Bicycle Trip Pittsburgh to Washington DC, Day One

06/23/12 # 29m

First day of a bicycle ride from Pittsburgh to DC, credit card touring, hotels with a support van. Today we rode from Pittsburgh's Point State Park to Belle Vernon.

We started off with two additional riders M and D for the day, and missing a rider who was sick. The weather was absolutely beautiful. We mustered at Point State Park which is partially closed for construction, which is sort of Pittsburgh's status for all things bike-trail: there's some amazing stuff but it's not evenly distributed, key points are closed for construction and improvements, and you sometimes can't get where you want to be.

We had a safety briefing before we began, I've seen so many rides start off with an incident that it seemed worthwhile. It must have been a good briefing, passerby's stopped and listened and one (Tina) came up and said Hello.

Point State Park, Blvd. of the Allies, Jail Trail, Hot Metal Bridge, Southside Trail, Keystone Metals Trail.

• Yes, this is a bike trail
• Yes, they're walking and not riding their bikes
• Yes, it is somewhat evocative of the Beatle's Abbey Road cover

Sandcastle Parking Lot, Waterfront Trail, Steel Valley/Kennywood Trail, Riverton Bridge, McKeesport Trail and our first flat (rear) tire. With that repaired, the ride continued to the McKees Rocks Cafe and Pizzeria, cold drinks and authorized wall-signings.

We resumed and rode the Boston route, the Durabond Bypass, and encountered the second flat (same bike, same wheel). It was a new wheel, seemed like an insufficient rim strip cutting the tube, so we applied a kludge supplemental rim strip of duct tape and that seemed to work well enough to the South Boston trailhead.

Since it was Saturday afternoon and all the bike shops are closed on Sunday, the rider got in the van with the bike and they headed to the West Newton bike shop. The diagnosis was a faulty rim strip, they took out the duct tape and applied a better rim strip and the tire was good for the remainder of the trip. Very helpful shop, our rider walked in at closing time and they took good care of him.

Saw the alumninum waterfalls, the iron waterfalls, and unfortunately we got to West Newton after the trailhead offices closed down. We had originally hoped to overnight at the Bright Morning B&B in West Newton, but we dawdled too long and they were booked. We continued to Cedar Creek Park and climbed/shuttled through the park to the Belle Vernon Comfort Inn.

The Comfort Inn was a great hotel, bike friendly, wifi and hot showers, standard continental breakfast; I'd stay there again (although it is a major climb up from the trail). Locating dinner was not a source of great satisfaction.

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June 23, 2012 Week 24 this week: 88 miles

244#

2nd Qtr 1687 miles

2012: 2700 miles

Hot Times: Cafe Davio, McKees Marina Cafe

06/20/12 243# 29m

29 miles on a hot, hot day by local standards.

The first target of opportunity was this mural on Forbes, no provenance available:


Rode around to the Swinbourne Street trailhead, where I saw a bunch of youths in matching shirts getting ready for a group ride:

One of the several hovering helicopter-moms explained that it was a summer camp where they did a different activity every day, and today was bicycling on the trail. Very nice.

Went Southside, had breakfast at Cafe Davio, excellent food and generous portions, a little bit pricey. They were very good about keeping the icewater and iced tea flowing, and bottle refills.

Saw this mural by Monica McElwain, titled "A Piece of Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow" at 2341 E. Carson Street (the Double-Wide Grill):

It's an indication of how nice it was, that the blue mural blends with the sky.

Rode south, walked along the tracks at Keystone Metals where I saw the Train Folks dumping quite a lot of new gravel along the rail line. Transitioned through Sandcastle, which is pretty busy at 1030 on a sunny day.

Rode though the Waterfront, was inspired to take a brief BikeNap/CyclingSiesta, continued riding and went to drink some water and it was hot, that was no good. Pressed on beyond Kennywood and Duquesne to McKeesport and the McKees Marine Cafe, where I was pleased to find cold water and icy bottle refilles, and a good cheeseburger to boot.

I was also pleased to see that bicyclists riding through are still encouraged to sign the walls:


Reversed and rode north. My water bottles were quite warm by the time I reached SouthSideWorks, so I stopped in Subway for icewater refills. I went through a lot of water today, and a bit of complexity trying to keep a cool drink on the bike.

Happily, when I got home I found a package containing thermal panniers, I'm going to use these on an upcoming trip and see how they work out.

Walden's Trailside Cafe in Burgettstown

06/16/12 30m

Rode 30 miles on the Montour and Panhandle Trail, and had an excellent stop at Walden's Cafe in Burgettstown.



Started at my favorite Montour trailhead in Boggs, rode the Montour Trail to McDonald, rode the connector over to the Panhandle Trail (which is much improved of late).

Rode the Panhandle Trail out to Burgettstown, and stopped at Walden's Cafe, immediately next to the trail at 1709 Main Street. This was my second stop there and it's good enough to become a bike ride destination of it's own.



Very nice folks, they're very bike trail friendly. As I came in a few bicyclists were departing, and as I left a couple on bikes were coming in. I had a western omelette and it was excellent. They made a point of asking if they could refill my water bottles, topped them off with ice and water - it doesn't get much better than that. The omelette was tremendous and I'll definitely stop there again.

Coming out of the restaurant I saw a few bicyclists wrestling with a tire outside of the hardware store, and then I saw this, which made me feel like I was in Staten Island or possibly New Jersey:


And that's sort of the way the trail economy is supposed to work. Build a trail, open a restaurant, and all of a sudden people from Pittsburgh and Beaver County are spending money in Burgettstown.

Returning along the Panhandle I was surprised to see a pristine Piper Cub climbing out, just north of the trail. I stopped at the Cataney Airport (which is generally a radio-control-aircraft field) and introduced myself and they explained that the Cub belonged on the field. It was really quite a sight.

I hung around for a few minutes and got to see them land, it's really a slice of aviation to watch a Cub land on a soft field. There's a lot of construction along the Panhandle and the Cataney airport, the R/C folks explained that they're building a Marcellus pipeline.



Since I was on a trail I listened to WYEP's Soul Show as I was riding, primo afternoon tunes and even a slice of Gil Scott-Theron. I love the SoulShow.

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June 16, 2012 Week 23 this week: 162 miles

241#

2nd Qtr 1599 miles

2012: 2612 miles

Coffee and Bridges and Trails Oh My

06/14/12 240# 32m

Rode 32 miles along the Montour Trail from McDonald to trailside FarmHouseCoffee in McMurray with S and R.

A recent post discussed the new rail tracks being set in place north of Venice / Route 50 and how they're being assembled into seamless track. Stopped and spoke to some very nice folks on a work crew today and learned the technique is called CWR, Continuous Welded Rail. Amazing stuff that people do.

Further along the trail, just north of the Route 50 staircase, we were surprised to see a train on the new tracks adjacent to the trail. The train was delivering the gravel being used in the rail bed.



Continued riding to world-famous FarmHouse Coffee. We've been agitating for them to carry chocolate chip ice cream and today they had it, so that's what I ordered. Totally excellent.

Back on the trail and stopped by the new bridge, just about to be commissioned, over Georgetown Road.



It looks like the bridges themselves (Georgetown Rd and Morganza Rd) are complete except for the side railings, but there's still a major work in progress on the small trail segment between the two bridges.

A Full Day of Great Riding

06/13/12 78m

Rode 78 miles in three segments on a glorious day.

Started early at 0730, parked at the Bastille and ran errands downtown for a total of 8 miles. It's just easier for me to park the car at the periphery of the city and penetrate with the bike.

Drove to Boston PA, home of the trailside Boston Boxcar. Started riding southeast from Boston, and before long (Greenock?) I came across a milky white waterfall, which seems to have run through a deposit of lime or chalk. (Update: seems to be runoff from an abandoned mine, contaminated by aluminum.)




Rode from Boston to Cedar Creek Park and then up the hill to the I-70/Route 51 intersection in Belle Vernon, in preparation for an upcoming ride where we'll overnight at that location. I wanted to get a look at what I'd be asking the group of riders to do, and I'm glad I did. It's a bit of a climb from the river up to the top.



Rode back to the Boston Boxcar, regained my car and drove to UPMC SouthSide for a bikefit follow-up with world-famous bike fitter Matt Tinkey. He's really excellent. He adjusted the cleat position on some new shoes and I was on my way.

I needed to put some miles into the new shoes so I rode another 29 miles around the city, up Panther Hollow, out the Convention Center Trail to the Cork Factory, round to the Bastille again, and then back to UPMC. It was an excellent day, and I crossed 2500 miles-to-date today.

Getting a Handle on the Bike

06/12/12 0m

Via BikeRumor, comes a bicycle handle accessory from Walnut Studio:

Although some may cast aspersions on this admixture of a suitcase handle and a bicycle, decrying it as an overwrought hipster artisanal mashup, I think it's a legitimate use.

I've seen a lot of people who enjoy riding their bike but find a staircase to be a frustrating experience. Particularly for apartment dwellers, I think this makes great sense. Also, two weeks ago while watching people struggle with their bikes on the Burma Road detour on the C&O Canal (MP16), these handles would have sold like hotcakes.



Getting a handle on my own bike
Today was a day for making changes and adjustments to my own bike, in anticipation of an upcoming trip.
I have for a few years rolled with two stems and two handlebars, in order to have sufficient mounting opportunities for my core minimalist needs: flip-down aero bars, Tektro secondary (cross) brake levers, see-me blinky, headlight, cyclometer, bell, and a Zounds air horn. (I've stopped mounting the GPS on the handlebars.)

On a recent trip, I realized that with a rolled-up sleeping pad on the top platform of my front rack, the lights mounted on the lower/secondary handlebar are blocked by the sleeping pad.

This caused me to re-examine the entire two-stem assumption; it would seem that with two stems, two handlebars, aero bars, and a front rack there should be enough redundancy to mount a front light without obstruction, and that possibly at least one of those structures might be unnecessary.

I thought, since the aero bars are attached to the handlebar with a set of perpendicular brackets, couldn't I just use a second set of aero-bar brackets to attached a second handlebar? This would save the weight of the second stem, and would also place the secondary handlebar further forward rather than below the primary bar.

This notion resulted in my taking the following steps: (1) scrounge an old set of aerobars with mounting hardware, (2) toss the bars and keep the hardware. This is a side view, showing the primary bar wrapped in blue, the aero bars, and the secondary handlebar:


Front view, showing placement of various essentials:


I like the flip-down aerobar pads a lot; they really maximize the handlebar space available for your hands, but they suffer from chronic failures of the little springs that cause them to flip-up. I think this is because the springs are (1) exposed to the elements and (2) insufficient for the forces present when the bike is transported on a car rack. I need to figure out how to rebuild these myself.

Solitary Sunday

06/10/12 23m

A shorter Montour Trail ride on a hot Sunday afternoon, Groveton to Boggs round trip, 23 miles. The trail was empty, as if there were a Steelers show on.

About to get ready for a bike trip, this time Pittsburgh to DC: fully supported, hotels or B&Bs, and restaurants - a very different experience than my recent trip. A few adjustments to the bike, and a follow-up bike fit session later this week and I should be good to go.