hi-

just moved in......7th and bainbridge. im a suburbs boy, so please be nice to the kid who is walking around with a permanently glazed look in his eye.

anyone have a good bike route or want to go riding. i mostly do road biking but i may be talked into mountain biking. i try to do about 15 miles a morning....longer ones on the weekend.

thanks.

b

Welcome strange,

http://www.phillybikeclub.org/
http://www.phila.gov/streets/bike_route_maps.html

-UC

Welcome suburan boy! (I was once one of thse too, the glazed stare should go away in a month or less)

If I can get a used mountain bike for cheap, like an old stumpjumper or something, I'd be all over it, my back yard is a HUGE park with TONS of trails.

I haven't had a lot of luck, anyone selling a good mountain bike?

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wil,

Just plop down $60 for one of the Target cheapies.

They work pretty well.

-UC

Can't do it, when I was in college I had a really nice specialized, even though I drooled over the canondales. I saw a mongoose full suspension for about 250, but the thing weight about as much as a pile of bricks...a big pile.

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Best route is easy -
Forbidden Drive to Kelly Drive then crosstown & up the Ben Franklin Bridge.

From where you are, short ride to Market East, get either the
R8 or R7 Chesnut Hill trains to Chestnut Hill, head left from R8, go straight from R7 to Germantown Ave & Chestnut Hill Ave, then head down hill on Germantown Ave to Northwester/Chestnut Hill College, left at Bruno's
left again onto Forbidden Drive.
Follow Forbidden Drive along Wissahickon to where it meets Lincoln Drive, then right on the wood & steel bridge along the Creek to Ridge Ave, cross Ridge Ave, head south, then hard right to follow the sidewalk to Kelly Drive.

Follow Kelly Drive to Boathouse Row, bear right towards the art museum, take the paved trail along Schuylkill River Park through the city past 30th Street, cross the train tracks to Locust Street.
Follow Locust Street to Rittenhouse Square, then Locust to Washington Square, then continue to 5th Street north on 5th to the Ben Franklin Bridge Walkway, bike to the center of the Bridge for a great view.

From there, you can follow 4th or 6th south to home.

Hal

I've got a big grin on my face,
last week along Kelly Drive trail near Boathous Row, I took great satisfaction in winning an impromptu sprint agaist a guy on cannondale.

The guy on the cannondale had been tailgating me (fender gating?), drafting me, and generally making a pest of himself because I was riding slower that he would have liked because there was lots of traffic on Kelly Drive. So I let him past, drafted him for about a hundred feet, then upshifted and powered past him once we got clear trail ahead.
This was made all the sweeter becaue I was riding my big heavy mongoose hard tail mountain bike...

Now the mongoose hardtail I'm riding is a helluva heavy bike but if you're doing mixed riding- Forbidden Drive, Manayunk Canal, or city streets as well as bike trails, it's nice to have a heavier, durable bike.

I actually prefer the mountain bike if I'm riding in town becuse I've found that the bigger mountain bike tires are MUCH more forgiving in CITY riding- otherwise you're always getting "snakebite" flats from hopping up onto curbs/sidewalk and hitting potholes. I'm not sure, but I can't help but figure more tread is better protection from broken glass when you're riding in city streets.

I highly suggest getting a foot driven air pump from an automotive store so you can keep the mountain bike's tires at full pressure. That makes a huge difference. If you're riding 25 to 40 miles on a mountain bike, those big soft tires will really really weary you down by the end of the day.


Hal

I ride a Hard Rock.

I want to replace my knobbies with more commute friendly tires.

Anyone have any suggestions and where I could get them locally?

-UC

I see some great deals on craigslist for used bike semi often.

Want heavy? Try my Giant Farrago. Weighs more than a lot of mountain bikes out there (too bad I didn't find that out until after I took it on a 70 mile ride).

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