Cool Bicycle Hats June 3, 2007
Posted by Patrick in : Cycling , 1 comment so farI was manning a table for my friend at the Union Project this morning for the annual Highland Park community festival. And the booth across from me was selling pretty sweet bike hats. I picked up a couple and you should too. They go by the name of spoke punchers.
Claudia Died March 8, 2007
Posted by Patrick in : Travel, Cycling , 2 commentsAfter countless recommendations from friends and family about getting a new car, Walter’s automotive confirmed their fear last Monday. My car has been past due for an inspection for a while now, and I knew there would be some issues bringing it in. I didn’t expect the car to be that bad. Unfortunately, the mechanic found that part of the subframe had rusted out which would be incredibly expensive to fix for an 11-year old Mercury Sable that had 167k miles on it.
The car has done me well, so it’s bitter sweet to part with it. The engine and transmission are still running great which makes it bitter. But the recent issues with it will be sweet to finally be rid of it. I’ll probably end up donating it.
This leads me to figure out what to do for transportation. In a rather rushed decision, I declared March to be a bus/bike month. I just bought a new furnace for one of my tenants and I’m not looking to invest (rather divest) in a car. With Spring around the corner, the idea of bussing and biking around is not that bad of an idea.
Getting to work is suprisingily convenient. The pickup for the bus is a seven minute walk from my house, and it drops me off right in front of my workplace. I’ve taken it the last few days and I enjoy it immensely. I’ve been able to sleep, chat with passengers and the busdriver, read, and stare into the ether. Also, it’s about the same amount of time as driving because it uses the busway. So there’s no traffic for the first third of the route!
And I’ve also tuned up the bike so I can start biking places. I finally fixed my flat tube that I had from last year. It turned out to be a small chip in the tire. So, I took it out to the North Side last night for landlord class. The temperature dropped considerbly last night. The other day, I purchased a balcava from the new Trek store near my house, which helped out tremendously.
The ride to class wasn’t that bad. It was the ride home that was the killer. For my hands, all I had were my fingerless bike gloves. I thought I was going to get frostbite on the way home. But I thankfully made it home and enjoyed some half-off appetizers with Chad at the Sharp Edge.
The tricky circumstances that I still have to iron out is picking up big things (like say, from Home Depot) and visiting my parents. Stay tuned!
Over the Hills to Work We Go February 9, 2007
Posted by Patrick in : Cycling , 3 commentsOne of the many things that I’m looking forward to when moving into my new place is the opportunity to bike to work. Right now, I live an easy twenty miles away from work. Moving to East Liberty will cut that distance by five miles, making it doable in my mind. The distance is still a little daunting. Though, I know others have longer routes than mine.
Some fellers on Bike Pittsburgh helped me solidify the route. It’s a little round-about, but the East Hills can have some (ahem) hills. The route tries to maximize flatness and minimize traffic when possible.
The first six miles are fairly flat. Then, it’s a four hundred foot climb over Mt. Verona (my term). The next three miles have nice rolling hills. The rider is then greeted with the trickiest part - the turnpike overpass. The road gets fairly narrow and steep here. After that, I should be home free. I’ll let you know what happens, come this spring.
Lesson learned August 28, 2006
Posted by Patrick in : Cycling , 3 commentsAfter biking home from Nathan & Val’s place in Highland Park, I learned why cyclists either carry around a bike pump or a Schrader valve adapter on their bikes. As I was speeding down Penn Avenue in Lawrenceville, my rear tire (which is always the case!) somehow got a flat.
Since I stood a good four miles away from home, I walked over to Liberty Avenue to see if I could spot any bikers that could lend me a hand. Unfortunatetly, it was late, and I couldn’t find anything but pointers to the nearest gas station. And as I mentioned before, I needed a valve adapter for the car pump to work.
So, I started the long trek home. On foot. You see some weird stuff when you walk from Bloomfield to the North Side after midnight. I’m glad I’m home safe and sound.
It’s bedtime.
Tessaro’s and swing August 27, 2006
Posted by Patrick in : Friends, Pittsburgh, Cycling , 2 commentsBefore my sister takes off for Penn State, the family celebrated one last time at Tessaro’s this evening. Every year, Tessaro’s is rated as the best place in Pittsburgh for burgers. And even though I’ve had two burgers in the past week, I had to learn what all the fuss was about. My pick was the bacon and blue cheese burger, which was very tasty. I didn’t meet the challenge to finish it, however. It was larger than a hockey puck.
After spending a good time chatting and saying goodbyes to the family, I went next door to the Dreaming Ant to rent Stop Making Sense. A Beleza barrista recommended this movie earlier today, after she learned of my fondness for the Talking Heads. So, I’m looking forward to seeing that.
After picking up the movie, I swung over to Wightman to swing. A friend leaves for college this week, so we celebrated the night dancing. However, from my place to Tessaro’s to Wightman, I rode my bike. So I think some of the girls were grossed out when I arrived all hot and bothered…Oh well.
Patrick 3:07 August 11, 2006
Posted by Patrick in : Friends, Pittsburgh, Cycling , 5 commentsLast Sunday, the Pittsburgh triathlon went off without a hitch. Three hundred and sixty people finished. The times ranged from 1:58 to 4:55. My goal was first to complete the race and second to finish under three hours. So, I just fell short of it. Overall, I was happy with the results.
The 10K run ended up being the most difficult and exhausting part of the race. Even though it was at the end, I didn’t think it would be that bad. The swim was easier than expected. And the cycling was just about expected.
My 1.5K swim was 34:13. The 40K cycling was 1:22:11. And the 10K run was 1:04:47. My transition times were (a long) 4:23 and 2:02, respectively.
The swim was faster than expected, probably because 2/3 of it was downstream. I swam the entire race breaststroke, because my motor control is subpar when it comes to freestyle. Maybe a few more months in the pool could correct that.
My pace for cycling was 18.1 mi/h. I could have gone a bit faster. One highlight from cycling is that the only two seconds my roommate and I were next to each other the entire race, happened to be the same time when a KDKA cameraman was filming. We were the first triathlon clip on the news later that day.
And the run was tiring. Right from the beginning, I felt extremely tired. So my 10:26 mile pace was pathetic. But, I finished and was excited. I hope to scan some photos my parents took and post them.
Here are the results [PDF] if you want to check them out.
And that’s the truth, Ruth July 17, 2006
Posted by Patrick in : Movies, Cycling , add a commentI finally saw Do the Right Thing with my friend Chad on Friday. My two good film buddies (Tim & Schwebs) always talked this movie up in college. I now see why. It’s a powerful and intense movie, with a great story and direction from Spike Lee. The movie made me think quite a lot how racism develops and cycles through generations and families. Wikipedia reports that Roger Ebert (I love the man even though he’s grown a little soft in his old age) said that it was “the only film to ever make him cry.”
And speaking of truth, my wheel is finally true. (How’s that for a title tying two completely different subjects together?) At least, it’s good enough for me. I stopped by Kraynick’s in Garfield to work on my wheel. He has every bicycle related tool under the sun. For me, this meant a truing stand. After two and half hours of tweaking spoke tension, I think my wheel’s at a good place. Unfortuantely, I stripped two of the nipples (spoke nuts!) on my spokes. So, I’ll probably have to replace the spokes next go around. Truing a wheel, I’m finding, is a very patient and slow process.
Kraynick’s never ceases to amaze me. Bike parts of every flavor from every era adorn that place from the floor to the ceiling (some sweet panorama shots of the shop). Six bike stands sit in the rear of the store. You don’t have to buy a thing at this place, and you can just go in the back and wrench on your bike as long as you want. In addition, you can tap Gerry’s (the store owner) mind endlessly. He’s extremely helpful and knowledgeable. And the weird thing I’m learning is that it seems that he’d rather have you learn how to fix your bike yourself, then let him do it. It’s really an amazing place.
New acquisition July 14, 2006
Posted by Patrick in : Cycling , 2 comments
Maybe not as nice as Colin’s, but after a couple of months of looking, I acquired a new (at least for me) bike. After scouring various bike shops and different cities’ craigslists, a listing in Pittsburgh popped up a couple of weeks ago. It was for a 56cm entry level Cannondale. And for a good price too. It was exactly what I wanted. A 58cm might have been a tad better, but this one works out great. The shifting is real smooth. My body is still getting used to riding on a road bike. Positioning seems more important than a mountain bike. As a few people have told me, “Buying a mountain bike is like buying a T-Shirst - small, medium or large. Buying a road bike is like buying a tailored suit - it should fit you just right.”
Right now, the only problem with the bike is that the rear wheel got out of whack a few days ago. I was riding down the road and hit a pothole/metal grate. The rear tube blew out, along with the wheel’s trueness. I replaced the tube, but I think I screwed up the wheel even more when I tried to true it. One of the spokes feels broken. It might be time to take it to Kraynick’s.
Act IV: Hurry, buy part! My wounded knee! June 6, 2006
Posted by Patrick in : Travel, Friends, Cycling , 3 commentsOkay, sorry that was a little lame.
My legs felt like stilts. Hobbling around our hotel room in Meyersdale, PA, I was having serious misgivings about the 100 miles that lay in front of us. An acute pain started in my left knee and I had a feeling that six Ibuprofen would not cure this problem. I could still bend it, but it was painful. I hoped that it just needed some good old stretching.
Walt and I shoved off around 8 in the morning. We visited Sheetz to pick up a quick breakfast. He dared to eat the shmonster, while I went for two shmuffins. We were definitely on the trail by 8:30. The knee started to feel a little bit better as I started to move it. But every so often, it still felt like someone jabbed a #2 pencil right next to my kneecap. Needless to say, my attitude started off a little sour.
Since being off the C&O, and on the Great Allegheny Passage, there were a few noticable differences. For one, the path itself was a lot nicer. Chipped limestone instead of dirt/gravel. This made biking much easier and faster. And because of the towns, the stops in between were much closer together. Plus, there seemed to be a waterfall every half of mile or so.
We were making pretty good time. Our first major stop was the town of Ohiopyle, which was about 40 miles from where we stayed. We arrived a little after noon. The sun was warm, and the skies were clear. But, we knew a storm was approaching from the West.
While in Ohiopyle, we met a kind older couple in their late 50’s, early 60’s. They flew from Colorado to Pittsburgh, so that they could bike to DC. The guy had a huge GPS system mounted on his bike that told you everything you wanted to know about your current position. And one very helpful piece of info was its doppler radar. And it looked bad. You could see a map of where you were at, with a huge green blob of rain moving from the west. And we were heading right into it.
At this point, we sat 60 miles from home. And our hour+ of lounging and chatting at Ohiopyle was not moving us any closer. So we hit the trail again at 1:30. And there it was again. Sharp pains from my inner left thigh. It just needs to warm up, I tell myself.
About six miles from Ohiopyle, we hear what sounds like a rifle right behind Walt’s bike. Our heads turn to see Walt’s rear tire draped loosely around its wheel. Okay, minor setback. Remember, from day one. We packed a spare inner tube. This will only set us back 20 minutes, and we’ll be back on the road again.
So, we detached the tire and inner tube. Then, we took out the new one and placed it between the wheel and the tire and started to pump. Eager to leave, I started to get my stuff back in the saddle bags. At this point, I was munching on a handful of peanut M&M’s as I watched Walt retread his wheel. But now we learned that it was just not the tube.
The tube that Walt just inflated started to push away at the gouge in the actual tire. Bad news. We don’t have an extra tire. The nearest town was Ohiopyle, which was six miles away. Quick thinking told Walt to grab my bike and sprint towards it, buy a new tire and sprint back. I lay down on a bench close to our incident and attempted to nap.
Walt returned an hour later, a little winded, and a new tire slung around his shoulder. He wrapped the new tire over the inner tube and placed in on the wheel. He then inflated it, and found the source of the blown tube. The rear brake rubbed against the side of the tire, which finally ate through the rubber, which caused the hole, and the tube to pop. All this happened because the wheel was not true. And unless we wanted to spend all day fixing Walt’s wheel, we knew that we could not true it ourselves. So, Walt disengaged the rear brake and decided to suffer the wobbly wheel for the next fifteen miles until we hit the town of Connellsville, where hopefully we’d find a mechanic to fix it.
So, we were off again, with the wheel fiasco putting us back about 1½-2 hours. It was almost five o’clock and we were still about fifty miles from home with a semi-broken wheel. Not to mention, the knee screamed again from pain. Sometimes, every crank of my left leg caused me to utter some groan that Walt probably grew tired of hearing.
Around 5:00, we pulled into Connellsville. A bike shop was literally right along the trail. And it was open for one more hour. We peeked our heads in, and the owner agreed to fix the wheel right up. Praise God! He also pointed us to an italian place across the street so we could have both our lunch and dinner. We each bought a full hoagie and brought it back to his shop.
The married couple who owned this shop were very generous and helpful. Definitely visit it! They invited us behind the showroom to the shop, where we could sit down and enjoy our hoagies while they worked on Walt’s bike. We devoured these sandwiches as we tried to make conversation between bites with the lady of the shop. Walt’s bike was back within 10 minutes, with a tuned up rear wheel and brake. They even gave us a taste of her very own beanless chili. They swore that one of the restaurants around town stole the recipe and was using it as their own. And not only did they give us chili, but they equipped us with trash bags for the monsoon that was approaching. We cut out some neck and arm holes and made some excellent ponchos.
Around 6 o’clock, we waved bye to our friends at Bikes Unlimited and got back on the trail. 40+ miles to go. And then, the rain started. Walt, being the smart one, put on the poncho immeadately. I waited a bit to see if things would tide over. They didn’t. It started to pour on us. And the temperature started to drop. Not only because of the rain, but also because nighttme was approaching. At this point, it was probably in the low fifties. We put on our pants and tried to fight the headwind pushing from the northwest.
We must have looked ridiculous out there. We were definitely the only people on the trail. Probably, the only people outside, period. And we had these big garbage bags draped over us. My knee continued its frequent stabbing pains. We biked the next few hours with sometimes very low spirits. Walt seemed to maintain a hopeful outlook, which encouraged me. Sometimes, the rain mixed with the cold and the knee, just got to me. It caused us to stop more often, especially under shelters and bridges, to escape the constant barrage of rain.
Every so often, especially as we approached the next to last town of West Newton, memories and quotes from Eric Liddell and Chariots of Fire spurred me on at some points. Even after drafting me at one point, Walt asked, “Where did all the energy come from?” Because at this point, we were both wiped. This also reminded me of one of my favorite sermon series preached by Keller. It was on Christian hope. And he defined hope as our believed in future and ultimate reality. And that the way we live now is not determined (as we may think) by our present circumstances, but rather by what we believe our ultimate future (or reality) to be. This trail of thoughts would sometimes add the much needed fuel to my heart.
We arrived in West Newton around 8:00. Now, we were 30 miles from home. We beelined straight for the Quik Stop right by the trail. We both happily gulped down large hot chocalates. And after the owner taking pity on us, she gave the drinks to us free.
We left around 8:30. By this time, it was dark. So, we put on our headlamps and biked through the rainy dark night. At one point, unbeknownst to me, Walt was drafting behind me. And since our vision was quite limited because of the dark, I thought we were approaching a gate fairly quickly. So I called out “GATE” and slammed on the brakes. Suprising Walt, he quickly veered to the left and crashed into a pile of weeds. Now, we each have taken a spill.
There’s not a lot to say about the next few hours, other than that it was dark, rainy and cold. And for me, quite painful. My knee was very painful, and I could only envision the days of recuperating afterwards. We neared McKeesport around 11 o’clock. Walt’s buddy was supposed to pick us up around midnight. Maneuvering to the town proved to be a bit tricky. Some truck drivers smoking on the side of the road had to point us in the right direction.
Now, only a bridge stood in our way between us and our final destination of McKeesport. We put the blinking lights on the back of our bikes and fired up the legs for one quick sprint. I was now screaming out loud because of the oncoming pain. When we reached the town center around 11:30, I literally could not bike another mile. We collapsed near a GetGo. The friend we were meeting couldn’t bring our bikes back to the house, so we chained them up next to a bank hoping that it would ward off any potential thieves. Scott arrived just after midnight with a fresh dozen of Krispy Kreme donuts. It was heaven. I just remember the glory of sitting in the cushy rear seat of a Chevy Lumina pounding those sugar laden doughnuts with my head against the back of the seat. We finished.
Act III: A century in fourteen hours May 15, 2006
Posted by Patrick in : Travel, Friends, Cycling , 2 commentsUpdate: The trip will be told in four acts instead of three.
The cell phones chimed at 6 o’clock. We gave ourselves fifteen minutes to collect our thoughts, change into our fresh & clean bike outfits (remember, we had the chance to use our hotel’s washing machine the night before), eat a couple granola bars and head out the door.
We could still see our breath. With our bodies feeling a bit more stiff than the day before, the sun couldn’t come up soon enough. Before we headed out officially, Walt bought some nice brown gardening gloves for the ride. At $2.50, they were probably one of the best investments he made the whole weekend.
I don’t know if it was early morning fatigue, but my muscles did not want to work. It probably also had to do with the fact that my body was still sending round the clock complaints to my brain about its lack of preparation. Trying to distract yourself from those only lasts you so long.
At the end of the WMRT - only about 10 miles from our hotel - we jumped on the road again. We planned to travel on the road until we hit the Paw Paw tunnel, which was a good 15 miles from our present position. Again, we thought that by traveling on some asphalt, we could make up for some lost time. Plus, we really enjoyed the Maryland countryside the day before.
We veered off the road, and of course, were met with a steep grade that carried us up one of the many hills we hit that day. The next few hours felt like a rollercoaster. Half of the time, we were on our feet, walking our bikes up unfinished roadways, trying not to swallow the gnats buzzing around our heads. The other half of the time, we were in tuck position trying to break our record of 35 mph as we blazed past Maryland wilderness.
Those first few hours were thoroughly exhausting. We did not plan on climbing such high hills. Eventually, we had come to the road that would carry us back to the C&O. Because of the ill marked roads, we weren’t sure if the dirt path that we were on was the right one or not. We wanted Sportsman Club Road, but we had no way of truly identifying it. It seemed more like a long private driveway than anything.
The road was a nice change of pace, because it gave us a chance to do some quassi mountain biking. Near the bottom, we coasted through a stream as we tried to find a way back to the trail. Eventually, we found a path marked by a couple of deep treads left by a truck of some sort. Instead of tracing these treads with my wheels, I hit them at a perpendicular angle. My front tire sank into the divot, and I was instantly thrown over the handlebars into the weeds. The first spill of the trip.
The last 30 miles of the C&O now lay ahead of us. Again, the sun and weather were glorious and we were making fairly good time. The Paw Paw tunnel was a fun tunnel to trek. It was 3100 feet long and dated before the Civil War. It was completely dark inside, and you could hear the water seeping through the cracks and echoing off its walls. Pretty creepy. Thankfully, we had brought our headlamps.
Around 3-4 PM on Monday the 24th, we finally completed the C&O Canal! We pulled into the visiting center in Cumberland, MD and talked to the man behind the desk about the next trail - the Great Allegheny Passage.
He taught us the route, but he also directed us to a bike shop in the area for some more information. So before heading over to the shop, we checked the weather at the library. The next day looked bad. The forecast called for a wet and chilly evening.
Arriving at the bike shop around 5:00, we hoped to hit our original goal of Meyersdale, PA, which was still another 30 miles. However, this leg would take us over Mount Savage which would be by far the steepest climb of the trip. We would have to climb about 2000 feet over 15 miles. The other 15 miles would be downhill. After talking to the bike shop owner, a customer was willing to take us to the foot of Mount Savage. It required going down alternate route 40, which was known by the locals as “the narrows”. It’s basically a quarter mile of highway with no shoulder. It actually wasn’t too bad.
The next road took us up the mountain. It was route 36. It paralleled the trail that was currently unfinished. Before we started the climb, we stopped at a Gabriel brother’s (a clothes consignment store) and bought some warm-up pants for the next day. We didn’t bring any pants for the trip 
The first seven miles of the climb were on the road. It was nice because the shoulder was very wide. We didn’t have to worry about a mac truck smacking us from behind. And when we arrived at the trailhead in Woodcock hollow, we were relieved to see that the trail was the chipped limestone that we were familiar with back in Pittsburgh - much better than the dirt/gravel of the C&O.
A couple of the vistas along the trail were quite beautiful. We finally crested the mountain about 30 minutes before sunset. From this point, we still had another 15 miles to go before Meyersdale. We had already scored a room for the night. $40/night for a two bedroom room. I love these small towns!
Around 9:00, we pulled into our hotel. We finally did it! We met our original plan of 100 miles. The place we stayed at was a family owned diner/motel, with eight rooms in all. This was when my body starting feeling the effects. Walking the steps up to our room proved be a painful exercise. And a slow one at that.
The kitchen was open only till 9, so we jumped in quickly and bought some delicious chicken fingers and fries. The meal was topped with grandma’s blueberry pie. The aches and groans grew more acute and vibrant as the next couple hours went on. We planned to get up at 8 and finish the last hundred miles of trail. A storm was approaching from the west, and without doubt, we knew that at some point, we were going to get dumped on. It was supposed to dip into the low 40’s by tomorrow evening.
We set our alarm for 7:30, and planned to eat shmagels and shmuffins at the nearby Sheetz for breakfast. Healthy, isn’t it? One more day till home.