Progressive Caffeine Ride

Rode 22 miles, 50F to 60F. Sort of a progressive caffeine ride with my friend M who's about to take a job out of town. It was nice to get another ride in together.

We started at the Bastille (Western Pen.) and rode around the stadia. Came across two makeshift memorials on chain link fence on the trail below Fred Rogers' statue, nice memorials with "we miss you ____" signs, flowers, lit candles. Saw an apparent mourner setting another candle into place and interrupted his grieving to ask what it was about, and he said "we're filming a movie, these are props" and was pleased that it wasn't funereal.


Took the 31st Street Bridge and then Butler Street to increasingly-a-Favorite Espresso A Mano. Today I tried a Gibraltar coffee (as recommended by Mo) and a danish, both were excellent. Saw another cyclist that had garnished his normal bike helmet with three additional red rings, resulting in a Devo Helmet, very cool. Wanted to take a picture but I think that would have interrupted the willing-suspension-of-hipster-vibe thing and would have completely outed me as somebody from Beaver County.

Hung around for a while and then departed to downtown, rode the Strip District Trail to the Point. A nearby hoagie shop, Jimmy John's Subs was holding Customer Appreciation Day and selling $1 subs, there was a very long line snaking around the corner.

Went over to Market Square Starbucks. Hung out there for a while, originally the Starbucks side was in the shade (kind of like a bullring) but eventually it warmed up. There was some sort of farmer's market going on.

Rode the Jail Trail, the Hot Metal Bridge, noticed that the new trail segment is open behind AEO headquarters but closed at the boundary with HofBrauHaus, took Carson Street through SouthSide and made our next stop at the Beehive for more caffeine.

We sat in the Beehive's window, watching the world walk by, drank coffee and then got on our way. As we went past Station Square we met an older couple - 65ish - and the woman had fallen and cut herself up pretty good, she was quite tough about it, worried about her chain more than anything. That was impressive.

Back across Ft. Pitt and Ft. Duquesne bridges, and past the Casino to the Bastille. A nice ride. With all the caffeine I was quite wired at the end.

Market Square Coffee Ride

9/21/11 #233 19miles

An excellent ride, still going short, trying hard not to screw up the left knee's return to cycling. Beautiful day for a ride, drank coffee in Market Square and people-watched, an excellent session.

Rode from the 31st Street Bridge to Market Square via Penn Avenue, which brought this alternative Goofus and Gallant to mind:

Pittsburgh Bike Museum, Pamela's, VIPs, 1500 miles YTD

Fri 6/24/11 #222 34miles

0800 McD Burrito 1000 Pamela's Strawberry Pancakes 1200 banana 1600 yogurt, crackers 1730 tuna fish, cheese 1930 two cheeseburger patties, strawberries, carrots

Rode 34 miles in Pittsburgh, in the rain at the start, 75F.

As we approached the start at Western Penitentiary, we took a detour to see the new Bike Museum at 1800 Preble Street. It's a bit of a needle in the industrial park haystack but we found it, and the sign said "Grand Opening, July 2, 10am". I'm looking forward to that.

Here's a 1999 article by Brian O'Neill about bike collector Craig Morrow. Here's a 2009 story in the Trib-Review about Craig Morrow's bike museum, which is called Bike Heaven.

We (J,M,K and I) met at 1000 at Western Penitentiary. Our ride started in the rain (today's cartoon, below, is appropos). As we rode past the Casino we saw the VIP motorcade crossing the Ft. Pitt bridge. We ate at Pamela's Pancakes in Millvale, rode back to the stadia after checking out a Pittsburgh Protractor on the Washington's Landing switchback ramps.

Rode the Ft. Duquesne bridge to the Strip Trail, then rode Penn Ave to Market Square. The ride in downtown traffic was a change of pace from the trail. We joined the Jail Trail at Smithfield Street, and as we worked along the Mon we noticed that the cars on the Parkway were stopped for the VIP motorcade leaving the city. It was a Yehuda Moon moment to ride along rows of stationary cars.

We rode the Junction Hollow Trail up to Oakland, took a break outside the Carnegie Library, then returned down Panther Hollow to the Hot Metal Bridge. We rode the Southside Trail to the closure and then reversed and rode to Station Square.

We crossed the Ft. Pitt Bridge and the Ft. Duquesne Bridge, and coming off the north side of the Ft. Duquense bridge my bike's chain had a disagreement with the front derailleur cage and the der-cage lost. We pressed it into position so it wouldn't rub, and I rode back to the cars in the big ring up front.

The ride ended uneventually, we all had a good time, and right after we got into our cars the skies opened and a heavy rain began. It's remarkable to me that you can ride 34 miles along the rivers on (mostly) trails.

Also, today I crossed 1500 bicycle miles in 2011, year-to-date.


I stopped at Pittsburgh's Best Bike Shop, the Ambridge Bike Shop and they were able to repair the damage. Excellent local bike shop, I really appreciate them.

BTW, six months till Christmas Eve. Just saying.