May is National Bike Month!
Today is Bike to Work Day!
I live about 5 blocks away from where I work, so riding to work feels almost like cheating. It’s all downhill and takes literally two minutes. Riding home on the other hand…
As of today, I have worked at Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh for exactly nine years. Before that I was a bike messenger. Yes, in Pittsburgh. Yes, Pittsburgh has bike messengers. Yes, it’s an awesome job. (In the summer. Not so much in sleet and snow. I’m a baby about the cold.)
After I quit, I stopped riding my bike and promptly got fat. I got back into bike riding again and recently bought a spanking new bike. It’s a thing of beauty. Every time I walk past it, I pet it.
MY Raleigh RX 1.0 Cyclocross Bike
I’ve already put a bunch of miles on it and I’m planning some big rides this summer. I’m doing a 50-mile ride to raise money for Diabetes research. I’m also planning some overnight camping trips on the Great Allegheny Passage and in September I’m going to Washington, D.C. via the Great Allegheny Passage and the C & O Canal. All camping. Pray for me, folks, because a camper I am not. I’m more of an eat-in-restaurants-sleep-in-hotels kind of girl. For example, I made a list of what to take and it included make-up, hand cream and perfume. That’s definitely a tough guy fail.
Carnegie Library’s website has a whole section of helpful cycling information, including links to trail maps, tour and advocacy groups and even a book list about cycling (fiction and nonfiction!)
Here are some of my favorite resources. And a bicycle cafe.
A Pittsburgh-based cycling safety, advocacy, and awareness organization offering
a wealth of local cycling information, news, events, links, and community
information, including an online bike map.
Free Ride! is a non-profit recycle-a-bike shop recycles bikes. Located inside
Construction Junction.
And this is just awesome bike stuff.
So if you see me on the trail, say hi! I’ll probably let you pet my bike.
Ride on.
-suzy
Eleventh Stack 