Apropos of nothing.....

Just thought this was a lovely image, nada mas.

Sept. 15th. Roll With It.

For anyone who has ever contemplated riding a bike to work but been intimidated by one of many unknown challenges,
ROLL WITH IT on September 15th is your chance to try riding to work with your own PERONAL BIKE COACH -- for free.

Urban biking can seem prohibitively daunting to the uninitiated......

There are the obvious fears (traffic/safety), the practical concerns (how to plan a route, how to cart your stuff, do i hafta wear lycra?), to the basic mechanics (flat tire, chain slipped) and many other highly solvable mysteries to contend with --

But just try it once.

It feels....so....good........you might never go back.

ROLL WITH IT will help you realize your fantasies of an enjoyable, oil free commute by pairing you with a skilled urban cyclist - a bike buddy who will show you the ropes both to and from work, and answer all those questions you were afraid to ask.

HOW DO I GET ME A BIKE COACH?

Just contact the Roll With It folks, let them know you want a little one on one action with a commuter champ: RollWithItCommittee@gmail.com

Unless you have a really hairy, sketchy route, I'd hazard a guess that once you try riding to work, you'll get a taste - and want more. No gas pumps, no parking hassles, no road rage (this is huge), a sense of freedom, some good exercise....Shall I continue?

And really, you can't say you live in LA without at least one session with a personal trainer.

Go for it. Roll wid it.

RIDE-Arc

Heard this the other day on KCRW, and been meaning to check it out ever since:

RIDE-Arc, a nite ride originally based out of the Southern California Institute of Architecture(SCI-Arc). First Friday of every month, social spin with an archtechtural....spin.




Best described in language from the new website, clean and simple:

"...a monthly social bicycle ride in the cool evening air with a loose, vaguely referenced Architectural theme, mixed with some Urban Anthropology and your own personal sense of adventure and discovery. Awesome rides, good vibes taking you to places that shape the Los Angeles urban landscape."

Daryl Hannah: "get a bike and RIDE it"

You've probably seen her associated with green causes - driving a grease-powered El Camino, eating organic, treesitting with J. Butterfly and John Quigley in the South Central Farm....

She now has a pretty funky "vlog", (video log) called "dhlove life" --a great idea, and I bet she has a ton of fun creating it. She picks cool snippets of sustainable living - biodiesel, farmers markets, vegan "junk food", and now bike ridin'(!), and shoots short, hip segments, interviewing people doing their wild green thang.

This weeks vlog is all about bikes - why more Angelenos are riding them, (gas prices, gas prices, gas prices), what we love about them, and what all this business about "Critical Mass" is.

There's a few shots of chicks fixing bikes that I found particularly rad.

And perhaps my favorite quote on bikes: "How could you not have one? It's like having a toothbrush, you just hafta have one!"

Would that we all felt that way, we'd have fewer medical AND dental issues.....

Human powered car!

Yes, you read that right, the first street legal human powered car.

I've gotta acknowledge it: Americans love their cars.

There are those who will adapt to rising gas prices, the growing threat of climate change, visions of our children's children frying, etc. etc. by choosing pedal over guzzle......

And then there are those who will shrug and say, "Yeah, but, I heart my car, nuttin' gonna stop me."

Bueno. Bike helmets are nerdy, urban commuting can be crazy dangerous, hiking one pant leg up looks wicked lame....

So "what if we had a cool car with human/electric/fuel cell/hybrid power, paired blue tooth and cupholders? The HumanCar® FM-4 v2.0 will."

Granted, still not for everyone (there's that pesky part about needing to pedal, anathema to the lazy American) but this might just appeal to another niche of the population, those open to exercise but loathe to brave the bicycle. Every little bit helps.

For more info, questions, or to pre-order a people mover, contact Humancar.

Gives new meaning to the phrase, "back seat driver"......(Tip via Treehugger.)

Why don't cyclists ride their bikes?

I still don't get it.

Why don't cyclists use their bikes to get around? I get that non-bikers fear riding for saftey reasons, but I'm continuously baffled by the cycling community, a community I've come to love, and even pose at being a part of....

They excell on two wheels. They ride hours daily - face grueling hills, pain, agony - voluntarily. And treasure their 40-80 mile weekend rides, waking at ungodly hours to do so while normal people sleep in, have breakfast, read the paper, and do other "civilized" weekend things.

Yet in my experience, most of these super-athletes STILL drive the insignificant few miles when going out, running errands, etc.

Is it being able to listen to music in the car, not wanting to deal with being nicely dressed on a bike, not wanting to take the slick road bike out on the town (a cheapo beater will pay for itself ASAP w/ these gas prices!) or being sore from the killer morning ride?

Or is it that we really don't connect the impact our tiny little actions have on our surroundings? Or maybe we just really love our cars.....If the latter is true, joder. I'm stumped.

The "biking IS sexy" challenge

Fun idea, leave it to Treehugger..... Part of an ongoing effort to promote the "cool factor" of bikes, Treehugger challenges you to take live pix of cool, hip peeps riding bikes - celebs/influential types, etc. doing their thing on two wheels.

Lest this turn into cycle stalking, be chill about it, this being LA, people are bound to have high profile friends/aquaintances who ride, and would consent to a little photo opp.

As noted in an earlier TH post, bikes often get a bad rap in the media (cyclists wearing big dorky alien helmets, pants rolled up, or worse - socks pulled up over pants - you get the idea)....

While auto companies spend gazillions on creating slick, sexy ads, with beautiful slinky people having a fabulous time in their petro-machines. But really, what's so sexy about driving around in a foul, polluting guzzler?

Besides, riding bikes is WAY more fun, and much liklier to contribute to a sexy physique. So help the bike rep out, keep your camera handy, and be on the lookout for bad-ass bikers.

Team Riley in Tri Magazine!

This month's Triathlete Magazine cover model, Estella Warren, added cycling to her athletic reperetoire with the support, friendship, and stellar coaching of Riley. And proceeded to take 1st place in the celebrity division at the Malibu Triathlon!

Pretty hot.















Article gives some background on Estella's entry into triathlons, and the challenges of balancing career and training demands.

And Triathlete Mag not only let Christine and I join as the ringleaders of our "Bitchin Tuesdays" ride, they also printed a photo of me and Riley horsing around on my Xtracycle! Super cool of them.....

Issue should be out on shelves soon, check it out and ladies, come join for a ride some time!

Aug. 25 - Ride for Climate Justice

Coming on August 25th: The RIDE FOR CLIMATE JUSTICE.

WHAT: An awareness-raising ride taking place across the country, to highlight the movement for climate justice and the connection between climate change, catastrophic storms, and environmental racism.

WHEN: Aug. 25th, marking the 1 year anniversary of Katrina reaching hurricane strength.

WHO: Rising Tide North America, a network of radical climate campaigners (including relief workers from Louisiana to New England) working with Critical Mass groups around the country.

WHERE: Various locations in 16 cities around the US.

Haven't yet seen a listing for a local LA/Santa Monica ride, but fairly certain one is being organized.....so stay tuned. If not, we'll just have to get Team Riley and friends out for a little advocacy ride......

Bike workshops for chicks

I DEFINITELY need to check these out soon: two ongoing bike repair workshops run for and by women - the occasional male mechanic on hand.....

For someone who loves all-things-bike as much as I do, its embarrassing how little I know about how to deal with them. There's always been "someone else" who can fix stuff for me....generally, though not always, a dude.

But theres really no excuse, with these two relatively local resources, Bitchen Kitchen and The Bike Oven XX. Bike wrenching, tea/snacks, and chatting w/ other ladies who love bikes.

Okay, the "relatively" part is kinda my excuse, being car averse, its a bit of a haul to the east side. Wish there was a bike kitchen closer to Santa Monica....hmmm.....

Bike Oven XX meets every 2nd and 4th Saturday of the month, 1:00 - 4:00 Next one meets August 12th.

And Bitchen (gotta go just for the name!) meets every Monday nite at the Bicycle Kitchen, 6:30 - 9:30.

Oil Free Odyssey

This is amazing.....







A human powered journey (check the map above), crossing continents and oceans, from the artic to the arid, from the bicycle to the canoe, rowboat, wooden raft...to the ole two legs.

Voyage visionaries Tim Harvey and his team are traveling the world using forms of transport that don’t rely on fossil fouls, to raise awareness about climate change. The website is replete with incredible photos and humorous, harrowing stories about their ongoing adventures - definitely worth a visit:

"It began as a dream to adventure by zero-emission means: Vancouver to Moscow by human power. The dream then grew - to circle the world without fossil fuels. It is taking over two years.... on a route across five continents and two oceans....an epic of frostbite, blizzards, bandits and high seas storms. Now on the home stretch, journalist-filmmaker Tim Harvey brings you along as he slogs for a cause - a greener future where all of us burn fewer fossil fuels."

And Tim’s ride is a fully loaded Xtracycle!

I was so inspired by the site that I dropped a line to Tim, curious to hear if they would pass through Los Angeles, and if so, might we do a little awareness raising here? Got a super nice reply – a jaunt through LA sometime in September just might work, esp. if there were opportunities for spreading the word.

So going to put this out to the sustainable transport community here, see if we can entice these green adventurers to our urban jungle…..

My bike lost weight!

A self-indulgent post here: just picked up my NEW BIKE yesterday, thrilled to no end. It's the most beautiful little sleek creature I've ever seen....Thanks to the incredible generosity of my biker friends - Riley, Tim, Jay, and Keii - who donated their super nice extra parts and time to the "lighter bike for Anna" cause.



Here I am towing it home from Helen's on the back of my Xtracycle, blurry with bliss....








And here I am worshiping it.....was so excited I didn't even notice the lack of pedals, so must wait one more day to try it out, oops.

Pedi cabs gettin' fresh

Went on an impromptu San Diego voyage Sat. nite with my friend Wendy and her pet guts sidekick.

And was stunned by the amount of pedi-cabbers in town. We were having cocktails at a bar downtown, streets were PACKED, and I started noticing all these hot young bike cabbies toting people around.....

Thought it was the coolest thing, and chatted with a few of them, only to hear their sad woes - f*&%$ing hard work, little pay, and much competition.

Like this kid here, from the Czech Republic, lamented there being more bike cabs than passengers some times.

Which dampened my short lived fantasy of starting a bike cab service in LA a bit. Still, kinda cool, reminded me of when pedicabs had their brief glory here.

Company trades Ads for Bikes

One of the worlds largest outdoor advertising companies JC Decaux, launches an interesting green scheme, providing cities with specially adapted bikes and racks in exchange for rights to more sites to place their outdoor ads.

Bikes are computerized and tracked - people check 'em out with credit cards - free for 1st half hour - most urban trips tend to be 1/2 hour or less. And are scanned once re-parked for tire pressure, lights, brakes and gears.

Post from Treehugger, posing question: "A win win situation or pact with the devil?"

It sounds like a good deal....but then I don't know much about the company or nature of their ads.

The self-register bike system sounds like a VERY cool thing, a way to institute a free city bike that discourages theft.

New Site for Midnight Ridazz

Earlier post on my virgin Midnight Ride. Groups been steadily gaining momentum, now so legit they have their own site.

Gotta get a bitchin' posse to join next time, yeah!

Picture's worth a thousand words.....

View of the 10 freeway heading east at around 7:00 p.m. This is why I choose bike over car whenever humanly possible. Can't imagine dealing with this sorta road rage every day, count my blessings that I have the option to opt out......

Bike Love

Photo from a recent Xtracycle adventure to the Santa Monica Pier's Twilight Dance Series.


And the girls that belong to the Xtracreatures......

Win a FREE BIKE!!!

Lack of a bicycle can be a pretty significant obstacle to, well, riding one. If that's stopping you, enter Bicycle Magazine's Biketown Program to win a free "around town" bike.

To enter: fill out the entry form here and write a little essay (don't sweat it, only 50 words or less), on how/why owning a bike would change your life.

Editors choose the best 50, and give away free bikes - yours to keep forever! Bikes are donated by some top notch companies - Giant, Fuji, Shimano, Electra.....They'll check in with the winners for a few months after the giveaway to see how you're doing with it, and will feature a few winners in their magazine. See what some past winners have to say about their BikeTown adventures.

Bitchin'spinners on the rise

Have met a few awesome rabble rouser chicks recently, Siel (aka Green LA Girl) and Summer, both femme-forces in the sustainability world; both taking up the sustainable transport challenge with a vengeance.

We recently biked to a few eco-events - Green Drinks, and a showing of "Who Killed the Electric Car", which lead to a few discussons about bike commuting, the evils of oil, the need for better/easier/sexier alternatives, and the urgency of it all.....the film is hard hitting - highly recommended.

Both bitchin'spinners have been blogging about these recent bike adventures, and inviting their respective networks to get involved. Summer offers some "out on the town w/ bikes" tips, and Siel started a kick ass series on "de-caring", check it out and voice your opinion, a cyber-critical mass of sorts.

How ARE we doing with the local bike scene in LA? Next post, a comparison of LA vs. other metropolitan areas on bike friendliness....and how to get involved on the home front.

mapquest for bikers

My friend Siel (aka Green LA Girl) has been working on "de-car-ing", and documenting her progress in cutting back on the ole petro-guzzler.

Being newish to the bike commuting world, she wondered if a night bike ride to LA Green Drinks would be possible on streets with bike lanes. And what our route would be either way.

So I looked it up on Bike Metro, a tool for plotting bike routes. It works like mapquest, you enter your destination, your ability level, hill tolerance, and it gives you a suggested route.

I've used it to get to places on the east side - Hollywood, Echo Park, even Studio City. On the whole it's been pretty reliable, and I've found myself mainly on streets with bike lanes. Not sure if this is a criteria, or how one even finds out which streets have bike lanes, there must be a list somewhere.....

Bike lanes or no, drivers can be pretty clueless in terms of bike awareness. Though it doesn't stop me from commuting, and though tooling around Santa Monica is fairly safe, its still an issue - we really need more driver-awareness about sharing the road.