BIKEPGH MESSAGE BOARD ARCHIVE

Greenfield is a good one, definitely something to be proud of accomplishing. You should do a google search for "Pittsburgh Dirty Dozen" to see some totally stupid hills.

Hazelwood from 2nd Ave.

Give Negley from 5th Ave a try; there's probably some other fun ones in Greenfield, but since my usual destination is on Greenfield Ave, I haven't done too much exploring

If you don't mind braving the West End circle the ride up to the West End Overlook in Elliott is a good climb with an amazing view.

You could also try biking to the Strip District and heading back home via Polish Hill [ 28th>Brereton>Dobson>Herron>Melwood>Baum ].

If we're talking PGH area (and not just the city):

* Guys Run in O'Hara/Harmarville

* Logan's Ferry (New Kesington)

* Hunter/Plum Road (Verona/Oakmont)

Well I live in swissvale so I'd like to keep it at least somewhat in the city or in the east.

I don't know much Bout Elliot, but I see it's just over the river from the city. Is it possible to access from station square or how would I get there? And what roads am I looking for? Thanks. Oh, and thanks burch for validating my greenfield ave pride.

And what about getting up to mt Washington? Never biked up there.

Federal Street on the North Side. Down at Allegheny Center, it's dead level. Cross North Avenue, you get a little bit of a grade that most people can handle. The farther you go, the steeper it gets. By Alpine St, you'll be huffing; that's about 1/3 of the way up. By Henderson, you'll be asking "Does this ever let up?" By the Perrysville peel-off, you're saying "Gahhh!" And somewhere past Mercy St, you're going to wonder why the hell you even tried it. And there's still another 100 vertical feet to go in about 1/4 mile.

That said, that is *the* shortest way to get north of town. Keep on going another 120 miles without changing lanes or turning and dip your toes in Lake Erie [map].

If I go out specifically looking for hills I'll try to go Schenley Overlook -> down Greenfield -> Neville/Boundary -> Centre -> Allequipa Dr. -> 5th Ave - Birmingham Bridge -> E Carson -> Hot Metal Bridge -> Trail -> 2nd Ave -> up Greenfield -> Panther Hollow -> Schenley Dr. (Golf Course Hill) -> Circuit -> Schenley Dr -> Dawson and Im pretty much home.

@Italianblend - check your messages on this board. I sent you a link to one of my routes.

i'm not sure i recommend going up commercial that way. the other way can be a bit of a bear, too, though. also, in your neck of the woods, consider columbia avenue from edgewood avenue.

oh, and lest i forget: geyer road out of millvale is loads of fun.

If you want to ride east of the city, check out Marion Ave. (take it up from Atlantic so you don't have to ride on Ardmore) and Windsor Ave. in Forest Hills, Rossmore St. in Chalfant, and Washington St. (plus a couple others to Sawmill Run Rd.) in Wilkins Township up from Route 130. They all hurt!

Unfortunately, Forbes or commercial is the only way for me to get up to squirrel hill. I haven't tried commercial yet. I mean, going up it.

I go down it all the time. Yesterday, I got light headed at the bottom. That's never happened to me before. Must've been malnourished at the time.

for a pleasant change of scenery, head down commercial from your side, then make the right into frick park at the bottom. take that to the big wide open area by the shelter, head left, go up that trail, et voilà!, you're in squirrel hill.

man, and i've been proud of myself just for getting up polish hill (herron to dobson to brereton [or] brereton from 28th to Herron)

another fun one is university drive: from the cathedral of learning, head NW on Bigelow. just past o'hara/bigelow, turn left on u drive. follow through the first switchback to the stop sign. turn left (u drive 'C', i think) and continue up past the new pitt dorms. at the next stop sign go left on sutherland, then bear right on Allequippa (yes they spelled it wrong).

from here you're pretty much on top of a ridge. you can (a) make a left and bomb down Darragh or robinson to Fifth or (b) make a right and go downhill on robinson (bad, nasty concrete paving, unless they've redone it recently) to Centre, then go back up Centre to the top of U Drive 'A', then continue down Centre to Bigelow or Craig to get back where you started.

The dirty dozen are fun to ride on my fixie.

Try Roslyn right in Swissvale across the street from the firs station. Just go up and turn until you can't turn anymore and you'll find the top eventually.

Since you asked about Mt Washington, obviously there's Sycamore. But the hill I like to try when I'm feeling confident in my cardiac integrity is Greenleaf. It is a little offshoot right off of Sawmill Run right at the West End circle. You can work your way to it from West Carson St to the WEC ramp to the pedestrian crossings. It is a pleasant green-way, lightly trafficked, and it's a bear.

@edmonds 59 - I'm seconding Greenleaf, I actually came here to post that too. It's not terribly long (less than a mile), but it's really steep right at the beginning and only a little better the rest of the way up. I did it on Tuesday and almost want to do it again. Almost.

If you are looking for a good cardiac and leg workout, try going over to Edgewood Avenue in Swissvale and climbing Columbia Avenue into Braddock Hills.

Speaking of Braddock....there's the classic climb in the cemetery there. I don't have Oscar Swan's book handy for the specifics (I've only ridden up it twice), but it's worth checking out. I believe it's through the Monogohela Cemetery, and brings you up to Brinton Road.

That's perhaps one of the best climbs I've ever done.

I will have to check out that cemetery climb. I know the cemetery, just never bothered to ride it.

On the border between Ingram and the West End, near the Steuben/Middletown split, is Hodgson Avenue, another "What, are you f'ing kidding me?" hill.

I dont do a ton of riding out on your side of the city, but I live in Polish Hill and hit either Brereton or Herron a few times a day, so I occasionally seek a nice challenge... and Stu is completely right about Federal Street in the North Side. That hill is a wicked climb. Seemingly goes up forever.

A bunch of nice hills over in that area actually. Brighton Road has a nice climb, and is pretty wide in most spots, but is in need of some fresh pavement. Eckert (near the State Prison) onto McClure isnt bad either.

That's the one nice thing about Federal St, the steep sections are all new pavement. That also makes for a *very* quick descent though...

Marshall up from California, crossing Brighton Rd, and up to the top. Nice, steady climb.

Gass Rd is fun, from Ben Avon Heights Rd (near the Camp Horne Giant Eagle) under the parkway and up towards Highland Ave. You can easily ride there by taking New Brighton Rd (also a good climb) off Home Ave in Bellevue up and over through Ben Avon Heights.

Out near Sewickley, you've got loads of low-traffic options of varying degrees of ouchie: Sycamore, Red Gate, Blackburn, etc.

Darragh St from Fifth Ave up to Pitt's Tree's Hall is a pretty nice lift. (Robinson is pretty good, too.)

If you're going up Greenfield, instead turn right across from the Swinburne bridge and head up the switchback to Bigelow.

A little farther out, if you take Lincoln Ave (then Rd) from Frankstown East there are some nice ups and downs, the top is a cemetery and family services (so don't go back down the other side, unless you want to get to...)

Farther still, Shannon rd from 2nd Ave (in Verona) to Penn Hills (to the end will cover all of it) is pretty bad, it just keeps going up when it looks almost over.

North of the river, Guys Run Road (with or without the Campbells Run Rd cutoff) is a nice long hill.

Inside the city, I rather like the hill from Lawrenceville through the cemetery to Penn Ave, Center ave inbound to Uptown, and the hills around Chatham (think Negley, but with less traffic - the campus roads are marked private but be polite and they really don't care). In Homestead, pretty much anything from 8th ave up to Munhall is a haul, there's enough back streets that West isn't the only option.

But Greenfield is more than enough to claim laurels, props to your successes!

Very rewarding: Steuben St from West End Bridge to Sharp Edge Creek house. Kinda punishing because coming back is just as hard, but did I mention there's beer?

For a pleasant alternative to Federal, try North Charles. It's not particularly steep (not like Federal), and was recently repaved. If you're (feeling) particularly fit, you can see how fast you can climb it, though it is fairly congested, you can expect kids running and balls bouncing, and it does get a bit of traffic. Then make a right to come down either Perrysville (also recently repaved) or plummet down Federal.

It figures, but today I did greenfield again, I did it, but on the way home, I couldn't climb commercial to get into swissvale. I was spent. Looks like I need a day off to recuperate.

not mentioned yet that I saw:

buena vista in the mexican war streets

stanton ave in lawrenceville

57th street in lawrenceville

28th street up across bigelow up to the tip of the hill district is fun if you catch the light right

Homer st in spring hill.

Braham in spring hill

william st against traffic parallel to

sycamore

@ItalianBlend

If good climinbing is your goal, you probably want to make sure you have teh best gears for you.

For me, and a lot of people here, getting lower gears than is common makes climbing tolerable when otherwise it would not be.

My smallest gear combo has 22 teeth in front and 32 in back - and I use it every day. I'm a spinner.

Some others are mashers. There are a lot of folks that don't need - nor want - super-low gears.

OTOH, sometimes when people say things putting down low gears, they are really boasting about the size of their trucknutz, not offering good advice.

Some other folks say lower gears changed their Pittsburgh experience.

I second stanton ave from Butler. It has some sections where it isn't as steep, but it keeps going up all the way to the school!

If you are in the area where reddan described above (Gass Rd), you can ride Joseph Lane up to Avonworth High School. Good hill, .8 of a mile with a wide shoulder for the first 2/3 and a 25 mph speed limit due to the school. Map my ride says it is +300 feet of elevation.

> buena vista in the mexican war streets

BV Ave is Belgian block on the hill...

28th street up across bigelow up to the tip of the hill district is fun if you catch the light right

That'd be Herron.

Is Main Street in Lawrenceville too obvious? Steep, fairly long, straight, a little narrow (a bit over one lane, with parking on both sides), but not much traffic, especially compared to 40th. Brand new pavement.

Is Main Street in Lawrenceville too obvious? Steep, fairly long, straight, a little narrow (a bit over one lane, with parking on both sides), but not much traffic, especially compared to 40th. Brand new pavement.

i ride up fisk every day. it's basically the same street as main, except with considerably less traffic. also, i don't think it's anywhere near greenfield in difficulty, but i haven't ridden up greenfield yet this year, so maybe i'm off a bit.

I'm Mick's Gear Cheerleader, so I'll second what he said.

The thing about having lower gears is you can still mash in higher gears even if you have low ones, so it's not like you lose much (unless you found your highest gears barely adequate before, but I'm sure there's options the smarter people on here can offer). It's just an option, it's up to you if you exercise in them or not Swapping mine out cost me something along the lines of $45, installed, and I did zero shopping around or work myself (I'm just that lazy). Changed my Pittsburgh experience, like Mick said.

If you want steep try Brosville up to Warrington, off of 12th on the South Side.

I have an announcement:

Negley Ave is no joke. Repeat: Negley Ave is no joke. In the battle in man vs. hill, man most certainly lost today.

Negley Ave from Fifth is the hardest one I've done here so far. I do Greenfield almost every day, and now that it's paved I don't think it's too bad.

I walked up Canton Ave one time...can't imagine that on a bike.

Seriously, stay away from Canton. That's where I broke my wrist recently.

Let me second Brosville up to Warrington as one hell of a steep ride, made more challenging by the fact that riding on the sidewalk is a dicey option at best.

@Mick - ”really boasting about the size of their trucknutz, not offering good advice”? Get off your high horse. Your convening attitude towards cyclists with different views/fitness levels from you is tired. Seriously. I'm not better than you, but you make it seem that myself and people like myself have this elitist attitude. Your snide, offhanded remarks can be left off of this board.

@steve - try explaining to him why having a small suv doesn't make you Satan incarnate...

Tip - it's a little easier to stake out the "not elitist" position if you don't get sketched out by bikes that don't have bars with a 31.8 bar clamp, threadless steerers, rims with machined brake trakes or discs, and 2 piece cranksets. Just sayin.

It was a shame Rodney King died.

Can't we all just get along?

i get sketched out by single wall steel rims w/out a decent braking surface. but thats because they are deathtraps, and have nearly claimed me as a victim a few times. the rest of that stuff is cool though.

@ Steve K

You are correct that I get too righteous about bikes as transportation and have various times shown a bad attitude towards racers. Sorry about that.

There hasn't been anyone in this thread who has even remotely putting down low gears, so I guess I was on a high horse. No need to warn about what might happen on the internet.

I just like saying "trucknutz."

Mick, how do you even ride a 22-32?

The lowest I've ridden is 30-34 on the bike I built for my girlfriend, and it's quite a struggle to keep the bike upright on everything but the steepest of hills. With zero load on the pedals, you effectively eliminate your ability to use your legs to help you balance.

+1 "trucknutz"

@edmonds I'm from Kentucky and don't read so well. Who is your "just sayin'" remark aimed at?

I think we can agree there is a subset of people who cycle with compact cranks and fiber bikes that have to jump out of the saddle when the slightest hill shows up

A wider gear-ratio might be a better option, better on the knees. To add to Mick's point, they don't call that lowest ring on a triple a "virile gear"

@rice rocket Mick, how do you even ride a 22-32?

Sitting down. Even going up Negley.

@ Chris, sorry, cross-referring to a comment in the "Classic Bike ride" thread.

No harm, no foul. I agree with your point. Hard to believe anyone was winning races before 1999 eh?

Can someone explain what all this gear talk means, in say, English perhaps? I really have no idea what you're all talking about. My bike has 3 gears on the left handle and 7 on the right. I try to bike in 3-7 most of the time as if feels like I'm working harder and getting a better workout. I will approach hills in that gear and switch down as it gets more difficult.

Here's a helpful primer to "all this gear talk" : http://kentsbike.blogspot.com/2012/05/shifting-gears-when-where-how-why.html

So, the gears on the left handle control the front gear of your bike, or in other words control which chainring your chain is on in the front. Most bikes have either one, two, or three chainrings; yours obviously has three. In the front, the biggest wheel AKA the one with the most teeth is the "hardest," and the smallest wheel, with the least teeth, is "easiest" (for going uphill / going really slowly / etc.). In the front, my hybrid has three chainrings: the smallest has 28 teeth, middle 38, biggest 48.

Your bike also has 7 rings/sprockets on the back; that's what the shifter on your right handle controls. Here's the weird part: in the back, a *bigger* ring with more teeth is "easier," and a smaller ring with less teeth is "harder." When people talk about cassettes or sets of rear gears, they may talk about them in ranges like "11-30." On my hybrid, the rear cassette's smallest ring has 11 teeth, and the largest has 30 teeth (and then the other rings have a range in between 11 and 30 teeth).

When someone says something like riding in "22-32," they're referring to the combination of gears that the chain is on, in the format [# of teeth on the front ring]-[# of teeth on the rear sprocket]: that means the chain is on a front chainring with 22 teeth and a rear sprocket with 32 teeth.

That means my hybrid's easiest gear combination is 28-30 (smallest front chainring, largest rear sprocket). The hardest combo is 48-11.

A combo like 22-32 (tiny chainring, big sprocket) is really awesome if you want to climb up a giant hill by pedaling really fast, instead of being in a "harder" gear and having to stand up and/or pedal more slowly.

I like to use an "easier" gear combo when I can, because I would rather spin my pedals quickly and not stand up most of the time. But some people would rather just push through in a harder gear, which may be because they are fine with standing up to power up a hill, or may just be because they are stronger than me and can still spin their pedals quickly in a harder gear. Spinning your pedals faster in an easier gear to go x MPH is said to be easier on your knees and maybe more efficient than spinning your pedals slower in a harder gear to go the same speed. Really, unless you're racing, or unless you're having knee pain, that's probably a matter of personal preference.

However, while your overall choice of "harder" gear vs. "easier" gear is your call, there are certain gear combinations that are bad for your bike. Basically, you don't want to be on the biggest/hardest chainring in the front while being on the biggest/easiest sprockets in the back, and you don't want to be in the smallest/easiest chainring in the front while being in the smallest/hardest sprockets in the back. If you have the kind of shifters that display the numbers of the gears you are in, this usually means you can't be in gear 1 on the left shifter while being in 6-7 on the right, and you can't be in gear 3 on the left shifter while being in gears 1-2 on the right.

Also useful: http://sheldonbrown.com/gears.html

Sorry that this is an essay. There's nothing for me to do at work right now, haha. Hope it helps.

Gear inches explained here:

http://sheldonbrown.com/gloss_g.html#gearinch

It originates here, this is basically a 52 inch gear:

BTW new bikers often choose to use gear ratios that are high (harder to pedal), as you say. But it's really better to shift down and try to maintain a high cadence (the number of times your feet turn the pedals every minute). A high cadence -- say 60-80 turns per minute -- helps your body work since pumping your legs helps keep your blood moving, and your knees are stressed less.

@pearmask A combo like 22-32 (tiny chainring, big sprocket) is really awesome if you want to climb up a giant hill by pedaling really fast, instead of being in a "harder" gear and having to stand up and/or pedal more slowly.

I think Pearmask gave am excellent presentation of this.

My bike , at 22-32 for the lowest gear is about 18.6 gear inches 27 inches X 22/32, pearmask's lowest, at 28-30, is about 25 gear inches.

I have two gears lower than her lowest, (just a fact, doesn't follow directly from gear-inches. That means, as I said, I can go up Negley sitting down.

If you stand up going up hills, a super low gear will be hard to balance. If you really like getting out of your seat and "mashing", you don't need or want a super low gear. There are plenty of folks here who like that.

In general, most folks want some lower gears for Pittsburgh than they would want for a flatter place. Most bikes are made for flatter places

If I had Pearmask's gear range, I would pained and frustrated by a lot of hills that I'm cool with now. I think a lot of people suffer that frustration (and beat themselves up for being wimps on hills), when changing gears is a bit easier than building the physique for hill climbing.

I'll throw out that as a "new" rider, I didn't know there was much of a variety in the gears available to me, or that the variety available could make a large difference simply because I'd ridden two bikes, the first simply had teeth missing (I didn't know that wasn't normal), then the second one was so much nicer than the first (its gears all had teeth!!), I thought it was me. I spent most of my time in "2-3", dropping down to "1-1" on major hills and hopping off to walk some times (but going down hill, I'd hit "3-8"). I didn't (and still don't) have a problem walking. When I swapped sets, I had new lows, and spent more time squarely in the middle yet still don't run out of "hard" gears for downhills. I don't race or care about speed.

I'm with pearmask that it's a matter of preference - but without trying both ways, you may be surprised by your own preference (I know I was). And you can always stand up and ride in "harder" gears in a set that has the option of lower ratio. Or swap back and donate the gears to freeride. If you're spending most of your time in 3-7, maybe you could go the OTHER way, and get "harder" gears. Sounds like you have lots of room in the bottom gears, but maybe not enough in the top?

I used to think swapping out bike parts or "upgrading" or whatever was for racing geeks or gear heads, much like "custom" cars was for that other kind of gear head. But I don't think that anymore. Because bike parts are so cheap, and riding a bike is such a physical experience, it's more like getting running shoes that fit and are customizeable to fit even better - orthotics, laces, insoles, different styles or socks for different activities.

The nice thing is the gear heads have dreamed up most of the options you could want, so you're only limited by what you want/can afford to try

I disagree that 60-80 is a high cadence.

i guess i'm a masher. i never, ever go to the smaller chainring on any of my geared bikes unless i'm riding off-road. that's not to say that i don't change my position on my rear cassette as the situation demands, i just like to get up hills faster. that being said, i have ridden up negley on my fixie and i regularly commute home on the fixie from s'side to crafton (2 miles up from west end to crafton). so i may be a little biased.