Biking in Pittsburgh with Carrie Tippen and Mike Boyd

One of the most fun (and fit) ways to live sustainably is biking around the streets of Pittsburgh, an extremely bike-friendly city. In honor of National Bike Month we caught with with ChathamU professors and avid Pittsburgh cyclists, Assistant Professor of English, Dr. Carrie Tippen and Associate Professor of Music, Dr. Mike Boyd. Check out their helpful tips for building road confidence, emergency biking strategies, and beloved 412 routes. If you’re feeling extra enthusiastic about biking this summer, check out Dr. Tippen’s free virtual workshop on Comfortable and Confident City Cycling on Thursday, May 20th @ 12:00 pm.

What tips do you have for beginning cyclists who are nervous about getting out on the road or are afraid of cars?

Mike Boyd: I recommend choosing routes carefully to avoid faster moving, heavy traffic. When commuting to Chatham, I skip the busiest section of Penn Ave, and instead opt for Meade St. and Reynolds St.

Carrie Tippen: It’s good to have a healthy respect for cars as a cyclist. You do need to be aware of what they are doing and where they are. But remember that you are not a target. Cars want to avoid you; if you can do them a favor by being visible, predictable, and aware, they will do their part to be safe.

Ride with a buddy who is a little more experienced than you are. I made friends with a serious cyclist who took me around town when I first started riding. She wasn’t afraid of cars, and so I learned not to be afraid of cars either. I also took a class called “Confident City Cycling” from Bike Pittsburgh that ended with a group ride down East Carson in the South Side with parked cars on my right and moving cars on my left. I did it without crying, and I knew I could be a real city cyclist. Now I teach that class! I am always willing to do free classes for groups of students, faculty, staff, or alumni. Just email me at ctippen@chatham.edu.

Do you have any recommendations for less-intimidating trails around the Pittsburgh area that are good for beginners?

MB: There are many relatively flat, off-street, multi-use paths that are great for beginners (or seasoned cyclists with tired legs!). My favorites include the Great Allegheny Passage and Westmoreland Heritage Trail.

CT: Honestly, there aren’t many places in Pittsburgh that I wouldn’t take my bike. I avoid the steepest hills, but generally, I go wherever. I like the GAP trail. I live on the east side of town, so it’s pretty easy for me to ride across the Rankin Bridge or to load up my bike and drive to the Homestead trail head. From there, you can go towards downtown and pass through the South Side, or you can go the other way and eventually end up in Washington, D.C. That’s an amazing trip, and I highly recommend it!

What are your quintessential rules of the road?

MB: I pump my tires up to my preferred pressure before every ride – this is particularly important for mountain bike handling, but also helps prevent pinch flats on the road. I take the following things on every ride: water, spare tube, tire levers, CO2 pump (for quick inflation), tube patches, multitool with a full range of hex wrenches and a chain tool, spare master link, extra valve cores for my bikes that are set up tubeless, spare house key, ID bracelet, and phone. For longer rides I always take a hand pump, food, cash, credit card, and driver’s license. Since I regularly ride three bikes that all have different sized tires, I use an appropriately sized mounting strap to stow a tube, CO2 cartridge, and tire levers under the saddle of each bike. I have a small, weatherproof pouch that holds most everything else and fits into a jersey pocket – I take it with me regardless of which bike I’m on. My ID bracelet has my basic information and a phone number for an emergency contact. With my phone, I use Strava’s Beacon function to let a family member track where I am for every ride. During COVID I’ve also been putting a mask in a jersey pocket in case I need to get water at a store or get a ride home due to an unrecoverable mechanical issue.

CT: Rule number one: You belong here. Remember that a bike is a vehicle, too, and bicycles are allowed to be on the roads. You do not need to be on a sidewalk, crammed in a cluttered shoulder, in a parking lane, or on the edge of the road. You are allowed to be in the lane, and most of the time, that’s the safest place you can be. It is where you can be visible to traffic, ride predictably in a straight line., and see potential hazards and traffic patterns. It signals to cars very clearly that there is not enough room for them to pass you in this lane. If you are off to the edge of the lane, they might try to pass you in the same lane, and that could get dangerous.

When there is a bike lane and it is clean and safe, use it. But also look out for “sharrows” (share-arrows) that show you where a bike can be in the lane of traffic. It looks like a bike with two arrows on top. You can line up your front tire with that arrow and know that this is where you belong, but any street is open to you.

When you are in doubt, act like a tractor. Get in the right-most lane and let cars figure out how to pass you when it is safe for them to do so. Do tractors get on the sidewalk? Do tractors stop and apologize to the cars? Do tractors weave in and out of parking spaces to make cars happy? No. Keep going at whatever speed you can safely go and remember that you have a right to be there.

What should I do if I get a flat tire?

One of Mike’s bikes at the Turtle Creek/Wilkins border

MB: If I feel a tire going flat, I stop and get off of the road as soon as possible to avoid rim damage. I always carry tire levers, a spare tube, patches, and a pump. I recommend that new riders practice changing a flat at home so that it’s not stressful on the side of the road or trail. You’ll need to:

Remove the wheel. If it’s the rear wheel, shift into the smallest cassette cog first (and flip the derailleur clutch off if you have one).
Use a tire lever or two to get the tire off of one side of the wheel.
Remove the tube (if your bike is set up tubeless remove the valve and be prepared to get sealant on your hands).
Check the tire carefully to try to locate the puncture (you can also check your tube). Remove any foreign objects that may have caused the puncture (be careful as they’re often sharp).
Insert a new tube or your previous tube with a patch installed.
Reseat your tire by rolling it back over the rim (preferably using your tire levers as little as possible as they can put a hole in your new tube if you’re not careful).
Check both sides of the entire wheel to ensure that the tube is not protruding between the tire bead and rim. If it is, try squeezing the tire in and/or inflate just a little bit, squeeze, and then let the air out and recheck.
Slowly refill with air using the feel of the tire on your other wheel to help you get to about the right tire pressure.
Reinstall the wheel.

CT: Here’s the truth: I’ve only had one tire go flat mid-ride. If you check the air in your tires before you start riding, you’ll probably make it where you are going without a problem. Most often, the flat happens while it is sitting still and slowly leaking air. There are thousands of videos about how to change a tube. I always recommend Bike Pittsburgh’s videos or the ones made by Park Tools (a brand of bike tools). My hot tip: really carefully inspect the inside of the tire rubber for foreign bodies that might be puncturing your tubes. I went through about three tubes on one tire before I realized there was a tiny piece of wire stuck in there.

What do I do if my bike chain comes off?

MB: Most often this is an easy road or trailside fix, albeit one that will get your hands or gloves a bit messy. Since you’re unlikely to drop a chain on a well-adjusted singlespeed, this issue happens mostly on bikes with rear derailleurs. That component allows the chain to move a bit and should, in most cases, let you get the chain back up onto the front chainring (switch the rear derailleur clutch off if you have one). If your bike has a front derailleur, you may need to shift it to be able to get the chain positioned correctly.

CT: Stick it back on! This is the most common issue you might have. If this happens every time you ride, you might need to look the alignment of your derailleur—the thing that moves the chain when you change gears.

What do I do if my brakes give out?

MB: The two most essential bike components to maintain for safety are tires and brakes. I recommend tracking brake pad wear and quickly checking that brakes are working before riding. If my brakes did give out and there was time to react, I’d probably try to get off of the street and slow down with either an uphill grade or section grass.

CT: Truly, brakes don’t “give out” mid-ride. This is something you could discover by doing what we call an “ABC Quick Check.” Before every ride, you should check A) the air in the tires, B) the brake tension, C) the chain condition, and any quick releases on your wheels or seat post. Standing beside your bike, roll the bike forward slowly and test the front and rear brakes. You should feel the brakes stopping the wheel without a whole lot of noise. The brake lever shouldn’t go all the way to the handlebar. You may need to add tension to your brake cable if that happens.

What do the numbers on the gears indicate and when should I adjust them?

CT: Gears are for adjusting how hard or easy it is for you to pedal. When you are going downhill or on a flat surface, you might want to add more resistance so that with each pedal, you are moving faster. This would mean adjusting to a “higher” gear number. If you are going uphill and you want less resistance from your bike to compensate for the increased resistance of gravity, you adjust to a “lower” gear number. If your bike has gears next to your pedals, those are controlled with the left hand. I call these the “coarse focus” gears. They can change the resistance a lot with one click or turn of the gear shifter. The rear gears are controlled by the right hand and are “fine focus” gears. They change the resistance just a little bit at a time.

When you see that a hill is ahead of you, start turning the tension down one click at a time. I also “gear down” just before a stop sign because I know I’m going to lose all my momentum and I’ll have to start pedaling from a stop when I’ll want less resistance. If you find that you are pumping your legs really fast but the bike doesn’t seem to be going any faster, turn the gears up and work more efficiently!

Any other tips?

CT: Don’t forget about BikeWorks at the Shadyside campus! Go down the alley to the left of the Bookstore entrance of Woodland hall, and there’s a whole workshop of tools and bikes to rent. I highly recommend Free Ride, a bike co-op where you can buy a bike, borrow tools, and learn about your bike. I volunteer there as a mechanic prepping bikes for sale.

Bike Pittsburgh is a great local organization for learning about bikes and advocating for accessible transportation and mobility in the city. I volunteer with this group as often as I can, especially with WMNBike PGH, a subgroup with programming for women and non-binary people. I am giving a free virtual workshop on May 20 @ 12:00 pm on Comfortable and Confident City Cycling. I’ve given workshops on DIY bike maintenance, what to wear on your bike commute, and how to use writing to advocate for change. Look out for Bike to Campus events in the fall!

I picked up a wonderful motto from a gentleman in his 70s who volunteers for Free Ride sometimes. He says, “Any distance. Any speed.” You don’t have to be fast or ride for miles to be a cyclist or to prove anything to anyone. Any day that you get on your bike is a good day. Any distance is worth celebrating. Any speed is your speed.

Special thanks to Mike and Carrie for their helpful biking tips! Wishing a Happy Bike Month to all our ChathamU cyclists!