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By Johnny, January 25, 2010 10:05 am

If you met me about 3 years ago I would have told you my goal at that point in time was to save up enough money to buy my own house. I accomplished that late 2008. The next step would have been to upgrade my car to a fancy European sports car and replace my motorcycle with an updated version. Flash-forward to present day and my priorities in life has changed. Instead of keeping up with “the Jones”, I do not own a motorcycle and as of January 19th, do not own a car in Los Angeles! After having my car posted on several online sites for about 2 months, it finally got a response when I dropped the price down to $4500. Although I won’t say how much I got for the car, I was thoroughly happy to see it off with the new owners. I told people I felt like getting a 3,000 lb gorilla off my back. It even felt better to make the call to my insurance agent to cancel my auto insurance the next day.

Ironically enough the week I sell my car would have been the week that I would have needed it the most. We endured 7 straight days of rain in Southern California and I got to ride out in it for 3 of the 7 days. I lucked out 2 of those 3 days and successfully avoided rain. But on the last day, I was finally doused. Even though it would have been comfortable just to hop in the car and drive back and forth to work without getting wet, I still enjoyed riding in the rain. It’s just a matter of being prepared and ready for that situation.

Now that I moved forward with my life without a car, I feel a bit anxious. After months of rarely using it, this is completely different from before because I just lost the option to use my car now. I really should think of it as I’ve gained the freedom to not be tied to auto repairs, payments to the insurance company, and visits to gas stations. I’ve also gained free time to enjoy my books and podcast if I decide to take public transportation. I am no longer burdened with the stress of driving or having to pay what I call the “car tax”. All these things outweighs the fact that I don’t have a car.

Let’s see where this journey will take me. Wish me luck!

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By Johnny, December 22, 2009 12:42 am

This past Sunday, I had the privilege to be part of a conclusion to an incredible journey made by Victoria Merriman. About 4 months ago, Victoria set-out on a journey which began 4,000 miles away in Boston Harbor. Victoria’s adventure brought her through 12 states and multiple blog entries which she took the time to give us a play-by-play description of her journey. I should know because I’ve been reading her blog since she was traveling through Texas. I actually went back and read all her posts since the beginning or even before the trip so when I met her I felt like I already knew her. Of course, I was teased for being the “super fan” of the night, when in reality it was a privilege just to meet someone so courageous as herself. Did I forget to mention to you that she did all this by herself? Yup, something that myself and many out there would be scared to death to do, she courageously accomplished.

I was invited to welcome her at 3:30 – 4PM on Sunday. The welcoming party consisted of friend’s of Victoria as well as folks she had met when she was in LA 6 months ago. We were informed by text that she was 3 miles away and she would arrive by the bike path. We hustled down from the pier to the bike path and waited for 15 minutes. She arrived to a roar of cheers and applauds. Here’s a quick video I took of her approach.

She quickly got off her bike and greeted everyone. Her emotions then got hold of her and she was crying with much deserved tears of joy. She celebrated her arrival in similar fashion as her departure by dipping the “Supertour” and submerging into the Pacific ocean. I remembered reading how she loved swimming and recalled from her recent posts that she hasn’t done much of that so it was nice seeing her getting in the water.

After a few minutes of soaking in all that is happening, we finally made our way to a public bathroom so she could “freshen up” for our celebratory meal and drinks. We decided to go to a restaurant in Santa Monica which was about a mile away called Library Alehouse. I had the pleasure of riding her bike over to the location for her. As predicted, I was the first one there since everyone still had to walk to their car, find parking, and walk to the restaurant. Isn’t bicycling great! I must digress.

While we waited to be seated she was interrogated by everyone about details of her journey. Something she must have done through-out her journey so I’m sure she was used to it by now. I confessed to her my favorite story was when she got to fly a plane without even planning for it. She obliged and entertained the crowd with the step-by-step account of that day. It was like I was reading her blog again.

We eventually got seated and ordered our food and drinks. More stories were told at the table and more questions was asked. It was great for me to hear a voice to the written words on her blog. It was even better to get a sneak peak of what had happened after her last blog post. At the time of this post, I didn’t know what happened to her from San Diego till now. We had mentioned to the waitress what we were celebrating and she congratulated the accomplishment by comping us 3 dessert plates for us to share. The manager also came by to chat with Victoria about her trip.

Our meal ended close to 10PM. We exited the establishment and took some group photos and got some solo shots with our heroine. Here is my shot.

Everyone said their good byes including myself. She is such an inspiration that I can’t wait to go on my camping trip next week. That’s right, I’m going on a 4 day excursion to Lake Cachuma up near Santa Barbara by bike. Even though the trip is only 200 miles, Victoria was excited for me which I know she’s taking pity on my meager mileage given the fact she just finished 4000 miles.

Read her blog to find out more about her journey at http://www.victoriasblog.com. She’s a great writer and you will be entertained as much as I was.

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By Johnny, December 14, 2009 9:41 pm

Last night I had the chance to attend my first Spurs game. It was actually a Clippers game which I’ve been to several but never for my team. My buddy secured tickets from his brother who had bought season tickets so we were sitting at the 206 section. Funny thing was that we met up with friends who happened to be there including my gf and her sis.

This was a weird night. Our seats at the 206 section wasn’t bad. But what made it interesting was that they were giving Metrolink train passes for a random section and row. Right before half-time, they called our section and row. It was nice surprise! I was joking around with my buddy telling him they were going to call our section and row. Amazingly enough my wish was granted.

We proceeded to go out to get a beer and some food about 3 minutes left of the first half. We were enjoying the game at the foyer when 2 guys walk up to us and ask if we wanted their tickets which was seated right behind the Spurs bench. Heck yeah we did! Another pleasant surprise. We moved to our new seats and was in awe with how close we were. We were 6 rows behind court side. Which was really close to the players. In fact, I watched the game on TV and can locate me and my buddy during the second half of the game.

In both of those incidents, if we weren’t there at that moment in time, we would not have been so fortunate. On top of that, the Spurs won! In the words of Ice Cube, “Today was a good day.”

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By Johnny, December 3, 2009 11:49 pm

The much anticipated ride for this week was for LADWP’s Festival of Lights bike ride that was held on Thursday, December 3rd. I got out of work a bit late and raced over to Griffith Park. Luckily I made it there before they started lighting the displays so I was able to cruise through to the south entrance of the park where the ranger station was suppose to be. It was quite pleasant to ride through the street without any cars since they had already started diverting car traffic away from this area. In fact, I was the only bike since everyone was waiting near the Zoo entrance.

I made plans on Twitter earlier in the week to meet up with a few folks. @FunctionalCycle and @LACycleChic showed up with their daughter around 5:30PM. A few minutes later, JHarv from the Bike Oven showed up and we began our ride through the light display.

It was nice to cruise through the lit displays with Christmas music blaring from speakers that was strategically placed throughout the course. The music certainly helped bring out the feeling of Christmas! One of my favorite display was an animated sequence that resembled LAX airport with a plane taking off from a blue landing strip. Our other favorite thing was riding through the 2 huge tunnel of lights. Here are a few shots of the tunnel.

It was a very short ride to the other side where we ran into more folks from Twitter, @dudeonabike and later @danceralamode joined us when we rode through the displays the second time around. People really got into it by decorating their bikes with lights and colorful props and outfits.

Besides the evening being very chilly, we were dodging wobbly bicycle riders and people scattered all over the street. Not really the best situation when you mix pedestrian and bicycle in an area. Everyone seemed to handle it very well. I wished it was ALL bikes and no foot traffic. I have to say I don’t know how people can see this through their cars? Sitting in long lines of traffic stretching out to the 5 freeway every year. Sucking in carbon monoxide while people are rolling through display to display at snail pace. On bikes, folks can still stop and enjoy each display without ever impeding traffic and smell nothing but maybe your occasion funk from the skunk. If you haven’t been through this I encourage you to go but the remaining nights are car free w/pedestrian and shuttle until December 17th. The rest of the month after that will require you to drive.

Enjoy the 6 minute video I shot with my digital camera while riding my bike. Not the best quality but you get the idea.

LADWP Festival of Light Ride from Johnny Lam on Vimeo.

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By Johnny, November 13, 2009 1:45 am

After a “long week”, I attended a Happy Hour over at Henry’s Hat last night. The attendees at this particular Happy Hour are my co-workers who are part of the company’s racing team. Racing as in triathlon, running, etc. Upon arrival I was told by 2 separate individuals that they saw footage of me on TV. Specifically, it was a video about the 2009 Nautica Malibu Triathlon race recap on Fox Sports West. When I got home, I immediately scoured the net and found the video on the actual Nautica Malibu Triathlon website. It is the first video segment of the 2009 video series. I am seen running at the 1 minute mark for 2 seconds. Woohoo I’m famous!

Here’s a screen shot of the page and video just in case they remove it in the future:

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By Johnny, November 11, 2009 12:06 am

I remember about 2 years ago I was oblivious to the Metro network in and around Los Angeles. I was chained to the day to day grind of driving back and forth to work from my parent’s home. Ever since I started riding my bike, I slowly found that not only is bicycling great but the Metro network of buses and trains are an enjoyable way to travel around town. I am still picking up new routes even to this day. Combine both the Metro and bicycling, you can practically get anywhere in Los Angeles. That is why I am excited that the Metro Gold Line will be opening up the expanded route from Union Station into East LA on November 15th.

If you had told me 2 years ago that this was happening, I would have easily dismissed this as anything significant. Why would I care about an expansion of a Metro train? I would not have realized that this opens up a way of getting to a part of LA in which I would not have gone in any other circumstances. This was true about a year ago when I took the Gold Line from South Pasadena to Highland Park. I definitely wouldn’t have been comfortable going there in previous scenarios. I now hang out at that area more frequently than my own town. This new expansion means more business to each of the local communities that is fortunate to have a train stop at their neighborhood. It allows people to be able to mobilize easily between East LA to Pasadena which connects multiple cultures, a multitude of different wealth class, and open up opportunities for the people in the communities that line up against the path of this train track.

If you find the time on Sunday, try to get to a station on the Gold Line and see for yourself. I heard you will be able to ride free that day and may even get to attend a block party to see a Mariachi Festival in Boyle Heights. Heck! They promised a special appearance of Santa at one of the stops. What better way to kick off the holiday season than with Santa?

Photos provided by waltarrrrr on Flickr.

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By Johnny, October 31, 2009 4:36 pm

Today marks the one year anniversary of when my escrow closed for my home purchase. I remembered how nervous I was. “How am I going to pay this mortgage?”, was what I had thought that day. It was tough at first but here I am 12 payments later. I am able to pay my mortgage without a hitch.

I also knew that I wouldn’t be going out too much but I think I still enjoyed myself this year. Tax benefits certainly made it easier. I know I haven’t been hanging out with friends too much. Not sure why. Perhaps I like staying at home whenever I can. There’s nothing like having no where to go and enjoying whatever is on tv or Hulu.

The place still looks pretty much the same as I had it sine I’ve moved in. I’ve only added a bed, washer, dryer, tv and a tv stand. Everything else was given to me by friends and family. Still using those furniture. Perhaps I’ll get to buy some bedroom furniture and then some living room furniture. Definitely no rush since I don’t need anything at this point. Besides, I’m trying not to add more clutter in my life. I’m trying not to over consume.

To kick off this momentous occasion I decided to do my planned ride to Santa Monica this morning. I rode out around 8:30 am after I made a PBJ sandwich and loaded up with some energy drink and water. It was a chilly morning so I brought a light riding jacket. I rode east on Burbank Blvd to Sepulveda Blvd. A Harley rider pulls up to me on one of the stop and asks if I wanted to race for pinks. I laughed and said my bike don’t have pinks. He smiled and we went our separate ways.

I road the unfamiliar road down Sepulveda until I reached Wilshire. On Wilshire I went Northwest onto San Vicente into Brentwood. Brentwood was a scarier place to ride than any other neighborhood I’ve been today. People don’t know how to react with a bicycle on the road. I was able to signal a car to slow down on a right turn because a man was making his way slowly across the sidewalk. That was my good deed.

I followed San Vicente until it turned into Ocean. That was my destination and I pulled off into the park lined street to catch my breathe and eat my sandwich and rest up. After a few minutes of relaxing, I proceeded home. Going up Arizona. They closed the street on Second for a farmers market. I walked through the market and got back on my bike and road all the way to Barry Ave and turned right. I made my way to end of the street on Ohio and road up until that street ended. It brought me to Thayer and I made a right and ended up on Santa Monica Blvd. From SM Blvd I was on the bike lane until Avenue of the Stars. I then took the ramp down to Olympic Blvd. Took Olympic all the way to Rimpau. Turned left and the right onto 4th St. I took 4th all the way until it ended on Hoover. That was where I got lost. I somehow ended up on Sunset. I overshot where I wanted to be. I then rode back down Sunset towards Hollywood. Looked for Griffith Park Blvd. I was again held up a bit by another farmers market. Walked through that and proceeded to ride up to Los Feliz on GP Blvd. From there I took Los Feliz Blvd till the LA River Bike Path. I was finally at a place I had rode before. Went north on the path until I reached the end at Victory. I decided to take a more scenic path on Riverside Drive. I also decided to take a series of Bike Routes of Burbank. Until I couldn’t go further North. That lead me out to Buena Vista Blvd one block before the railroad track south of Empire Blvd.

All that took about 3 and a half hours and stretched out to about 55 miles. LA streets are pretty bad. Cracks and holes line almost all the streets that jarred the heck out of my poor bike as well as doing a number on my body. I’m a exhausted now but I’m glad I finally did this ride. Planned it for quite some time. Now I know what the journey looks like visually.

Happy Halloween!

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By Johnny, October 12, 2009 5:01 pm

On October 8th, I had the pleasure to attend a fundraising event that was hosted by Junior Achievement of Southern California. It was held at the Sports Museum of Los Angeles. First of all, I didn’t even know we had a sports museum here. Apparently the museum is not opened to the public. As we approached the building, it was a huge building located on the corner of Washington and Main. The entrance and parking lot was gated away from the hustle and bustle of the people traveling on the Blue Line Metro train tracks. In bright red letter it read, “Sports Museum”. For a place that was closed to the public, I find it ironic to have a bright red sign telling everyone outside that this was a sports museum.

I carpooled with Ron and as soon as we parked our car at the abundant parking spaces, we were greeted by a friendly gentleman who guided us to the registration table. We were given the option to sign-in or drop off a business card. I quickly dropped off my card so I can start exploring the 32,000 sq/ft of heaven at the world’s largest private collection of sports memorabilia. We walked right into an area where there was a complete gym set with antique equipment. We then perused around all the century old bikes on display. Obviously that was my favorite area of the entire place. There were bikes there that I’ve been reading about as well as bikes that I’ve only seen as drawings. It was incredible and impressive.

We couldn’t believe that this collection was from 1 person. My impression prior to this event was thinking that this would have been something that wasn’t going to be so expansive as it was. He’s got so many different sports highlighted through-out the facility. The owner, Gary Cypress, was an avid collector who focused on the evolution of sports. You can tell by the pieces he collected. For example, he had versions of footballs through the years.

Besides the free food provided by ESPN Zone for the event, we got to see the display of where his Honus Wagner tobacco baseball card would have been. This multi-million dollar card was not available that evening. We saw uniforms from Jackie Robinson, Babe Ruth, Ted Williams, Sandy Kofax, and other famous baseball heroes. He also have an extensive version of Los Angeles Rams jersey. Not to mention my favorite sport of basketball was on display with old school basketball rims and old basketball used back in the days.

Gary explained that he is opening this for private tours and charity events and may open it next year to the public. If that happens, I’m planning to go again for a closer look and spend time at each section. I’m sure I may have glanced over a few of the 10,000 collectibles and not notice their significance. See the remaining photos by clicking on the image below.

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By Johnny, September 26, 2009 8:06 pm

• Crenshaw Crush ride
• LAGREENSTERS.com
• South Los Angeles, CA
• photo by Jeremy Grant
• editorial use allowed with credit
• contact jeremygrant.com

I’m going to be there tomorrow morning for this ride. Hope to take some pictures and learn about South LA.

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By Johnny, September 22, 2009 1:21 am

This year’s Nautica Malibu Triathlon kicked off on a Sunday morning at 3:30AM. That was when I woke up and realized we were going to be late. I was suppose to be awake an hour earlier but put my alarm on snooze. Coincidentally, I had a nightmare that I missed the race and woke up at 7:30AM! I quickly woke Marie & Sang up and told them we’re late. They graciously obliged and quickly got ready to go in a matter of a few minutes.

We drove over to Zuma with a pack of cars who seem to be heading at the same direction. Lucky for us, we were actually on time. We got parking and quickly got out to pump more air into my bike’s tire. What I did notice this year was that the weather was warmer. This worked in my favor since I forgot my sweater.

It was a long walk from the car to lifeguard station 15 where the transition area was. When we got there, a few folks from NBC Universal was hanging around getting prepped for the race. I was much more calm and relax than last year. It definitely helps that this is my second year and I knew what was expected and how to approach the pre-race jitters. I went to my area for the co-ed relay teams and setup my bike and equipment. It only took a matter of 10 minutes to get everything organized and race ready. It helps especially when you’re not swimming.

I even had time to eat breakfast before the race. Nothing big, just a bagel w/cream cheese. I was also tagged during this time with my race number, 884. This was a lucky number in Chinese. Another good sign that I’m in for a good one. Around 5:30, we had our group picture with the team taken. My team mate, Sanya was still not here. I was a bit worried since this was her first race and she had a Toastmaster event the day before that she might have overslept. She finally shows up around 6:30. She was sleeping in her car and had arrived very early. She completely missed the picture and was bummed out. We quickly went over logistics as to the first transition and went over to listen to our mandatory meeting around 7:00.

The meeting pretty much went over rules for the race and highlights with the national anthem being sung by a race participant. Immediately after the pre-race ceremony, the first wave began. Sanya was in the third wave so it didn’t take too long since they were going out 15 minutes at a time. I got to the transition area and had my helmet, gloves, and shoes on. I quickly ate some Gu and water for the extra energy. I also noticed I didn’t have to pee as much as I did last year, which was a good thing because the lines to the port-o-potty was long.

People started flowing in from the water and in about 30 minutes of waiting, Sanya was running pass our lane. Those lanes are hard to recognize when they’re filled with people waiting for their teammates and cheering. I had to run out there and call her back. She quickly took off the chip and handed it to me. I strapped it to my ankle, grabbed the bike and dashed out to the beginning of the bike round.

My strategy was to take it easy and up my cadence at a mellow pace and not push it too much. I had to say I did just that until maybe at the end when I was coming back. Much of the way I just took a mellow pace and allowed the true triathletes speed by with their “whooshing” wheel (that’s the sound their bicycle makes as they speed on). I was much better on the hills this year. I was less ambitious and allowed people to pass me. By the time they were half way through the hill, I would catch up and pass them with ease. On the descents I was able to keep pace with the rider in front of me who was still spinning. I just dipped low and just rode it through in my aerodynamic position. On the way back, I had a few guys that I kept going back and forth with. And then finally on one last hill, one guy took off climbing pass me. I didn’t know why I reacted that way but soon I was blowing by him even though he gave it his all on the climb. It felt good. I felt like Contador on the Tour de France on the day he blew by all his opponents on one of his climbs.

On my way back into the parking lot, I felt good. Ate another packet of Gu and rode on to the transition area. From there I dismounted the bike and ran to my spot. I lost track of where it was for a moment but quickly hung the bike up, took off my shoes, helmet, and gloves and quickly slipped on my running shoes and was off to the running leg. I could hear Sanya and other folks cheering me on. As I began my ran I started to cramp up on both of my calves. It got bad enough for me to stop and stretch out a bit before I begin to gingerly jog. I thought it was going to be a bad run but miraculously I felt better and better as I kept on trucking. Every water stop I took a quick sip and dumped the rest on my head to cool down. That helped tremendously as I made my way back to the finish line where the time read 2:09 (2 hours and 9 minutes). They even announced my name as I crossed the line. We were welcomed by freezing wet towels and a cool medal.

I went back to meet up with Sanya. We talked a bit about the race and went to go grab breakfast at the buffet area. Along the way we saw so many celebrities. Terry Hatcher, William H. Macy, Felicity Huffman, shirtless Mario Lopez, and Mark Feuerstein (the doctor in “Royal Pains” series on USA) to name a few. Breakfast was delicious but I held back since I was going to have lunch at King’s Hawaiian again this year. I decided to make it a tradition to go there after the race every year.

Here are the results from the race. Our official times: Swim – 00:17:19.6 Transition 1 – 00:01:46.3 Bike – 0:56:03.3 Transition 2 – 00:01:52.8 Run – 00:36:24.1 Finish – 01:53:32.7. Sanya didn’t swim as fast as my former teammate but we made up alot of time during transitions and biking. I was 4 minutes faster on the bike this year than last year but I was 26 seconds slower on the run. Overall, we were about 2 minutes faster than last year. Not bad for a pretty relaxed training schedule. I only ran about once a week and ride my bike as much as possible to work.

Click on the image below for the rest of the photo set.