BIKEPGH MESSAGE BOARD ARCHIVE

No can do. You'll have to either cross the river at 31st and come in the North Shore Trail, or learn to ride on the street. Railroad Street might be a good option for you for part of that gap. Also, the trail you reference that starts at 23rd is currently closed in the vicinity of the Convention Center due to construction.

P.S. Scott just announced that on Friday he will serve as a bike buddy from the new Bike Pittsburgh location (34th and Butler/Penn) to downtown. One ride with him would probably teach you all you need to know to be comfortable. Any chance you can ride on Friday? The weather looks to be BEAUTIFUL....

Eppi, I'm in Highland Park too and ride downtown to Gateway Center. Let me know if you want to bike pool. I usually leave around 7ish, and get downtown in plenty of time to clean up and put on fancy work clothes for an 8:30 start time.

Now, granted, I go through Oakland and take the trails there, so it takes longer, but if I had someone else with me, I might be inclined to take Penn.

Let me know what you think.

you can pretty much stay off roads the entire way from 50th to downtown, there are trails most of the way back there, and where there aren't there are wide open parking lots and little traffic. i will ride it tomorrow to refresh my memory and then post a map, or maybe someone who uses it more often can just do it from memory

@mark, please let me know how that ride from 50th goes. I really appreciate it. I am planning to give it all a try Saturday Morning so any pointer would be great.

@nochasingiguanas, thanks for the offer, but I am a little shy about this whole adventure, given that I am not the default age or size of the rest of the riders I see on the road, so I think I am going to make the trip solo so I do not inflict myself on others.

@all, thanks for the support and encouragement. I my next click will be on the membership button. You all are reason enough to support this org..

re "given that I am not the default age or size of the rest of the riders I see on the road, ...so I do not inflict myself on others."

Please, please, please don't feel that way. I can't speak for iguanas or everyone, but my perception is that the vast majority of people on here are just bursting to be able to help out someone new, people can remember being new and tentative themselves, and fully know what to expect when offering help to a newbie. And if someone is so centered that they are concerned about your personal characteristics or fledgling abilities, this is probably not the board they are on.

A writer I like once said something to the effect of "there never existed a party to which the addition of more people didn't make better".

another option would be to try the route out on a saturday or sunday. some of the backstreets like railroad or hatfield might as well be a trail on a sunday as there is so little traffic.

what part of downtown do you need to get to?

You might want to park at the Millvale Riverfront Park - Park and Ride Lot - and ride in from there on the North Shore Trail. From the North Shore Trail you can go directly up the spiral ramp on the Ft D. Bridge and then drop into the end of Point State Park. That whole route would be off the roads. That's a very peacefull ride except you might get attacked by geese. Like somebody said, the other trail on the Pittsburgh side is closed and under construction from the 16th street or so. Do a search on this forum for - Millvale or Milvale or Elevated Trail - to get a bunch of info.

One note, the millvale trail is good, but is also under construction. they have built a temporary trail along side it, but it can be a bot bumpy in spots. I rode it on my road bike coming home from the keg ride so it isnt too bad.

that's a really good suggestion by boazo.

I take a pretty low traffic route from 47th to the garage at Penn & 9th every week day. Cross under the 40th St. Bridge, then Smallman & Railroad into town.

I leave around 7:30, and you're more than welcome to join me any day you want.

@eppi There will always be those who are: fitter/fatter, faster/slower, better/worse bike. IMHO labels are good for food not people, it's all about being safe and having fun. Hope to see you out there!

With the point construction, where would you get off the trail inside the triangle that doesn't involve stairs?

+1 boazo.

Unfortunately I think even railroad st on the weekend could be a tad bit intimidating starting out with the poor surface, railroad tracks and crazies from Ohio fighting for parking spaces to go shop in the strip.

eppi, I think you will realize that the cycling community around here is one of the most diverse groups of people you will find.

Railroad rules during the weekdays. I ride it back from the strip almost every day to 28th St. It's a little rugged but the lack of cars makes up for it. Big rigs are respectful but the garbage trucks sometimes give me shit.

unfortunately the trail on the allegheny/milvale side is a bit nasty right now, otherwise i would have recommended it.

if you're running thicker tires its ok, but around 40th street its nasty gravel and mud, plus you have to resonably get to 40th street, which is another challenge.

RE: bd, stairs

you can get into the point very easily without using stairs, unless something has changed in the last couple weeks you should be able to do it the most obvious way, take the ft duq ped. bridge and turn left under the arch when you get to the point

OK, from the north shore trail over the bridge and under the arch will work, I thought you were coming down the trail on the south shore of the Allegheney under the Duquesne bridge.

http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=3743780

there are other ways to do this that include more trail, but i think this is the most straight forward and fastest.

@Eppi Starting off myself s an out of shape biker I had some of the same feelings that you did. I agonized over my route, worrying about a few stretches of highway and kept putting it off. I finally decided to do it and was very surprised at how easy it actually was, and I basically worried over nothing. When I first started doing the 10 mile ride home, I had a spot that I stopped at to rest for a few minutes and prepare for the second half of my ride....that only lasted for a weeke or so and no thewhole ride is pretty routine and enjoyable.

As with most fears, once you initiate you discover

it is nowhere as bad as you feared.

I commute from Lawrenceville to Downtown everyday, and usually just go down Butler Street and then Penn Avenue.... yeah there's traffic involved but really, it is not too bad.

If you don't wanna do Penn Avenue, Smallman is rather peaceful anytime of the day.

If you're on Highland Park, you could do this:

START from N Negley Avenue

Ride DUE NORTH to Mellon Terrace

at Mellon Terrace TURN RIGHT to Mellon St.

at Mellon St it becomes Lake Dr.

at Lake Dr. KEEP LEFT and continue onto One Wild Place

at One Wild Place STAY NORTH - (downhill!) and KEEP LEFT to Butler St

at Butler St TURN LEFT and it is all flat for..like.... acouple of miles? haha until it becomes Penn Avenue

Penn Avenue takes you to Downtown...

IF You don't wanna do Penn Avenue due to traffic,

from Butler St, TURN RIGHT on 36th street... ride (2) blocks down to Smallman St

at Smallman STAY WEST and continue all the way to 11th St - Convention Cenetr

Fromt here you should be good to go!

If you go down Butler St, there's this AWESOME cross-guard at the intersection of 44th and Butler... she always tells you 'Good morning! Have a safe ride! Have a great day! Sort of thing....

Best of luck! Maybe I'll see you in the road!

@Mark, thanks for the route, I will try this next week. I drove my bike downtown yesterday and road the eliza furnace trail to panther hollow and then to shadyside and back to the point. That was a breeze, so that could be my backup plan.

I will try this route out next week. before my parking lease ends.

this route is great, i really wouldn't mind taking you through it your first time though because there are a couple parts which are a bit tricky, i lead beginner bike trips for venture outdoors which makes me used to people who literally haven't been on a bike for 20 years.

Honestly, I wouldn't take One Wild Place (and that's just me) because I've seen how close to the curb some cars come down the hill (and fast) on those blind curves.

I think that's one of the few places I worry I wouldn't be seen until it's too late. Taking the lane wouldn't even solve the problem in my mind, not with the speed of the cars.

Now, the road seems wide enough to add in a bike lane....

@nochasing: I find that taking the lane does do the trick, but I go right to the center line. And you can go pretty fast downhill. But this is a technique that beginners often don't understand.

I don't think a bike lane would be a good idea downhill. Maybe uphill, but I usually want to take the lane at the blind corner uphill so I don't get squeezed into the curb or right hooked.

Mark, thanks for the route, I had a great ride Saturday from Highland park to downtown, and used most of your route from 50th st. I agree about one wild place being a bit too curvy for safety. I think I am going to start by riding from 57th St. There is a lovely park there with parking. So I think I will use that as my starting point for a while.

I road a mountain bike and had a great time riding along the train tracks too, although I was covered in mud when I got DT.

So once you get to the convention center and the trail is blocked. Does anyone know how to get back to a trail that will get you to the point?

One Wild Place seems too wild for me. Cars go close to the curb as well as cutting into the other lane while going on the outside of one of the many curves. That makes biking in the middle not too appealing to me...

eppi, I also live in HP and try to bike to work on the North Shore when I can. I take one of two variations on this route:

Euclid South to Penn Circle and then Penn. Turn right onto Penn, then left on Negley, then the next right onto Coral.

Coral west to the Waldorf school (forget the cross street). Turn left.

Turn right on Friendship. Take that to Ella, turn left.

Take Ella to Liberty, turn right, follow Liberty into the strip.

Variation one:

Turn right onto 31st, cross the bridge, turn left onto River and follow it to where it turns to the right, and join the trail there (I am wary of riding the trail sometimes as I have a road bike; at that point, the trail is concrete)... follow it to work. OR

Variation two:

Turn right onto 31st, then left onto Penn... follow it into the city (where I cross one of the 3 Sisters to reach northshore). More traffic, but somehow it shaves a good 10-15 minutes off of my trip. Also it's fun to ride thru the strip when all the businesses are getting ready for the day

Anyway I usually leave around 7:30. I don't ride too fast (takes me 45 minutes or so). When you're comfortable riding with others, let me know, perhaps we could pool if you're interested in my route. Cheers!

eppi, i think the trail is only blocked for a couple blocks, you can hop over to the sidewalk on the convention center side, the trail is open again at 9th st.

if you're up for a little adventure you can ride the trail beside the river under the 40th st bridge and take it along the tracks all the way to railroad st... definitely the most car-avoiding route, i do this occasionally on 28s so mtn bike tires should handle it fine

There are ramps from Fort Duquesne Bridge to the trail below at each of the Three Sisters Bridges.

Eppi, if I was going where you were you were going, my preference would be the Sixth St Bridge. I like the tight switchbacks by PNC Park (a pleasant little challenge)

On the bridge itself I tend to let cars go by (people drive faster on bridges, for some reason), but Sixth to Penn to by the Hilton is a pleasant little piece of Downtown to ride through. Just take the lane there and obey the rules and you should have no problem.