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By Johnny, May 9, 2010 11:25 pm

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.

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By Johnny, November 15, 2009 2:17 am

As of yesterday, I have officially finished my 8 weeks trial period without a car. Through this time I have expressed some displeasure in the process but now it’s finally done! I would be lying if I told you I did not drive my car during this time period. I had to drive it in 3 separate occasions. The first incident was for 2 doctors visit in one day. I would have taken public transportation but even though the appointments were 2 hours apart, I was not going to be able to make it considering I wouldn’t know when I’ll be out after the first appointment. I suppose I could have considered that incident a “rental” incident but I think I can prevent something like that from happening either by scheduling them on different days or scheduling earlier. The second incident was a drive down to Orange County. I was heading down to our friends’ place so that I can leave the car for a weekend trip to San Diego. That would have been considered a legitimate “rental” opportunity. I would have even driven the rental down to SD. The final incident was because I had to bring my car in to get it tuned up and fixed maintenance issues. That actually has nothing to do with needing a car since the reason alone is enough to justify why I needed to drive. It was this last trip where it finally sealed the deal in my decision to give up my car permanently. I am tired of throwing my money away maintaining this proverbial ball and chain.

Here are some highlights of my 2 months experience.

• Bought rain gear, but did not bring it when it did drizzle. Still had fun riding in the wet.
• Rode 855 miles during this time which included commuting, some group rides, and my Santa Monica excursion.
• Had 4 people ask about the Xtracycle.
• Had motorcyclist compliment on my Xtracycle.
• Realized that LA still has a long way in becoming a bicycle friendly city and there are dedicated individuals who are out there fighting for a better LA as we speak.
• Los Angeles have so much things to experience outside of a car.
• I could go practically anywhere in LA if I planned it right.
• People generally are surprised and doubtful when you tell them that you’re giving up your car. They’re almost sympathetic for the cause and some do offer rides.
• Some people don’t think it’s possible to be car-free in LA. Some think it’s social suicide.
• Your iPod is your best friend on public transportation.
• My friends are realizing that I’m not messing around.
• Using the bike rack on a bus is easy.

For the next step, I am going to get my car washed and detailed and will be putting it on Craigslist for sale hopefully by today. It is going to be good to lose this 3,000 lbs from my life. The revolution has begun!

Photo provided by nyoin on Flickr.

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By Johnny, September 23, 2009 12:02 am

Monday marks the completion of my first week of living car-free. So far I have commuted from home to work strictly on my bicycle. I had some after-work events like 2 happy hours and a MANAA meeting in Chinatown. Each time I had to ride home later than normal but was able to do so without any issues. On the weekend, I had a housewarming party over at the Wilshire district on Saturday and visited my folks on Sunday. All of that accomplished without driving my car.

Saturday, I rode the Xtracycle over to the party along with a money tree, my Timbuk2 messenger bag, and a foldable chair (since she asked visitors to BYOC). The ride wasn’t too bad for the most part. LA is surprisingly hilly. I got caught on some mean hills and was fortunate to ride some down towards Wilshire Blvd from Los Feliz. I got there in about an hour and half. Hung out until about 8PM and started my journey home. I primarily took 4th St to La Palmas Ave which runs parallel with Highland. I pretty much had a quiet ride without much traffic through very “rich” neighborhoods. I eventually made it to the Hollywood and Highland Metro station and hopped on the train towards NoHo. Luckily there wasn’t alot of people taking the train at the time so I was able to take the elevators down with my extra long bike and walk right on the train without worrying about blocking the door. Even getting off the North Hollywood station was a breeze.

On Sunday, I had told my parents I was going to visit since I didn’t the week before. I had to swap some bicycle tubes at the Flying-Pigeon store. They had a dim-sum ride in the morning and I got there just in time to join the huge group of people who participated. I also learned that there is a bike path in the area. Very convenient to ride back and forth from Highland Park to South Pasadena. Along the way we had a few things happen. I opted to stay behind to look over folks and make sure no one was left behind. The first incident, we had some fainting. Luckily a few of us was there to hold her up and seat her on the side. She ended up walking back to the shop after eating some candy. I’m guessing she was diabetic. The second incident was that a lady who had not been riding for 12 years had fallen down while trying to ride onto a sidewalk. Fortunately, she scrapped her knees but nothing serious. Myself and another fellow rider rounded up about 5 riders who were straggling at the end and made sure everyone reached their destination. I bid farewell and went home to see my folks. On the ride back, I rode non-stop. Found some new routes and had to turn around because of some closures to the LA River bike path. It took me about 2 and half hours to ride home. A lot longer than I expected. All I knew was that I was exhausted and thirsty coming home. I had to go to a 7-11 to pick-up some Gatorade to recharge.

7 more weeks to go! This week will have some birthday dinners in Pasadena so we’ll see how that’s going to work out. I’m planning on taking the train and having friends pick me up and drop me off. It should be interesting so I’ll report back again.

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By Johnny, September 16, 2009 2:25 pm

As some of you might know, I’ve been talking and writing about going car-free for sometime now. With the emergence of my new xtracycle, I can easily take that step forward. I will be going completely car-free for the next 2 months as a trial period. This is a trial because I will still have my car on stand-by should I need it. Only reason I may need it is for emergencies. It’ll be like renting a car in my trial period. I’m hoping to keep track of places I go and methods of transportation. I’m also not ruling out carpooling so for those who can drive me, I’m planning on treating them to a meal. In addition to that I’m going to try to keep a ride and finance log to do a comparison to driving in the same period.

This is going to be interesting and challenging. I’ve told some people and they’re saying I’m crazy for doing this. Especially in a city like Los Angeles. I’ve read and met people who have been doing this for decades so I’m very confident that this could be done. This was unofficially kicked off this Monday, September 14, 2009. That was 1 day after my triathlon so I didn’t need to think about driving to training for a few months now. Everything else, I am adjusting my schedule to accommodate. If it all goes well, my car will be on sale after November 14, 2009. Wish me luck!

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By Johnny, September 11, 2009 4:05 pm

This past weekend I decided that I needed to take another big step in the future car-free lifestyle. I went out and bought me a FreeRadical & Longtail Kit by Xtracycle from Flying-Pigeon LA. This would convert my current commuter bike to a longtail bike. Essentially my bike becomes a Sports Utility Bike (S.U.B.) in which I can haul can carry load up to 200lbs. Impressive huh?

The kit sat in my garage until this Wednesday when I decided to begin working on my conversion. In the process, I rip apart my current commuter bike, a 1997 Specialized Rockhopper. I removed the rear brakes, derailleur, chain, rear rack, wheel, and rear fender.

I was ready to add the FreeRadical on. The instruction called for the installation to happen upside down first so I can mount it easier. The thing to note about this product is that they have very creative names for some of the parts. For example, there’s a “Boss Hog”. That’s the part that holds your bike’s rear drop out in place. Very unique.

After the FreeRadical was mounted I was told to install the derailleur and rear brakes back. That wasn’t the hard part. The hard part was re-cabling the rear brakes and rear derailleurs. Adding the FreeRad essentially stretches your bike. The brakes was pretty easy but the derailleur was a struggle. I had issues getting it out of my grip shifter and installing it back into place. The cables started to come undone in the process which caused lots of painful pricks to my fingers. Let’s just say they are very tender at the moment. Imagine getting a needle stuck into your thumb. Yes, painful. The worse part was that I ran out of the cable because I had kept on cutting the cable to make it more “neat”.

It was also a pain to get the handlebar grip off but to do it three time was tiring. Luckily I learned that a little bit of Simple Green on the inside makes it slides on and off nicely. I had to postpone the finish one more day so that I can buy longer cable, cable housing, and some grease for the grip shift (since I started wiping that away while figuring how assemble it again).

Nevertheless, I continued with my build Thursday night and got all the cabling corrected. I proceeded to tune my derailleurs. Which was surprisingly easy compared to the ordeal I had gone through. The tough thing last night was attaching the extended chain together. I had to devise a way to hold the derailleur arm so that it gave me enough slack to connect the chains together. Took me a good hour to get the chained hooked in.

I assembled the rear fender and added the Longtail kit. Attached the snap deck and the secured the bags securely to the Vbars. Pretty easy compared to what I had gone through earlier. I installed the kickstand and oiled the chain. I was pretty proud of my construction. Unfortunately I couldn’t take it out for a spin because by the time I was done, it was 1 in the morning and I was exhausted.

I couldn’t wait to check out the ride this morning so I took it in to work. Friday’s are usually my “fixie” day (Fixie Friday) but I’ve been riding the fixie into work Wednesday and Thursday so I was pretty much done with that plus I wanted to really ride this beast I put together.

This rides very well with the center of gravity moved a little further back. The bike now absorbs shock a lot better than before and the ride is a bit more comfortable. Why I did notice is that the chain started slapping the frame. I’ll have to find a way to protect the frame and may have some Teflon tape that my co-worker is willing to let me use. He’s got a Xtracycle as well and said it worked very well for his bike. I’ve gone out a few times today to meetings and can’t help but admire what I built every time I walk by it. I can’t wait to get back on the seat and ride it home today/tonight. One small build for myself but one big step towards one less car on the road.