From Wilshire / Western to the Beverly Hills Courthouse

From the Beverly Hills Courthouse to Pan Pacific Park
From Pan Pacific Park to Western / Sunset

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.

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.

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!

Jeremy already brought along 2 huge B.O.B. bags worth of toys and dental hygiene packages. His load was definitely something to be amazed about. I believe he said that the load was about 80lbs. He rode with the load like a pro and at times cutting it really close to parked cars as we casually meandered down Santa Monica Blvd. There were about 15 riders, 3 of which were Xtracycles. I was hauling my Timbuk2 bag, my 2 wooden dinosaur toy, and some beverages in my Xtracycle. We rode out to the 99 cent store to pick up some more toys for the kids.

At the store all of us cyclists easily found spots to park our bikes. Some of us went in to shop while others opted to stand guard our bikes while we were away. I picked up a few more gifts, notably hula hoops and a huge pen. While we were waiting outside of the parking lot, we were witnessing mayhem in the 99 cent store parking lot. People were honking. They were angry and frustrated while we watched on. It just didn’t make sense why they were in such a bad mood for a quick trip to the store. Come on, get on your bikes and you can leave all this BS behind. The still don’t get it.

Eventually, we regrouped and rode East toward St. Anne’s. It was a mellow ride as we navigated through side streets and hills through-out Los Angeles. We finally made it our at St. Anne’s parking lot at 4:30. We were greeted by the gracious staff there who were happy to see the amount of riders come through hauling toys. We all eventually unloaded our loot on a cart / dolly. A few folks toured the facility as we talked it up about what they did at St. Anne’s. We snapped a few photos before everyone decided to head back to where we started. I followed the group until a minor incident with a harassing motorist separated us from the main group. As temper settled, we bravely joined traffic back on Vermont. We once again separated by a traffic light and I was riding with Aubrey Provost, the 8th Council District representative who had hosted the previous Crenshaw Crush ride. We soon met up with the rest of the group at the train station, said our good byes and left for home. On my way home, I was assured by 2 fellow riders, Mark & Dale that my newly purchased warning triangle is doing it’s job!

So I got a tweet from the LA Times of last night’s Light Festival and the third picture of the set is a picture of the Griffith Observatory with me riding by. I know it’s me because the silhouette clearly shows an Xtracycle and I was the only one riding an Xtracycle last night.

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.

I’ve only been there by car in previous years and never by bike so this will be an exciting experience. I think out of the 3 choices, this would be the best way to see the display since you dictate the pace and can stop and go as you please without impeding traffic. It’s ironic how LADWP is touting that they are going green when they only have one night dedicated to bicycle traffic and 13 nights for cars. Having car free nights with the shuttle is a good step but it could be better. Perhaps powering each light display like how folks at Copenhagen is doing it for their Christmas tree might be better?

Photo provided by sgroi on Flickr