more time to do my full commute to work.   This is primarilly because the route I must take to Shady Grove is so convoluted.

So the longer trip to Grosvenor has become my ride of choice since it gives me more time on the bike, which is time well spent, and no real time penalty for the overall trip.   Also, the end of the Shady Grove ride takes me down 355 which is simply not conducive to cycling.   The road is very busy with car traffic, and the available sidewalks (going and returning) are incredibly choppy and narrow, with the added bonus of businesses sticking advertizing signs halfway across the walkway.  I could probably cut off another mile with some additional off road riding, but that would require something more rugged than the street tires I currenly sport on my commuting bike.

So I suppose this is a shout in the dark for the citys of Gaithersburg and Rockville to give some needed attention to Bicycle Access to Shady Grove Metro station, especially the mile or so approach from both north and south on Rt. 355, which is in no way bike friendly at the moment.  And to NIST to give me a special cut through bike path that gets me from Quince Orchard Rd. to Muddy Branch Rd, just west of the I270 overpass.

Wait a minute ...

My local sports radio website tells me it's National Military Appreciation Month.

But it's also National Bike Month.

And the radio station is promoting Bike to Work day (May 21).

So what's the precedence?  

If I stipulate that Military Appreciation takes precedence over the Bike, then on Bike to Work Day does the extra emphasis on the bike flip the scale?

Name Change

I mean for this space, not for me.

I've been thinking about doing this once the Cancer treatment started winding down. That's less and less the focus of my days, and now it's going back to The Bike, which has been the focus of my day/life for 20+ years. So the new name of the blog (with appologies/nod to Lance) will be "It IS about the bike." since that's what I'm most likely to ramble on about.

So stay tuned for training updates (and by training I mean my daily commutes to the subway), weekend rides (more akin to actual training) and various frankenbike activities.  Usually if vices or hammers are involved its worth writing/reading about.  (Can you end a sentence with about?  And can it be done twice?)