BIKEPGH MESSAGE BOARD ARCHIVE

Paging Mr StuinMcCandless ...

We should get to know one another. I'm just off Perrymont near Perry Hwy, about a half mile south of CCAC. I regularly ride into town from there. I work near Forbes/Grant. I have three paths. Without going into a lot of detail: 1) Perry Hwy to Perrysville Ave 2) Babcock Blvd 3) McKnight Rd (to the southern corner with Babcock) I don't know the terrain west of Perry very well, so I don't know what you'd encounter riding from your front door. If you don't mind driving to the Perry park & ride by the HOV entrance, it should be a straight shot from there into town on Perrysville Ave. The key to riding on McKnight is to fully occupy the right lane. Don't hug the edge, it invites close passes, and you are entirely within the law by taking that lane. Go to the six-minute point in this video and watch how it's done. Edit: More recently, I ride at what I call the "40 line". Think of the lane as a 0-100 scale. With the left lane line at zero and the right at 100, I position myself at 40. In the video above, I'm more like 15. But in general, squarely in the center of the lane, or a little left of that. Second edit: Rochester to Perry should be no worse than riding any other road around here. I rarely am on Rochester, so have no experience with it.

You could ride Rochester to Babcock, Babcock to Millvale, and then the north shore trail to the North Shore. I've found riding Perry Highway and McKnight to be a bit terrifying. Rochester and Babcock less so.

Thanks for the replies! I'm hesitant to ride Rochester just because there is little shoulder and lots of blind curves that cars fly around, but that might be my only route. Do either of you guys have experience on Rochester? How bad is it from a bike? How are the hills on any of the routes you guys mentioned? I know we're in Pittsburgh so I'm not expecting flat terrain, but are there any killers?

My least favorite part of Rochester Rd is the climb from Lowries Run to Perrysville Ave. Rideable, but traffic can come unpleasantly close on those curves. One alternative I'd consider for inbound would be Rochester->Lowries Run->Camp Horne Rd->right on 65 for two blocks->North Ave->Center Ave, becomes California, all the way into town. It'll add a mile to your trip, but the worst traffic section (Camp Horne Rd) will be flat-to-downhill. The stretch between Mt Nebo Pointe and the Home Depot/Giant Eagle/parkway interchange is the hairiest, but it's brief and wide, with decent sightlines. For outbound, the trail to Millvale->Babcock->Rochester would be a reasonable way to head home, or you could go back out California to Bellevue, then through West View to Perrsyville.

Heading home, I let my legs decide. One new method I've learned only recently, after 500 trips out of the city: Point State Park, Ft Duq Br sidewalk, Merchant/Scotland Streets, wiggle over to Arch St (take in Randyland on your way past), then up the steps at the dead end of Arch. This cuts out the worst of the pedal climb, so you can continue on more manageable Perrysville. Once you get into WView (I use Center once I get past the park & ride), stay on Center across Perry, and look for one of the streets that get you over to Highland. Once you get to Gass Rd, turn right which will take you down by the Giant Eagle and I-279 fustercluck. But that just gets you to the wiggly miserable part of Lowrie's Run Rd. You might as well just tough it out for the half mile of Perry to get up to Rochester. However, I've also found a back alley that runs right/uphill off of Center, roughly across from Scholl's Bike Shop, parallel to Perry, which bypasses the narrow uphill part.