BIKEPGH MESSAGE BOARD ARCHIVE

That's a bummer.

Has anyone suggested to Kelly's (and the other "hip" businesses on the Circle) that they should apply for the city's bike racks?

I work in a building right down the street from Kellys. The plans we were shown by the city include a few bike racks in the final plan.

Are there no bike racks at or near Kelly's? I remember marking some sites there; check the sidewalk for white circles with Xes through them.

If you don't mind a short walk, there are Three Rivers Racks outside the Waffle Shop and in the Eastside complex, by Walgreens, Starbucks and a ton by Whole Foods.

I bet racks will be installed on the corners, similar to what they did at Southside Works.

Kelly's should put a few racks in the patio area around back, and let bikers enter from back 'air.

According to the plan I saw the racks are going at the corner of Highland and Penn Circle South (by Pizza Sola) and at the corner of Penn Circle South and a new ROW they are putting in by the Citizen's Bank drive thru ATM. They narrowed the sidewalk and installed planting beds, so I don't think they will have room for racks between the intersections, but I would love to be proved wrong.

ok, as long as it is being addressed in some way that's cool... although putting racks on the corner seems somewhat suspect.

Kelly's is another spot that seems ideal for a bike corral.

I want racks on that block so I can lock up while I go get a slice at Pizza Sola.

That reminds me - I want an apparatus I can use to attach a (full) pizza box to my bike without the bungees crushing it and causing the cardboard to come in contact with the cheese.

That reminds me - I want an apparatus I can use to attach a (full) pizza box to my bike without the bungees crushing it and causing the cardboard to come in contact with the cheese.

@salty: one of my winter projects is a rapid-remove pizza rack attachment for my rear rack. I'll keep you posted...

flat board same shape & size as the pizza, with a rim around it deeper than the box.

this whole area of east liberty is the worst freaking situation for biking or walking. one minute you are on the sidewalk and then you are next to a fence and moving cars trying to figure out what you are supposed to do. I hate it. I feel bad for businesses there whose entire front sidewalks are a mess, but I honestly hate riding or walking anywhere near this part of the circle and penn ave. i know they could have been a better job than this.

Is the construction done already?

i saw construction still there last time i went through. i try to avoid the area. i would be so happy to see racks in front of pizza sola. BEST pizza in pittsburgh.

Todd - i asked colin how he used to/does carry pizza while riding and he said he puts it across his handlebars and holds it somehow? i dunno, but he's done it before.

i asked colin how he used to/does carry pizza while riding and he said he puts it across his handlebars and holds it somehow?

Sounds totally safe.

Lyle, if anything the construction seems to be getting worse - there are fences and blocked off sidewalks all over the place. Like Caitlin said, if you're walking you run into fences mid-block with nowhere to go except turning back or crossing a street that is riddled with cars. On the bike, Penn is closed for a block so you end up redirected onto the circle (with its de facto 55mph limit) and a huge mess of a detour.

I think Noah has the best idea so far about carrying the pizza. Problem is, I probably won't plan far enough ahead to take the box with me in the morning. I always ask them to put extra wax paper on top of the pizza which keeps the cardboard off the cheese, but it still gets a little crushed by the bungees.

I can't see a nice way to manage on the bars, it doesn't sound as dangerous for the rider as it does for the pizza!

I carry pizza on a front rack with a few bungees without any cheese smooshing issues. These days it's usually on my CETMA rack, but I did it lots on the top of a basket when I had a bike with a permabasket setup.

In fact, for baskets I have the pizza and beer test. If the basket can't hold a six pack of pizza in it along with a pizza across the top, it is no basket for me.

mmm. 6-pack of pizza. seems like that'd solve the problem right there.

seems like if you trust the structural integrity of the sides of the box, all you'd need are two sturdy plates of *some mostly rigid material* that are the size of your pizza box or maybe slightly larger. sandwich the box between the plates, use a string/second bungee to prevent it from sliding out front/back and you're set. You can carry any number of pizza boxes that way, and if the plates are made of plastic they'll be light. Could even figure out a way to just keep them on the bike, maybe like a skirt guard or something.

Heck, just a rigid plate to sandwich the box at the bungee might do, don't even have to make it the size of the box if that's too big. This is all assuming the sides of the pizza box retain their shape and it's the larger sides of the box that are not up for the forces on them.

I'da thought spakbros would have sorted this out, though.

there are fences and blocked off sidewalks all over the place.

Okay, so it hasn't changed much in two weeks. I thought maybe the concrete fairies had finished it overnight.

Just use the roads and stay off the sidewalks. On a bike, anyway. On foot, I just avoid the whole block.

The circle is intimidating but not insurmountable -- and there are sneak routes through it, you don't have to ride all the way around.

This is the kind of setup you often see pizza and Chinese delivery guys in NY use. Except often with a basket beneath, with a hole cut in the plastic crate to access. It seems perfect if you can procure a soda crate like that

Hah. Six pack of pizza.

Maybe there should be a pizza and six pack delivery convergence potluck carry-technique jamboree?

With some kind of prize involved.

Cheap, collapsable, removable, no bungees. But sadly, no room for a six pack. I have not tried this yet... but what could possibly go wrong?

I've thought about doing a pizza and sixxer alleycat where at some point along the ride you need to pick up each for the afterparty. Smashed pizza? Broken sixxer? You lose.

I will participate in that.

I can carry a case of beer and pizza in my basket! but only when I'm making that stupid face.

+1 cetma rack

i have done this with my cetma rack and swift industries bag many times!

Lolly, the awesomeness of that rack was demonstrated the morning a few weeks back when Bike-Pgh had a table set up at the end of the Jail Trail, and in cleaning up, you carried three complete flats of yogurt AND a huge bag of bagels or something. Must've been 20 pounds and over a cubic foot of stuff. It held and was stable. 'Nuff said.

That Globe basket rules. Very well designed bike. Did you know the engineer behind it is female as well? Yup.

I wrote up that bike a while back, and it includes a photo of me riding around with one of the Specialized marketing guys in the basket.

http://urbanvelo.org/globe-live-integrated-basket-cargo-bike/

"Ride loaded. Appropriately enough after a lunch time beer nothing was stopping me from finding someone to sit in the basket, not even the design engineer imploring me that the rack was designed and tested for 50lbs., max. “Not my bike,” came my reply and marketing guy Nic Sims hopped in for a lap. The bike went where I wanted to point it without the wrestling I was honestly expecting with some 150+lbs on the front. I’ve put a number of miles on front loaded bikes, and this was one of the better steering setups I’ve experienced with a load of that size. We even rode over a stump to really make sure the rack and fork could take it, and things just kept on rolling."

That photo was one of the things that finally finally sold me on it. I tried carrying my gentleman friend in it later though and it was a little wobbly, though it's more reliable for beer, pizza, everything else.

Sorry about threadjack.

back to the East Liberty Circle issues... Unfortunately though I live very to East Lib, I rarely have the need to go through that way. This morning I needed to get through to my dentist on Highland Ave south of the circle... I just went from Negley on Penn, took a right onto Penn Circle West, left on Baum, and right onto Highland...encountered no problems. The lack of parking though is an issue I haven't been aware of, though I recently had to park my bike on the chain link fence in front of the Citizens bank: