Got Bike? L.A.'s cup floweth over with local, independent bike shops

(Project Ride, Ojai, CA)

Don't fret if you didn't find an '83 peugeot road bike under your tree yesterday. In L.A., there's many opportunities to get two wheels between your legs. Whether you're looking for a customized anodized singlespeed (LA Brakeless) or a more practical multigeared approach to riding (Athena Cycles), there is a shop/owner with the expertise and merchandise to supply your every whim. Here's just a short list, by no means comprehensive, of locally owned and operated independent bike shops in Los Angeles. It came to me courtesy of the Los Angeles Critical Mass twitter feed:

Athena Cycles Studio City
Atomic Cycles Lake Balboa (read the quote on their website)
Bike Factory Sherman Oaks
Cycleworld Northridge
Echo Park Cycles Echo Park
El Maestro Downtown
Flying Pigeon Highland Park
LA Brakeless Mar Vista
Orange 20 Hel-Mel
Safety Cycle Hollywood

Take time to identify what's important for YOU. Where will you be riding most often? What are the road conditions of your favorite routes? Do you want versatility to do other things with your bike, touring, farmers market shopping, stylin' in echo park, riding dirt trails in the Santa Monica Mountains?

Always beware, you get what you pay for, whether buying online (ebay, Bikesdirect, Craigslist) or Big Chain Bike Shops or Locally Owned Bike Shops. The key is to inform yourself. Personally, I hate craigslist. It quickly becomes a full time job trying to get a decent bike there. Deals do come up, but they sell quick. If you have the patience and endurance, you can get a great used bike on Craigslist.

My advice is to make use of the city's bike co-ops, which arguably provide the most affordable, educational and fun way to get exactly the bike you want. An added bonus is that you'll learn how to repair and maintain a bike, invaluable knowledge when you need it most!

Bicycle Kitchen Hel-Mel
Bikerowave Mar Vista
Bike Oven Cypress Park
Valley Bikery Chatsworth

Build it yourself, for little money, and ride it everywhere. After a while, you'll know what you like and dislike, you may crash a few times or even get the bike stolen. Eventually, you'll be ready to get something more substantial, and hopefully you'll spend your money wisely.

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas!

Grinch of the Year poll includes LADOT's rising star

In a last minute surge of unpopularity, LADOT's Bicycle Coordinator Michele Mowery has earned herself a spot in the running to become L.A. Metblog's Grinch of the Year. It's been a tumultous month for Mowery, who saw her star take off following her comments at a recent City Council meeting:

BILL ROSENDAHL: Alta Planning is reportedly one of the finest consulting groups in the world for bike planning. How is it that the City of Los Angeles kicked off the Draft Bike Plan process with Alta but did not incorporate the robust Bike Plan process that Portland used/is using to develop their own Bike Plan? For example in Portland Alta maintained eleven working groups, and they used community bike rides to engage and survey.

MICHELLE MOWERY: With all due respect the City of Portland is 450,000 people. It’s a homogeneous community that is very white, and very progressive with respect to transportation. They have a trolley system that works very well, as well as their transit overall. We are a very diverse, disjointed city of 4 million people. They are 30 years ahead of us in the development of their, well, they’re not quite 30, they’re more like 20 years ahead of us in the development of their bikeway. So we’re a step behind Portland in what we’re trying to do. Granted, several of us would like to see a lot of changes in the city happen very quickly, but again we have a very diverse city with a lot of needs.

quote from Westside Bikeside

Ouch! Whatever Mowery intended to say, it sure sounded like she thinks L.A.'s diversity is a hindrance to a robust bike plan process. The anger and outrage came quick for Mowery, resulting in calls for her termination and more recently, a fake twitter account has been tweeting the thoughts of one Michelle Meowery, complete with cat ears and whiskers. While some view this as a childish response from the rascally wing of the L.A. cycling community, I believe it represents much more.

Due to her inarticulate response to a single question, Mowery catapulted herself into a figurehead position. She now embodies the City and LADOT's attitude of disinterest and outright disregard for the needs of cyclists in Los Angeles. She is the machine incarnate and the cyber rotten vegetables are coming fast and furious. I am sure Michelle Mowery is a nice enough person, who may be genuinely interested in promoting cycling in Los Angeles. But this is not about her. This is about a city bureaucracy, that time and again, drags its feet and fails to deliver meaningful and lasting improvements for cyclists. Whether she deserves it or not, Mowery is now the face of that bureaucracy.

Dear Mayor, This bike plan sucks!

SF gets Cyclovia events in 2010 and so far all Los Angeles cyclists get is a boot to the ass out of Griffith Park and a bullshit bike plan that promises nothing and proposes less lanes than previous plans, because we're not white enough?. The mayor (who admits Los Angeles needs to do more to encourage cycling) needs to hear from L.A. cyclists that this is not acceptable. Thankfully, the Los Angeles Bike Coalition makes it easy to send an email to the mayor outlining why the bike plan is in need of improvement. Some additional points you can bring up include:

L.A. deserves a cyclovia of our own

Given it's blatent disregard for cycling, the LADOT is not the agency to head Los Angeles' Bike Plan. Case in Point: They actually brag about installing bicycle friendly sewer grates. Gosh, I'm soo lucky to ride in L.A.!

Michelle Mowery needs to go, and an actual L.A. cyclist should replace her

Police should protect cyclists, and thus need education and ongoing (re)training. Police bias against cyclists is an ongoing problem in Los Angeles.

Push for adoption of the Cyclists Bill of Rights

Push for adoption of the Cyclist Anti-Harassment Ordinance

Push for continuing the 2010 LA Bike Tour on the morning of the Marathon as is TRADITION in Los Angeles.

Click the link below and ride safe!
http://la-bike.org/action_items/bike_plan_email_letter.html

A history lesson on your feet: Pro Keds Bobbito Royal Flash

Shoes perform many functions. They cover feet, protecting them from the elements, while adding grip and traction. In addition, shoes communicate cultural messages of status, wealth, education and clan. A 40,000 year old invention, shoes have evolved in shape, material and ergonomics, yet are still essentially unchanged from their humble origins.

That is, until now.

In early 2009, Bobbito García, famed New York sneaker historian and DJ, collaborated with Keds to bring humanity a shoe that distills 40,000 years of shoe technology into a styled, comfortable object, more talisman than footwear. The example you see above, in the Nugget Gold colorway, features luxe-suede lateral and vamp, contrasted by white accents of diagonal lines, heel and midsole. Adding to the rune-like quality of the shoe, cryptic messages are inscribed throughout, referencing the history of the man and the sneaker cult he embodies.

Donning a pair of Add On Royal Flash Mids, one feels as if your feet are enshrouded in the excitement, energy and passion of pickup games played on the basketball courts of Spanish Harlem 30 years ago. In the video below the Bobbito explains his transition to manhood was the day he got his first pair of Pro Keds, an experience he describes as becoming "true deal, true article." I cannot say it any better myself. While I don't share the cultural experiences of Bobbito, I do feel a kinship and solidarity with the vision he espouses of manhood, maturity and positivity that comes with wisdom and experience.

Affordable Carbon: Bottecchia CF-66Pro

For months I obsessed over a new bicycle, laying on the couch with my broken thumb in a cast, my 'beater' imprisoned in the garage, bent up and bloodied by my fall from grace. Craigslist promises unfullfilled by flake sellers and elusive size and condition requirements. I visited local bike shops, admiring the top brand flagship all that models that promised featherweight flickability, mountain crushing ascents and shock absorption technology derived from stealth bombers, with a price to match!

Those reasons and more led me one afternoon to press the "buy it now" button on an eBay listing for a "no name" bike sold by someone in Texas. I wasn't sure what I was actually buying, for the bike wasn't sold locally, and I had never seen or touched one personally. Bottecchia is a famed name in bicycling lore, but Wikipedia assured me that the name is perhaps the only thing it has in common with it's supposed ancestors:

Bottecchia USA assembles bicycles of Columbus aluminum and carbon frames manufactured in Taiwan. It is related to the long-time Italian bicycle manufacturer, Bottecchia, by an agreement to distribute bicycles in the USA under the Bottecchia USA name. The bicycles are sold by an eBay merchant in Houston, Texas.

Wow, why on earth was I buying a bike I never saw and never rode? How would a $1,200 all carbon bike actually perform and hold up over time? Was I being fooled into buying something too good to be true?

The answers are still being revealed, but after a couple hundred miles, I can happily report that I am the proud owner of a carbon bicycle made in Taiwan and decorated with stickers that read Bottecchia Sprint CF 66Pro. The bike is an exercise in compromise. For $1,200, you get an all carbon bike that's much heavier than the top brands that sell for 2-3 times as much. You also get excellent components, including Shimano Ultegra derailleurs front and rear, Cane Creek Dual Pivot brakes and Vuelta XRP Wheels with Aero Spokes.

Now I have to stop right there and confess I am not an expert in the latest cycling technology. There are certainly people out there that will say my bike is rubbish through and through, and that I wasted my money. I will tell you that every bike mechanic I've shown my bike to marvels at the price I paid, and each one says the same thing: " The components alone are worth $1,200."

As for the ride, simply put it's a dream. Coming from a 1980's steel Schwinn, this bike feels like a fast moving cloud hovering hither and tither, carrying me along for the ride. The transfer of energy is unlike anything I've ever experienced. I am sure that I am getting a taste of what a $3,000 bike feels like, and that's just fine with me. For now, this is a leap forward in ride comfort and speed, and I'm stoked with everything the bike is and is not. At a touch over 20 pounds, it weighs about the same as my friend's steel single speed, but it's a versatile, quick and capable road bike that can climb, descend and take me anywhere FAST.

You would think that customer service would be non-existent. Not so! After putting the bike together (using assembly instructions that are beyond basic and not at all specific to the actual bike), I discovered a frayed derailleur cable. After a couple emails and a few days, an envelope arrived from Texas with a replacement cable.

Time will tell how this bike holds up, but for now, it continues to bring a smile to my face, and beckons me daily to be ridden.

Essential Accessories: Bell, Computer & Light

Never ride alone. Homie got my back.

Poetry of Los Angeles

Last week, Heather and I attended a mixer hosted by the Academy of American Poets. Our gracious host was Geneva Overholser, director of USC's Annenberg School for Communication & Journalism. She warmly greeted us in her "new-york-esque" flat in the heart of a renewed and revitalized downtown L.A. We had no clue what kind of a treat we were in for. In addition to learning about what an important mission the Academy is pursuing throughout the country, we got to hear Dana Goodyear read poems about Los Angeles, my native land. She read a poem by Bertolt Brecht that felt as fresh and relevant today as it was in the 1940s. Dana also read a couple of her own poems, including one exploring the psychics that ply their trade in L.A. She then revealed her investigations into the psychic industry in Los Angeles, apparently run by two feuding families of Roma.

It was a magical experience spending a couple hours meeting incredibly interesting artists, writers, advocates, musicians, and of course poets, contributing to the cultural fabric of L.A. in so many ways. And the setting could not have been more inspiring, overlooking a downtown core that is rapidly turning into a vibrant and exciting place to live, work and be inspired within.

One more nugget: The academy recently published an innovative book of poetry that encourages you to tear out poems to share with friends, coworkers and relatives. Poem in Your Pocket: 200 Poems to Read and Carry.