One of the fun aspects of this is that for a city that tends to go to sleep early, there's a pretty active nocturnal cycling scene.
Tonight was crankmob, a monthly rolling party that meets in West L.A. around 9pm, gets moving around 10pm and wanders around various parts of the Westside until very very late.
So I wandered up there tonight to see what it was like, and it was, as the name implies, a mob scene. I got there around 9:30, and by the time we left around 10pm, there were several hundred folks all biking in the same direction.
I learned a number of things:
Biking in L.A. at night with several hundred friendly people is an experience not to be missed. It was probably about 75 degrees out, which after a day in the 90s was nice indeed. Biking with a group of several hundred people is pretty neat. Riders would stop oncoming traffic, so we could proceed through the intersections without a hassle, regardless of what color the light was. (I tried to time it so I got to the intersections while they were green and was reasonably successful.) Most of the drivers were pretty patient and ok with the wait, but a couple got a little cranky.
I will probably not ever race my bike competitively. Not because I'm fat and slow, which are the obvious hindrances, but because riding in very close proximity to dozens of other people moving erratically can be unnerving. Luckily people were pretty good about giving each other space. Of course, in racing, it is likely that most competitors will be sober, and most unlikely that someone will ride up next to you riding his bike down the street with no hands and holding a beer.
LAPD are pretty friendly folks. They don't always get the best news coverage, but they were extremely courteous and professional this evening. Even when there were several hundred of us riding down Venice Blvd. taking up most of the road, an officer just asked us to keep the right lane clear so cars could pass, and then drove off.
Helmets help. We were stopped at the traffic circle, and someone came on the bike-trailer mounted PA and mentioned that one of the riders had been injured, and was face down on the side of the road with a facial injury and needed a ride, so if anyone had a car and could go get him, that would be great. This rider caught up with us at Ralphs a little later and and seemed pretty unfazed despite the fact that he had abrasions on his shoulder and cheek, and a big gauze pad taped to the front corner of his forehead, which would have been covered by the helmet he wasn't wearing. [Edit/Update: Apparently it wasn't the same rider. There were apparently at least 3 folks who sustained injuries last night, only one of whom went to the hospital.] [Edit/Update #2: It WAS the same guy(Eddie), there were three other people who also sustained injuries, one of whome had to go to the hospital. Eddie FINALLY got to the hospital today, and in addition to the head woulds apparently had an abdominal injury severe enough to require surgery. http://midnightridazz.com/forums.php?topicId=3531 . Get well soon everyone.] [Last and latest update: Surgery was not required, it was just "fluid buildup". Fur further updates, click on the previous link.]
I want a track bike. I've mocked them as dangerous and idiotic, but they are fast and light and cool and I want one. Once I get the groceries and rent covered in a sustainable fashion, that's going to be on the list. Given my safety obsession, I may have the only track bike in L.A. with a rear brake as well as a front brake, but I still want one.
That said, the more I ride my current bike, the happier I am with it. It could use a larger top chainring, and a little tuning up, but a mountain bike with high pressure 1.5 inch road tires is a pretty great way to get around L.A.
Parties where you can wear workout gear, or costumes, or WHATEVER you feel like, and travel, and see stuff, and listen to cool music (from the aforementioned bike trailer P.A.), and get exercise, all at the same time, are my kind of party. I mean seriously, I know I'm supposed to be a grown up and all, but wearing "business casual" to a social event is COMPLETELY lame.
Did I mention how great biking at night in L.A. is? It's cooler, but still warm enough to be comfortable in shorts and a T-shirt (or the chicken suit one rider wore), there's minimal traffic, and on a bike you can pretty much go as fast as you want. That's pretty much how L.A. is meant to be seen, as you can completely understand why people spend so much time and effort to be able to live here. Sitting in gridlock on the daily commute twice a day five days a week can fill one with the urge to pack it in and go live somewhere cheaper and less congested. You need a reminder of L.A.'s greatness every now and again, and riding around it at night with lots of friendly people and open roads is a good one.
From our starting point, we biked up to Santa Monica, over to Beverly Glen, down Beverly Glen to Pico to Westwood to National to Motor to Palms to Overland, where we stopped at the 7-11. Multiple hundreds of us.
Here's a pic of the crew at 7-11. (All pictures were taken on my cell phone without much attempt for steadiness.)
People jumped rope, danced, drew pictures in chalk, drank beer, set off fireworks, and just hung out. Then, the police arrived, and it was decided that we'd move the party along.
About half a mile up National to the Trader Joe's Parking Lot.
People jumped rope, danced, drew pictures in chalk, drank beer, set off fireworks, hung out, and jousted on bicycles.
Seriously, they took some long lengths of PVC tubing with heavy padding on the ends to use as lances, took volunteer jousters, and had them bicycle joust. It was reasonably harmless, until the guys on tall bikes went, which was a little scary, as they have a long fall to negotiate. There was lady bicycle jousting too.
The blue and yellow blurb in the bottom left is a young lady dressed as Snow White shortly after impact with her jousting opponent. There were no injuries suffered from any of the jousting.
The police eventually arrived, and asked us politely to disperse, and were nice enough to block traffic so that all several hundred of us could get back on the road safely. So we went down Sepulveda to Venice to Abbott Kinney to Main Street down to the huge traffic circle, which we pretty much occupied the entirety of. People jumped rope, danced, drew pictures in chalk, drank beer, set off fireworks, hung out, climbed on statues, etc.
[Edit/Update:] Here's some Youtubage of the Venice traffic circle gathering:
From there it was over to Pacific to Washington to Admiralty Way to the Marina Del Rey Ralph's parking lot, where people hung out, drank beer, did bike tricks, etc., etc.
From there, it was down to the Marina itself, on to the bike bath and out to the jetty and hung out there. A handful of late night / REALLY early morning fishermen, and dozens and dozens and dozens of cyclists.
By this point, it was about 3AM, and while some folks were still going strong, I heard a group mention that they were headed back and decided to join them for a trip up the Ballona Creek Bike Path to Sepulveda to Venice and home.
To post this and see how badly my pictures came out. Now that that's done, I'm going to sleep.
Keep an eye out for the next crankmob, Santa Monica Critical Mass, etc., and go see the town with a bunch of nice people.
[Edit/Update] More youtubage:
(All youtube videos not done by me.)
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