Bike To Work Day 2014

CamelBak Relay Review

It's no secret, I a fan of quite a few of CamelBak's products. Not all, but quite a few. A little while ago I was lucky enough to receive a CamelBak Relay to test out. The Relay is Camelbak's first venture into the home water filtration market and it's about time. I only have my Brita to compare it to and there isn't much of a fight here. The Relay is a vast improvement over my Brita.

The first improvement I noticed is the speed. With the Brita, you fill the reservoir and wait for 7 minutes for the water to filter. This doesn't seem like a big deal but if you have to do it over and over those 7 minutes add up. The Relay filters the water as fast as you can fill it. It also filters the water again when you pour it into your glass which can't be bad.

Perhaps the best improvement over the Brita is there's no black shit in my glass! The only downside I've seen so far is the filters are more expensive but the last twice as long so it evens out.

In closing, this image pretty much sums up my first impressions of the Camelbak Relay.

Bottom line: Highly Recommended. 
Buy It If you use any another pitcher water filter product.
Don't Buy Them If you already have one.

Xtracycle Sighting

I saw this long bike in Silver Spring over the weekend. Props for making a sissy bar out of the footsies. I never considered putting a bar on the back like that. When my girls are big enough I'll have to follow suit.

Just Because You Can, Doesn't Mean You Should

Contrary to the frequency of my posts as of late, I bike to work quite often.  On Monday I saw a dude on a tall bike cruising down Georgia Ave (a major artery just north of DC) in rush hour traffic. I should point out that this section of Georgia Ave had eight full lanes of morning commuters. My first reaction was a jaw dropping "What The Fuck?". That was also my second reaction.

This got me thinking; when I'm in my car I often see cyclist doing shit I would never do. Taking the lane on upper 16th Street where the flow of traffic is above 50mph during rush hour when there's no shoulder for example. It's perfectly legal to do so but in my view it's incredibly stupid. There's is also a bike lane on 14th, so why not cut over two blocks?

I try not to judge, I know that some times perceived danger is relative to ones own experiences. There are plenty of things I do now that I would have thought too dangerous 17 years ago.

BUT

There's a time and a place and eight lanes of morning traffic going past the 495 merge lanes seems to be neither.
 

Kick Start: Buca Boot

I'm more of an extracycle, carry 3 hay bales kinda guy but I'm not gonna lie, well designed bike solutions make me randy. I wonder if I could put that on a front rack?
 

The Armstrong Lie

I'm so numb to this story but I'll have to watch it anyway. I hope it's in 3D.

Furlough Merlot - Shutdown Chardonnay

I threw this together for all my non-essential feds out there. You know who you are.

After that this seems pretty obvious.