Pedal Pittsburgh was a great way to spend a Sunday. Hosted by the Community Design Center of Pittsburgh it is a great way to experience the city.
We got up a bit early to drive down to OTB Bicycle café. The plan was to ride and advertise at the same time. OTB had jerseys made. There were 10 of us riding for OTB. If we wore a camel back it would cover the logo so, I strapped a small hiking hip pack to my bars. It was pretty chilly so wore jackets. Lora had the idea of just putting her jersey over our thin jackets, so that’s what we did.
After some morning fuel of bagles, muffins, coffee, juice and a little bike maintenance we decided to head out on our 35 mile ride. Registration and festivities were held at the South Side works. Parking wasn’t a problem, and traffic was really light. It was great to see so many cyclists riding, roadies, mountain bikers, hybrids, cruisers, recumbent and even unicyclists. I think everyone saw the one unicyclist who was riding a 46 inch wheel and he did the 50 mile ride! That is amazing considering some of the hills we had to climb.
Our ride took us all around the city. We went to neighborhoods I haven’t even been to in years, even by car. For the most part traffic was easy to deal with and there are more bike lanes than I knew of. We were going at a casual pace. We had some road bikes with us and mountain bikes. I removed my 3rd ring a long time ago in exchange for a rock guard and was worried I would really need it, but I never really did.
The rest stops provided bananas, chips, apples, oranges, pretzels and Gatorade. There was a bit of a line for the restrooms and one rest stop ran out of water, but all in all support was good. There were repair stations too. After the event there was a bike check in at the South Side Works and free food. We decided to skip the free food and head back to OTB Bicycle Café for some premier food and a drink. One of the greatest pleasures after a good ride is sitting around a big table, talking about the day and having a good laugh or two. Maurice even stopped in and joined us for a while.
It was a perfect end to a great day.
I want to thank Michael, Erin, Marty, everyone at OTB and the awesome members of our team.
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