LA River Commuting

Though I lived in LA before, the area where I am now is largely a mystery to me.  I worked and commuted on the Westside, rarely venturing east of 405, so being thrown in the middle of Northeast LA has been interesting!

Though I've only done it a handful of times, my commute has been amazing.  Believe it or not, there are only two miles of my 15 mile commute that are not on trails - just one example of LA's growing bike infrastructure.  

The past two weeks that I've been commuting by bike I have seen LA full of life in a way I never had before.  Jacarandas are in bloom, showering purple petals down over everything.  A flock of wild parrots chatters every morning at the first leg of my ride.  May Grey is in full effect, so mornings are cool, cloudy, and a bit misty - and we had a thunderstorm on bike to work day!!

The highlight though has to be the LA River Trail, which I take the entire length of.  It's been cleaned up quite a bit, and is now shared by cyclists, joggers, and all of the wildlife that makes the LA River its home. 

It's also the location of an awesome new Bike Cafe!!  Spoke is a rad little place that just, just opened (I was riding by as they were painting the mural) and that deserves its own write up.  I rolled in on Bike To Work Day and had coffee and a banana before continuing on my ride, and it was fantastic.  

If you're in LA and ride the trail, you can't miss it!

And, in true LA fashion, there's also a bit of weirdness on the trail.

It was gone the next day.

My commute also offers something else a bit new - hills!!  I've been riding Oblivion here since I live at the top of a hill, and also do a bit of climbing to and from work.  I'll still be using my single speed and fixed gear bikes, but probably not for commuting.

The only real downside is that I feel like the roads are so bad, I need a CX bike.  Might be a fun thing to build if I get some spare time, but I need to get the shop up and running and finish the backlog before I take on anything else.

If you ride the LA River Trail, say hi if you see me!

Sea Change

The bicycle has by and large remained unchanged for the past century or so.  Sure it gained gears at one point, got a bit lighter and even lately uses electronics, but the core mechanisms, diamond frame, and basic concept have remained reliably the same as time has gone by.  

If only everything could be like a bicycle.

Three years ago I left Los Angeles for an opportunity to take my dream job in the San Francisco bay area, which has been nothing short of fantastic.  Here, I am close to my family, the weather is perfect and the riding is amazing.  But nothing good lasts forever, and now I am heading back to Los Angeles to keep working this job that I love, which is a whole other story in and of itself.  

I will miss my foggy morning commutes, bayside jaunts and climbs through forested mountains.   I'll miss my favorite local shops, talking bikes with the regulars on my train and my tiny little shop where I spent so many weekends.

Thanks for the memories, Seaport.

Sorry if things continue to be a little slow here for a bit.  I have one month left here, and I plan to make the most of it while I still can.  

Mobile Advertising

Clever idea to use a bike as advertising that I spotted in downtown Burlingame:

Conveniently a rather noticeable bike (and color!)

The Bay Area has a huge bike culture, and it's not uncommon to see people stop and admire other bikes.  I ended up stopping because I love old ten speeds, but then noticed the sign.  

It's location changes frequently (but always points to the store) and it doesn't just sit locked up when not in use...someone is riding this bike! 

A Chico Ride

The road where I was staying up in Chico was one of those roads that was just screaming to be ridden, so that's exactly what I did.

There were lots of other cyclists out on most days, but I ended up going out during a slight drizzle, which here in California causes most people to go into panic mode and give up leaving their houses and driving anywhere, let alone riding.  It was cool, quiet, a little wet, and beautiful out on my ride.

Also I found a waterfall.

I'm always shocked at how much more I notice when I ride a bike instead of sit in a car - my family and I had been up and down this road more than a few times with all of the graduation madness, yet this was the first time I noticed things like this little waterfall.  Or the rocks that someone had neatly stacked in small piles.  Or the super crazy hyper religious signs that plastered the lawn of one house in particular (Jesus is apparently very pissed off at the "lebrals").  The road twisted through the woods with views of the buttes (you read that as butts) and the bubbling of the creek, and then it opened up to something else entirely.

Now this is how you mark a bike path.

A bike path that connected to the road I was on was very clearly marked with a rather clever entrance (and the same exit, as I later found).  The chainrings were even marked with the number of teeth!

Looks like they didn't opt for a compact crank.

Upon closer inspection, it appeared to be in memory of a local cyclist.  He seems like he was a pretty cool guy, and seeing something like this done in memory of someone gives me a lot of respect for this town.

My ride continued until I got to a point where I realized that I was about to get lost, so I turned back to our little cabin in the boonies.  Around this time I remembered that I do, in fact, have Strava, which I turned on, and then proceeded to stop and take more photos like I always do so my average speed is nothing short of terribly embarrassing.  I really should stop doing that.

Not quite 130 BCD.

During this little jaunt of a ride I was on my fixed gear, which I'm really falling in love with.  There were hardly any climbs on this ride, just a tiny bit of elevation change, so it was the perfect bike to take.  Its silent drivetrain also let me hear the rain and the sounds of the forest as opposed to a hub, which made the ride all the more zen.  

There were a lot of cars sharing the road with me, so my obnoxiously orange wheels helped me be seen a bit too.

I also saw some excellent prints when I was out walking around town, but the store selling them had closed for the day.  Despite that, I grabbed a few photos through the glass - I would love to own these prints, so if anyone know of the artist's website, please let me know!

EDIT: The artist is Jake Early!  His process is pretty neat, check it out here.

I would have loved to have done more rides, but time just didn't allow for it.  Perhaps next year I'll give the Wildflower Century a go - I've wanted to do it for a while, but finally riding up in Chico made me realize how lovely it would be.

And alright, I wasn't really in the boonies.  I was 12 miles outside of town.  I'll stop complaining now.  

There Is No Internet In The Boonies

I didn't know that I would be sans wifi until I got up to Chico, but on the bright side I was mostly too busy to write anyway.  

I went up to Chico for my sister's graduation, but since Chico is pretty big into cycling I got to see a lot more than just caps, gowns, and drunken parents celebrating the end of paying lots of money to send their kids to school.

I'm going to split this into two posts since it's late and I require a massive amount of sleep to be viable during the day, but the coolest thing that I saw when I was there had to do with the fact that Chico State University decided to commemorate their 125th anniversary with their very own bicycle.  I like Chico just on its own as a town and a school, but I have to give them props for doing this.

I grabbed some photos of the display bike.  There are plenty more under the cut.

The Wildcat Cruiser itself. It was designed by Felt, with the logos designed by a graphic design student.

Repack and Roses

I found myself at the birthplace of mountain biking this weekend.

It was purely by accident as well, as I was merely heading up to Fairfax to meet family for the afternoon and wandered upon a monument.

So named for the fact that you had to repack the bearings after every ride.

A Visit to the Chrome Store: SF

Last weekend I took a jaunt to the city for the day, with my main goal being to see one of my favorite bands ever, ДДТ, but also with plans to visit a couple of much loved places.  I checked out Zeitgeist, one of the only bars I've ever seen with bicycle storage inside, and a pretty killer selection of beer on tap.  Not to mention full of cyclists of all sorts: roadies, messengers, casual riders, and more.  But I also got to stop by the Chrome Store.

Goodies!