I've chatted with riders from Quebec, Tucson, Seattle, New Zealand, and India on past rides, and then British Columbia and Kansas City in the past three days. It's just one part of the awesomeness that is the GAP.
I was riding near the Steeler practice facility today and saw the trail blocked by two cyclists. It turned out it was a couple from British Columbia trying to move a snapping turtle off the trail. It took a few minutes of them coaxing the turtle with a tree branch, but they eventually succeeded.
I've seen plenty of deer, rabbits, geese and groundhogs, but never a snapping turtle.
For some reason last Saturday I decided to go through Pittsburgh's Strip District to go home instead of my normal route. It's crowded, there are always cars in the bike lanes (I think there were on the other side today), plenty of cars entering the block, and plenty of pedestrians. (Note to self. Take a different route.)
I had my head on a swivel as I saw the car pull out from the curb on the right ahead of me and I tried to stay out of the door zone and stay visible to parked cars so I was riding on the left side of the lane.
The last thing I expected was our local Lance Armstrong to pass me on the right in a three-foot wide bike lane, between me and the parked cars.
I've seen this guy on the Three Rivers Heritage Trail in other areas of the city as well as on the Great Allegheny Passage and it's always the same. No announcement on approach, splitting pedestrians and joggers, buzzing past the elderly on the MUP, and other dangerous nonsense.
I thought about saying something once when I saw him either prepping to ride or packing to leave but I didn't want any more BS and drama. Sucks that his riding style is everything I read about in our local online complaint department.
I just got home from a 3-1/2 day 150mi on the Great Allegheny Passage trail, and planned on replacing my OEM GRX 46/30 chainrings post-ride.
I got the crank arm removed with no issue. When I pulled the crank out, I noticed some water in the bottom bracket (Wheels Mfg T47-BB-SHIM-BB) from either the wet trail or post-ride wash or both. I figured I'd pop the bottom bracket bearings to clean everything out. No issues. New chainrings and crank reassembled. Bearings removed, bottom bracket wiped out, bearings pressed, and crank reinstalled.
Only after I reassembled everything did I realize that I greased the inside of the cups when pressing the bearings instead of using Loctite 603, and of course, nothing is open on Labor Day. 🤦
Having never done any of this before, I was so proud of myself for actually doing this work instead of using the shop. Oh well. One more recovery day while I wait for Loctite to arrive.
Passable, but from mm69 to 62 (Confluence) there are some really dicy sections. Several are marked, but some aren't, so take things slow. There's one that has a foot ridge placed on the bon-river side that's big enough for one person to walk a bike at a time.
There was a storm at lunchtime so that was probably a contributor, but the trail is pretty soggy and mushy for the first three miles or so. After that, it's solid, and smooth going the rest of the way. One tree down but passable.
We stopped for lunch and saw a heavy storm coming. We decided to hang out for a bit at Kickstand to avoid the storm, and then one of the staff members asked if we wanted to bring our bikes inside.
Food's great, service is awesome!
If you have a chance, support these folks. They're hurting with the closure at Duquesne cutting into traffic.
Just a few mushy low spots and two trees partially blocking the trail but everything is passable and in really good shape considering the weather yesterday.
https://ridewithgps.com/routes/56813368?privacy_code=6TgxK9iZYV0mPn0OUXXryNNQEqZ6bP22
https://ridewithgps.com/routes/56813409?privacy_code=BAhGN2eFLWm2YVjEq9rMuNOodY2a8ftE
So if you've got good climbing legs and/or good low gearing, this is doable. If you're carrying gear for a longer trip, I'd only view this as an option if you've got a lot of experience climbing 6% for a half mile or more with bags. Overall, this is less elevation than what I get in Squirrel Hill and Greenfield, but it's definitely more sustained.
Eastbound, we had no issues. The few cars on the road were generally good with the passes from Homestead all the way to Greensprings and Commonwealth Ave. From Commonwealth Ave to Municipal Rd on Homeville Rd is 35mph but we were able to bomb down the shoulder with no issues.
Westbound was a little harder. Climbing Grant St from 837 is a tough climb, and Homeville Rd on the climb is doable but challenging.
The bridge that is out is passable using about 20' of sidewalk.
Finally had to replace the chainrings on my ride at 6500mi. They're still generally holding up on the high torque climbs, but I'm noticing the occasional slip. Next week is the Great Allegheny Passage trip, so I'll swap them out the week after.
Had quite a time trying to find them. Very few folks carry just the rings. Wound up finding these at power meter city
For anyone interested, I want to test ride the Ravine St. detour each way with a group. I'm only riding if there's a group so please RSVP on the event if you're joining.
The event is linked below.
Saturday, Aug 29 9:30am meeting, 10:00am rollout from the Waterfront parking lot between Red Robin and the new construction to Duquesne and back. Casual no-drop, and optional lunch at Golden Age Brewing on the return.
Wear a t-shirt with an image of a parking chair on the back when riding. The parking chair in Pittsburgh is more respected by the general public than red lights, stop signs, bike lanes, sidewalks, pedestrians, and bicyclists. Everyone knows parking chairs are not to be touched. It is a Pittsburgh residency requirement to own one and honor them.
Ride safely dressed as a parking chair.
Edit: for the humor-impaired or undercaffeinated, I am in no way advocating for this.
covering Homestead, South Side, Downtown, North Shore, Millvale, the Strip, Lawrenceville, Friendship, Oakland, Shadyside, Point Breeze, Squirrel Hill, and Greenfield. Tons of people out on the trails including plenty of GAP riders and a Beer Run.
No PRs, only one road incident, and ended with a nice chill-out on the porch swing.
Hope everyone had equally awesome rides today in their own way.
After climbing from the Run to upper Greenfield, I turned from Flemington onto Windsor for the last short climb of the day. An SUV pulled off Mirror and pulled to the right to let the car in front of me pass, and stayed parked for me to finish out the climb.
I tell you, that was a four wheeled oversized Santa and Christmas in August!
Seriously, nice to know not everyone is a jagoff. We managed to exchange waves and it pretty much made the ride.
Trying to do as much service myself and want to get bearings for upcoming replacement. Service docs point to a pair of W540243 51 mm x 40 mm x 6.5 mm bearings. Everywhere else online gives different sizes for upper and lower bearings.
Are they truly the same size for upper and lower?
Can I replace them without disconnecting brake or derailleur cables?
Is an extractor and press required for replacement?
Phillips Ave, Pittsburgh PA.
I can't tell if the rolling with the flashers on when I started to pass, continuing almost a city block with their flashers on, and canceling their right turn at the light while still turning right were just driver ignorance or the driver channeling male genitalia.
TLDR - don't fear learning to maintain your bike like I did.
With our closest Trek shop closed, I tried an independent LBS for my Domane AL3 and Checkpoint SL5 annual service. TLDR it was a lot of money and short on satisfaction.
Tuesday, I decided to do my own mid-season maintenance on my Checkpoint SL5. The drivetrain was getting a bit chatty despite a cassette installed in December and a brand new waxed chain. I managed to reindex it with Calvin's virtual help.
Then I moved to the freehub. The wheelset was purchased from I9 in December but nothing had been touched in 1500mi. I pulled the 1/1 freehub, pawls, and springs and wiped everything down. I put it all back together and used Dumonde Tech freehub oil, then put the freehub back on. I spun it and no sound. I forgot to remove and reinstall the seal (facepalm #1).
After I put the freehub back together (the right way), I mounted it on the hub, greased the hub cap, mounted the cassette, and put it all on the bike. Then I noticed the cassette spacer on the table (facepalm #2).
Disassembly and reassembly #2 and off I went. The test ride on Wednesday was glorious. Shifting was awesome and the freehub sounded like I was reeling in a marlin. It felt like a new bike. I feel like I finished second semester freshman bikewrench class 😆
Winter will definitely be headset bearings, and possibly hub, freehub, and bottom bracket bearings. Looking forward to it.
Booked on Jet Blue through Capital One Travel. Seat selection was confirmed on the site and via email. When it came time to check in, Jet Blue had no record of the selected seats.
I had to spend over an hour and another $160 for seats since the seats on the original tier were sold out. Then when we got to the airport, we printed new boarding passes to confirm the new seats, and when we started to board, we were flagged as not checked in.
Does anyone else have similar experiences? This was our first time booking through Capital One travel and flying Jet Blue. Not sure I want to go through this again.
Jackass decided to try to pass on a blind uphill with a blind turn and two cars in front of me. Nearly pushed me off the road to the right. Sending to the city to add as a datapoint. There are plans for additional design e.g. protected climb lane etc. but I don't know where the city is regarding implementation. Can't be soon enough.
I may need to invest in a top-tube mounted baseball bat or similar.
TL:DR
Cracking sound - add a check on the derailleur hanger frame bolts.
Squeaking under load - check the cleats, screws, and interface if running MTB SPD shoes
Details
I had my SL5 2022 supposedly stripped for maintenance back in March. I paid an independent LBS a small fortune in parts and labor, only to have an increase in cracking sound and squeaking under load. I say supposedly because they either never took the hanger off or they did but failed to put thread locker on the bolts. Maybe threadlocker isn't the norm, and I'm not a bikewrench, so maybe I'm misunderstanding this.
Regardless, after checking the usual suspects for the cracking sound like seatpost, chainring bolts, brake rotor bolts, etc, I found the derailleur hanger frame bolts to be loose. I pulled them, added blue thread locker, and tightened to spec. Cracking sound is gone. On to the squeak.
I took the bike to another LBS yesterday and explained what's going on. Squeak under load, with improvement when pushing heels outward. I got a three week estimate with complete rewiring of derailleur cables plus spoke check on new wheels.
Instead, I started as cheaply as possible with new SPD cleats for ~$20, and added the Crank Brothers MTB SPD shims. The shims will be here tomorrow, but the new cleats have significantly reduced the noise already. I think what is happening is my Fizik Terra Atlas MTB soles are rubbing on the PD-T8000 pedal frames.
I think I'm going back to Trek for service in the future. I like trying to support local LBS since our nearest Trek shop closed, but the two I tried were highly recommended yet I'm unimpressed by the results. If I'm going to pay, I may as well pay folks trained to work on my bikes.