I remember last year while perusing through Twitter updates, I found several mentions of the #30daysofbiking event. By the time, I realized what it was, it was in the middle of the month of April. It was too late for me to participate. So this year, by chance, I was perusing Twitter again on April 1st and found the same #30daysofbiking was promoted through-out my part of the Twitterverse (mainly the bicycling part). As a result, I’ve registered myself at the 30 Days of Biking site and making the pledge to ride my bikes for 30 days consecutively in the month of April.
It’s Day 2 now and my latest ride had me cruising through my community of town homes. A pathetic attempt but in the spirit of being on my bike, I had to at least do that. Otherwise, I won’t have the opportunity to do so since I have several events in the evening that will require me to be in a car. The month of April will be a month filled with bicycle related events. The big one being Ciclavia! This will take place on April 10th in which a 7 mile stretch of roads will be opened to bicycle and other human powered activity. The first Ciclavia last October 10th was one of the best times I’ve had on a bike. It brought the city together and made it feel more like a community. This is rare in a city that is dominated by cars where interaction only happens at the start and end of a drive rather than during the trip. I am eager to be riding through the streets of Los Angeles on April 10th.
For now, I need to tend to my stable of bikes. I’d like to include training rides within the next 28 days. There are a pair of brake pads and tires that I need to put on the road bike to begin doing that. Did I tell you I’m doing a charity ride called the Tour de Cure for the American Diabetes Association on May 1st? I signed up for the century ride which starts at the Long Beach Queen Mary. I’ll be riding through bridges that will be opened for cyclist only on this occasion near the Port of LA. The route will go into San Pedro, Palos Verdes, Long Beach, Seal Beach, and Huntington Beach. It’s going to be my first “race” which will be timed. I can’t wait to do this.
I’ll also have to kick off fundraising efforts for the California Coast Classic for the Arthritis Foundation. You’ll notice I’ll have my donation meter up on the right side of the blog for tracking purpose. Please feel free to click on there to support my ride. I need to raise $3000 to participate. Help a brother out!
I finally had a chance to edit a quick video of the beginning of my ride from San Francisco to the first checkpoint in Daly City. The video was shot by my sister’s iPhone and my Canon SD870 IS point and shoot camera (which had the time lapse feature). My original plan was to use this to shoot video of the entire trip but due to the fact that the camera drained so much battery, I opted to stop shooting after the first half day and then a video at the end (which I’ll hopefully get to with a photo montage). I know it’s been months since the ride but I’m finally inspired to put something like this up here and share it with the world. Some highlights of the video include me taking off from the starting line and riding through the beautiful city of San Francisco. I then cross the Golden Gate Bridge. I find myself flying down a few hills that brings me to the south coast of the city and eventually make my way up a street in Daly City. There’s an easter egg there if you watch the video all the way until the end. Enjoy!
Finally had the chance to put together 2 video clips that I took while riding out to the Flying Pigeon LA for this month’s Get Sum Dim Sum Ride. The first half was taken with 2 second delay while the second one was on a 1 second delay. I didn’t film the ride back from FPLA but rather started from Home Depot in Burbank. I thought it turned out fine. Can’t wait to do the same for the CCC ride.
Here’s a video of the ride. I can’t wait to take part in this! If you haven’t done so, click on the link to the right to help fight arthritis and guarantee me a spot on the ride. >>>
Believe it or not I participated in my first Critical Mass ride last month on April 30th. I’ve been wanting to take part of this phenomenon every last Friday of the month. So at the end of last month, I was hell bent on making sure it was going to happen.
Initially my sister’s fiancé was going to join but he could not make it. I convinced another co-worker of mine to join. He hasn’t been on a bike for 3 years. I even offered to take his bike in for repairs since I couldn’t figure out how to mount his rear wheels with disc brakes. Here’s a photo of my rig hauling in his.
Luckily he was able to get his ride back on Friday to join me. I was planning on going with or without him. We hopped on the Red line down to Vermont & Wilshire station. From there we got on our bikes and pedaled towards Wilshire & Western. I had a few friends who was meeting for drinks before the ride. Funny thing is the only way these “friends” correspond with me is only through Twitter. I wasn’t able to get an address or even their real phone numbers for that matter. So my co-worker and I made our way to Wilshire / Western where a huge crowd was gathering.
We waited for about 15 minutes at the location while countless numbers of cyclists kept on piling into the northeast corner of the intersection. You can feel the electricity of the crowd who grew more anxious as the minutes ticked down to the 7:30PM departure time. Like clockwork, 7:30 came and the crowd of hundreds of cyclists overtook the intersection and started down the South on Western. That was the last point of reference that I could remember on the ride until we reached about Chinatown later in the evening. I was completely overwhelmed by the amount of bicycles that was on the streets. It kept me from thinking or wondering where the heck I was. I knew in order not to get lost, I had to keep up with the “pack”. I also kept on thinking how drivers were perceiving us. We got lots of supporting honks and woohoo early on the ride but towards the end, I thought there were honks of disdain (it could just be me worrying about what others perceived). I also kept a conscious effort of not being at the end of the pack or at the side. I made sure my buddy knew the same rules of survival.
The route that was taken took us through parts of Los Angeles neighborhoods that I definitely would never find myself riding at that time of night by myself. We were flying through the infamous Skid Row where transients were hooting and hollering at us. We eventually made it through one of those iconic bridges that you see in such films like “Training Day”. Amazingly enough, I bumped into @danceralamode right before the bridge. We chatted while we climbed pass the fixie kids who were struggling up the bridge. We even saw a wedding photo shoot in progress on the bridge. Of all the nights and all the bridges, their photo shoot was interrupted by a Critical Mass ride. The descend down the bridge was brisk and we found ourselves in the city of Boyle Heights. That’s where the events of the night took a negative turn.
Let’s just say a motorist and some cyclists got acquainted. I didn’t get any details of what happened but I made sure I was not anywhere near. Around that time, I run into @jeremy310 and lost @danceralamode in the shuffle. We reconnected just in time before the mass made their way down the street and in a park. From there I lost all my twitter pals and my co-worker. After a few calls I reconnected with my co-worker. We held our position at the park for about 30 minutes before the ride started up again. And just like that, the events from about an hour ago was a thing of the past. The swarm made their way through USC medical center and eventually through Union Station and into Chinatown like I mentioned earlier.
You could tell that some folks were getting tired. The crowd started to thin out as I presumed some people dropped out to rest or go on their own merry way home. We darted through Chinatown into downtown LA. Eventually we made it into Echo Park onto Sunset. On Sunset, we encountered furious head-wind and a tedious uphill climb into Hollywood. From there the group was thinning out. Only the few fixie riders kept up while others slowly paced themselves through the street. Even though I was starved, I kept my pace with the head of the pack. We finally reached Sunset and Western where the ride ended. From there I reconnected with @danceralamode. I waited for my co-worker but got a call from him that he was about 2-3 miles behind and was going to jump on the train home. I completely understood. Being on his first ride in years and have him ride 20+ miles in a night is too much to ask for. We bid farewell.
After a few back-and-forth cellphone conversations, @danceralamode got a hold of her friend. As it turns out, it was @GraphikDeziner who I’ve been following on Twitter but finally got to finally meet her in person for the first time that night. She had a friend join her and the 4 of us made our way to Dennys for some after-ride-grubbing while the remaining massers started on the People’s Ride. I enjoyed the company and meal while I kept an eye on the time to make sure I don’t miss the last train home. We eventually went our separate ways. I was lucky to catch the last Gold Line train home and strolled home with 39 miles of riding that day. I forgot to mentioned I had to rode back from Montrose into work that morning after a doctor’s appointment so I was beat!
It is so refreshing to have these adventures in my life. I wouldn’t want to trade this for anything.
I unofficially kicked off my fundraising campaign for the California Coast Classic ride. I decided to look through my Gmail contacts and come up with the names of friends who maybe able to help. After 125 emails later, not even one donated to the cause. I did get an email from Tammy who said she will be donating pretty soon.
Hopefully my second group of people, co-workers, will fill this void. The good part about these folks is that our company has 100% match after $25 donation. I’m hoping to see if I can at least raise a few hundreds with these folks. My next approach is to do a letter writing campaign to the businesses that I frequent and see if they can contribute. Other ideas that is in the works is a fundraising party in which Ron has graciously offered to brew some beer for. I was also offered a fundraising ride with the help of The Flying Pigeon LA guys. I’m also thinking about jumping in the Facebook world and get contributions from people I haven’t talked to on a regular basis. Yes I’m that desperate to be thinking about breaking my silence and joining the Facebook masses.
One of the items on my bucket list is to ride from San Francisco to Los Angeles on a bicycle. I was planning on participating on the ever-popular AIDS/Lifecycle ride but that normally takes place earlier in the year. This pretty much gives me 2 month’s time to raise $3,000. Yup. Not gonna happen. So instead I found another ride for the Arthritis Foundation called the California Coast Classic. This will start and end at the same location and I also have to raise $3,000 to participate. Fortunately, the ride will take place from September 25th to October 2nd. This will give me plenty time to fundraise. I’ve included a donation progress meter to the right of this post to track my progress. >>>>>>>>>
Please help me reach my goal by donating or if you like, join me on this great adventure! If I know you personally, I’ll be asking you soon. The next task is to learn more about the organization so I can sound half-way knowledgable about who I’m helping here. Big plans are yet to come for this so I’ll keep ya’ll posted here.
Great video featuring a Critical Mass-like ride through LA. I think bicycling is getting it’s mainstream recognition now! Hopefully this video will get more people to ride.
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I remember last year while perusing through Twitter updates, I found several mentions of the #30daysofbiking event. By the time, I realized what it was, it was in the middle of the month of April. It was too late for me to participate. So this year, by chance, I was perusing Twitter again on April 1st and found the same #30daysofbiking was promoted through-out my part of the Twitterverse (mainly the bicycling part). As a result, I’ve registered myself at the 30 Days of Biking site and making the pledge to ride my bikes for 30 days consecutively in the month of April.
Themocracy