Last night I decided to go over to the Bike Oven to see if I could help out with some building up of bikes. Unfortunately, after 45 minutes of waiting, nobody showed up so I decided to ride back home. I cruised through Cypress Park, Eagle Rock, and then Glendale. It was there on Verdugo riding north uphill when a Honda Accord honks at me. The person switches lane and speeds off like many drivers these days would do. Funny part was that I caught up to him on a bike while he was waiting at the light. People are just so impatient when they’re driving. And why would you honk at a bicyclist pedaling along? What am I going to do? Where am I going to go? I have the right to be on the road and I wasn’t going snail pace. Probably a good 18 mph when I looked down at my cyclometer. I guess some people still don’t get it. Why the hell is this bicyclist blocking my right lane? As slow as I was going, folks can still get around me by changing lane. Why can’t you just move over and not honk? What does honking accomplish? In my opinion absolutely nothing!
Unfortunately, I’m not the only one facing this recent rash of semi-road rage. Josef, the owner of The Flying Pigeon LA bicycle shop posted up a scarier story where he was literally run off the road on his bakfiet loaded with a bicycle. He was able to maintain balance but his bicycle on top was knocked off the bakfiet and slid across the road. I’m glad he’s okay but to add insult to injury the passenger flips him off! Another story came from a tweet @ActOut who was riding today and a “sophisticated” business man flips her off while driving off in his SUV. The last example came from @SoapBoxLA who was on a bus while the bus driver honks at a bicyclists and explains that the cyclists shouldn’t be there! What is going on here? Why so much anger from drivers of Los Angeles? Oh well, we live another day to ride.
Photo provided by samsstuff’s on Flickr.
The photo updates into Flickr are going up slowly but surely. I’m currently on my vacation back in 2007 of the Great Pacific Northwest. Looking at those images brings back fond memories. I can’t wait to be able to go on my vacation trip this year. We’re planning on heading over to Utah and Arizona to visit Bryce, Zion, and the Grand Canyon National Park.
Tonight I had the chance to ride from work to the Bike Oven and then from there back home for the first time since I’ve moved. Logged about 34 miles. Most on a school night on my commuter. Not that I’m proud or anything but I finally got to find out how it was to ride to the Bike Oven and back. I’ve been hesitant in the past because it didn’t seem too safe so I drove there most of the time. I think I’ll be riding there more often now.
Over the weekend I went out and bought myself a work-stand and some bicycle tools to work on my bicycles. It was absolutely necessary for me to make some repairs on my commuter. I repacked the wheels, changed out the cassette & chain, adjusted the derailleurs & cables, and finally lubed the chain. I had a chance to ride into work today with the new adjustments and they were good. No more skipping gears when I’m mashing away. Now I’m truly self-reliant when it comes to fixing my bicycles. No need to bring it in the shop. Although I still can’t do everything but I’m covered for maybe about 80% of all bicycle maintenance. For the other things, I can always go to my favorite place in North-East LA, the Bike Oven.
I recently found out the founder the Bike Oven opened his own bicycle store down the street from the Oven. I dug around his website and found that he organizes a “Get Some Dim Sum” ride every Sunday morning. Last Sunday was the 9th iteration of such a ride.
Coincidentally, my schedule allowed me to take part on this ride last weekend. I woke up early on Sunday morning and pedaled my way to the South Pasadena Gold line station and rode the train one stop south to Highland Park station. Upon arriving I was accompanied by a few others who also wanted to be part of this morning’s adventure. There were 2 other bloggers who joined us. Shannon from Sha In LA and Pat from Eating L.A. (stunning picture of me on this post). Check out their blogs for additional point of views.
I was joined by a few familiar faces besides Josef. Veronica, DJ Chickenleather, and Martin showed up. We casually strolled through Northeast LA. The bikes looked really cool but seemed restrictive. I kept hearing that the brakes were as effective as any coaster brakes. Also they were more of a sit back and cruise bike. I wanted the option to cruise and the ability to kick it up a notch should I need to. Luckily I was on my fixie. During the ride, I finally realized the beauty of riding fixed. I didn’t have to use my brakes as much as some people while we traveled on a slight decent and was required to stop frequently.
Our pack made it to the San Antonio Winery and we immediately made our way to the kitchen. The food took awhile for some (they were cooking 20 meals just for our group) but when it came I polished off my Italian Omelette without any hesitation.
We were invited to tour the winery. Our tour guide guided us through the few rooms explaining the history and process of making wine in the middle of LA. You don’t have to drive to Napa or even Temecula to get your winery fix. We had the opportunity to try some wine (Pat’s blog should have details on what was given to us).
By the time we were done and ready to go, the sun came up and warmed everyone up. It was pleasant a pleasant ride back. I especially like that Chickenleather was documenting the whole experience. One of these days I’m going to see if I can get a copy from him. We passed by a group where someone yelled, “Are you guys Midnight Riddazz??” CL wittingly replied, “Of course we’re not! It’s daytime.” That made me chuckle. Riding in a group like that made me feel like a kid again. It’s similar to riding in a group of motorcycles but slow enough to carry on conversations. Hard to describe unless you’re there.
I bid farewell to the group when I stopped at the Oven to help out for the rest of the afternoon. I’m definitely going to do this again. Hopefully more peeps can join me.
Bicycle, Restaurants
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Bicycle, Bike Oven, Dj Chickenleather, flying pigeon, food, Highland Park, Josef, Martin Chow, San Antonio Winery, South Pasadena, train, Veronica
I decided to do a few things as part of my adventure for this beautiful Los Angeles Saturday. I pedaled up to my favorite train stop in South Pasadena and took the North bound train towards Pasadena. It was my first time riding the Gold Line up to the last stop in Sierra Madre. From there I made my way down 4 stories of car parking and rode over to Harbor Freight, Pasadena location. For those who don’t know what Harbor Freight is, it’s a store where you can find all sorts of miscellaneous tools and items you wouldn’t find at your local hardware store or even at an auto parts store. It was great because they had so many tools for all sorts of things.
I then cruised over to Sears across the street and bought a 15mm wrench. I finally used a gift card that had $0.94 of credit! One less card to carry. I made my way out of Sears and took the train to the Bike Oven. At the Oven, I had some time to work on my bike. I had to tighten up the chain ring bolts and rewrapped my handlebar. By time everything was over it was 5PM. Me and one of the volunteers decided to go get smoothies in Chinatown. We rode our bikes from Highland Park area and chilled out and chatted for about 30 minutes and went our separate ways.
I took the Gold Line and then transferred to the Red Line and got off Hollywood and Vine. From there I proceeded to the theatre that was having the 2008 Bicycle Film Festival. I was greeted by Mr. Rollers, a very well known photographer for the Midnight Ridazz. He offered to valet my bike and so I allowed.
First time getting my bicycle valeted and I don’t mind it at all, unlike car valets. I waited in line until 7:30 rolled around and we all finally got to see some movies about bicycles. It was inspiring. When we got out, the line for the next program was long! I wanted to stay back and catch this last showing but I was hungry and tired so I bolted out to the train station.
The train was crowded with families who spent their day at Universal Studios and were heading back home. I know because they were holding souvenirs. I got off at the Civic Center stop hoping to catch a bus and try using the bike racks in front of a bus for the first time. I waited almost an hour and no bus came so I got fed up and road home from Downtown LA to Alhambra. Fueled by popcorn, a smoothie, and a power bar from earlier in the day, my head was pounding as I made my 7 mile journey at 11PM. I quickly stopped by Yoshinoya and picked up a chicken bowl with a cup of water. A well deserved meal that eased the headache and my sore legs.
Not bad for a 19 mile day (according to my cyclometer).
Bicycle, Special Event, Travelling
| Bicycle, Bicycle Film Festival, Bike Oven, Chinatown, Gold Line, Harbor Freight, Hollywood, Los Angeles, Red Line, Sears, train
Who’s the virgin group rida here? That would be me. Last Saturday, I participated in my first bicycle group ride. It’s funny because I’ve done lots of group rides on the motorcycle but never on the bicycle. Definitely different to say the least.
Every 2nd Saturday of the month, there is a Spoke(n) Art Ride that is put on by Josef @ the Bike Oven. This month’s ride also had the dual benefit of helping some folks raise money to go to the Burning Man. Our ride started at the normal place in Highland Park at the corner of York and Figueroa. I was first to arrive and chilled out w/some local homeless people. Then a couple named Liz and Rob shows up on their bike. Got to chit-chat for a couple minutes with them until people started flowing in from various location. We had all sorts of folks from your hipster fixie rider to your yuppie riders decked out with bags, helmets, and nice bikes. We even had a guy hauling with a stereo trailer to provide a ride sound track.
Josef shows up late and had to make a run back to the Oven to deliver some cases of wine. He’s got a real nice cargo bike. I’ll have to take pictures of that when I see it next time. This delayed allowed more people to join us. By the time he got back, we were about 50+ strong. There were some familiar faces in the sea of bikers who I recognized from the Oven. We eventually made our way up to Eagle Rock on Figueroa. I don’t remember any of the names of the art locations but I do remember the ride. It was the most amazing feeling in the world to be on a bicycle with a pack of other bicycles occupying an entire lane of the road. Cars were not honking, they were patient and curious while they slowly cruised by us. We were constantly stopped by drivers asking who we are. During the ride I got to mingle with strangers and acquaintances alike by either slowing down or speeding up in the pack to catch up to someone. Wherever we ended up, we basically ate every “free” snacks and wine that was left out for us. Talk about vultures.
We rode through Colorado Blvd in Eagle Rock and headed south on Eagle Rock Blvd to York. Made a left to Avenue 50 and the went straight down Avenue 50 to Marmion Way. We eventually made it back on Figueroa to chill out at the Bike Oven. We made it through 5 art exhibits in total accident free. The after party was kinda lame so me and a group of other riders who lives near S. Pasadena decided to take the train back to S. Pasadena. We tried looking for food but all the places in So Pas was closed. Eventually it was just me and another person named Efren who also lived near me. We ended up eating at a Chinese Cafe restaurant called “Cafe Spot” since he said he knew the owner there. It turns out Efren was a councilman of the city of Alhambra. Very nice gentleman and very genuine in his efforts to make the city a better place. It was nice to bike somewhere local with someone else but myself.
By the time I got home, it was 1 AM. Total mileage was about 20 miles for the night. I was beat! Unfortunately I had to wake up early to go to the beach. Needless to say, I was knocked out by Sunday night. I’m still tired and need some time to rest up and sleep today. As for future rides, I’m going to make it a priority to make out to at least 1 ride a month. I can see how this can be addictive.
I’ve been fascinated with the idea of building my own fixed-gear bicycle for a couple of months now. I first caught sight of one when I was looking around for ways to improve my current commuter. I came across a beautiful bike with no brake levers and no derailleurs. It was just a bike with one chain around the wheel and nothing else. A fixed-gear bike does not have a free wheel. This means that when you pedal backwards on a complete stop, you actually can go backwards. It makes it challenging if you ride around hills both going up and going down. You can simply pedal backwards if you wanted to stop. There’s plenty of people who uses fixed-gear bikes for tricks and stunts. You can find clips on YouTube. Track bikes that are used in competitive racing are all fixed-gear. It’s suppose to improve your riding and is good for training. I’m going to be doing a triathlon in September and thought that this would be neat to ride.
A friend of my gave me his old Nishiki International road bike. It’s a pretty old bike but still in very good shape. I took it to the Bike Oven in Highland Park to begin my project last night. The folks at Bike Oven were awesome. They were very friendly, receptive, and most importantly patient. I spent about 3 hours taking parts off of my bike, rebuilt the headset and bottom bracket. Things I thought would be hard wasn’t too bad. Of course I was spoiled by the plethora of tools that was available around me. What remains is buying a cog for my rear wheel and a new chain. Hopefully I’ll have it completed by this Saturday so I can take it out to ride during the upcoming holiday weekend. The before and after pictures will come shortly.
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