My last ride of 2008.

It was last night, and it was awesome.

I'd been talking to my buddy Eddie S., who's got a much higher enthusiasm level than I do, and he's on a mission to lose some weight over the next few months. Since I'm endeavoring to do that as well, I pulled together a pretty generic Westside route, and we made plans to meet up later.

Before that, I decided to hit Big 5 for some gear, as I keep hearing stories about people getting their bikes taken/being assaulted while riding. While I'm not too concerned, as I'm a large guy on a cheap bike, which isn't a very attractive target, I figured it's better to be safe than sorry. So, the shopping list included pepper spray, a whistle, and a pocket knife that could be opened one-handed. Not that I intend to get into any knife fights mind you, but I'm a guy, and I'll take any excuse to get a new pocket knife. (Should you be buying cutlery, please note that per LAMC 55.10 you cannot carry a knife with a blade of more than 3" in plain view (so make sure it's in your pocket), and per state law, you cannot have a knife with a blade of more than 2.5" on school (K-12) grounds, butterfly knives and switchblades are illegal unless the blade is less than 2", and knives that do not fold are prohibited under a broad ban on "dirks or daggers".) I did not find a pocket knife (although I did find one today at the surplus store at Motor/Venice for $10 (they also have a messenger bag, which they call a "casual briefcase" for $14.95)), but I did find a decent whistle with a lanyard for $2.49, and a canister of combination tear gas / pepper spray for $12.99, which sounds like something that shouldn't be sold that cheaply and/or over the counter (but is perfectly legal as long as you have less than 2.5 oz per canister).

So Eddie showed up, and we rode West on Venice and South on Sawtelle, which due to the traffic and the numerous lights, is pretty sketchy until you get South of Culver, at which point it becomes an awesome low-traffic neighborhood street that should be included on more rides. Then we headed West on Jefferson to Culver, through Playa Vista and the Ballona Wetlands to Playa Del Rey, all of which were covered with this low lying fog that I thought was supercool but Eddie was kind of creeped out by. Then we rode over Mustache Bridge, around the Marina, out to Venice Pier, and up the Boardwalk/Pacific Avenue into Santa Monica. Being EXTRA law abiding while in Santa Monica, we headed up Broadway, which is a pretty cool road with a nice bike lane to Bundy, took Bundy to Olympic to Barrington to Venice, for a total of 17-18 miles, not a bad way to round out the year.

I wish I had had a camera with me, as Eddie was sporting what may be the next incarnation of fixie hipster fashion, namely shorts with soccer socks. While I probably won't adopt this combo, they did look pretty dapper, and are a definite improvement on the women's jeans sported by some.

Of course, between the long shorts, long socks, silly hats, and unusual footwear, it's just a matter of time before the avant garde of the urban cyclist crowd starts shopping at the golf outlets.



Happy New Year Everyone!

Crankmob, Fixies, Flats, etc.

Before I get started, I would like to direct your attention to the following:


WheelWorld in Culver City, at the corner of Sepulveda and Washington Place, has inner tubes on sale, 3 for $7.99. That's less than $2.67 per tube, so stock up now. Ask Santa to put a handful in your stocking. (Or ask the great Goddess to bestow them upon you in recognition of the Solstice, they make great Hanukkah gifts as well (although blinkies might be more appropriate what with it being the Festival of Lights and all).

If you don't skid a lot, Slime Tubes are AWESOME, and only $5.99 at Performance Bike. They fill any small holes with a sealant contained inside the tube, so you may not even know if you get punctures.

At the very least, get a patch kit for a buck or two. (Performance and WheelWorld match each other's prices, which is nice.)

I only mention this, as there were a lot of flats this evening. Luckily, the route was posted beforehand, so this was only a minor inconvenience to those involved, but on many rides, a flat can be a monster drag.

(If anybody reading this hasn't ever actually changed a flat and wants to learn how, let me know and I'll e-mail you the Bikerowave guide to fixing a flat.)

Today was Crankmob, the monthly bicycle bacchanal, and it was awesome!

The organizers really emphasized safety, handing out flyers before the ride started so people could have a basic idea of what to do and what not to do to make sure the ride went smoothly, posting the route online ahead of time, and generally keeping things taken care of.

That, plus a longer ride with shorter stops, and cold weather that seemed to keep the jackass quotient to a minimum, made for a pretty great night. I only saw one person bail while riding straight on flat pavement, but he was ok (his beer did not survive).

I decided to ride my fixed gear tonight, as I haven't ridden it (or anything else) nearly enough lately. I had some reservations, as I'm not exactly fast, a fixed gear takes a lot more effort to ride, the brakes on the drops are less than ideal for the random sudden stops that are part of casual group rides, and 22+ miles on a fixie seemed like a bit of a chore.

Be that as it may, I needed the exercise, and given that I'm theoretically in the process of building up ANOTHER fixed gear (if it ever returns from the powdercoaters), it made some sense that I actually start riding the one I've got.

So I headed out to the usual starting point up at Sawtelle, where the usual crowd, plus a whole bunch of new folks were hanging out. For a chilly L.A. winter evening, the crowd was pretty impressive. It was cool to see a whole bunch of folks I'd seen earlier at the Bikerowave out there. It's awesome to be, even tangentially, part of a community, and the L.A. cycling community is stupendously friendly. And talented. Seriously, the amount of talent some of these folks display casually in terms of writing/photography/organization/etc., etc., etc. in their SPARE TIME leaves me pretty well convinced that as messy as the current economic disaster may be, there's also a lot of untapped potential just waiting to be turned loose.

I mean, think of the tremendous boon to the economy, transportation, tourism, general fitness AND the environmnent that could happen if, like the bike/pedestrian paths along Ballona Creek, we threw up bike paths along ALL the aqueducts/creeks and drainage ditches around town.

Because there are a TON. Just check out this link from L.A. Creek Freak, and look at those maps. Holy cow! Connect them all with bike lanes / sharrows, and we'd have an alternative transportation network that would be beautiful, fun, and CHEAP, as it wouldn't require much except a little concrete, asphalt, paint, and railings.

But I digress. So we got started, rode around West L.A. for a while, and then a couple folks got flats. I stopped to help bondink get her flat fixed, with the help of another guy named Alex, and it took some doing. Bondink mentioned that jonnyboy had helped her put her rear wheel on, and man, for a pretty soft spoken guy, he's got some RIDICULOUS strength. To remove the axle nuts, I had to set the wrench in place, and then Alex had to STAND on the wrench handle, because that was the only way we could get the nuts to move. But we got the flat fixed, and headed toward the meeting place at Crankmob Park (aka Media Park, aka that park in Culver City between Trader Joe's and In and Out), and only had to stop and help one other person with a flat on the way. (Seriously, 3 tubes for $7.99 is a heck of a deal.)

So we hung out in Crankmob park for a while, and rolled through Culver City to Jefferson, and down Jefferson past Fox Hills Mall to an Albertson's, where we hung out for a while, and continued onward. After doing a couple laps around the traffic circle in the newish Playa Vista development, much to the consternation of some cranky Playa Vistan motorists,
(but hey, let's face it, when you buy property on land that is BOTH a methane field AND a historic Native American burial ground, some exuberant cyclists are likely to be the least of your problems), we headed off to the shopping center by the marina in Marina Del Rey. This was a short stop, as the Ralph's apparently summoned the constabulary, who invited us to disperse.

Apparently the group then went to Costco for a while, but due to some miscommunication, I and some other folks ended up riding off down Venice and up Sepulveda to National Blvd. The rest of the group showed up eventually, and there was some bike jousting. (This is an event where the two jousters are put on children's bicycles, are given 8-10ft PVC pipe lances with boxing gloves on the end, and then pedal or are pushed swiftly toward each other. One collision between two guys who not only ran their lances at each other but their bikes as well was pretty impressive.

Luckily, there didn't seem to be any injuries / stolen bikes this evening, which was awesome. (Hopefully we won't hear of any on midnightridazz.com tomorrow).

At this point, it was getting toward 3 in the morning, my feet were chilly, and it was time to head home, which, conveniently, was pretty close.

Crankmob kicked ass.

(If you've got pics of the ride you'd like to see illustrating this post, just shoot me an e-mail.)

Happy Holidays all!