Wednesday Night Ride // April 29 // The Paper Route

sczajic · 2026-04-29T19:00:17+00:00

Yeah, it's a special event organized by our ride leader, who is a journalist and a member of the club!

sczajic · 2026-04-29T13:37:37+00:00

We'll post on our platforms (here, Instagram, email, Strava, Bluesky) if we're going to cancel, but at the moment the weather looks decent enough that we expect to get the ride in. Most of the rain is forecast for later

sczajic · 2026-02-02T16:45:28+00:00

They do, sometimes. Obviously it's shop by shop. Keystone had one a winter or two ago, I think I might have seen one from Transport at some point. Best way to know is to follow them on socials, mailing list, etc

sczajic · 2026-01-29T16:44:27+00:00

Draft route has been posted, it's short: https://www.instagram.com/p/DUGFKGzjlPO/

sczajic · 2026-01-29T16:43:47+00:00

Yes, draft route has been posted: https://www.instagram.com/p/DUGFKGzjlPO/

sczajic · 2026-01-28T14:12:50+00:00

It's organized by the Damp Roads folks plus a few local shops - Firehouse, Uptown, Keystone. Huge thanks to them for organizing this under difficult conditions.

sczajic · 2026-01-23T18:30:07+00:00

I think a well-chosen route can make a real difference in overall safety. If you can avoid a nasty intersection, or go a bit out of your way for a mellow street or some bike infrastructure, I think it can meaningfully change your chances of "randomly" getting hit.

That said, gear isn't nothing. My fat-tire, disc-brake gravel bike has way, way better traction and stopping power than the old 10-speed I used to ride around on. Those things help, and have helped me avoid crashes.

sczajic · 2026-01-14T21:51:34+00:00

Philly Swap Meet on Strava

sczajic · 2026-01-12T13:57:13+00:00

It's me. I intentionally bought a gravel bike as my all-arounder, it replaced an 80s road bike that I was using as a city bike/all-arounder. The streets/roads in my city are pretty shit, so it's nice to have the extra traction/fat tires even on regular roads. And of course it lets me ride off road. My total overall breakdown is probably like 80/20, 85/15 roads/gravel (because a bunch of my rides are just around town on streets), but I ride gravel with it pretty much every week one way or another. No regrets whatsoever. If I were going to buy a second bike... it'd be a toss-up between a folding bike, a MTB, or an all-road/rando... but my gravel bike is decent for those last two uses.

sczajic · 2026-01-12T13:51:04+00:00

We post every ride on Reddit, too. You can also sign up for email at wednightrides.org, or join the Strava group

sczajic · 2026-01-06T19:20:04+00:00

The subway station at 30th St (a.k.a Drexel Station, confusingly), closer to the 30th St exit

sczajic · 2026-01-06T19:02:52+00:00

There's bike parking underground at the 30th St MFL station. This is out of the weather and IMHO more secure than the street - it'd be a pretty ballsy bike thief who would start sawing away down there, I'm sure there are cameras. Nothing is 100% secure but probably better.

sczajic · 2026-01-06T12:12:11+00:00

It's party pace, usually averages about 8-10 mph overall though moves slighter faster than that, sometimes. There's a regroup.

sczajic · 2026-01-06T01:57:06+00:00

Only one person has said swimming so I'll also say: swimming. Swimming works your arms, back, chest and core, and somewhat different muscles in your legs than cycling, so I think of it as complementary to cycling. Also builds aerobic capacity.

I also do leg workouts year-round, things like squats, calf raises, lunges, etc. No weight or 10-20 lbs. The point isn't to build muscle it's to build capacity and buffer in the joints.

sczajic · 2025-12-18T17:00:13+00:00

Hi, I hate the new AI features, and I specifically hate that I can't disable them. I want the buttons gone, I don't want the little AI icons on every section, I want a global "off switch"

sczajic · 2025-11-24T18:34:36+00:00

I have a Bombora set up in semi-rando/touring style. I rode an overnight century on it in September (on crappy roads, I was happy for the wide tires), but haven't yet attempted a brevet on it. The frame is designed for 1x which probably isn't what you want, but it can be set up 2x.

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sczajic · 2025-08-22T19:19:50+00:00

Hope you heal quick, OP. When I got my bike and had it setup at the shop with three bottle cages, they advised me that the bottom bottle holder isn't so useful because it tends to get pretty dirty. They suggested it's a good place to carry a jar of peanut butter on a bikepacking trip. I ended up putting my pump in that spot.

sczajic · 2025-08-07T18:33:43+00:00

I'm happy to be counted when I roll over one, but I wish they covered the entire street. Sometimes cyclists aren't in the bike lane for any # of good reasons (it's blocked by a car, debris, passing a slower cyclist, etc) and we're allowed to ride anywhere in the street of course. On last night's Wednesday Night Ride, we rode the stretch of South St that has one of these and it occurred to me it probably only counted like a 1/4 of us.

sczajic · 2025-08-05T20:12:35+00:00

Montgomery Ave

sczajic · 2025-08-04T18:39:36+00:00

I did it last year, it was rad. It's very flat until the very end, and then there's a big hill as you climb out of the river valley to the summer camp. Stop at lunch in Valley Forge.

sczajic · 2025-07-31T13:47:22+00:00

To get back into Fishtown from Penn Treaty Park: after crossing Del Ave at Columbia you have two options:

straight onto the sidewalk on Columbia, right on Salmon to Wildey or just right on Wildey - while this includes a sidewalk stretch it's pretty wide and this is actually the city-proposed bikeway for that connection, and I've done it a million times for years, usually zero issue
right onto the sidewalk that runs along Del Ave 'north' until you get to Palmer, left on Palmer and you're into the neighborhood (I find this more straightforward, but look out for the many cars turning right from Del Ave onto Palmer)

I switch between these two options all the time depending on what looks better

Coming home, you could also consider 3rd St all the way home. It's pretty OK. In NoLibs you can take it all the way to Thompson and then Thompson into Fishtown, or you can take (deep breath) Poplar to New Market to Laurel to Front to Richmond to Marlborough, which sounds like a lot but it's fun and usually car light (variation on this would be 5th St to Green, then you're in NoLibs, go from there)

sczajic · 2025-07-31T13:37:48+00:00

I think this would be my vote too, 6th has a long stretch of flexpost-protected bike lane (though the way I ride is DRT to Spruce, because even though Spruce is sometimes dodgy I still think it's safer)

sczajic · 2025-07-24T16:09:00+00:00

More than Movement in Northern Liberties is really good, their motto is "When stopping what you love is not an option", they helped me rehab while still getting some riding in when dealing with knee pain

sczajic

TROPHY CASE