Cool recent cycling links...

No exciting (or even dull) personal bike adventures this week (so far), so here are some random items of cycling interest from around the web.

Bay Area program on helping Iraq / Afghanistan Vets recover from PTSD by cycling. (Likely to be followed by an upsurge in politeness among motorists toward cyclists in the Silicon Valley.)
http://presszoom.com/story_145387.html

Fun salon.com article about the joys of a utility bike.
http://www.salon.com/mwt/good_life/2008/07/24/sports_utility_bicycle/

People are actually interested in commuting by bicycle. Far out!
http://www.boston.com/business/articles/2008/07/24/re_cycling_effort/

They've got bike co-ops in Florida too.
http://www.tampabay.com/news/humaninterest/article735198.ece

Pasadena man and his Church of the Open Road.
http://www.pasadenaweekly.com/cms/story/detail/church_of_the_open_road/6205/

San Francisco Bike Plan held up by the California Environmental Quality Act. (Issue being looked into by the SF Dept. of Irony.)
http://www.sfbg.com/blogs/politics/2008/07/bicyclists_told_to_blame_ceqa.html

Anybody know a bike fitter/builder in Cambria, NY? Give this poor woman a call and help her out.
http://www.theamherstrecord.com/local/local_story_201021331.html

Multiple Critical Masses tomorrow night. http://www.midnightridazz.com/events.php. Should be a fun weekend. Now I just need to go rest up for it.

Crankmob

Was way too exhausted to properly appreciate crankmob last night. Did not get nearly enough sleep the night before, so instead of enjoying the festive chaos and the dancing folks and the friendly people and general hilarity that is crankmob, my exhausted state made the darker side of the chaos a little more noticeable than usual. (The dead-drunk bikers falling over while riding in a straight line down the street and almost causing multiple wrecks, the tagger decorating the one-way sign on Windward Circle, Tom's hip-bag getting stolen (please return this!), the failure to yield promptly for the ambulances/fire trucks, the decision to take 500 cyclists over the narrow bridges at the Venice Canals, etc., etc.) But like I said, I was tired and cranky, so this was just my own experience entirely, and had I been well-rested, I would have been better able to focus on the huge amount of fun things that were occurring.

Like all the really cool art at the glow festival, the riders in capes, the tandem cyclists in their underwear, the dancing, the fireworks, the chalk art, and just being able to ride around en masse in the middle of the night. Basically all the cool stuff in mullingitover's kick ass video of the ride. (It's especially kick ass because it was put together so quickly):



Must get more sleep for the next ride, so I can better focus on the positive. Still it would be nice if steps could be taken to reduce the few less-helpful aspects of group fun rides.

Because unintended consequences can be pretty rough.



The Venice Custom Bicycle Show is today.

PJ-Lingerie / Film Festival / Echo Park Ride

I brought a couple more tools with me on this ride, and learned a few things.

One of the things about having tools is that you CAN fix stuff.

One of the other things about having tools is that you then WILL fix stuff.

This was demonstrated to me rather vividly tonight on the PJ/Lingerie ride, where people rode around town wearing whatever they'd normally wear to bed. (I wore shorts and a T-shirt, which is usually what I wear if I have to share hotel rooms on a business trip, so close enough.)

Scott and Cesar and Vlad and I started out from Crankmob park, Vlad having gotten substantially more into the spirit of the thing than the rest of us (and providing us with the quote of the night, "These slippers were not made for bicycling!") We rode up to West Hollywood Park, and then hung out for a while. Quite a long while, as we made surprisingly good time getting there.

There was a fair number of people, and the ones I met were supercool, so that was fun. We didn't have a PA/stereo, so that made things a little tricky as everyone kind of decided to start riding. It was a fun ride for the first half mile, then this guy's chain went off the bottom cog going through an intersection. This is kind of a bummer, but it happens all the time with older/non-maintained bikes, and it's usually a quick fix, so I pulled over to help him out.

But it wasn't a quick fix. Not only had the chain come off, but so had the derailleur. The sweeper stopped by, but he, understandably, wasn't going to wait for us to engage in this dubious endeavor, so he gave me his cell phone number and went on. A quick fix turned into a 30-45 minute puzzle game of me twisting the chain and derailleur back and forth to try to get it working. Once I stopped hoping for a magical untangling and just unscrewed the bottom derailleur gear, took the chain out of it, lined everything up and reassembled everything, it was ready to ride.

Then I called the sweeper, got a sense of where they were, and started cycling down Santa Monica. Then my buddy Scott called to figure out where we were, and he said he and a bunch of folks were at the bicycle film festival at Hollywood and Vine. We rode over there, and it was a huge hang out outside the theater, with a bunch of people I knew from the Bikerowave, a bunch of folks whose comments I'd read on midnightridazz.com, and a bunch of other fun folks, including a beautiful young lingerie/pajama clad woman who was upset that her seat and handlebar heights weren't adjusted properly. Well, like I said at the beginning of this post, one of the other things about having tools is that you then WILL fix stuff, so I got her sorted out and she was very pleased indeed, and took off to catch the last train downtown.

Then, we hung out a little longer, and I met Eddie, who took a pretty big spill at last months crankmob. He's on the mend, and riding again, which is awesome, as it's never fun to hear about somebody taking multiple trips to the hospital. As we were standing there, a bearded guy, with an absolutely ENORMOUS smile on his face came up to me and said "This is the greatest night of my life. I just got the phone number of the prettiest girl in the world." Scott asked him how long he was going to wait to call her. The guy responded, "That brings up a good point. She asked me if I had a phone, and man, I sleep on the street, but what was I going to tell her, NO? So I got her number." Then we decided to head over to the film festival after party in Echo Park, and the smiling bearded gentleman began to sing.

Echo Park is pretty cool, and the Little Joy where the after party was, well, as the first reviewer on the Yelp page described "A little too much dive and not enough bar." It was a pretty cool place though, and the DJ knew what he was doing.

But then, it was time to head back home to Palms from Echo Park. It took a while, but that was probably because it's a good ways and we stopped at a couple of parks along the way. First we rode by Echo Park itself, and pedalled past the lake and the sleeping geese and then down past the Macarthur Park area. We did not stop at that park, but did see some undercover cops in the immediate aftermath of a felony stop with a group of young men spread out on the ground. Then further south, and further west, until we decided to take a break at Los Angeles High Memorial Park, which is a small park, but really beautiful.

Then, it was down La Brea to Venice, and home. Another great night.

Crankmob's tomorrow. See you there.

The Bike/Car Culture (of entitlement) War

(The pictures in this post have ZERO to do with the actual post itself. I just got a little wordy and needed to add some humor and visual content.)

In other news entirely, there's a lot of discussion lately (here, here, here, etc.) about cars and bikes sharing the road since an incident the other week on Mandeville Canyon Road where a motorist (Dr. Christopher T. Thompson) became enraged at a couple of cyclists and pulled in front of them and slammed on his brakes, causing one of them to go face-first through the rear window, nearly severing his nose and causing multiple other injuries, and the other to go flying off his bike and separating his shoulder, which will require surgery. (In this case, Dr. Thompson appears to have been completely and entirely in the wrong, which is why he's facing arraignment in two weeks.)

This incident, combined with high gas prices that have made more Angelenos start riding their bicycles, and made more motoring Angelenos even crankier, seems to have brought the issue or cars and cyclists sharing the road to the forefront. After cancelling a previously scheduled public meeting, City Councilman Bill Rosendahl set up a task force between residents of Mandeville Canyon Road and certain groups of cyclists.

WestsideBikeSIDE has been covering this, and one of the interesting points brought up in the discussion over there is WestsideBikeside author Alex Thompson's comment that

"this has all the symptoms of a culture war. It’s not a culture war between CARS and CYCLISTS, but between cyclists’ safety needs and motorist entitlement. Can anyone deny that there is an almost universal sense of a entitlement amongst motorists in LA? Is it not the case that cyclists do not feel safe when motorists drive with entitlement? We have the ingredients for a culture war."

There he hit the nail on the head. Unfortunately, it's not just a lot of motorists, but a lot of cyclists too that have this sense of entitlement.


(Like I said, nothing to do with the actual post.)

It's not surprising really, this is Los Angeles, the land of eternal sunshine and instant gratification, where EVERYONE feels entitled to whatever he or she wants at that particular instant.

Some drivers feel that they own the road when they're behind the wheel.

After all, it's their gas taxes that pay for these roads. Why should they have to wait behind some smug jackass on an overpriced child's toy that wants to go ten miles an hour and doesn't want to get out of the way? Haven't those idiots on bicycles heard of a little thing called the laws of physics and a man named Darwin? What are they thinking? The roads belong to cars, and those dumb bikes can stay on the sidewalk.

Unfortunately, some cyclists have a very similar sense of entitlement.

Don't those people in cars realize they're killing the planet and not getting any exercise while they transport themselves around town? Stop signs and traffic signals are optional for cyclists, especially if they're riding in a group. Riding two to five abreast is perfectly fine at any speed, regardless of what California Vehicle Code section 21202 has to say about keeping as close to the right as possible. Not only do cyclists get to do all of this, they can do it while heavily intoxicated, and those fools in cars can just deal with it.

(OK, this one's a tiny bit relevant.)

Welcome to the Culture of Entitlement War between cyclists and motorists.

There are a couple of issues in play here.

1. It seems like bike culture may actually be approaching "critical mass". Here in L.A., you're seeing more and more folks using bikes as a form of transportation, and the "bike scene" is taking off in a big way, with rides of hundreds/low thousands of people happening several times a month, and rides with dozens and dozens of people happening a couple of times a week. Rather than just a fringe weekend activity for families with young children and middle aged men, cycling is actually becoming a far more mainstream activity. This means that bicycles are having to be taken seriously as another form of vehicle on the public roads, ather than as just an occasional anomaly.

2. The laws about bicycles / group riding / etc. are still fairly unclear. From a legal perspective, the meaning of the "ride as close as practicable to the right-hand curb or edge of the roadway" requirement of CVC 21202, is not settled. Does this mean that you can ride in groups 2-5 abreast if you're not moving at the "normal speed of traffic"? Does this mean you have to ride single file in groups? Despite what various car / bike advocates claim, this is still fairly unsettled, which is why some members of law enforcement will yell "Single File!" while others say "Have a nice night!" when passing a group of cyclists. Both motorists and cyclists have their preferred interpretations, but from a legal perspective, it looks like there's some unclear verbiage here.
See this lengthy article from 1995 for more detail on bicycles and California law.

(Poor lady.)

It seems to me, that if the laws are unclear, then cyclists and motorists need to figure out how to get along. Turning this into a culture war between U-lock wielding cyclists on the one hand and caltrop tossing motorists on the other, does not seem likely to be very productive.

Both sides need to figure out how getting around town by bike or car can be safe AND efficient and as much fun as possible for all concerned. This is going to involve both sides trading their sense of entitlement and self-importance for compassion and common sense, but it shouldn't be too hard, given that almost everyone involved either is, has been, or will be, both a cyclist and a motorist.

Can it happen? In Los Angeles?

Stay tuned.

But in the mean time, whether you're on a bike or in a car, PLEASE do your best to be pleasant and courteous. Just because some parts of the vehicle code about cycling are unclear, does not mean that there's nearly as much ambiguity about what constitues a felony, as a certain doctor can tell you.

Failing that, JUST DON'T BE AN ASSHOLE when you're part of a group of otherwise nice people. This is as true for the one resident of Mandeville Canyon that decided to assault cyclists with his car, when the other "[h]omeowners acknowledged that the road has clear recreational value and should remain open for a variety of uses", as it is for the guy who chooses to steal beer during a group ride so someone more responsible has to pay up to maintain good relationships with our local retailers.

Make sure to have fun!

Between the lingerie ride on Friday and crankmob on Saturday, I better get my wheel fixed soon.

See you out there this weekend. (If by some freak of improbability, you're reading this, own a bicycle, live in L.A. and haven't been on a big group ride yet, by all means hit up bikeboom.com or midnightridazz.com and head on out.)

Taco Tuesdays and Wheel Building

So the Taco Tuesdays ride was last night, and it was awesome! (As you can tell by the picture above, where Kevin, Cesar, yours truly, and Rich all look happy and contented after a nice ride and some delicious Mexican food courtesy of Cinco DeMayo.)

We all met up in Crankmob Park and took off around 8pm. There were about 20 of us this time, which was a nice increase from the six or seven of us that went the last time I did this ride a few weeks ago.

We made our way down past city hall, on to the Ballona Creek Bike Path, and out to Mustache Bridge. From there we took some alleys and backroads and utility paths and all sorts of unusual routes past boats and parks and who knows what out to the Marina Del Rey Jetty. From there, it was off to Venice Pier, where we hung out for a bit and a couple of riders fished, neither of whom caught anything, except for one guy who caught the pier, which was too big to take home and fillet. At that point, we were all ravenous, so the pace from the Venice Pier back to Cinco De Mayo was the fastest of the evening. Good food was had by all.

Unfortunately, while I was out on this ride, I blew a couple more spokes, which was kind of a drag. Today, while I was volunteering at the bikerowave, I decided to go ahead and rebuild my rear wheel. Thanks to the handy wheel-building book, getting the spokes lined up was no big deal, just time consuming. Unfortunately, as I was about halfway through tightening the wheels and the place was about to close, I threw it on the truing stand and it could not be more out of true. I mean, how do you taco a wheel with a spoke wrench? Well, it's not quite that bad, but it looks like I'll be back at the bikerowave tomorrow so that I can go ride this weekend.

Have you all been enjoying these evenings?

(Shaky cell phone pic of Santa Monica Pier)

Today, while I was at work, I came to the realization that I have a serious internet addiction. Not porn, though god knows there's enough of that out there, but news sites like http://www.cnn.com/, http://www.reddit.com/, http://www.drudge.com/, http://www.aldaily.com/, http://www.digg.com/, and random sites like http://www.break.com/, midnightridazz.com, http://www.pro-touring.com/, etc., etc. It's not just the garden variety "like to keep abreast of current events" sort of interest, but more of a totally obsessive "must know more than Google" thing, which, given the nature of modern communications and technology, is a hilariously futile endeavor. It's not good. It's interfering with my daily life, so I've got to scale it back some.

So after I left work today, rather than going home and blowing the evening watching just about everything new at break.com and reading just about everything new at reddit.com, I decided to drive out to Venice Beach for a stroll.

Which brings me to my title question, "Have you all been enjoying these evenings?"

Holy cow is L.A. beautiful in the evenings right about now!

So I walked from Venice Blvd. up the boardwalk to Santa Monica, and got to check out the newly redesigned Ferris Wheel at the Pier, complete with computerized LED lights.

It's pretty spectacular. The Ferris Wheel has this wicked display of changing lights and patterns and mandalas that make it absolutely fascinating to look at (not that you would know from the pic above). So fascinating, in fact that I didn't even notice that the lights on the ferris wheel were spelling out a message for the Fox television network until I overheard someone mention it. I was going to include a blistering condemnation of the nefariousness of including marketing material in all things pleasant in the world, but then I realized that their marketing efforts were wasted on me, what with my not owning a television and all, so I win.

From the Pier, it was up Santa Monica proper, to the Third Street Promenade and Baja Bud's for a delicious burrito and some of their world class guacamole.

Then back again. It was dark at this point, but the evening was spectacular and the moon was more than half full, so it was a great time to be outside.

The trip back was uneventful except for a brief incident at the parking lot near Ocean Park. As I walked back down the beach from Santa Monica, I began to hear tires squealing, repeatedly. As I got to the parking lot, I saw a large SUV that had lodged itself on the grass covered embankment separating the parking lot from the parking lot entrance way. I walked over to the car, and asked the woman driving it if she needed assistance, which she did. At this point, I realized that my reach had extended my grasp, as I may be a big guy, but I'm not really capable of singlehandedly moving a stranded Lincoln Navigator. Luckily, there were 5 guys hanging out at the adjacent parking lot who had been watching the scene, and when I asked if they could help her out, they said "Hell Yeah!", ran over, took a few pictures of the stranded vehicle (with the obligatory tiny dog sitting in the passenger's seat), and with 6 of us pushing and the driver gently hitting the gas, she was up and over safely and parked a few moments later. As she parked the car, one of the guys said "We were watching, and as soon as we saw it was a chick, we were like, "Oh, we've got to go help her."" Which pretty much defines the L.A. code of chivalry, namely, if it's a guy doing something stupid, you watch and laugh, but if it's a woman doing something stupid, you watch and laugh quietly and then offer assistance. Then she got out and pointed at her SUV, and said "What good is this thing?"

What good is a two wheel drive, six-thousand pound vehicle that gets 13mpg city? Not much, especially if there's only one person in the car and it's used for getting around L.A.

She was very thankful, and invited us all over to drink beer and hang out by the pool tomorrow, which was nice.

Then it was back down the quiet and now almost empty Venice Beach Boardwalk. As I walked down the boardwalk, I stopped and actually read the posted signs regarding the "i-zones"(as opposed to the "p-zones") which are first come, first served areas where you can sell items that you have created without a permit, as well as services (fortune telling / tarot reading / etc.) as long as you make it clear that these services are free (although donations are accepted) and that you actually provide these services for free at least once per day.

That's pretty cool. If I get a spare moment, I may have to bring a table and some folding chairs and be the "Un-Psychic" for a weekend or two, and for a nominal contribution, tell you all about yourself and what you should do using only logic, intuition, and basic common sense.

But first I need to worry about what I should do, namely spend less time on the internet, and STOP WEARING WORK SHOES ON LONG WALKS! This is the second time in recent memory I've done that, and my feet are again disgruntled.

But a fantastic evening nonetheless. You all really should get out and make the most of these summer nights.

Especially this Saturday. A 500+ person roving bicycle party crashing an all-night art and music festival in Santa Monica?

That might be the single most fun public event in any category this summer.

Come along if you can.

The "Robot Duck"? ride.

Tonight's ride began at Crankmob Park, which is the unofficial name of the tiny Culver City Park in front of the Actor's Gang Theatre, making it one of the few places in the world where a theatre's entryway has a high potential for being substantially more entertaining than anything going on inside.

(Note to the guy who lost his melon: It went back to the melon bin outside Trader Joe's. You can't start a group bike ride evening off by stealing, at a time when we're trying to encourage LOVE for cyclists, as that's just lame. Even if they were closed, and it was only $3.99, how exactly does one transport, slice and serve a watermelon on a bike ride? Albertson's across the street was open, and equipped with a wide variety of delicious and easily transportable snacks.)
[Edit per comments - Sometimes I am a giant self-righteous idiot, the melon was not stolen.]

The ride was advertised as being "a little bit faster, a little bit farther" than the usual Crankmob rides, and that it was.

We went through Culver City, stopped at some building and rode up the parking deck, then rode down into Crenshaw/Inglewood, then onward to LAX, where we did a loop around the upper departure level (and were treated with courtesy by the LAXPD) and then on up to Howard Hughes Center, where we again rode up a parking deck and hung out there for a while, until I and a few guys from the Tuesday night rides (The numbers are growing! Join the fun!) decided it was getting late, so we headed out. Then it was back up Sepulveda and home by 3AM.

(Photos to come, as soon as I get them via e-mail or off the Midnight Ridazz gallery.)

Tonight I met some folks I'd only previously known/seen on the web, like Alex Thompson, founder of the Bikerowave and organizer of this ride, which was pretty cool.

I did not wear tin foil as instructed, but at one of the early stops found myself beset by some tallbike riding guy named Alec and was shortly ensconced in a midriff-length tin-foil toga-esque garment. (I can only imagine I looked even more ridiculous than that description implies, but we'll wait for the pictures.)

The Mom Ridaz ran into a little person (midget is apparently considered highly offensive) outside a bar [Edit per comments - liquor store]in Crenshaw/Inglewood, and let him ride a tallbike. I did see the photos, and hopefully they'll be on the web shortly.

The Kinetic Light Installation (Gateway Pylon Projects) outside LAX is awesome, especially after they replaced the lights with LEDs (at huge expense, but also at huge reduction in power usage). The LEDs added a huge range of colors for them to change, which makes them fascinating to look at, and can really be appreciated by, say, riding around the LAX departure level at 1AM on a bicycle. (Whether late night whimsy is the best use of tax dollars at a time when 55% of LAUSD high school students fail to graduate on time is a different matter entirely.)

The view from the top of a lot of parking decks late at night in Los Angeles is just spectacular (although it makes sense to find parking decks without security if you're going to hang out there for any length of time, cool as the folks at Howard Hughes Center were). I've noticed this before, especially when hitting golf balls at night at the Aroma Wilshire Center. (This is the funnest driving range in L.A. by far. They have automated tees so you don't even have to tee up the ball yourself. Totally worth a trip, and they're open until 11pm.)

There needs to be a good way to maintain the flow of a group ride through intersections. "Corking" them is all well and good, until the corkers get tickets, but things get sketchy when there aren't enough corkers (and sometimes when there are). SOMEBODY should talk to the LAPD / their city councilman to figure out what would be necessary for cyclists to essentially have the same authority as flagmen on construction sites, as cyclists with reflective vests and hand-held stop signs and the legal authority to use them would be a significantly safer/more effective means of getting the group through intersections, not to mention the level of volunteerism would increase if said activity were actually legal. I try to time the stoplights to make sure I get through on the green, but this gets tricky.

The guy who put his feet up and rested them on the handlebars of his beach cruiser, and the woman who did pretty much the whole ride without touching the handlebars both made me realize I need to hone my riding skills. The guy with his feet up wasn't quite as cool as this guy, but close...


This was the first time I've been on a bike in over a week. Really need to ride more, as I'm not in remotely the shape I'd need to be to do anything other than fun slow social rides. (Whether I actually want to do any group riding that's other than fun, slow, and social is another question.)

On the plus side, when I do get on my bike these days, it feels just right. When I first got it put back together a few weeks ago, it felt all wrong. It's a mountain bike, and one with reasonably aggressive geometry, and I bought it with plenty of clearance in case of accidental dismounts, so when I first got it put together it felt very strange. The geometry makes it handle well, but initially, after not riding it for 3 years or so, it was extremely twitchy. Now it feels exactly as it should, comfortable, with weight distributed properly between the seat and the handlebars, and ready to go. Sure, there are always things that could better, but there's nothing I could improve on the bike or any potential replacement that would make me even remotely faster than he improvements I could make to the rider.

It's 5AM, so I'm going to sleep.

Cars are so convenient.

They're totally addictive.

Right now, if I want to commute by car, I get in, drive to work, park, get out, and walk into the office.

If I want to commute by bike, I have to throw my office clothes, wet-naps and deodorant into my backpack, lug my bike downstairs, ride, hoping everyone is patient and observant and not all road-ragey, put my bike in the bike rack, lock it up, hit the restroom, towel/wet-nap off, change clothes, comb my hair, pack up my riding clothes, and walk into the office.

When you work in a job that has a tendency to be a bit stressful already, all those extra steps get a bit tedious, which is why I haven't been riding to work nearly as much as I should be lately.

Now, if there were a few more bike lanes, and my office had a locker room, or at least a shower, it would be a totally different story.

It's always interesting to see how the existing infrastructure influences our choices. It wouldn't cost very much to stripe a few more bike lanes around town, and adding a handful of showers would be a rounding error in the usual annual cost of building new office configurations for an office building.

These expenses would probably be offset over the long-term by lower health insurance premiums, a fitter and more productive workforce, less motor vehicle traffic, etc., etc.

Or maybe I'm just making excuses for my own slackness (especially since I blew off a Santa Monica City Hall meeting at which I COULD HAVE ENCOURAGED THE VERY THINGS I'M RECOMMENDING HERE. I suck.) The roads are out there, I just need to ride them. But I'm feeling tired and lazy today, we'll see how tomorrow works out.

A day at the beach, and the future of aquatic cycling.

Happy Fourth of July everyone!

I spent the day at the beach with my folks and my little brother and his wife, and at one point, we were shooting the breeze about boats, and talking about how boating gas is so expensive that it's only a matter of time before we bring back boats with galleys (a la the Roman trireme) so that people can go boating, get exercise, and not waste money on gas.

Then somebody mentioned the Hobie "Mirage Drive" system, which uses a pedalling action to drive some flipper/propellers, and started talking about how awesome it was. I looked it up on the internet, and it is indeed awesome:



But there are way more options. Like this guy, who commutes on his HydroBike:



Or these European folks racing about on a wide variety of Human Powered Boats (Human Powered Hydroplanes are way cool!):



But the king of all the Human Powered Boats I've seen on the web this evening, has to be Steam Boat Willy, a Human Powered Hovercraft.

No kidding.

A HUMAN POWERED HOVERCRAFT!

A hovercraft powered by somebody pedalling it! It's like stupendous cake with awesomeness sauce! I WANT!

Holy cow, just check out this video! (Fast forward to the 1:40 mark. This guy may be the greatest inventor of the decade, but his camera skills need some help.)



Just as more and more people are starting to see bicycles as a viable means of transportation for commuting, errand running, and recreation, I have a feeling that moreand more folks are going to start getting excited about boats they can ride around in while getting exercise, not using gas, and get from point A to point B and back over water efficiently. With a speed of 4-8 knots (6-10mph or so), they can actually be a useful option.

I've got a letter in to Hobie about their interest in adding the Mirage Drive to a Party Barge. I'll let you know what I hear.

Happy Fourth of July Everyone!

Finally got the pics from the last L.A. Critical Mass, so scroll down for the updated post.

If you need a photographer, drop Kevin a line.

Bikerowave Rules!

I haven't been on my bike in a few days. Last rode it for a short ride with my folks last weekend, and then the exigencies of existence got in the way.

I've had to buckle down to get some things taken care of, and that's meant cutting back on the weekday fun rides and my standard weekly shift at the bikerowave. This is a drag, but luckily one that will be resolved in a matter ofweeks.

On my last ride, I noticed that my rear wheel had come visibly out of true, and seemed to be flexing oddly around turns, so today, when I ended up with a free evening, I figured "No problem, I'll ride over to the bikerowave, take the wheel off, true it up, and then pitch in a bit to make up for my missed shift."

This was my first time visiting bikerowave as someone with a bike to be fixed, rather than someone who was there to help fix, and it's pretty much the greatest place ever!

I got there, threw my bike up on a stand, took the rear wheel off, and put the wheel on a truing stand, only to find out that in addition to needing to true the wheel, I was going to have to replace two broken spokes (hence the flexing). This meant removing the tire, the tube, and the cog set, replacing the two broken spokes, re-tensioning all the spokes, and THEN truing the wheel.

Luckily, one of the volunteers working tonight had some experience in wheelbuilding, so she got me all sorted out. Two hours later, I had the wheel fixed, reasonably true, and back on the bike. This didn't leave me much time to be helpful, but it did give me a sense of what it's like to be at the bikerowave as a customer, and it's awesome!

To be able to come in with a bike in need of repair, and get all the tools and help you need to fix the bike yourself, and then roll out again a while later with a fixed bike and some new skills is just fantastic.

If you're on the Westside, and you want to volunteer, want to learn how to fix bikes, want to fix your bike, or want to buy a bike and then fix it up your way, then by all means check out the bikerowave. (If you don't live on the Westside, then by all means check out bike oven or bicycle kitchen.)

Happy Fourth of July Everyone!