My grandson and I get together for cycling rides about twice a week. Over the weekend, however, we ventured a bit south.
On Friday, we hit the Schuylkill River Trail. When finished, it will extend 120 miles from south Philly all the way up to Frackville. At this time, 75 miles of paved and crushed gravel are open. We rode from Conshohocken 10 miles north past Valley Forge National Historical Park. We could have kept going, but had to turn around so we could pick up our packets for the big event on Saturday, the Philly Bike Ride.
While in Philly, we parked the car and cycled everywhere we had to go. Philly has numerous bike lanes and we took advantage of them.
The Philly Bike Ride is a car-free ride through all of Philly's historic neighborhoods, from South Philly to the historic district to boathouse row at Fairmount Park. It started at 7:30 am and attracted 6,000 people on bicycles.
We rode this last year, too. There was a bit of rain, but no downpours. This year, there was no rain, but it was very cold and windy at starting time. That made us want to move fast, and we did the 20 miles in under 90 minutes on hybrids.
Philly is very flat, so the ride is quite easy. It was nice to see so many families, little kids, couples and old farts like myself, One fellow rode the course on a unicycle, and another used a bicycle with a saddle that was about 10' off the ground.
It starts and ends at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, so we had to pay a visit to Rocky.
11 comments:
I wonder how much of that 'rail trail' will be lost or minimized by the hoped-for-by-some train from Reading to Philly.
My guess is none because it will never happen. There currently is rail along the portion of the river trail that we rode.
The valley forge to Phillip ride is an awesome ride! Congratulations on doing another one
The Montgomery County Community College building by the trail has bikes available for free for the day. I recommend.
philly_naked_bike_ride we know why you were there
What type of hybrid bikes did you use. I am interested in electric assist.
Philly is flat? Tell that to the Manayunk wall...If you can beat Dat up the wall with a two minute head start and post receipts I'll donate $250 to C.A.T!
Rocky! Rocky! Rocky!
That's wonderful info! Tx
5:21, My hybrid is a Bianchi Cortina. If I can get it to 15 mph I can pop it into the third set of gears and get 16 or 17 mph on the flat. But most of the riding is at about 12 mph.
The Trek hybrid is the FX2, which has nice disc brakes, is far lighter than the Bianchi and is quite comfortable. I believe its speed is comparable and it will definitely be faster on hills bc of the weight.
Lots of nice e-bikes out there. Saw a few at the Philly Bike Ride. They are getting better, too.
6:58, I agree about Manyunk. I ran a few marathons there back in the day. Unfortunately, I have never won a race with Dat unless it is flat or downhill, and then he has to have an off day and I have to have a good dayl Even at his worst, he kills me on hills.
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