riding stairs in naples

I have just gone round southern Italy by bike and now I have a place in Rome. Yes, Rome is a dynamic environment for riding. I really love it but the wide roman boulevards and the generally polite drivers cannot compete with Naples for sheer death-wish heart-stopping nighttime riding. I have never before been is such wonderful chaos. After I took off the panniers I went out for a pizza and beer in the spanish quarter. Riding in there is like being caught in a flash flood. the streets are rough with trolly tracks and broken glass. the cars and scooters are held together with tape and some do not even have lights. They come and go oin the narrow alleyways at will--always fast. From a sidestreet may shoot a stroller or a truck but nobody stops or even slows. hey, a vespa with a 13 year old smoking and honking after his girl. Chase him if you can its like playing with wasps. in the center of a rotunda it is a no-mans land. No other biker is fast enough to to enter or exit. in fact, there are few othe cyclists. Maybe they have been afraid, or killed off. And for dessert, try riding the tricky stairs that go all the way from the fortress on the hill to the sea. You will be very happy if you survive.

by David Sanford

media coverage

a video of the 2005 Cycle Messenger World Championships Skids finals. featuring our incredible skidding Somerset wearing a first edition fool bag. courtesy of bikeTV.

our ridazz

I've noticed that someone has been uploading pictures to flickr with the tag ridazz so i joined with a batch of scanned spoke cards. i'd love to see some more, not being much of a collector i've lost a few, but i managed to get the 1 year aniversary s.card, the Death in Venice s.card (to the left) and the symbol for the GUIDING LIGHT of TRANSVELOSTANTIATION in s.card form.
keep on taggin' those ridazz pics, and if you want more documentation don't forget the ridazz yahoo group and the mailing list. ridazz has been mentioned by some other L.A. bloggers: eric richardson who also made a nice flicker photo set of the august 2005 ride. blogdowntown has noticed and so has mr. hexod (who also made some link research about ridazz). our friends at cicle.org wrote a little piece with some cool pics. and there are two threads on bikeforum titled "
"Midnight Ridazz in Los Angeles and playing Dressup?" and "LOS ANGELES. MIDNIGHT. FRIDAY the 13th.". a post by Complacent P -oh man, this is a lot of e-attention- and sure, there is a podcast on bikescape. thanks to all for the web-cred and keep it midnight, keep it real.


updates:

october/2005
some nice nice pictures of the october Midnigth ridazz (Dead Theater Ride) by Mark Nealey. Thanks Mark!

bike boom

a calendar of cycling events in the Los Angeles area. i think this one sprout from bikesummer is not to be overlooked: calendar.bikeboom.com

bag culture

Eric Zo, the maker of legendary Zo bags is celebrating 20 years of bag making. retrospective of his work at lincart gallery. check it out if you happen to be around sanfran in september and send me your meditations about the role of bags in bike culture. i'm very intrigued by that subject as some of you might know.
congrats and respect to Mr.Z!

the voice of L.A

did i forget the sound? i mean. i ride and i ride, and i hear the sound of the street but it's so much more intense when i've been inside a car and then i ride the bike again. but the thing is, i haven't been in a car for a loooong time, thanks to the cycle gods, and now i feel habituated to the sound(s). oh, sound sense of marvel, come to me!
it will. i'm sure. but i do love when it comes to others, and they write it (mentioning the bike kitchen by the way), mr reed writes at the lavoice.org:

...Biking L.A. at night is an intimate romance with the streetscape. The smell of frying onions, the splash of tires through puddles from a carwash, the visceral WHOMP of passing boomcars ...

may he be blessed, and all of you who smell, feel and hear from your two wheeled vehicle-friends.

visitors from outer state

monday at the kitchen. one of those casual visitors walks in. this cool guy from chicago who works at the Working Bikes Coop. just checking out the place. kelly and i and vlad received him with some of that bici-warmth. it's cool how that interconnection happens. simple as that, and yet, complex informational procedures taking place. two wheeled empathy if you want.

two eyes, two wheels, two legs, two cogs

so i found this new site in spanish dedicated to fixed gear bikes: simplifica (simplify). from Spain. good translations, explanations and resources. i'll try to convince them to start using "piñon directo" instead of "piñon fijo" for fixed gear. who knows, it might work. but more important, cyclocitiZenship international is growing. here is the italian take on the subject, and more, the italian artistic take on the subject. more to come, i hope.

Here's a little secret....

House rules prohibit the parking of bicycles in the living room.
But, as the saying goes, when the cat's away, it's a regular rat day.
So of course, the first thing I did when the tomcat got in a taxi bound for LAX was wheel my other sweetheart into the living room. Later, I walked in and the light was so gorgeous coming through the wheels I just about fell over with joy.
Please don't tell....

Earlier that day I went on a Bikesummer ride to a community garden and parked my pony in the chicken coop. My bike is 36 years old and I'm pretty sure this is the closest it's been to chickens. I think it was pretty happy there... I was hoping I might come back to find an egg in my helmet, but no luck.

P.S.

Two things:

1. It's an openhouse, meaning "Gentlemen Welcome."

2. The rad flyer was designed by Miss Kim

bitchen_openhouse_flyer_web

bitchen_openhouse_flyer_web, originally uploaded by fireweed43.

We will have guest speakers Harmony Groves and Bicycle Bill Burton from the Arcata Bike Library. It's an openhouse in honor of Bikesummer AND an after hours Birthday Bash for Emily! YAAAYYY!

Holy Bicycle

Teach the SECRET TO LIFE and SUPERNATURAL IMMORTALITY as manifested in the GUIDING LIGHT of TRANSVELOSTANTIATION.

Help those still BLIND to the DIVINITY of BICYCLE. DELIVER the LOST SOUL who lives in DARKNESS without BICYCLE. BRING FORTH this most RELUCTANT RIDER to Pioneer Chicken at 9.30PM Friday June 10. Echo Park Blvd. @ Sunset.

Wear WHITE GARB ONLY in REVERENCE to our MOST HOLY BICYCLE.

No RIDAZZ left behind.
STAY TO THE RIGHT.

UFO powered by VBC. To come at MIDNIGHT.


(genius from the midnight ridazz mailing list)

Ruckus Revue

Ruckus Revue, originally uploaded by fireweed43.

Hope to see you there!

Benefit for the Bicycle Kitchen

Carl and Vladimir cooked this up for the Kitchen with this month's early rendition of the Old Time Ruckus Revue.

Hope to see you there!

LA BikeSummer 2005 : Who Knew What to Expect?

BikeSummer, more of an invitation than an event, is an opportunity for the hosting city to show off its bicycle culture. One week before the kick-off event and the people whom make up LA's bike culture have come through in extraordinary ways. BikeSummer comes at a crucial time for LA. While previous hosting cities have had an established bicycle infrastructure, LA's is still forming. Those of us who have worked together on the lead up projects had previously not known each other well; in a way BikeSummer has already been successful in coalescing our various subcultures. Recently I've been to almost half a dozen other cities, armed with newsletters and stickers, talking to other cyclists about LA and cycling. The response has been better than expected and I'm fortunate to be a part of such an amazing movement (cause it is whether we call it that or not!). LA's potential as a bike city is huge: wide, (mostly) flat roads, fantastic weather, and a plethora of resources for cyclists. The events for the month of June are as various as the city itself! From rides on the beach and in the nearby mountains, to art tours/shows and music events, and even scavenger hunts and centuries. Can't wait to be off the computer and on the streets with so many amazing people! My sincere thanks to everyone who has helped to make BikeSummer happen; you know who you are. Peace.

LA BikeSummer 2005 )

tornpants

tornpants, originally uploaded by fireweed43.

Perils of Fixie Ridin'

Luckily, I was riding on the left side of the street, kind of ambling along as I didn't have far to go between one point and a cup of coffee. When all of sudden, I felt this tug on my right leg and my foot and calf made this wierd circle pull down that was quite unnatural and painful. I hopped off in the middle of an intersection!!!, but luckily there were no fast cars and it took a quick pull to release the chain and chainrings' toothfull grip on my jeans. Apparently, I did not have my pants rolled up high enough. Thanks be to whoever I wasn't bombing down some hill.

Rudy's Barbershop & Baseman Show...

Small world I tell ya. I was getting my mullet chopped off at Rudy's Barbershop and over heard the stylist in the next chair talking about the Ridazz Prom ride. Fun meeting fellow Ridazz and Kitchen people around the city.

I rode over to check out the Baseman opening nite at the Billy Shire Gallery in Culver City. Saw three other bikes locked up next to mine. Anyone of you? Good show.

beer

beer, originally uploaded by fireweed43.

Kitchen folk love beer. 92 times

Auf Wierdersehn!

philips, originally uploaded by fireweed43.

crappy spelling. blue light.