Post your ride pics

[Tania]

No helmet cover? Target plastic bags work great.

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[consularrider]

Is that my new bike Tania?

[Boo Boo]

@DaveK 125182 wrote:

The Tampa side of the Courtney Campbell used to be awful for cycling, but with the airport interchange project a few years ago they built a trail that connects down to Cypress St and from there into South Tampa and downtown. Should be a fun ride.

Just did that ride two weeks ago while on a business trip. From downtown down Cypress, over the causeway, and to Clearwater, down Clearwater and the other barrier islands to Treasure Island, and back across St Pete to the Gandy Bridge to get back to downtown.

Great ride. Nice mix of trail, bike lanes, and open road. The completed Causeway is awesome. It’s just a shame that the old Friendship Bridge next to the Gandy is being demolished. Hopefully when they have to build a new vehicle span (within 6 or 7 years, I think), they can convert the closed one to a trail again. The Gandy isn’t horrible for riding (wide shoulder), but it’s definitely not great either. And the lead-up to it has you on a shoulder/bike lane right next to 60+ mph traffic for a mile or two.

Two shots from the Causeway:

[Rod Smith]

[consularrider]

From this morning’s south loop to Obukhiv.

The “veteran’ group (fast) that left 15 minutes before the slightly slower Embassy threesome.

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The other two Embassy riders were only shooting for a fast 60 km ride so I headed back alone stopping in Navodnitsky Park for Coffeeneuring #1 at the pink snail.
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[bobco85]

@Boo Boo 125441 wrote:

Just did that ride two weeks ago while on a business trip. From downtown down Cypress, over the causeway, and to Clearwater, down Clearwater and the other barrier islands to Treasure Island, and back across St Pete to the Gandy Bridge to get back to downtown.

Great ride. Nice mix of trail, bike lanes, and open road. The completed Causeway is awesome. It’s just a shame that the old Friendship Bridge next to the Gandy is being demolished. Hopefully when they have to build a new vehicle span (within 6 or 7 years, I think), they can convert the closed one to a trail again. The Gandy isn’t horrible for riding (wide shoulder), but it’s definitely not great either. And the lead-up to it has you on a shoulder/bike lane right next to 60+ mph traffic for a mile or two.

Wow, the view can be really great from the Causeway trail! Hopefully next time I’m there (probably February 2016) the area won’t be covered in dense fog (fingers crossed). I looked at the Gandy approach on Google Streetview, and it looks similar to roads I crossed on the Suncoast Trail (farther north starting in Odessa, very nice trail that I highly recommend).

[DaveK]

@Boo Boo 125441 wrote:

Just did that ride two weeks ago while on a business trip. From downtown down Cypress, over the causeway, and to Clearwater, down Clearwater and the other barrier islands to Treasure Island, and back across St Pete to the Gandy Bridge to get back to downtown.

Great ride. Nice mix of trail, bike lanes, and open road. The completed Causeway is awesome. It’s just a shame that the old Friendship Bridge next to the Gandy is being demolished. Hopefully when they have to build a new vehicle span (within 6 or 7 years, I think), they can convert the closed one to a trail again. The Gandy isn’t horrible for riding (wide shoulder), but it’s definitely not great either. And the lead-up to it has you on a shoulder/bike lane right next to 60+ mph traffic for a mile or two.

Gandy was terrible to ride on, actually even worse on the Tampa side. At least the St Pete side had a wide shoulder and the redneck riviera, assuming you didn’t get hit by someone drag racing. You can get there through the neighborhood though and just come in at Westshore to avoid the awfulness east of there. I’m sorry to hear about the old bridge, that was such a great amenity. They closed it just before I moved here (2009) because of structural issues and rising maintenance costs but I didn’t know it had finally been axed rather than repaired.

[Boo Boo]

@DaveK 125524 wrote:

Gandy was terrible to ride on, actually even worse on the Tampa side. At least the St Pete side had a wide shoulder and the redneck riviera, assuming you didn’t get hit by someone drag racing. You can get there through the neighborhood though and just come in at Westshore to avoid the awfulness east of there. I’m sorry to hear about the old bridge, that was such a great amenity. They closed it just before I moved here (2009) because of structural issues and rising maintenance costs but I didn’t know it had finally been axed rather than repaired.

I don’t know the route through the neighborhoods, so the two times I’ve done it (both from St Pete > Tampa), I’ve continued down Gandy to Bayshore. Definitely a brutal ride for that stretch.

I was really impressed with St Pete, though. Some really nice infrastructure in that city, at least in the sections I rode. I took the 1st Ave South bike lane all the way West>East from the Treasure Island Causeway, then linked up with 1st St North for the majority of the South>North ride. That was particularly nice. One way car traffic (N>S) with a S>N bike lane (and a N>S) one running adjacent for a few miles, then a bike lane the rest of the way with the two lane traffic.

The demo of the old bridge started the week I was down there (19th>25th). Years of battles over it and a few private groups trying to raise the funds for repair (somewhere around 15-17 million) finally ended. Major, major bummer.

[consularrider]

Started the ride by going to the Embassy to pick up mail and have lunch. After that I reversed and head towards downtown (hitting a downhill cobble stone section), crossed the pedestrian bridge to Trukhaniv Island and headed to the north end to do some trail riding. The trails are unpaved, a little gravel, but mostly a mix of dirt and packed an loose sand.

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[Rod Smith]

The Rove has arrived.

[consularrider]

@Rod Smith 125906 wrote:

The Rove has arrived.

Yours or mine?

[Rod Smith]

Yours

[consularrider]

@Rod Smith 125915 wrote:

Yours

Well, it’s arrived but waiting on couple replacement parts before its first ride. I’ve been using my wife’s 1994 Raleigh M60 rigid mtn bike the past several days (mine is waiting on a new rear brakeset).

[consularrider]

I was out for my coffeeneuring ride #4 taking advantage of the Leif the Lucky (or Dia de la Raza or Columbus) day holiday rule. I sort of meandered around the north part of the island and got yelled at once for riding somewhere the person didn’t want me to be. at least he called his dogs off (by the phone booth photo).

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[consularrider]

After all the wandering, I sill made it in time to ресторан Креп де Шин to join the pancake crowd at Mike’s Deli with some crepes.

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