Tasty Looking Ride

During a roll around the Hollywood Forever Cemetery my ride was accosted by a gaggle of gargantuan graveyard geese -- including this one, who opted to brazenly nibble at the spokes.

Back away from the bike ya foul fowl!

Good Karma Opps: Yet Another Reason To Ride A Bike

Traveling east on Sunset this afternoon in Echo Park I look down and pass a California driver license face up smack dab in the middle of the bike lane, just as is seen on the right. Doubling back to retrieve it, I'm next looking at the potentially thuggish mug of a young man named Israel who resides in the 90042 and wont' be 21 until next July.

I pocketed the ID and went about my business and the first thing I did when I arrived home was put Israel's address on an envelope and enclose a note which read: "Sometimes the best gift to give or get is the kindness of a good deed." It'll go out in tomorrow's mail.

New Year at the Golden Gate

in the biciblog email this week:

Hello, my name is Jason. I am bicyclist hailing from La Mirada (about 20 min from you). I just wanted to let you guys know that I am planning on heading up to San Fran to ride across the Golden Gate Bridge at 12am on New Years Eve. There is not any sort of significance to this little outing, except for the fact that it seemed like a totally sweet idea. I was hoping that maybe you could post this on your blog, calendar of events, or something like that. I have included links to two posts I made on craigslist (SF and LA), feel free to print them out and staple them up to your billboard or whatever. Additionally, feel free to post my email address if anyone has questions about the get together. Hope to see some of you folks there!
jason

on fixed gear riding

found this on The gallery

...The track frame and wheels are taut as a bowstring. My body is both the arm that draws it and the flying arrow. My eyes just lock onto the way ahead and my mind empties. The road, the bike and I are in perfect equilibrium at last. The hypnotic syncopated rhythms of my legs, lungs and heart correspond perfectly to the spinning cranks and wheels. The purring chain is my very pumping blood. I can pedal like this forever. The road a Mobius strip that leads me to myself. The demand of the pedals is precisely what I want to supply, no more, no less. I can stop this flow and the bike will carry my flaccid legs around or I can explode and drive, bouncing forward, to an ultimate, cadence-limited speed. But I am perfect as I am. There is no boundary between me and the bike...

by Matthew Boorer

LADWP Festival Of Lights Bike Ride

December 13, 2005 / 7 p.m. / Griffith Park

old school kitchen. free your bike.

i was lurking in the old pantry the other day and i found this flyer from the old BYOB days. rumor has it that jimmy lizama is the author and pink used to be the color of choice

Ridazz Conquer Hollywood

I was finally able to participate in my first Midnight Ridazz tonight and rather than drown my enthusiasm at the dive bar at the journey's end, I came home to try to make sense of it all. But it'll take awhile to come down from the adrenaline of the overall experience, not to mention splitting the lanes going the wrong way on a gridlocked Hollywood Boulevard like we fucking owned the place -- which we goddam did! So all I can offer is: AWESOME, and a small pre-ride photo set here on Flickr:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/wildbell/sets/1547946/.

UPDATE (12/13): Two brief bar-level POV videoclips from the ride can be found here at the Google Video site

Damn Glad To Be Here

By way of an introduction, I've been acquainted with the Bicycle Kitchen for more than a year, but it was only last August when I ventured inside to participate in the BK's inaugural wheel-building class, which changed my life.

Well, not like totally changed my life, but with the help of Jim Cadenhead it did kickstart a resurrection project on an abandoned road bike that I'd rescued only to let it sit around for so many months. Outfitted from the tires up now as a single-speeder with new everything, a home-brew paintjob, and a whole lot of assistance and support from Jim, Ben, Thomas, Somer and so many others, the ride I dubbed "The Phoenix" rose again and she officially rolled a couple weeks ago with that Sunday afternoon groupride down Sunset to the Not A Cornfield project. I've put about 50 miles on The Phoenix since that Sunday ride and this past weekend participated with about 15 or so other cyclists leading the Echo Park Holiday Parade. Good times.

There's not a trip I make on her that I don't feel a special bond. To some, though such talk is goofy. They don't get the connection that's made. To them, a project like that is just a big "so what?" and it's tough to make them understand the pride that comes with taking a rusted up and destroyed bike destined for the scrap heap and returning it to a new life on the road with my heart and my own two hands. They say they'd take the money I spent and buy an off-the-racker (or even two) at Costco, but where's the sense of accomplishment and adventure in that?

So I guess what I'm saying is that while the Bicycle Kitchen may not change your life, it can certainly change your point of view. So if you're new and curious as to what the Bicycle Kitchen has to offer, go on down and talk with one of the cooks on duty and hook yourself up with a project bike of your own. You may not believe there's joy to be found in replacing a bottom bracket or threading a brake cable, but there is.

Some photos of the cyclists in the parade can be found here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/wildbell/sets/1503152

toxic bike

someone sent me these articles and even after this window popped on my screen with a radio shack add when i clicked on the link i decided to read them.

Nobody Bikes in L.A.
But they'd be a lot happier if they did
By Andy Bowers

The Bicycle Diaries
Is it possible to live in America without a car? Uh, sort of.
By Bill Gifford

you know, high gas prices, and the character decides in a heroical act of defiance to try and ride a bicycle and comes up with all this remarcable experiences that, why not, could make a great article, a little extra cash and a good excuse to the editor for showing up all sweaty once in a while. there seems to be a good intention in them. the idea that it is possible to ride a bike is permeating greater media. but they end with bitter commentaries that return happily to the confort of the car, after the picturesque adventure of the bicycle. pretty much in the fashion of the serialized tale where things go back to their normal state at the end of the episode.

these articles are cathartic tales in the sense that they release emotional tension (about driving your car, about paying so much for gas, about your long commute)but then lay down the reader in the unchanged shores of the real world (where there is nothing to do, unless you take the path of the deviated). i believe this format diminishes the power of the subject , marking it more as something in the world out there and less as something to incorporate to your life. bikes are presented in a prophylactic fashion. sorrounded by the bubble of the freakish.
their radical toxicity fogged by a quiet condescending chuckle.