Pittsburgh Bike Jersey; Brooks B73 Repair at Thick Bikes

Nov.7.2014 0miles

Today was a maintenance day, starting with the flat tire I acquired in my Honda van on my way to visit work. Argghh. Cars; you can't patch the tires yourself, what's up with that?

The front spring on my Brooks B-73 saddle had sprung askew. I think I twisted the seat frame-and-spring when I took a fall in the spring and taco'd my front wheel, and then set the seat straight with the top-bar without really examining the entirety of the damage.

Anyway hey: Brooks Saddles, a seat you can have repaired! This is what my Surly LHT looked like, before and after, outside of Thick Bikes Pittsburgh. I so appreciate that they took the initiative not to just sell me another seat, but to repair the one I had.

Anyway, the picture on the left is How To Take A Bike Into A Shop On Friday Afternoon . If you're not doing it this way, you're doing it wrong. Pro Tip: wheel the bike into the shop area; complain that it feels like something's dragging, or maybe there's too much weight somewhere; ask them to do what they can to reduce the weight. The picture on the right is the "after" shot.

Also extremely cool: I mentioned I needed an old, one-time-left beatup U-lock for the upcoming Ghost Bike, and Thick Bikes donated a legacy shop U-lock which I put Thick stickers on.

Also, got to see this kinda-hott model introducing a very cool jersey. The artist's spouse, Jordan, is a strong cross racer. More info on the Pittsburgh cycling jersey here.

I find the most (pleasantly) unexpected connections in bike shops. I was talking about an effective Homewood neighborhood activist, turns out Jordan the cross racer knows Elwin Green, too. Small world; cycling makes connections.

I was surprised to see a small reflective strip on the back of the Pittsburgh jersey, I haven't seen that before. They're made locally by Aero Tech Designs of Coraopolis.

Pogies (handlebar mitts) from 45North. This has interior compartments, pit-zips, wow.

Handlebar porn: the two-bagger --

Such wow. Very cycling.

Manchester Bastille, SouthSide Nadine's, Squirrel Hill Bike Porn

8/24/11 #224 31m

Rode 31 miles. We rendezvoused at the Manchester Bastille at 0800 (Western Penitentiary) under threatening skies. We wrestled briefly with the wisdom of beginning a ride when it seemed quite certain that a soaking was very likely, but we'd already gotten out with our gear and all, so with a certain foreboding we started off.



We rode around the stadia out to the 31st Street Bridge, then crossed the Allegheny and used the Strip Trail back to the Point. By that time we were getting rained on, so we tried to expedite reaching our planned breakfast stop at Nadine's on the SouthSide.

We took the Mon Whorf trail to the Smithfield Street Bridge, then the SouthSide Trail to REI. Our breakfast destination was on the same street as REI, but just on the other side of Carson Street. We pulled into Nadine's and were happy to get out of the rain. We had made a pretty fast run to get there.

Nadine's came highly recommended, and it's an interested place: a family run, shot-and-beer bar, with a few tables around the perimeter and a big grill behind the bar. Yes, you can get a drink with your breakfast, or you can break fast with your drink, depending on your sense of priorities. It's kind of cool to be in a bar at 0900.

I had a Western Omelette, K had a Mixed Grill, M had a Egg-English-Muffin, and it was all very good (especially since it was raining outside). The clientele seems more regulars than itinerants, but they were quite welcoming to a few outsiders dressed in lycra, high-viz jackets, and helmets.

It was a great meal that was also high-value, I think we each spent about $7 on breakfast. I recommend Nadine's (same street as Southside REI) highly as a breakfast bike stop, with one caveat: it is a smoking establishment.

We had a second cup of coffee and went outside to great our meteorological fate, only to learn that the rain had passed over and it was a pleasant cool, windy morning.

We rode across the Hot Metal Bridge, up Junction Hollow, along Fifth, Shady, and Forbes to stop at ProBikes in Squirrel Hill to indulge in the bike porn. Man they had some beautiful bikes. I was particularly smitten with a 29 inch mountain bike, I think they'd make a great snow bike.

I was very impressed at a folding bike made by Giant called the Clip; it's a tremendously clever design. Several very cool design features: a bipod kickstand that descends out of the seat tube, folding pedals, a hand-grasp loop built into the frame (some reviews find the loop too small to be useful), and an assymetrical front fork - sort of like Cannondale's "Lefty", but this single-part fork is on the right side.



In my small experience (I've had a Dahon folder), the problem with folding bikes is that while they do fold, they're not bikes you'd want to ride 50 miles on - and they're generally not intended for that.




We came out of ProBikes and proceeded via Forbes and Braddock (and Hutchinson and Lancaster) into Frick Park. I descended into Frick too fast, and for a moment the bike was ahead of me instead of me being ahead of the bike. We rode Nine Mile Run Trail, followed by the Duck Hollow Trail and a portage across a few railroad tracks to Second Avenue. That took us to the Jail Trail, we got to ride along with some Green Gears Pittsburgh pedicabs for a few blocks, and then we crossed the Ft. Duquesne bridge to the Manchester Bastille and our waiting cars.

I am really glad we didn't cancel at the obvious approaching rain. Lessons learned:

• attempt to find a great eating establishment to hole up in while the weather passes by
• don't descend into Frick Park going very fast
• don't have a pedal-strike on the pavement at the hairpin-turn at Swinburne Street on the Jail Trail

Hopefully, whatever doesn't kill me will make me smarter - although I am loath to quote Neitzsche. (thanks M!)

South Shore Riverfront Park at Southside Works

3/29/11 #233
26.7 miles road 40F

Had a very nice ride, went out to a Starbucks, treated myself to a slice of pound cake and a hot chocolate, returned home at 8pm in the dark.

How cool is this? The day after I post about the very way cool new development at Southside works, bemoaning that I don't have a photo of it, the Post Gazette provides one.



You'll see the rear of HofbrauHaus and the American Eagle campus above the trail.

The accompanying article, Donation received for riverfront park at Southside Works by Diana Nelson Jones, says this:

Riverlife has received a $50,000 donation from American Eagle Outfitters toward completion of the South Shore Riverfront Park, an approximately 3.2 acre amenity that links to the trail network on two levels and includes a promenade, a plaza and a 2,000 seat amphitheater.

The hillside will be built with a series of switchback ramps and terraces that eventually will link to a public marina. A new bulkhead wall will provide tie-ups for large and small boats.

The upper portions of the project -- behind the Hoffbrau House in Southside Works -- will be open this spring, said Stephan Bontrager, spokesman for Riverlife. It is a collaboration between the city, the Urban Redevelopment Authority, the Southside Local Development Corp. and the Soffer Organization.

I am a bit amused at the revisionist naming - we used to have NorthSide and SouthSide, now we have NorthShore and South Shore, but if they're willing to build a trail on it they can call it the Monongahela Riviera.

This picture, by the PostGazette's Darrell Sapp, shows the new Riverside Trail surface above the rmains of the J&L Pumphouse:

Southside Works 2011 Bike Trail

3/28/11 #237
27.8 miles 34F

Had an excellent ride today. Started in South Oakland, road the Jail Trail to the Penitentiary Trail, out along the Riverside Trail to Millvale. At the end of the trail in Millvale I had planned on stopping for a snack at Pamela's Pancakes, because every great ride needs a great food stop. Unfortunately, I got there at 4.30 and Pamela's closes at 4pm, so that foodventure will have to wait for another day and another blog post.

Back along the Riverside Trail, out on Herr's Island, back to the Ft. Duquesne Bridge, Ft. Pitt bridge, and the Station Square and Southside Trails.

The transition from the Southside Trail to the Baldwin Borough Trail, and specifically the section between Southside Works and the Hot Metal Bridge, has always puzzled me. Here's a picture from Google Maps, with a few key landmarks - The HofbrauHaus, REI, and the American Eagle building marked for orientation.



The trail designers have done so well in so many ways, but the current "Tunnel Park" segment seems non-intuitive and somewhat neglected. From the ground-level perspective, even the name Tunnel Park hasn't made sense, at least until I learned there's a train tunnel under there. This picture shows the path of the train tracks at either end of Tunnel Park.


This picture depicts the bicycle trails as routed in 2010, which really do leave bicyclists to fend for themselves. I've commented before that I don't know how an itinerant bicyclist manages to find their way through there, and it doesn't surprise me that the folks at American Eagle's corporate campus are finding bicycles riding on their sidewalks.

Today's Discovery

Today on my ride, I happened to ride to the back of the HofbrauHaus plaza just to see what the river looked like from there. Below the HofbrauHaus is a busy construction scene, building what looks like a magnificent trail section. It's breathtaking, quite dramatic. It seems like this will be the trail route from the Hot Metal Bridge along the Monongahela, past American Eagle and HofbrauHaus. This picture shows the apparent route of the future trail:


I have thought that the new Millvale connector trail might be the most elegant trail design in the area, and I have looked forward to what promises to be a very sophisticated design on the Mon Wharf Trail, connecting the Smithfield Street Bridge to Point State Park. The trail design along the river at Southside Works beats them hands down, it's very impressive.