A few days ago, Erok suggested the name "The Three Rivers Four" for these four big Pittsburgh based rides:
Crush the Commonwealth
Pgh-Roubaix
Dirty Dozen
Punk Bike
I would like to suggest a fifth: A tour of the biggest, baddest Pittsburgh steps. Not that you would ride the steps; rather that you would carry your bike on said steps.
Some doozies that come to mind:
1) S.10thSt/2ndAve to Duquesne Univ;
2) Rising Main Avenue on the North Side
3) Jacob Street in Brookline (down one half, up the other)
4) Harding Way in Polish Hill
The fun part, of course, is the sweet travel between all of them. Well, and climbing them, too!
Anyone care to help figure out a date and a route? Or has this been done already and I'm just coming in late?
i remember seeing on some rick sebak show that there was a tour of some of the steps around the city every year (as of like 2003), but it definitely wasn't on bike, and i don't think it was on the same scale as what you suggest.
i like the idea. i don't know enough about the paper streets around here to map a route, but i'll definitely keep an eye out for some cool stairways.
I like the idea too. I still think "The Three Rivers Four" is the right name, though.
Steve K ran a "Stairway To Hell" alleycat maybe 2 years ago? It was exactly this: ride to stairways and run (walk) up them.
@Steve: do you still have the route?
that sounds like an urban-cross race. replacing streams and boulders with city steps?
@HiddenVariable: there's the Southside Step Trek annually, but it only covers the southside steps.
then there's always the steps up into oakland from 2nd ave. they're covered in brambles and broken halfway up, 3 or 4 steps just missing. you have to jump them with your bike.
There's a book, The Steps of Pittsburgh, by visiting Pitt Professor Bob Regan. The books has a survey of all 712 (!) sets of steps and includes six walking tours. Here's a blurb from the book's page:
"Regan, a geophysicist affiliated with the University of Pittsburgh, moved to town a decade ago and was immediately taken with this unusual link in the local transportation system. Using Geographic Information Systems technology and riding a bicycle up and down Pittsburgh's many hills, he meticulously located and plotted every set of steps in the city over a period of several years. He counted the number, made notes about type, usage, and unique features, and, most happily for us, talked to everyone he encountered along the way from residents to bike police." (emphasis added)
There are a bunch of copies at the Carnegie.
Bob Regan also wrote the book Bridges of Pittsburgh. You could highlight both these unique features of the city into the ride for a authentic PGH experience?
This ride sounds like a great idea. I completely encourage someone organizing this event and will do my best to show up and donate my entry fee to the eventual winner.
Thinking about this, this could be A Real Challenge type ride, and it could be A Day Of Fun Most Anyone Can Try type ride. Like the difference between D.D. in November, and the Tippy Top rides of recent weekends. Possibly both. A third is to try to do a Grand Steps Tour, hitting all 712 in a year or summer or something.
I suggested the idea, so I'll sketch out a couple of paths of each type. I rather prefer to carry up and ride down, but cannot guarantee they will all be such. Of course, all suggestions are welcome. As is plain old help.
A side effort of this might be to identify which steps are badly in need of repair, cutting weeds, etc. This post on Yahoo describes my clearing out one set, and keeping it that way, over the last couple of years.
I picked up a copy of Dr. Regan's steps book today. It already lays out several tours. I'll try a couple of them solo, trusty Raleigh under my arm, and see how it goes.
Putting together a tour of biggies, however, will require a good bit of study.
Brian O'Neill has this story about steps in today's PG.
