I rode with S and R, starting at the Bastille. Today I was wearing my new gloves and boots and they were awesome, I was very comfortable. We rode via streets around to the Ft. Duquesne Bridge. All the rivers were semi-frozen, it was a bright blue sky, and there was a lot of light bouncing all around.
Rode out Blvd of the Allies and the Jail Trail, which was in good condition. The Hot Metal Bridge was not in good condition, it was icy and sketchy.
Once in the SouthSide, we stopped at REI because S's Novarra had an intermittent rear brake issue and it's primary care folks are at REI. They were very helpful, took it right in and laid hands on it, pronounced it healed and back on our way.
Rode over to Thick Bikes, which is where R's Rivendell's primary care folks are. They were attaching a Tubus front rack and it took a bit of kludging, but it ended up really elegant in the end. Took some back roads through the South Side, Smithfield Street Bridge, found ourselves downtown at 5pm.
Major gridlock. Fortunately, the bikes filtered well and we were on our way without delay. Crossed to the North Side, and took the Casino- West End Bridge- Chateau Street shuffle which always seems complex when we're in the middle of it. We came upon three red lights with no traffic and I must confess I didn't wait for them, it was just such a sweet spot to keep moving.
Earlier in the day, my fave Transit Guru and Cyclist Extraordinaire Stu was tweeting about a new ramp that connected Beaver and Chateau streets (roughly near the bike trail) to California Avenue (up on the hill) in a wheelchair or bike-ramp format. I was really pleased that we got to see it. I'll need to take pictures of it soon, it was getting dark today but it's going to be an excellent bit of infrastructure.
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