55, Bike Shorts, and a YinSter

01/23/12 #233 26m

Yesterday there was five or six inches of snow on the ground. Terribly rainy and mild temps this morning followed by several hours of bright blue skies and 55F, so the surface was very wet but atmospheric conditions were wonderful.

I skipped the long pants, the shoe booties, the wool layer, and the jacket and ended up riding in bike shorts, a UnderArmour ColdGear shirt, and a bike jersey.

Rode from the Bastille around to the Science Center, where the trail was closed for some police activity that involved boats in the water. But they did a good job of closing it, bright markings and an officer telling you where to get back on.

Rode around the stadia on the paved trail, and when the trail turns to dirt I went on the road to avoid the wet, slushy muck. Used the 31st Street Bridge to cross the river, and took the photo above. (Ordinarily I'd crop the gratuitous blue sky at the top of the photo, but in December January in Pittsburgh I'm not cropping any blue sky, thank you.)

Took Penn and Butler over to Espresso a Mano, excellent coffee and atmosphere as always. The sun was so warm I was tempted to remove the UnderArmour.

Riding toward the Cork Factory along Railroad Street I had a very positive experience, a police car coming from behind slowed way down rather than passing me and stayed back at my 8:00 position, I thought man, what's this going to be? so I stopped, and he waved me on explaining that he just didn't want to right-hook me. Totally unexpected.

I rode the Convention Center trail behind a young rider (potentially a YinSter, the famous Pittsburgh Yinzer Hipster, it's really obscure you probably haven't heard of it) who had a beautiful bike with a really nice wooden fender, the type you find at ClankWorks, which was keeping the spray off his messenger bag.

Rode to the Point and around to the Mon Wharf Trail. Instead of portaging up the staircase as has been my routine, I rode the ramp up to the street as S. recently showed me and it's a much better transition.

Jail Trail to Hot Metal Bridge, where I saw the new snow shovels locked to the fence for bicyclists to use; very nice. Hung a left onto the Baldwin Borough Trail. The very southern end of the trail, just north of Keystone Metals, is in quite a bit more shade than the rest of the area, and so there was a lot more slush/snow still on the trail.

Came back via Station Square, and it started raining as I crossed the Fort Pitt Bridge, Point State Park, and the Fort Duquesne Bridge. The rain stopped as I got down to the river on the northside. The trail was open now at the Carnegie Science Center, and as I rode along the Ohio there was a beautiful rainbow. And I rode back to the Bastille uneventfully.

My bicycle is getting really dirty, and in spite of my commitment to not cleaning it I may have to wash it, it's almost disrespectful to let it get this dirty.