BIKEPGH MESSAGE BOARD ARCHIVE

nice rant. sorry you had to encounter so many douchey people. if it makes you feel any better, midnight mass was riding around that time also, and we encountered a few turds. one in particular was on liberty. we were taking the right lane since there are two lanes. a truck needed to make a right-hand turn onto 20-something street, so nick and i and a few others stopped to let the guy make the right from the left hand lane even though we didn't have to. as soon as the guy made the turn and headed down the street, he and/or his pal yelled crap at us.

southside sucks at night. if you are west of 18th st you should ride down arlington to station square (just be careful of the t tracks) and go through downtown that way. if you live east of 18th st you should ride down to the southside trail and either take the hot metal bridge and the jail trail or smithfield st into town. fuck dealing with all the assholes down there after 8/9pm.

Southside is easily the worst neighborhood I have ever experienced as far as drunken assholes is concerned. I'm sorry you have to encounter that on a regular basis. I HATE ever having to be there after 6pm. It's really too bad the only bike-oriented bar in town is located there. It just about guarantees I'll never go there.

i have yet to go to the OTB cause i try to avoid the south side (unless i go to thick).

that's a craxy time to get to work "for the day" (though i always seem to be making a dough at that time). what kind of baking do you do?

I work at Mancini's in the strip district. Once I get to downtown near ross st, I feel a million times safer. I live east of 18th, but I'm wary of taking the jail trail at night. but, like I posted above, it may actually be much safer.

it's not very well lit, but we did pass several people who were also using the trail at that hour. so there'd probably be someone who just happens to be out riding, too, passing by while you're using it.

I'll give it a try this saturday, but I'm a very paranoid person, and I'll probably be freaked right out, ha.

As another resident of the South Side, I agree wholeheartedly. More often than not on Thursday-Saturday evenings we either stay in or head out to another neighborhood. The level of stupid behavior is pretty astounding.

I've tried both the trails and the streets at those hours, and I've decided to stick to the trails. I've yet to have a problem so far, but I tend to ride pretty swiftly when on the trails. I did that last night around 1am, and there was no one else out there.

You're probably safer on the trail than on Carson St. Just be sure to have a really bright & focused headlight.

^^^

Just got a headlamp to compliment my front light on really dark trails.

It really helps to be able to see animals/people/obstacles off to the side that would be invisible otherwise.

Oh yeah I was flying down jailtrail the other night and several rodents darted out in front of me. I slowed down a bit after that.

bunnies always run across those trails no matter what time of day. i think i have seen it at its worst on the south side trail past the hot metal bridge going in the direction of sandcastle. also, i think the gnats are the worst over that way. keep your mouths shut. ew.

After midnight mass, biking up greenfield road, I saw about 7-8 deer spitting distance from the sidewalk. They were right past the car wash in a grassy area. Scared the crap out of me that they didn't immediately run off. A few had sizable racks.

"nice rack!"

The gnats can't compare to the midges on Hot Metal though. Crunchiest bridge crossing ever.

Off Topic but I was flying down the southside trail one morning and there was no one so i decided to see just how fast I could get going, I got it up to 30 mph and was drilled in the chest by the biggest bumblebee I had ever seen.

It was like getting punched in the chest.

@dbacklover i got one in the face on the ms ride this year on a nice long decent. just below my eye. made me wish i was wearing some glasses.

i got stung in the head by a bee on the ms150 this year. it flew through a vent in my helmet. i hate bugs

I've probably posted this story before but... One night on my way home from work, I was doing about 30 down Beechwood Blvd downhill by the Nature Center, and up from my right came the biggest brindle dog I ever saw, and started to run along side me. Took a second before I realized it was a whitetail doe. I never had a chance to panic.

Once the streetlights went out in Schenley Park as I was riding through, and as I pedaled through the cold night my front light illuminated about a half-dozen pairs of eyes that blinked from the darkness, seemingly in unison. My mind filled in the blackness behind the eyes with "that's a pack of wolves. Can I outpace a pack of wolves going uphill?" ...until I got closer and realized it was a family of deer.

stefb

That happened to me a few weeks back. Man did that suck, I had been hauling ass, and then had to screech to a halt and fling off my helmet. Yow.

tried it out this morning, learned that I need a brighter light. but It will work for the time being. The only part of the trail I didn't feel safe on was the entrance from the Hot metal bridge, where it's completely tree-ed in and pitch black.

I almost hit a bunny. Luckily I missed. there was also a kitty, another cyclist, and some people sitting on a bench on the grant st entrance. All in all, not a bad ride in the morning.

I swear I saw a pack of wolves near the soccer field in the hollow around 12:30. Seriously, I have no idea WTF it was. I heard this weird sound, kind of like a "ticking" or "kissing" sound followed by some whistling, it kind of sounded like someone calling a dog. That freaked me out enough, then I swung my headlight that way just enough to make out some eyes that looked way too low to the ground to be deer. I sprinted the rest of the way to Boundary.

Seriously, I have to get a better light or something because whatever is really there probably isn't as bad as my imagination. Everytime I ride through there alone at night I get a little wigged out by something.

TURKEYS!

Could have been coyotes, they're coming back. I heard one howl near my house one night a couple weeks ago. But I don't think they're any danger to people.

I think all you have to do is paint a fake hole in the road and they fall into it.

Can you ride on Sidney St. or something instead of E. Carson? Don't remember the names of the bypass streets I used to use when I worked down there, but getting a few blocks away from the bars wouldn't be a bad idea.

today, the trail was really scary. I bought another headlight to use with mine, but I cant really see left or right...you know the first bench on the trail (when coming from the Hot metal bridge)? There was a dude sitting there this morning, and I didn't notice him until he heard me and sat straight up. He wasn't going to do anything, he seemed mostly surprised that someone else was there at that hour. Still scared the living daylights out of me.

I'll be riding the jail trail at about 2:15am tonight/tomorrow morning if anyone wants to join me.

I hope it's not raining at that time. I learned today that my brakes do not work at all when they're wet.

there are people who train their dogs down there at night sometimes... i don't know who they are or why they train their dogs at night but i've seen it once at like 9 during the winter (like 2 hours after dusk) and once right as the sun was setting.

the dogs are well trained from what i can see though.