America, Countries, Sport, Sustainable Tourism

Mais oui, the biggest bike museum is where?

Mais oui, the biggest bike museum is where? Well, Steeltown, Pittsburgh in Pennsylvania.

Not that you’d want to parler that around France where the biggest cycling competition, Le Tour, is currently raging.

But the sports-mad blue-collar East Coast American city might just have stolen a wheel on you here.

Morrow belongs to me: Craig in his museum

Especially Craig Morrow, who opened Bicycle Heaven in 2011, and has filled it with more than 3,000 bikes.

All of which I ferreted out from a nugget of knowledge from the Visit Pittsburgh team.

And who visited and sponsored the American Soiree travel symposium in Dublin last week.

And showcased their route from Pittsburgh to Washington DC, the Great Allegheny Passage.

Tour de Pittsburgh

Off on a tandem: The Monkees contraption

The 333.3-mile week-long track that adjoins C&O Canal Towpath… or maybe 45- to 60-mile bicycling days.

All of which requires the back-up of a Tour de France support team… or in the absence of that then Craig Morrow.

Ride on: My Tour de France journey

The thing is that you probably know about Cycling Heaven without realising it.

From Russell Crowe movies (A Beautiful Mind) or Viola Davies (Fences) to The Monkees and The Beatles.

To tread through Cycling Heaven is a ride through cycling history.

From the early wooden bikes, with the oldest in the shop, built in 1863, termed the ‘boneshaker’.

To the carbon-based frames of today.

 With the novelty contraptions such as the ‘Hercules’ where you bounce on the seat to get going.

And I reckon I’d be a natural having pedalled my own Margaritas in San Antonio in Texas.

Now if you’ve got a spare $18,000 to $50,000 then you could leave with a 1940s fibreglass Bowden Spacelander.

That it’s Pittsburgh that boasts the biggest cycling museum in the world shouldn’t really surprise us.

Because the Penn city combines its industrial heritage and the eclectic vision of its favourite son Andy Warhol to draw the world.

How to get there

Fun and Games: With a Paralympian champ Mark Rohan in Quinta do Lago

And Aer Lingus will fly you there through Ireland with pre-clearance and JetBlue get you back.

So that if, as is my case, that means starting in Edinburgh, until my Scary One relents and allows us to return full time to Wicklow.

For now though I’ve dug out my own return flight Edinburgh to Pittsburgh knowing your departure point may be different.

From under a grand £957 round trip for the sample month of September.