This time last year, after riding Pittsburgh’s big populist city bike ride for the fourth time, I wrote: “With iffy support, poor route design, and a registration fee north of $75 that funds a cause I don’t agree with, I probably won’t do this ride again.”

My determination not to have anything to do with this ride was doubled when the organization behind it publicly declared their opposition to enforcing traffic laws that protect cyclists and pedestrians, which I ranted about in my preceding blogpo: “My Advocate: My Enemy”.

But none of my apprehension about the event would apply if I simply mimicked the route’s distance and climbing on my indoor trainer. So on Wednesday I saddled up to simulate another major event indoors.

Consulting my Zenturizer to find a course on Zwift that was comp »more

BikePGH — the local cycling advocacy group — does little that benefits me as a cyclist. But now they’ve done something so irresponsible and shortsighted that it has put all cyclists in much greater danger.

They’ve stopped asking police to enforce traffic laws that protect cyclists and pedestrians.

You read that right. This organization that exists to represent and protect cyclists has publicly announced that they no longer care if the police enforce state and local laws that protect cyclists. In their own words: “Removing enforcement is our only conscionable path forward.”

Here’s their press release, entitled “ENFORCEMENT IS NO LONGER PART OF BIKEPGH’S STRATEGY FOR SAFER STREETS”. Go ahead and read it. I’ll wait...

I can’t even begin to describe how fucking stupid this is.

Pennsylvania »more

When a product sucks, I‘ll tell you; and the new revision of the Wahoo TICKR sucks.

For the past two years, I’ve used a first-generation TICKR heart rate monitor chest strap. And it worked flawlessly until the snaps corroded and fell apart at the end of June.

And before that, I used two Garmin HRM straps and then one branded by Bontrager (although I have no idea who actually manufactured it for them). So I’ve had HRMs for around 15 years and know how to care for them and what kind of data to expect.

Shortly before my old TICKR died, Wahoo Fitness had conveniently announced a second-gen version of the TICKR, which I promptly ordered.

That was back in June, and the subsequent two months have been a litany of disappointments. Despite my updating the firmware and other troubleshooting tasks »more

The Mon Valley Century is the most cursed ride in southwestern Pennsylvania.

The first time I rode it (2016), the organizers abbreviated the route at 80 miles due to a landslide on Bunola Road. Despite everyone missing a waterstop that the organizers decided to move at the last minute, I went and actually rode the missing 20-mile segment of Bunola Road solo just fine to finish with 100 miles.

The ride wasn’t even held the next two years due to additional reconstruction of Bunola Road.

In 2019, the event returned, finally avoiding Bunola Road completely, and tacking the missing mileage onto the start of the ride, which cuts across quiet and scenic Pennsylvania farmland. However, in true cursed fashion, the organizers didn’t provide GPS directions, large sections of the route were on »more