About Friends! This is a fixed gear and urban cycling guide to St Petersburg, Russia. It is kinda welcome postcard for every cycling addict from anywhere on earth. We feel lucky to live and ride in this beautiful city and invite you to share this awesome experience. This guide is brought to you by the two printed cycling media of St Petersburg: the “Riser Ruins Everything” zine and the “Fields and Roads” magazine.
“Riser Ruins Everything” is an underground zine about fixed gear and urban cycling culture of St Petersburg. The name was taken from the local FG meme and is dedicated to remind us of the roots of fixed gear and why we ever chose to ride in the streets.
“Fields & Roads” is a printed and online magazine about bicycle touring and cyclocross, about cycling adventures and real life experience... Life is boring without challenges, so be fast and curious, travel and talk about it.
Idea and texts by: Max Shchezhin & Yulya Yup Cover design: Vasily W.T.F. (www.be.net/v-b) Join our facebook group “St Petersburg Fixed” for the latest information!
Contents
Welcome to Saint Petersburg Our cycling community Riding in the city Roads, bridges and riversides Where to ride: city center traffic islands outside the city Useful places Races and events Safety and dangers Tips and fun
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Welcome to St Petersburg
Saint Petersburg is known as the northernmost city in the world with a population of over one million or as the cultural capital of Russia, the largest country in the world. But from the inside you will find it to be an extremely interesting metropolis with rich heritage and emerging street culture, preserved traditions and active nightlife, beautiful architecture and fat traffic.
Here you will find a wide range of cultural and sport events, music gigs and parties, restaurants and bars, parks and beaches and much more. And by the way, it is a port city with fast-changing weather. So don’t be surprised when a clear sky gets replaced with rainy clouds in a matter of minutes. And finally we have an awesome thing called the white nights. From mid-May to mid-July it never gets dark at night, which is a great thing for riding.
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So let’s finally get to it!
Our cycling community We have a great cycling community!
Photo credits:
First of all, this guide is fully crowdfunded by our fellow riders and the photos were made by them.
cover — Max Shchezhin page 3 — Ilya Gfys page 4 — Sasha Nevsky page 5 — Sasha Antonov page 6 — Sasha Nevsky page 7 — Vova Pospelov, Sasha Pest page 8 — Max Shchezhin page 10 — panoramio.com/user/635557 page 11 — Andrey Morozov, Vova Pospelov page 12 — Vova Pospelov page 13 — Tanya Kirsanova page 14 — Sergey Tarshin, “Top Gear” page 15 — Anton Kuznetsov, Vova Zaikin
If you plan your visit, collect as many contacts as possible - it is not only fun, but also helpful in different situations. We ride together, chill out, watch races, hang out and of course help each other when in need. Welcome to our fixed family!
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Riding in the city St Petersburg is a fixed gear paradise. Flat as a plain, it makes you go uphill or downhill only when you ride up or down a bridge. Straight streets, bus lanes and one-ways are best friends of ours. And if you like riding through the traffic, SPb has joined the top 10 heavy-traffic cities of the world. Don’t forget to watch out! And yes, we have no bike lanes here. That’s why we ride on the roads and some people prefer to cycle among the pedestrians.
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Car drivers are used to having cyclists around but it’s better to act the way they expect you to. Taxi and minivan drivers can be aggressive (like anywhere on earth) and women can be really inattentive as well as the pedestrians. There are not many strict road rules for cyclists (just the basic ones like stopping on the red signal) and riding brakeless is not officially forbidden as long as you can skid-stop. And finally, watch out for road cracks and tram rails, we got lots of them!
Roads, bridges and riversides The Neva river divides our city into two sides and a number of islands, all connected by almost 350 bridges, big and small. The river is navigable, so on summer nights most bridges over the Neva are drawn which makes it difficult to get to the other side. That’s why you’ll need to keep in mind the bridge timetable. And sometimes you’ll have to make a sprint!
Most rivers and canals have rideable banks. The Neva riverside offers you a wide pedestrian zone where you can chill out and even ride when tired of the noisy traffic. The roads are often cleaned but you should avoid riding too close to the border stone because dust and sometimes something sharp can be there. And if you see a jammed road and an empty pavement, that’s ok to ride there!
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Where to ride: city center City center is really the first place to go! Nevsky Avenue (the main street) is beloved by the local cyclists because of its bus-lanes, medium traffic and straightness. Check out the photo below. When we say “Let’s blow up Nevsky” — it means to ride through it, usually as a crowd. Nevsky starts at the Palace Square, a great place for everyone to meet and start off. From there it goes east straight to the Rebellion Square (you spell it ‘Vos-sta-ni-ya’ in russian). All the small streets in the center are awesome too and riding through them is a good alternative to the big straight routes.
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Where to ride: traffic There are some avenues with really fat and often stressed traffic so you should be prepared to deal with aggressive drivers! The first is called Moscowsky Avenue. It goes south from the center and is almost straight. Its length is about 10 km and if you go another 7 km south there will be the Pulkovo airport. Another traffic paradise (or maybe hell) is Ligovsky Avenue. It goes south from the Rebellion Sq. and at the end meets Moscowsky. The road between Nevsky and Moscowsky is called Sadovaya (which means garden) Street. It’s not as wide as the previous two and there are tram rails in the middle. Do you know how to cross those? Check out the Safety & Dangers page! These places are really intense during the rush hours and may be fun to ride if you watch out really well!
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Where to ride: islands There are two big and five smaller islands in St Petersburg that are interesting for riding. The bigger two are called Petrogradsky and Vasil’evsky. Both are full of big wide avenues and small narrow streets - those can be combined into some awesome routes around. The Vasil’evsky island ends with a port side which can be quite fun for hanging out but is known to be extremely windy sometimes. So leave your high rims at home! Just jokin’ :)
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The smaller islands are mostly recreational and offer endless parks, beautiful riversides and cool small roads. The Krestovsky island hosts an amusement park as well as an olympic velodrome. The latter can be visited to watch some races. The Yelagin island (as featured in one of the latest episodes of “Top Gear“) is also known as the Central Park Of Culture and Leisure and does not allow cyclists on weekends and holidays (too much people walking). Each island is connected with the others (as well as with the main city parts) via several bridges, so you won’t get lost!
Where to ride: outside the city On a warm sunny day the best thing to do is to cycle out of the city towards a sandy beach on the seaside of the gulf. The resort district is quite big and the closest beaches are about 40 km from the city center - that’s no more than 3 hours of the most relaxed cycling!
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Useful places Fixed Lab is the main place to meet, hang out and repair your bike. It was created in 2011 in St Petersburg both for helping novices to build great bicycles for a competitive price and for organizing fast growing community into an amateur sports movement. In 2012 Fixed Lab organized several unique races like first Russian fixed criterium or first winter alleycat dedicated to Christmas Day. Fixed Lab is not only a bicycle store or a workshop, it’s a family. Everybody can come here to find a good consult or company for a ride. Kovenskiy pereulok, 14 Vse fixirui. Name of the shop says “Fix it all” in russian. Here you can find the best vintage track parts, from handlebars and stems to cranks and hubs. Old Cinelli, Campagnolo and Gipiemme track components, some Japanese – Sugino, Nitto and Sakae, and some Soviet parts along with vintage steel frames, all available now and in one place. Naberezhnaya Moyki, 9-28 (call before visit) BEDANDBIKE hostels are big enough with place to store bikes, comfortable, with friendly and smiling staff, and they also organize meetings and lectures dedicated to bicycle travelling. And if you come without your bike, they also
have a renting service with good conditions. Another important thing is visa support: by paying 6,5 euro you’ll get a full pack of documents to receive Russian visa without any problems or delays. Ulitsa Dostoevskogo, 19/21; Gorokhovaya ulitsa, 43 Friend’s place is a big and good hostel with renting service (working 24 hours 7 days a week), where you can arrange storage for your bike. Bike excursions, shuttle service and discounts for hostel guests at restaurants, cafes and museums are also available. Naberezhnaya Canala Griboyedova, 18-20
Races and events Different events happen throughout the season: official races, group rides, underground races. We’ve listed the most remarkable ones for the upcoming ‘15. 25th of April – Summer Season Opening. New season begins with a sprint on the supermarket parking area, the third time on the same place becomes our northern tradition. Short-distance track with a lot of dangerous sharp turns, unexpected fences, trucks and other consumerism symbols is waiting for winners. We call it Virage Racing because of tricky turns which don’t forgive your mistakes. Prepare yourself hard, because several races will be held during the year. 6-7th of June – Bicycle Festival “Za Velogorod” (Rus., “For the bicycle city”) during which one race of the 3rd Leningrad Criterium Series will be held.
There will be independent ratings for track and road, and we call both young blood and the best of the best to fight with equal in amateur and elite standings. Leningrad Criterium Series has three stages, and others are planned for 4-5th of July and 15th of August. 2-day events are special Race Weekends with Criterium on first day and time trial race on the second day. All these events are organized by Ingria Racing. This season you will also see events from new born Ghetto Racing coalition. They will present a series of races, from alleycats with interactive tasks to sprints and other cycling quests. No dates are available now, but races will be quite frequent, held twice a month. These are underground races, old-school, streetstyle only, with an expression of true ghetto riding, with picnics, party and music gigs after each race.
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Safety and dangers Of course we can’t say that Saint-Petersburg is someway more dangerous than any other city of the world. But neither can we say that it is safe here like in Finland, for example. It all depends on the road situation and your skill as well as luck. So the only advice we can give you is to watch out — the same way as we all do! We have no bike lanes here and some drivers are not so aware of cyclists. That’s why you should always keep an eye on cars to the left of you when going straight! They can be turning right without any signal. Another tip is well known to anyone used to ride in traffic. Watch out for opening doors! Sadly, some people never use the rear view mirrors.
Cross the tram tracks only at a wider angle! Really, did you see the “Top Gear” episode from SPb? That’s a screenshot on the left. And finally, always use a U-lock or a good chain lock. And don’t leave your bike somewhere outside for the night.
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Keep it safe!
Tips and fun When you’re tired and hungry, don’t forget to find yourself a tasty and healthy meal! The favourite snack of Saint Petersburg’s fixed gear riders is the shaverma (known as the kebab). Authentic street food stalls can be found in different places all over the city. Each one’s owned by a different person, so in each place shaverma has its own taste, depending on spices, sauce and grill time the cook likes.
There is a whole Bike Polo community here in SPb with regular trainings, games and championships. You can join them any day you like and if you wanna play, all the needed eqipment will be shared!
You can find all the latest information in our facebook group “St Petersburg Fixed”. And feel free to ask any questions - that’s what a community is for!
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