Kayak, Bike, Connect: Pittsburgh Connections

Last Saturday, a group of 25 students gained a new, insightful perspective of the city that many of them will be calling home. As part of the orientation process, incoming Carnegie-Mellon University freshmen participated in our Pittsburgh Connections program.

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Relay succeeds by the skin of their teeth!

Each year we set out to do something silly and challenging…ride from Washington DC to Pittsburgh in less than 24 hours. In 2008, we accomplished the mission with 150 riders and a big blowout for Pittsburgh’s 250th birthday. Last year we made it our goal to raise funds to finish the bike trail into Pittsburgh and rode in with minutes to spare. This year we were at it again, ready to pedal through any weather and dodge mammals big and small.

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Summer Series: Sprout Fund Mural Rides

Our educational activities are often our best, and it’s no different this summer! On three consecutive Sunday’s in August we’re offering unique bicycle tours though the city following the trail of the Sprout Fund’s Public Art Program.

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On the Passage Preview Party

Award-winning film maker John Urman has been working on a the film On the Passage for over 2 years! The 30 minute film features the Great Allegheny Passage, our local bike trail that connects Pittsburgh to Cumberland, Maryland and eventually Washington DC.

Be one of the first to view the film! The preview party is Wednesday, July 7th from 6:00 pm to 8:00 pm at the Melwood Screening Room in Oakland. This is the first opportunity to see the film, and meet John Urman afterwords. Read more

Beyond Bikes Day Promotes Cycling Safety and Awareness

Congratulations to these two and their 5 lucky Beyond Bikes Day friends that won our raffle and rolled away on a new set of wheels! Everyone got the opportunity to take home a new helmet, with thanks to Bike-Pgh, and a rear blinkie for rider visibility in low-light conditions.

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A bike tour for every skill level!

Bicycle vacations are the newest craze for anyone seeking a unique vacation. However if you haven’t been on a bike in awhile, or you don’t own a weeks worth of padded bicycle shorts, some of the lengthy trips probably look a bit intimidating. Never fear dear bike tour beginner, Venture Outdoors has bike tours that don’t even require a bike! Read more

Confessions of a not so serious biker

Saturday May 1, we loaded the Venture Outdoors trailer with bikes and a charter bus with 34 riders to hit NYC up for a weekend of riding and exploring via the NYC 5 Boro Bike Tour.

Before this ride, I’d never biked more than 25 miles in one go. I’ve long enjoyed both the outdoors and biking, but ever approached both with one thing in mind: leisure. Well, leisure to be accompanied by a post-leisure ice cream cone.

But I decided to do the ride for the personal challenge of biking further in one day than I ever have, the opportunity to see the city from something other than a cab or photographs, and the promise of being on the back of a tandem bicycle with our Bike Tour Coordinator, Seth “I Bike Uphill for Giggles” Gernot. What could go wrong?

Sunday morning we rolled out of bed around 6:00 AM with the sun and balmy morning air as our cheerleaders. Nothing, not even a waffle (okay, maybe a waffle), could have energized me more. Although the ride wouldn’t begin until 8, thousands of people had already lined up by the time we took our place between the starting point and Battery Park. Being surrounded by that many bikers—eventually, the number would reach over 30,000—was one of the most incredible parts of the ride.

Even in the crowd, we were able to keep track of each other with the footlong flags we decorated our helmets with. We also saw helmets with fluffy pink flamingos, sparkly red streamers, and Star Wars bobble heads. The force was definitely with those riders.

A few New Yorkers apparently hadn’t heard that we were coming. My favorite quote was at a crosswalk as a girl waited impatiently, talking on her cell phone. “There’s like, a thousand bikers here blocking my way,” she said, “and they aren’t stopping.” Poor gal. I bet she was standing there awhile.

With Seth’s surplus of charisma and our 4 well-tuned engines (two right legs and two left in total), I’m pleased to report that the 40 miles flew by pretty comfortably—even on a heavy Huffy tandem made in the ‘80s. That evening, I was also able to get my sweets fix with some “mascarpone” gelato from a little market near our hotel. Mmmm.

I ended the ride with only one complaint. Seth made me bike uphill, and he graciously volunteered to manage the downs. That’s fine—he’s old and needed my help.* But where in the heck did he get this picture?

Someone is trying to sabotage my career as a serious biker. Come on—I pedaled myself, and Seth, up the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge from Staten Island to Brooklyn.** You can be sure I’m tough.

Personal experience by Whitney Philipps, Venture Outdoors Development Intern

*Seth definitely isn’t old! But he did celebrate his birthday with us on the day of the ride, and during the drive to New York with some delicious cupcakes from Dozen.

**Including immediate approaches, the bridge is about 2.7 miles long—the first half of which is uphill.

Old Fashioned Soft Drinks, Timeless Fun!

Some call it ’soda.’  Some call it ‘pop.’  The right thing to call it is delicious. We didn’t let the dreary weather of last weekend overwhelm our Old Fashioned Fountain Drink Bike Cruise!  We made our way alongside the Allegheny on our way to Heinz Field before taking the Ft. Duquesne pedestrian bridge to the Point.

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Breakfast with Chris Carmichael

The Carnegie Science Center is hosting a breakfast with Chris Carmichael, founder and CEO of Carmichael Training Systems, Inc. (CTS) and personal coach to seven-time Tour de France Champion Lance Armstrong. Named the US Olympic Committee’s Coach of the Year in 1999, Chris formed CTS in 2000 to make world-class coaching accessible to athletes of all ability levels. Read more

Golden Triangle Bike Rental opens for the season

No April fools trick here, our friends at Golden Triangle Bike Rental are starting their season on Thursday, April 1st at 11:00 am. Golden Triangle is one of the best places we know of to rent a bike in Pittsburgh. We like them so much, we’ll have Golden Triangle bikes available to rent at Kayak Pittsburgh Downtown throughout the summer!

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