Things I Miss About L.A. In No Particular Order

• Peanut butter - Preferably Trader Joe’s brand, unsalted
• Coffee beans from the sellers at the Silver Lake Farmer’s Market
• Red bean boba
• Swapping drinks at Tiki Ti
• Sabina parties
• Dinner parties with friends
• Rock Band nights at Maaron’s
• Eva and Esta
• Santa Barbara county wine
• Beer - Asahi/Sapporo/Kirin is great and all, but a little vairety wouldn’t hurt
• Cemetery Screenings at Hollywood Forever
• Midnight Ridazz
• Shows at Spaceland and The Echo
• Bacon hot dogs at 2AM
• Carne asada burritos at 4AM
• Chilaquiles with chorizo smothered in Cholula or Tapatio
• Pho
• Hangover brunch at Fred 62
• Leisurely brunches at The Kitchen
• A kitchen with an oven

Bike to Work Day and My Underwear

As any good cycling advocate, I’m obliged to inform you that May is Bike Month. Not only that, but this week in Los Angeles is Bike to Work Week, and, to go even further, today is Bike to Work Day! The LACMTA says they are expecting record participation, and judging from my morning commute I can attest to seeing a number of new bicycle-mounted faces on the road. It’s certainly ideal weather conditions for people to give commuting a shot: temperatures in the mid-70’s and gloriously sunny. That beats the weather from Monday at the beginning of Bike to Work Week which was overcast with a very light drizzle. Still perfectly pleasant in my mind, but probably intimidating for the average fair-weather Southern Californian.

At any rate being a daily bicycle commuter already, riding my bike for one special month or week or day of the year isn’t really a big deal. Instead, I do have two fairly minor goals. The first is to actually ride my bike to work for the entire month. I don’t own a car, but I do have a Vespa that I ride into work maybe one or two days a month. So yeah, two days tops of changing my gas-sipping habits isn’t that big of a deal, but it’s something.

The bigger challenge, actually, is my second goal, which is to be more of a plain-clothes cyclist. I don’t wear lycra bike shorts and jerseys in to work. I don’t even own a pair of lycra shorts (though I do have one pair of wool bike shorts for any kind of special event). What I tend to wear is normal shorts or knickers from Swrve or REI with a wicking wool shirt. That actually look pretty non-bike geeky and would be fine in a bar. But at work, even though it’s jeans and t-shirt casual, the thought of wearing knickers or shorts doesn’t sit right with me. I normally pack a change of clothes in my messenger bag that I bring with me everyday. The irony is that the messenger bag ends up making my back and shirt extra sweaty. Even if it’s a nice looking, wicking, stink-free merino wool t-shirt, I’d rather not wear it around the office waiting for the sweat marks to evaporate. This week, I’ve been rediscovering riding around in normal old pants, be they khakis or even *gasp* jeans, which I had sworn off doing back when I started commuting because they were extremely uncomfortable. I’m finding now that jeans aren’t so bad - the difference being the underwear.

Sorry to speak so candidly of my undergarments, but wicking underwear is absolutely key! Cotton boxers simply will not do. Patagonia active briefs are pretty good, but even better are these Icebreaker merino wool boxer briefs. They are the ultimate shiznit. Kind of pricey, but so very, very worth it.

At any rate, now that I no longer need to pack an extra pair of pants, I’m able to use my saddle bag for my commute luggage, relieving my sweaty back and even allowing me to wear the same shirt I rode to work in around the office. Hurray for simplification!

I still wear dorky bike shoes, though. I can’t get over how much I like clipless pedals. However, I picked up a pair of Keen cycling sandals at REI recently with my member dividend, and they have been treating me very well - still dorky, but not as much as my Sidis.

Life could be so car-free

A great little bit of anarchy hear in Los Angeles.

Yes, it’s illegal to ride your bike on most freeways, including the stretches of the 405 and the 101 these folks are riding, but what a fine piece of subversion this is. And truth be told, when traffic is that thick, what they’re doing is safer than riding surface streets.. Intersections are where the vast majority of accidents occur with any vehicles. With bicycles, the most common collisions involve a car turning right or left into a rider’s path. Freeways remove that problem and, considering that traffic is at a virtual standstill, problems from differences in speed are also negated.

A bicycle “freeway” could be just the thing the city needs to make bike commuting a viable alternative for many - and I don’t mean bike paths and trails that meander through parks and beaches or hug the Los Angeles river with casual riders ambling along at 10 miles per hour, but something that actually moves commuters quickly and safely to useful destinations. Someone cycling from Santa Monica to downtown could probably shorten their ride by a good half hour if they rode on the 101 and didn’t have to contend with stop lights and intersections. In rush hour I can assure you they’d do it faster than a car making the same trip.

At the start of the 20th century, Los Angeles had the right idea with the beginnings of an elevated wooden bikeway from downtown to Pasadena. Unfortunately that was scrapped as the automobile rapidly gained in popularity, but imagine how things would have been different if cars had come along a bit later, and a bikeway infrastructure was already in place and proven to be a viable method of transportation. How many people would opt for the car then?

I’m not saying cars don’t have their place, but would we really still need to build 8-lane freeways? Just imagine how many thousands of acres of land could be used for things other than asphalt. This photo from Germany is a pretty good illustration of that. It shows the amount of space required to move the same number of people by car, bus, and bicycle.

Tomorrow is Earth Day, and in honor of that, a portion of Wilshire Boulevard between Western and Harvard is declaring itself car-free for the day. While that doesn’t affect my usual commute at all (I work on Wilshire but ride on Melrose), I’ll be swinging by during my lunch break to check it out and support the gesture as it’s a really great thing to see this kind of support coming from the city.

I’m Gonna Keep It Real, My Friends. R-E-A-L

Folks, don’t miss this Friday at the Echoplex.

Goings On

A lot has been going on lately, so this is just a broad update. A couple of weeks ago for President’s Day Weekend, Bronwyn and I went with a bunch of friends up to Santa Barbara wine country (as in where they filmed Sideways). We stayed in Buelton, and hit up a number of wineries around Solvang, Santa Ynez, and Lompoc. In the process, we spent far too much money, but at least now I have a closet full of great wines and more souvenir glasses than I know what to do with. I’m by no means a connoisseur, but some of the spots I was really impressed with were Ampelos in Lompoc, Artiste in Santa Ynez, Trio in Solvang, and Clos Pepe and Foley in… somewhere between Buelton and Lompoc. The days of tasting expensive wines were balanced out by nights of drinking cheap beers in a hotel room while dancing to “Quemados” and other jams. I regrettably have no photos to report as I haven’t gotten around to uploading anything on my Flickr.

Last weekend, I successfully conquered all ten hills of the “Feel My Legs, I’m a Racer” race. I think I even managed to snag 6th or 7th place overall, with a second place finish on the first hill. Not bad, if I do say so myself. An official write-up hasn’t been posted anywhere, and I’m still scouring the interwebs for photos, but here’s one someone snapped of me. Note the angle of the horizon in the background. That was the first hill, Eldred St., the one this article talks about. While going up the hills was agony (sweet, sweet agony), going down them scared the crap out of me. I had to walk down Eldred St. and a few others, and I think I wore out my brake pads slowly riding my way down the rest. Indeed my fears weren’t unfounded as one rider crashed going down Baxter at 40mph. He hit an unexpected bump at the bottom of the hill, flew off, and slid some 20 feet up the next hill, winding up with a fractured collarbone and a couple of broken ribs, as well as several patches of road rash. But to show you what kind of a manimal this guy was, he still placed fourth overall even though he only did five out of ten of the hills AND he showed up for the after-party at Pure Luck once he was done at the hospital. Insanity.

On Sunday, Bronwyn and I had our engagement shoot with our wedding photographer, Allana of Ars Magna Studio. We spent a few hours wondering around downtown in the Grand Central Market, the Bradbury Building, the Biltmore Hotel, Pershing Square, and a bit of Echo Park. She posted the results yesterday and they’re absolutely fantastic!Check out her blog or the online gallery to see more.

Finally, in completely unrelated news to anything, other than the fact that I’m Filipino, watch this video:

Feel my legs, I’m a glutton for punishment

Lots of stuff happening this weekend, but among other things, I plan on doing the third annual “Feel my legs, I’m a racer” race on Saturday. Yeah, there’s the Tour of California happening this week, with the sixth stage ending up in Santa Clarita, but who cares when the real fun is a couple of miles from home. This is a gruesome, vomit-inducing, leg-incinerating marathon of hill climbing where racers try to be the first up ten of the steepest hills around Los Angeles.

I didn’t do this last year, though I did do the Fargo Street Hill Climb, which has a 33% grade. I managed to get up that 1.5 times (.5 because my first attempt ended in failure). That destroyed me, and Fargo is only one of the ten stages of this race.

Midnight Ridazz: Pillow Fight

Since I wanted to at least try and get some rest before my brevet, I opted to not do the Midnight Ridazz ride last Friday. The theme this month was the “Pillow Fight” ride. Kind of sad I missed it. Look at how much fun it must have been!

I did manage to do the Wolfpack Hustle ride on Monday, though. Totally different feel from Midnight Ridazz, but Los Angeles night riding nonetheless (my favorite kind of riding). I think I’m going to start doing the Wolfpack rides more often. I was able to keep on this one, my second Wolfpack ride, though only barely. I might be able to ride long distances, but I’m still slow in the grand cycling scheme of things and I wouldn’t mind kicking things up a notch.

For the Love of Cotton

That’s a photo of half the line at the American Apparel flea market that I missed on Sunday shortly after the sale started. I don’t feel so bad about missing out anymore. $1-10 is a deal for their clothing, but then again one could always go to the thrift store. I’m more into nice and soft merino wool nowadays, anyway. If Icebreaker or Ibex or Smartwool were to have a factory sale, I would be all up ons.

Midnight Ridazz in L.A. Times

The L.A. Times has a nice article here about the origins of Midnight Ridazz, Los Angeles’ monthly 1400+ rider phenomenon. I was particularly pleased to see the support it gets from the city council:

Calling Midnight Ridazz “a reflection of the growing frustration people have with L.A.’s car-only culture,” Los Angeles City Council President Eric Garcetti welcomes the challenge of incorporating its constituents onto city streets as a way to reduce car traffic and pollution. He also sees deep sociological significance in the group.

“There’s this myth in Los Angeles that we lead solitary lives, but I think that Midnight Ridazz and the other bike groups run counter to that. Los Angeles is a place where you certainly need to be in the know to find out where things are, but once you do, you see as strong and deep a community as anywhere in the United States.”

I am also in pretty strong agreement with their comparison between Midnight Ridazz and the more politically charged Critical Mass. Whereas Critical Mass rides occur once a month during rush hour, Midnight Ridazz happens at night with minimal traffic and with a much more laid back atmosphere - essentially a party on wheels. People like having fun more than having an agenda. Because of this, Midnight Ridazz has, in my opinion, done more to inspire and attract new cyclists in this city than any other form of cycling advocacy. The proof is in the list at the end of the article detailing other rides and groups in the L.A., many of which sprouting as a result of Midnight Ridazz.

The next official Midnight Ridazz ride is December 14th with a holiday theme and toy drive. They did a similar theme and toy drive last year. I hear it was pretty successful, and I can tell you first hand that it was a lot of fun so I recommend everybody roll out for it this year.

PCH Randonneurs

To follow up on the post I had made earlier about wanting to do the double century in Death Vallery, I was unfortunately unable to register. I had thought it over that weekend. Bronwyn and I went backpacking out around Mt. Wilson and enjoying that bit of fresh air and exercise convinced me that I wanted to get out and do the ride. However, when I tried to register that Sunday evening, all the spots had filled up. In fact, the 300-person capacity was reached within ten hours of registration opening. Who would have thought that that kind of masochism would be so popular?

A little disappointed, I was happy to hear that there is an alternative. For the first time in Los Angeles, there’s a brevet series starting up in Los Angeles put on by the PCH Randonneurs. A brevet series is a series of long-distance, non-competitive rides called brevets or randonées going in increasing distances of 200km, 300km, 400km, and 600km. If a rider, or randonneur, manages to finish the series, they’re qualified to ride in the ultimate challenge of a 1200km radonée. Sounds insane, right? That’s what I like about it.

As it is, the PCH Randonneurs only have half a series planned for January and February, the 200km and 300km brevets. They’re going to see what the interest level is in Los Angeles before deciding if they want to organize the second half of the series. I’m going to do this. Anyone else interested in joining me?