I Love Riding in the City

NAME: Ted King-Smith
LOCATION: Pittsburgh, PA
OCCUPATION: Retired bike messenger, film projectionist, bloody student.

Where do you live and what’s it like riding in your city?
Pittsburgh has vast undulating landscapes of postmodern desolation and despair mixed with moments of sublime beauty and nostalgia. Something between the set of Metropolis and l’enfer du nord.
What’s your favorite (or the most exotic) city you’ve ridden in, and what was special or memorable?

I’ve never really ridden anywhere that exotic yet. . . but some of my favorite experiences riding are on the swift banks of the Lehigh Valley Velodrome, the shaded country roads of Bloomington as ridden by Dave Stohler, the all out sprint across Market Street to the placidity of Kelly drive in Philadelphia, the Zoo Bomb route down Burnside on an astro-turf covered cruiser in Portland, the cruise down Coney Island Avenue to see the Wonder Wheel or the treacherously fun Williamsburg Bridge in Brooklyn, but best of all are the heart breaking heights and beautiful vistas throughout any Pittsburgh road ride.

Why do you love riding in the city?
Pittsburgh is a source of constant frustration from potholes a plenty, to moronic motorists, to treacherous climbs, descents and highways between you and a good cup of coffee, but occasionally from this bursts brilliance and fun to be rivaled nowhere and with it a tight-knit (if not always organized) scene who will watch your back and buy you a beer (and no one will gank your rear wheel while you drink it!)