Search Term – Change
… when the Amgen Tour of California comes through town. Thanks to everyone that came out to the GSC / TDT / RAD ride up the 2 this morning and thanks to Amgen for bringing this race through some of the most scenic roads in California! Expect a full write-up soon!
May 8th will bring about the Los Angeles Bicycle Festival, which just launched a Kickstarter page. Here’s a bit of information:
“We believe that Los Angeles is a beautiful, diverse city that has the ability to solve big problems while being a healthy and fun place for all. Yet riding a bike in Los Angeles is still seen as a crazy thing.
People in Southern California love theme parks, so we’ve set out to create a one-day ‘Bicycle Disneyland’ where families can wander through the different ‘Lands’ to explore bikes, resources, ride groups and nonprofits. Like speed dating! Get to know the kind of bikes that excite you and immediately connect to all the knowledge and community needed to get started or get more active no matter where in SoCal you live. Sure, it’s probably the bike enthusiast that will get the tickets, but with awesome food, music and entertainment – everyone will enjoy a great day.
For one day you’ll see all kinds of bicycle lovers – old, young, road, track or dirt, experienced and inexperienced alongside families celebrating Mother’s Day in front of LA City Hall. “
Tomorrow (or today, depending on when you read this!), Golden Saddle and the Radavist are doing a group ride to kick off the launch of the All-City Log Lady SSMTB. The ride will be MTB and Cyclocross friendly! Just bring knobby tires.
We’ll be meeting at the parking lot at the corner of Windsor Ave and Ventura St in Pasadena at 4PM. From there, we’ll pedal up Fern Truck Trail to what’s referred to as “Brown Mtn Saddle.” From there, we’ll regroup and watch the sunset. Bring your own beverage, you’ll get thirsty after that climb. From there, we’ll all cruise back downhill under a full moon.
Lights and helmet are a must! Come one, come all!!! This is going to be AMAZING!
“But what most people don’t realize is that way back in 1900, Los Angeles began construction on the world’s first bike highway. During this bike-crazed era, cities across the US built the earliest precursors to today’s protected bike lanes — and the country as a whole was briefly at the forefront of global bicycle infrastructure.”
Check out more of this interesting historical story at Vox!
But it is! We got a lot of rain this past week from our friend El Niño, which translated to snow from around 3,000′ and up. Now, LA doesn’t get snow that often, much less this much, especially in our drought conditions. This morning we decided to see just how much was dumped around 6,000′ up in the Angeles National Forest and were not surprised! More on this tomorrow.
I hope you had a great weekend!
Our friends at PDF put together an East Los Angeles City Guide with the help of Jen Abercrombie. It’s got everything you’d need to get your bearings straight when visiting our side of LA. Head to PDF to check it out!
Tomorrow, at 5pm is the grand opening of the Cub House, Team Dream and Ringtail‘s flagship store in South Pasadena. To kick the celebration off early, we’re doing a group ride up to Mt. Disappointment that leaves the shop at 12 noon and makes it back in time for the festivities.
On site, 100 Tacos will be there, serving tacos and Bicycle Coffee LA will be supplying coffee. Roll through to check out the shop and stay for the good times.
Currently the Cub House stocks products from:
@teamdreamteam @ridewithringtail @7meshinc @swrve_la @jonesville @goldensaddlecyclery @theathletic @machinesforfreedom @fyxo @mudfootismurder
The Cub House Grand Opening Party
Saturday, December 5th
5pm – ?
12pm noon group ride up to Mt Disappointment
1412 El Centro St
South Pasadena 91030
Tomorrow, Bikes vs Cars lands in Los Angeles!
“Bikes vs Cars depicts a global crisis that we all deep down know we need to talk about: climate, earth’s resources, cities where the entire surface is consumed by the car, an ever-growing, dirty, noisy traffic chaos. The bike is a great tool for change, but the powerful interests who gain from the private car invest billions each year in lobbying and advertising to protect their business. In the film we meet activists and thinkers who are fighting for better cities, who refuse to stop riding despite the increasing number of people killed in traffic.”
Golden Saddle Happy Hour at 5-6pm
Ride hosted by the Bicycle Kitchen along the LA River Path will leave at 6pm
Reserve your tickets at Bikes vs Cars!
Leave it to the Sleepers to document the haps in town including Cranksgiving, a food drive race thrown by the U Lock Mob (for the past 15 years!) with proceeds donated to Para Los Ninos.
Does your city throw a Cranksgiving? Got a video? Share it in the comments!
Ten years, ten hills, ten attempts at proving yourself to your peers that you’re a fast mofo. Or just an excuse to wake up at 6:30am on a Sunday to ride bikes up the steepest hills in Los Angeles with a bunch of like-minded individuals. I’ve heard of this event before. Year after year, it’s organized by Matt Ruscigno, an ex-BMXr from the NorthEast, which is where the S&M bikes reference comes from: “Feel My Legs I’m a Racer…”
The human condition of putting oneself through excruciating pain for personal betterment is something that Matt taps into with Feel My Legs. You don’t have to win the day’s ten climbs to feel a sense of accomplishment. In fact, for many of the racers, just making it up Fargo Street (the steepest residential street in California) was enough.
My morning began with coffee and a scone. Ok, two scones. Then I hopped on my touring bike, loaded up my camera equipment and went to the start of the event. I could only tag along for the first five climbs but I pretty good grasp on the event…
Here’s a great video about what cycling is to the women of Los Angeles:
“For the longest time I wanted to do a piece on women’s cycling and got carried away with work, a cycling related accident and just life. The other day I was looking through my feed on Facebook and came across Asia’s post and that gave me the nudge I needed to make the video. I was hoping to get some interviews to feature on the video but Instead I let their riding do all the talking.
Special thanks to Mobbin’ Monday, OC Brakeless and Wolfpack Hustle (Don) for continually supporting
women’s cycling.”
Photos by Kyle Kelley
If you’re in LA and are lookin to get your hair cut, make sure you check out Vinny’s Barber Shop. Why? Because Omar is a righteous dude. Head over to the All-City blog to read up on this stallion of a man and see more of Kyle’s photos!
Nice one, Ace!
Don’t miss this event and don’t forget your extra tubes. TIALTNGO at Mudfoot. That’s another great poster design Geoff!
Los Angeles’ Superdomestik has recently relaunched their brand to include 6 new kits, three of which are homages to the looming mountains that tower over the Los Angeles skyline: Mt. Wilson, Mt. Baldy and Mt. Disappointment. Head over to Superdomestik to see more information on pre-ordering.
All-City’s Junk Yard Dog, or JYD for short, is a do-all, hobo trail cuttin’, curb jibbin, bar or delivery bike, built with burliness in mind. I’ve seen various permutations of this bike floating around in my travels. Some people build it up as a delivery bike with a porteur rack, others a drop-bar monster cross like in Kyle’s case.
Kyle’s had this frameset for a while now and the potential build always centered around the Salsa Woodchipper 2 bar. Those bars, paired with White Industries, Paul Mini Motos and Bruce Gordon Rock n Road tires results in one mean, yet fun around town bike.
On my last day in Los Angeles, I went on a ride with Kyle (who modeled the new All-City Big Gulp Kit) as we left from our favorite pre-ride spot, Intelli Coffee on Sunset and made our way through bum trails and city overlooks.
Check out photos of the quick jaunt as well as the JYD bike-check in the Gallery!
Every Wednesday, a group of coffee enthusiasts wake up with the sun, pack their camping coffee setups on their bikes and meet in a small park on the LA river. There’s no requisite, just make coffee, chat and partake in the occasional donut.
Errin Vasquez organizes this gathering, which I first found out about on Instagram and this week, I got to hang out with this growing meeting at the Sunnynook River Park. Along with capturing the general vibes, I followed Jesse Carmody‘s brewing technique and shot photos of Errin’s Box Dog Bikes Pelican randonneur bike.
Here’s some more of that community building the dudes at Golden Saddle were talking about in that last video. Amoeba Hollywood will have two new GSC shirts for sale tomorrow.
“Bike riding is awesome: no released pollutants, one less car on the road, it’s good for your community and good for YOU. Amoeba Hollywood and Amoeba San Francisco are celebrating bike culture in partnership with the Bicycle Coalitions of L.A. & S.F. and want you to join us Sunday, August 17 12-5pm. Free treats, DJs, and a chance to win cool bike gear and prizes—all while raising funds for the Coalitions!”
Check out more at Amoeba and thanks for the heads, Tracko!
Seriously, support your local record shop, buy vinyl, not MP3s!
