BIKEPGH MESSAGE BOARD ARCHIVE

oooh, a "cycle to skating rinks ride"? !!! I'm in.

oooh, a "cycle to skating rinks ride"? !!! I'm in.

I'm pretty sure there will be one of these after the holidays pass.

+1 for cycle to skating rinks ride.

There's the schenley park rink and the neville island sports center, too.

Thanks for that reminder! Where/how do I go about getting the lunch time pass?

This thread reminds me of the old ice bike idea-

http://blog.modernmechanix.com/2007/10/31/new-ice-cycle-gives-cycling-thrills-on-lakes-in-winter/

I thought I heard on the radio (NPR) that there will be a temporary rink installed in the parking area next to the mustard bowl on the north shore in conjunction with the stadium rink for the big hockey game January 1st.

Speaking of January 1, how about a ride to the Polar Plunge that morning? I did ride there once, and have leapt 3 times- I recommend it for the notoriety.

Do you think they'll let you ride on the ice? Sven does it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U2XZB86mwJM

long time ago I was captivated by http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LB4sb-yTReM

When there was a days-long sub-freezing stretch I went over to Panther Hollow and rode around, skidding and sliding, it was a pretty good time.

I second a ride to the polar bear plunge on the 1st. The ride back is where the real fun starts...

The polar plunge is happening at heinz field this year, not the mon wharf. Not sure how they're going to go about cramming that many people onto the pier...

January 1 has always been the Icycle Bicycle ride, but there's no reason it can't go to the Polar Plunge. Maybe after -- I'm not sure of the various schedules. Of course you can do your own thing, but I like traditions at this time of year.

You get the lunchtime pass at the rink office whenever they're open - probably not until after 1/1. You walk in and tell the cashier "i'd like to buy a lunchtime pass."

There's also a rink in Harmarville. I meant to bike up there in August but never did.

Funny, when I was a kid we rode bikes into the river, and drove cars on the ice, but never got into biking on the ice. Probably nobody had ever heard of making your own studded tires, or we surely would have. (And biked to Canada and created an incident, no doubt.)

In addition to x-country skiing there is also snowshoeing. Good exercise, pretty simple. I think that REI rents them.

When I was a kid, there was this guy across the street from us in his 90s. He was having a hard time living on his own, so my mom used to take him meals. Every morning, for breakfast, he ate two slices of toast smeared with bacon grease. He had smoked two packs a day for most of his adult life. But he made it to his 90s, and I think this was on account of two things (plus heredity and luck, no doubt). In his youth, he had worked as a stevedore, loading lakers by hand. And he told a story about what he used to do on weekends during Prohibition.

According to George, every Saturday he would ice skate the roughly five-to-seven miles across the river to Canada and buy two flasks of whiskey. The first he would drink on the return trip to keep warm. The second he would nurse all week until the next Saturday.

I have no way of knowing if he had actually done this, but it's not like he routinely made up outrageous stories. So I imagine he must have done it at least once or twice.

He was apparently eating bacon too.

Good story.

i recently got a membership to the climbing wall above the co-op. i must say, its quite the workout and it beats the heck out of riding a trainer. ive been using muscles that i didnt know i had. and i love the ride back where i can barely grib the bars.

I'm getting a membership to the Yoga Hive. I like their weekend early morning yoga classes, and I'm using it to get me on my bike in the winter daylight in a non-paycheck threatening way(as opposed to my typical commute, in the dark with the crazies AND the cold). Takes me an hour to get there, it's a 75 min class, then an hour to get back. I got out of bed and did something with my morning, got on a bike, stretched out a bit, and returned home. Win-win-win-win. (and ache-ache-ache-ache).

That, and all those house construction/maintenance projects I put off when the weather and sunlight was nice enough to bike and garden? I do them now. Low impact, except for the occasional hammering of the fingers. Nothing works those back muscles like hanging and rehanging kitchen cabinets That way nothing is hanging over my head in March when I'd rather dig or bike than sand or plane. In theory.