I rode Pedal Pittsburgh, the annual fundraising ride of our local advocacy group, Bike Pittsburgh, Sunday on my trusty orange Rambouillet. I had three bottles, two tail lights and a pair of toe straps (remember those?) to carry my shell jacket and T-shirt since I couldn't make the pre event pick up of my number and shirt. https://photos.app.goo.gl/oTNX5PUQPK2n28DF7
I rode to the event from home at o' dark thirty at 51° and clear skies, pre-sunscreened, jersey pockets full of stuff to account for crowded or depleted refreshment stops. I took care of the admin stuff and had a half hour to kill so I patronized a coffee vendor in a compact '60s era camping trailer to warm my hands while I rolled my shell and T-shirt into a nice shape to strap to my Brook's bag loops. https://photos.app.goo.gl/GL7yC4RtMPhnp26B9 The start for the 62 mile group was 0700 and headed directly up Mount Washington to Emerald View Park. https://photos.app.goo.gl/T9emoZMpcHRbwZAR9 After a few miles of wandering around on the ridge the route dropped to the Monongahela River and crossed into downtown where I heard someone say "nice bike" on my left. He was riding a blue A. Sam Hilborn and I said "that too". https://photos.app.goo.gl/UMEDX7yQ9aYcAoP68 The rider, Hill, was from Seattle. He is retired and spends his summers driving from city to city participating in similar events. He volunteered Saturday in the final prep of the event in exchange for free participation. He'd come from Detroit and a ride there most recently. Together we chatted bikes, places ridden and headed into some big climbing, distracted by conversation. Total climbing for the 62 miles was over 4000' and we were plugging right along. Hill even commented that "we must piss them off" regarding the two old guys on those heavy steel bikes banging up the hills and me guiding him down the other sides with previous knowledge of the roads and no unnecessary braking so we carried our inertia into the next climb. https://photos.app.goo.gl/dQmtXFh9rYZjVTzC6 Onward we rode, reaching the lunch stop in Highland Park and taking our sandwiches away from the crowd, up the stairs facing the english gardens and fountain, up to the reservoir promenade to enjoy the view of the entry gates. In a few minutes we headed off for the final legs of the ride. We'd enjoyed a steady stream of conversations among the 3000+ riders who I've met through local group rides over the years. The finish was a festival and we enjoyed an IPA from a regional maker, sat under an umbrella as we enjoyed it and talked bikes and riding. Hill said this is the first place he's come to ride that he wants to come back for other rides. He purposely doesn't repeat places so he can see more but the community, friendliness of neighborhoods and visual impact of the route really impressed him. https://photos.app.goo.gl/KXqnF2rvXTqfxzyp8 I got home with a tick under 80 miles on my day and I felt pretty good rather than hobbled. Days like this are why my Rivendell is almost 20 years old. What would be better? Andy Cheatham Pittsburgh -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to rbw-owners-bunch+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/rbw-owners-bunch/ed688f51-d286-40c1-bbe3-bfb4dbaf84d5%40googlegroups.com.
