Legume Ravioli

Rough Riders!

Chris Kostman, best known as the energy behind, AdventureCORPS, also runs a site/group/idea called Rough Riders, where the basic philosophy, best explained in the article Mountain bikes: Who Needs Them?, is that you don't need a fancy dual suspension mountain bike to ride amazing off-road trails.

Yesterday he organized a ride leaving from Brentwood into the Santa Monicas that was mostly off-road. I rode some familiar terrain, some amazing new terrain and added some new links connecting my road-bike mental map with my off-road mental map (which I guess should be just one map?). Thanks Chris!



The details of the ride are here. Not everyone did the whole ride. Even when it was down to Chris and I we had to cut it short due to the heat and it taking much longer than we had planned. With my ride to and from I got about 65 miles in. Is it possible that this year I have more miles on my cross bike than road bike? Uh-oh!

Thai market post Griffith Park run

I think those pockets were made for cock sauce and veggie ham.

Backbone trail

In mountain biking I see three possibilities:

1) Fast, fun technical

2) Brutal climbing, hard effort stuff

3) Epic transversing/exploration

Usually we do number one. It's what I love about off-roading. It's the bike equivalent of this (well, almost):

Yesterday we did all three when Brian, Max and I rode Backbone from Corral Canyon to Zuma/Edison and back on Backbone from Kanan-Dume. It's the western part of this epic geoladders route. That section of backbone between Corral Cyn and Latigo is orgasmic. Tight, technical, fast, shaded, packed. Lovely.

To make it extra epic we ran out of water and took a full 2 hours longer than anticipated. Had to walk that steep section of Edison, which is described as overgrown fire road turned single-track, but there's really nothing single-track about it. Above photo is from backbone just east of the Corral Canyon parking lot. Note ocean in background.

Driving down PCH in traffic we came upon a pack of 8 roadies sporting Midnight Ridazz jerseys. We slowed and I opened the van door to harrass/chat with them awhile. Here I've spent years promoting road riding to urban bike kids and we roll up on them in a motor vehicle! Very cool to see all of these connections being made and most importantly more people on bikes more often.

Slingshot Dakota

I draw so much energy from seeing people I care about do what they
love. Good friends Slingshot Dakota Thursday night at The Smell.

I hope you do too! That's one of the main drives for me to write this blog: the motivation factor of shared energy and good stories. And with that I'm off for this evening's adventures, on the third bike of the day (!).

DIY-ish

Like so many things in my life that I write about, DIY remains a constant struggle between who I am and who I want to be. I have plenty of reasons to reduce my consumption- mainly environmental and economical (personally and politically)- and like the great Charles Bukowski said, I hate being a buyer needing a seller. But I slack on the alternatives. I'm envious of both those who can purchase freely without hesitation and those who have a burning creativity inside that automatically translates into DIY. Me? I end up with piles of unsewn ripped jeans, socks years past their usefulness and anxiety over the few new things I actually have to go to the store and purchase for full price.

At our new house I finally got my room (somewhat) set up three weeks after moving in. I had searched for some furniture, but in not finding anything came up with this hanging system (my room doesn't have a closet) and desk with stuff I found in the house.


The rack is straight bars slid into 1-inch forks and hung with hooks. The desk is a closet door balanced on a filing cabinet and crates. It's somewhere between punk/DIY and 'post-college' chic. Most importantly it forced me to bridge the gap between what I want to see and what I do.

Palos Verdes loop

A classic road ride on a beautiful day. Max showed me some gems: low
traffic roads that meander through the hills.
The south bay beaches were BUMPIN. Then ran into some friends on a
group ride heading south on the beach bike path. I love random meetings!

~85 miles and home for lunch.

Bike night at the Hammer and Velocity

Last night my friend Lisa, as an artist in a current show, put on Bike Night at the Hammer, which included valet parking, free vegan food and a screening of Breaking Away (see trailer below). This sounds like a typical thing to do: bikes, food, watch a film about what we do. But this was in the freakin Hammer museum! I missed the group ride out (50+) and when I showed up there were over 100 bikes inside and hundreds of people chilling in the open courtyard.

I wasn't going to stay for the film, but am glad I did. The layered stories of how ones defines oneself, the challenges one faces in times of change, friendship, family, etc, etc. And in a theatre with 200+ amped cyclists. Thank you Lisa!

The kids at Orange 20 covered it on their blog so check that out too.

And coming up this weekend are the Velocity races. The flyer below is for all of the North American events, Los Angeles specific info can be found on our struggling website bikeswarm.org. The races are open to all cyclists, not just messengers. Ya dig?

Midnight Express ride

This past Saturday I did not ride the Mulholland Challenge as I had planned. Well, as I had hoped, but did not plan, therefore no ride. I can't believe it is mid-April already!
I love that ride and the beautiful course. I rode it in 2007 and it remains firmly planted in my memory as the ride that showed me the potential I have on a road bike. In other words, I thought past riding events with only the goal of finishing them. Pushing myself for several hours (7 to be exact) was novel and surprisingly fun. This year I just didn't have the miles in to make it worthwhile. Same with last year. Then I ran the checkpoint at the top of Decker Canyon where a SAG'ed rider took this sticker, literally.

Instead some friends and I rode the Midnight Express benefit ride for the Los Angeles Bicycle Coalition. Meeting at midnight at Union Station, the ride travels along the Arroyo-Seco to the Angeles Crest highway. I love this route and have always wanted to ride it at night (someone even described this ride as 'pretty much designed for you', which I do not disagree with...). From Clear Creek we descended Angeles Forest highway for a shortwhile before beginning the climb up to Mill Creek summit (4910ft). This section has two distinct memories for me. One is when Morgan rode back from the Tour of Two Forests double (12 hrs) in Santa Clarita with Megan, Max and I behind as a practice run for the 508. The other is when I rode 60 miles along this route to a 32-mile road race where I then had my ass handed to me.

Sunday morning (~2am) as I descended toward the 'bridge of awesomeness' in the dark and cold (~35 degrees) with Michael, I was thinking about how smart Alex was for having tyvex envelopes for us to slip under our jerseys and how I was towing the line, albeit it knowlingly, of comfort and warmth in only a jersey, vest and arm warmers, when I flatted. Ever think, 'Damn I'm so cold but as long as I keep moving I'll stay warm?' or 'My hands are so cold I can barely shift gears'? So there we were trying to fix my flat with shaking arms and stubby fingers. Miserable? A little. But I'm glad I had the experience so I can draw on it when I am in worse situations. Because really, it wasn't THAT bad.



A little while later we pedaled over the summit and had one final freezing descent to the Acton train station to wrap up the 50 miles. A few riders who had left early were huddled under some heat lamp-like lights (!?) and we all waited for breakfast. It was worth it. Thanks to the influence of Swarm! volunteers there were vegan pancakes, sausages and cinamon buns. Topped off with hot coffee. Yum. The plan was for the riders to get on the 7am metrolink train to Union Station. But on a beautiful morning, in the mountains, already dressed for cycling, why not ride back?

Michael and I took our time and cruised back up and over the two passes before each heading our respective ways. I got in a quick nap before we had people over at our new place for a chill Sunday potluck. Budge has some photos up here.

The hot dog and bible store

has inspirational messages with the fake meat.

The question is

What am I doing with my life that I don't mountain bike more often?

(Jack on a tech section of Gabrielino while Mike contemplates)

Spring

LA riding and other readings

Here's some stuff I've been checking out in the internerd.

Gary, who rode Feel My Legs this year, writes about Priuses and psuedo-environmentalism. There's a cool chart to calculate your MPG's by bike. Remember, it's high, but not infinite. And Joe Linton, who I ran into on the LA River trail on my way back from Echo Mountain the other day, recently wrote about the Not A Cornfield park and potential bikeway connections to the Arroyo-Seco. We are so close here in LA to having an awesome bike city. So close. This stuff gets me excited.

I was also doing some research on diet and climate impact and came across this amazing journal article (Food-Miles and the Relative Climate Impacts of Food Choices in the United States) where the authors conclude that eating a local omnivorous diet has more impact on the environment than a vegetarian diet regardless of distance the food has traveled. It's unfortunate that the majority of localvores still insist on eating meat. It's a lot like driving a prius. Even the United Nations has come around: Livestock a Major Threat to the Environment. The pdf for the report, Livestock's Long Shadow is here (pdf!).

BSNYC/RTMS sums it up succinctly in this post:

The people "going green" these days are the same people who did graffiti or experimented with homosexuality at their liberal arts college--they enjoy flirting with a lifestyle they don't understand in an environment where it's looked upon favorably, but as soon as it becomes difficult, unsafe or embarrassing they conveniently abandon it. Fortunately for them, you don't have to give up your car to "go green." Instead, you just need to buy a new one with marginally better gas mileage.

Echo Mountain

Knobbies back on the cross bike. Hit the San Gabriels out of the house
via Eagle Rock and the Rose bowl. Planned on just riding the fireroads
but the single track was calling me. "You're going to come all the way
out here and not ride anything technical? Who are you? I thought you
were cool."

Bottom half of Sunset ridge, Malliard canyon and El Prieto. All in
great condition. Photo from Echo mountain and a wall from the old hotel.

Hit Josef's grand opening for the Flying Pigeon bike shop (next to
the Bike Oven) on the way home. Ate so much food a woman asked me if I
was okay.

5 layers

This screw must of been sitting perfectly in a pothole. Went through
the tire, tire liner, both sides of the tube and even the rim strip.

This was a few weeks ago and since then I've done a number on this
wheel. I should know that entry-level road wheels aren't a good option
for commuting. Whoops.

Spring cleaning of bikes and bike parts definitely in order.

Feel My Legs, I'm a Racer

Riding bikes with friends and strangers, sharing my geographical knowledge of this fascinating city and ending it all with a wonderful BBQ/picnic in a beautiful park is a way I'd like to welcome Spring every year. The FML09 route map is here.

(the short sprint of a hill that is #5: Quintero. Echo Park)

FML09 went really well and I thank everyone who put work in:
Morgan, Paul and Jesse scoring, Kiecker running sweep, Max running/rocking the cargo bike, Jenny, Kathryn and Brendan handling the BBQ, Sasha and others for making great food and everyone else who jumped in and helped out when needed. And of course, all of the crazy people who showed up to ride, had a great attitude and showed appreciation. Thank you!

After congregating at the Silver Lake Farmers Market, about 50 us rolled out for the 6-mile cruise to Mt. Washington Dr, pictured above. This is a sweet, 1.4 mile climb with multiple switchbacks. It's not a taxing grade, but is consistent and gets steeper at the very top.

Unfortunately, not every rider got to experience the complete hill and all of its worthiness. A miscommunication between myself and the scorers put them at the wrong spot. Not the top! The lead pack got there, raced for it, then someone who knew it was not the top told everyone and another 'race' broke out for the real top. When I got up there (haha! I wasn't in the front pack...) we had to figure out how to score it. I made my decision after discussing it with those involved and said that if this hill made a difference in the end (remember there is only a first place) we would have a run-off. Most riders were not that concerned, but one guy threw a temper tantrum and stormed off. It bummed me out. Here is a race with no entry fee and no prizes, put on by volunteers. Is it really worth being a dick about? Multiple people apologized for him and said it is best not to have someone like that along for the ride anyway.

Next up: Eldred St (above). Some argue it is steeper than Fargo. It's steep, narrow and in poor condition. It took out a number of people. Between hills two and three we stopped at Cycle Way coffeeshop. Note to ride organizers: It takes a long ass time for a group of cyclists to use one restroom.

Hill number three is new for this year as well: Amethyst st in El Sereno. It's .60 miles and has varying degrees of steepness, width and road quality. It winds tightly through a small neighborhood and at the top looks like rural Central America. The crazy descent reinforces this. At this point the ride leaders are establishing themselves: Jack (who showed up to race despite the rumors), Brian (not on a mtb this year), E-rock (westside cyclocross guy) and Dean (on a sick IF cross bike with tubulars).


After a cruise through Lincoln Heights and Chinatown, we arrive in Echo Park for White Knoll, #4. This has been on FML each and every year. At 11am it was still overcast and the possibility of rain loomed. After this point the rides between hills become shorter and the reality of 10 steep hills in one morning hits.


Quintero is a .20 mile sprint of a hill (also the first photo in this post) and I went for it. Brian teasingly let me take the photo finish for third, which would prove to make a difference in the end.

Another classic climb. We start at the coffee shop on Echo Park before turning left onto this monster with its bricks and unevenness. Usually after we descend, Baxter (where the bus was stuck) is the next hill, but not this year. After descending we roll down Lake Shore to Berkeley into Silver Lake.

Micheletorena St, usually the last hill, is number 7 this year. It's only 0.60 miles, but it varies in steepness and is visually very intimidating. No turns and only up. It's like it will never end. No photos from this year, unfortunately. This year I linked up Micheletorena to Duane by going over the ridge to the reservoir. The temperatures are starting to rise, the sun is out and people are ready to be done. Then Duane hits as number 8. That little push up on Silver Lake is tough and then you see the massiveness of Duane. It's a busy area with the dog park and a line of cars had to wait patiently for the last of the tacking riders, but they were cool and one guy even clapped as he drove by. Sweet.


Thee Fargo as hill number 9 is cruel. But logistics ruled and that's where it ended up. It's gotten fame in the cycling world from the LA Wheelman hill climb and is a doozy. 32 percent?! Above the lead group hammers up.

The hammering wouldn't last as even the strongest riders had to tack near the top. Dean is killing it out in front while everyone else does a coordinated bike dance. It was great to watch these guys battle it out, as the points were still close. From here a short ride lead us to the back of Elysian Park and a 1.6 mile climb up Stadium Way to the glorious finish.

E-rock, Brian and Jack on the slight downhill before it picks up again.


Brian would end up taking the last hill, which left him and Jack in a tie! Oh no, exactly what I was worried about happening. We considered a one-on-one battle up this last hill, going back to Mt. Washington, a banana-eating contest, a dance off.....but it ends up both were too hungry to care and we all went to the BBQ and didn't think about it again. Awesome.

Chillin.

Kathryn and Brendan grill some big franks and veggie ham/pineapple kabobs.

Other friends arrived bringing food, beer and a kickball. Nothing like a group of adults playing kickball in spandex... It was great (except for the spandex part). I got to spend time with people I wish I saw more often and hang out with people I've only seen from a distance or in the internet. I appreciate the feedback I get and I really do feel honored that people come out to ride such a ridiculous event AND they have fun. Looking forward to the 5 year anniversary in 2010!

You can also check out Ingrid's photos and Gary's write up.

Donuts destroyed

30 minutes later.

(vegan) donut challenge

Jack about to eat 6 regular donuts, 6 specialty donuts and 1 apple
fritter in an hour.

Feel My Bus

Life is a lot like this bus that we spotted stuck on Baxter St during Feel My Legs. A bus has almost unlimited potential in how far it can take you and provides seemingly unlimited space to fill with your heart's desires (not to mention it as a ubiquitous symbol of education/knowledge). But then sometimes you want to go to places you probably should not. Even if you know this, the idea is intoxicating and the potential for growth being in a new, uncomfortable space is huge. Going where we shouldn't also has its risks. If it did not than it wouldn't be any different than our everyday lives. And then sometimes you get stuck on a steep incline.

Photo from Ingrid's Flickr. The bus made it up Baxter, from the steep Fargo St side, but is stuck on the ridge before the descent. In previous years we came up the road from the direction the bus is facing, but in 2009 I pulled this hill in order to include the new one in El Sereno.

What does this have to with a hill race? I'm super busy right now and going through some things I really, really wish I did not have to do, so I've been super slack on posting about Feel My Legs this year. Hopefully in the next couple days.

last FML update for 2009

Tomorrow!
(main page for Feel My Legs 2009)

Map of the hills for 2009 (blue is route to each hill, which is in red)

View Larger Map


After some consideration, we are not going to cancel tomorrow's event due to the forecast for sunny skies. Should a rainless FML still count? In addition to no rain, reigning champ, undefeated in 2006, 2007 and 2008, Jack Lindquist will not be riding. He suffered a head and shoulder injury on the velodrome two weeks ago and has not fully recovered. Rumor has it he will be spending the morning in the kitchen preparing 10,000 calories worth of vegan BBQ goodness, the amount of calories he would easily consume if he were to ride. Speaking of the BBQ/picnic, here is a map of where we will be in Elysian Park from 12-4:


View Larger Map

Of course if you are on the ride the last hill ends near here. Pass on the map to anyone meeting you for the eating and hanging out session (and ask them to bring vegan food!).

Lastly, I want to pass on some info from the Midnight Ridazz forum:
Westsidazz will be rolling out of Virginia Park (pico and 23rd) at 6.30am. BE ON TIME, we will leave without you.

See you tomorrow morning.