Some buddies are coming to Pittsburgh from Cleveland (and then back) next week and are looking for the best route to do so. As far as I can tell there are kind of two ways to do it; one which is a diagonal between the two which is basically what google bike maps tells you to do: http://g.co/maps/8gb7t
and another which is more like two perpendicular lines: http://g.co/maps/2fcwa
The second one is about 50 miles longer but is on bike trails a huge portion of the time, so it seems like it would make for nicer riding. If anyone has any experience going between the two cities, and has some optimal mix of bike trails and distance, any tips would be appreciated!
First route
109 miles of road 24 miles of trail
Second route
90 miles of road 94 miles of trail.
The second route has extra 70 miles of trail and has 19 miles less road.
Not all roads are equal, of course.
Personally, I think I'd want to keep the Extra-trail to less-road ratio at about 2:1.
If they really like trails enough, then the extra distance is a bonus!
great observation mick.
Neither one is ideal.
#1 is okay, but brings them into Pittsburgh on Rt 51, which sucksdogass.
#2 takes them on trails out in the countryside where it is not necesary, and 50 xtra miles.
Use #1, but midway through, angle southeast through Salem and East Liverpool, and go from there.
I altered your map and tried saving, but don't know if this will work. Attempt: http://g.co/maps/h99un
Seems to have worked. I feel like not a dmbsht.
Routes from Pittsburgh TO Cleveland have been discussed multiple times on this board. I think RubberFactory was the last one to do the trip. I'd suggest looking at their routing, and taking suggestions from them.
With new routes all the time and the new tool of Google bike direction, it's good to have an ongoing conversation.
It's cool that with many routes to Cleveland, about a quarter of the way is on trails.
I'm hoping Pittsburgh gets on some coast-to-coast off-road bike trail soon.
@edmonds59 That looks like a good compromise.
@Swalfoort Despite my best efforts (reading through all of the search results for "Cleveland" on the message board) I can't find mention of any routes to/from Cleveland here, can you link me?
Thanks for your suggestions and observations everyone.
just a general tip for searching these boards... the built in search is pretty terrible.
try using google. type in "site:bike-pgh.org/bbpress cleveland"
Oh, perfect, I did not realize that the search function was spotty!
Hey, thanks for the search tip, Dave! When I need to find an old thread I usually just back out to google and do standard google search with enough specificity to find what I need. Works pretty much every time. I didn't know I could specify the site to search. That's cool.
Wow...great search tip! Thanks! I tried using the message board search a few times but gave up on it long ago. I had no idea I could specify a site in Google.
I would take that first route. Those roads are awesome once you hit Ohio with the usual potholes and there are paved trails in that area you could hit.
Routes I have done though my destination was 20mi of literally flat roads east of Cleveland:
Road + about 20mi of trails, 140mi:
http://www.mapmyride.com/routes/view/19271866
All road, ~150mi: http://www.mapmyride.com/routes/view/7763110
So about that route edmonds59 posted, some of those roads are really small, not at all marked, and some rough gravel, most really hilly. And there are lots of loose dogs.
Here's a photo of (I believe) Aunt Clara Rd:
I like riding out that way but it can be an adventure. Depends what you're looking for.
There are some nice roads paralleling 51 into Beaver, then follow the river valley in from there. Take 51 to Ambridge, cross over, head down to Sewickley, cross there, go through Coraopolis, Neville Island, then Island Ave/West Carson into town.
Roads like Aunt Clara Road give me the warm fuzzies.
^^Wot 'e said.
Aunt Clara: yummy! West Carson: not so much.
Cool, I am encouraging them to take the "Edmonds modification", waiting to hear what their final decision is.
It would be cool if google bike maps could factor in information like this... so if I took Aunt Clara Rd, I could tag it with "Few cars, some gravel, no bike lane" and east carson st with "Lots of cars, paved, no bike lane" and then when doing a route search I could say I liked bike trails the most, then quiet rds, then rds with bike lanes, etc. etc. and it would pick the optimum route based on tags people had left. One day...
I'm serious when I say the roads are not marked. And there is no cell data service, either.
Here's a West Virginia "County Highway":
I've ridden ot Cle a few times, I couldn't really say which was preferable. Today I try again riding first to Erie from Cle then South along the Erie-Pgh Trail. Out of the way but should be interesting. I have discovered That the New Castle transit has Bike racks, For three dollars you and your bike can get a ride practically to the state line.
this one was pretty good and incorporated the Canal Towpath trail and the Stavich bike trail
P.S do not trust Google for bicycle routes.
I've found the Google bike routes are not what I call the best routes. But they can be useful.
If you run into road Google suggests that is actually unsuitable for bikes, you might want to tell them. I've told them of problems that they have subsequently fixed.
I wouldn't try to get them to change an OK/marginal route to a really good route, unless it was extreme.
