Tuesday Morning Commute - Watch your mouth

Back to the grind.

• The Penrose Neighborhood Association will host representatives from the Virginia Department of Transportation, who will present an overview of the bridge project at Washington Boulevard and Columbia Pike, on Tuesday, Sept. 20 at 7:30 p.m. at Trinity Episcopal Church, 2217 Columbia Pike. This project will add bike lanes to Columbia Pike under Washington Blvd.
• The shaft-driven bicycle promises to put an end to sock-tuckers. Not to be confused with the Shaft-driven bicycle.
• A repeat drunk driver in Alaska who killed a 13-year old on a bike and then attempted to flee the scene is given the harshest sentence possible under the law (after several judges attempt to give him a harsher sentence).

Comments

[Foo]

Shaft driven bikes have been around forever. But they all suffer from one killer problem: they're heavy as all hell.

The only real advancement in geartrains lately has been belt drives.

[pete]

I was running on the Cap. Crescent Saturday and Monday mornings, around 8-9am both days. On both occasions I saw cop cars on the path. On Saturday there were TWO as I was going towards Bethesda over the River Road bridge (they entered the trail from the road that parallels the path from River Road and were going southwest on the trail). I thought maybe there was a serious crime or they were looking for someone. I couldnt find anything in the paper. On Monday, I was about a 1/4 mile short of the River Rd. bridge going towards Bethesda and a cop car is driving on the path towards me, albeit not very fast.

So, I guess they like to drive on the trail?? Even if they were looking for someone (which I now doubt since I saw them on two different days), a bike would be safer and more efficient. And if they are just generally patrolling the trail, why two cars??

I believe they were Mont. Co. cars, but I didnt pay that close attention.

[Jim T]

@SJE: I hope you have seen the Alaska case, where driver's license was revoked for life.

[SJE]

Jim: I just read it. Of course, the driver blew 0.23, had a history of alcohol dependence, killed a child waiting on the side of the road, and repeatedly left the scence despite being confronted twice.

If he had not been drunk, merely careless, and not driven off, I'll bet that he would have gotten off with almost a slap on the wrist.

[SJE]

Can someone explain why shafts HAVE to be so heavy? Why not a larger diameter carbon fibre tube?

[Blue-eyed Devil]

@washcycle, pretty sure it's "shut your mouth."

@SJE, on the issue of weight, from Wikipedia, FWIW:

A fundamental issue with bicycle shaft-drive systems is the requirement to transmit the torque of the rider through bevel gears with much smaller radii than typical bicycle sprockets. This requires both high quality gears and heavier frame construction.[6][7]

[Crickey7]

Two sets of bevel gears, one at the bottom bracket and one at the hub. So the shaft is actually the least of it.