This thread is for people who aren't suckers who buy cars.

[skelephone]

Did the Ride of Silence today in LA–apparently this was the day for protesting against car infrastructure killing and injuring cyclists. The event started at Re:Ciclos which is a charitable organization that uses old bikes to build bucket bikes and other cargo bikes for people who need them for transporting groceries and other life shit. They teach teens to weld the bikes together and stuff. It’s cool.

The event started with some speakers, including a speaker whose partner, a bike messenger, was killed in LA several years ago. It was quick but good speeches. They gave us little banners with block stamp letters to pin on our backs. We also got to see this big trailer thing they’d decked out with banners. It was lit from the inside which meant it remained very readable by passing cars into the night.

The ride was ten miles in a perfect rectangle around and through northern Koreatown/Hollywood and some neighboring areas. We went at a moderate regular-person biking-for-transportation pace which ranged around 9-12 mph and this fucking enraged some of the cars around us. At one point a car tried to push into the group, revved its engine, then accelerated into the opposing traffic lane to get around us. This is straight up evil behavior because every single road we used had parallel streets that cars easily could have used if they were too frustrated to wait behind us! We were also at one point followed by a car that began honking so insistently and aggressively that the ride organizers took it as a potential threat and had us clear the road.

I now better understand how the pace of nighttime group rides is a defense mechanism–they usually go a bit faster than I tend to go when I’m doing a lazy commute. This ride was deliberately slower than Critical Mass and the others I’ve done… and as a result these cars were pretty eager to prove our point for us, lmao.

I think the stat I saw is that 85% of cyclist deaths in LA occur on streets with no bike lanes. Makes me even madder that the Culver City council wants to diminish our protected lane network. After the ride we actually went back to culver and got off the train there to bike (a not insignificant number of miles) home and found three other people from the Ride of Silence disembarking the train at the same time as us. It was all their first time doing this too. So I guess we are not the only Culver City bike network users mad enough about all this shit to step up our bike activism.

Personally I am now at the strength level where doing 15-25 miles a day is no big deal to me. Did around 20 yesterday too. Soon I will be more than strong enough to bike to San Diego… my dream is coming true. Unfortunately this also means my legs are getting so big that none of my old shorts fit me anymore

[spacetown]

i love hearing your stories about all the bike stuff you do and i’m excited to hear about your trip down to san diego when you do it!

i think we’re going to have our own ride of silence down here in san diego pretty soon? i’m not sure when it is or if i’ll be able to participate but i’ll do it if i can

i also remember when i started riding and actually took the time to look at my legs! it’s weird how defined they get just from riding around on bikes

it was bike to anywhere day here in san diego so i took the opportunity to take ash to school on our ebike for the first time! he’s been practicing on the kid’s bike seat for a while so i figured it was as good a time as any to try it. he did really well! it’s just an awkward trip because his school is in hillcrest but to get to hillcrest from north park you have to go through this big canyon dividing balboa park OR go up a really big hill without any real bike lanes. so i went through the canyon and it was fine, but i think i’ll just do it in the mornings because it does get pretty busy in the afternoon. then i switched bikes and got coffee

i also signed up for an intro session to the velodrome across the street, so if i stop posting in 6 months it’s because i will have become a VERY INTENSE TRACK BIKE RACER

[Felix]

@skelephone

Unfortunately this also means my legs are getting so big that none of my old shorts fit me anymore

this happened to me too and it’s real annoying

[skelephone]

You must report to us what it’s like to use a velodrome!!! I have been thinking of going to observe at a velodrome in the LA area… there is one around here that also does a kind of bike swap meet thing. I am nowhere near good enough in the cardio department to do track bike shit but I do want to hear about what it is like!

Very cool of you to bike your kid to school!! Are you using one of those e-cargo-bikes with the plank to sit on in back? Or a seat on the top tube?

[skelephone]

I just learned about a bike ride the week after next that goes into drainage canals and tunnels underground in Los Angeles… oh my god I want to do this so badly but I do not know if I’m brave enough… I think I’m going to do it but it’s such a bad idea… I’m going to get so many diseases if I do this, and I will definitely need to bring more repair tools with me than normal lmao

LA Infrastructure Inspections (@infrastructure.la) • Instagram photos and videos

[spacetown]

i’ve become obsessed with mini velos but they’re only popular in asia so it’s impossible to find info on them in english outside of the like three or so that are manufactured in the USA

i like desperately would want one but unless like @Rudie or someone is willing to work with me for probably months to arrange whatever the hell the import process is i’ll just have to look at folding bikes like everyone else

[Felix]

my foldy finally died after a decade and a half (rear axle wore through) so I got one of these just to try something different: Spectral:ON CF 7 | CANYON US

it rules

[km]

I’ve long been curious how a mid drive compares to a hub motor

[skelephone]

I also hear amazing things about minivelos… I think in the US a lot of the people who would otherwise get one are getting a Brompton. The people who have them seem to love them desperately so that may be something to look into, even though it’s not quite the same thing

[spacetown]

i know it’s not the most practical thing but i would absolutely love drop bars on a brompton and i have no idea why

[skelephone]

everyone’s always saying “they go so fast!” so if you had drop bars on them they’d probably go even faster obviously

I know there is a brompton race series with some videos on youtube… wonder if anyone in those videos has drops, haha

[skelephone]

I did it. I did the underground ride. Maybe ten miles underground from Beverly Hills to a little exposed section in Century City then back underground to Ballona Creek. The second tunnel had a party set up in it by the organizers with apple pie and champagne. They shot a flare gun off in the tunnel. Peak life experience

The water was cold cold cold and extremely clear and clean at the start, because it was coming straight out of a canyon park. Much murkier further south. We were in about an inch of water most of the time… constant spraying everywhere until we were all soaked. I had plastic bags in my shoes but they didn’t help much. I was completely covered in mud and I think each of my feet bags were completely filed after about an hour in the tunnels.

I am so tired and sore but I would do it again. Hardest part was the full speed charge uphill to the start of the ride. It almost KOed me! This was not a chill pace, it was one of those extremely bikebrained high speed group rides I usually avoid out of fear of being dropped. I was going fully on adrenaline and fear of being left behind and missing out and that powered me uphill to the start… it was a lot faster uphill than I like to go, haha.

There was an exposed section which was so overgrown in vines it looked like a videogame or something. Ducks and two inch mats of algae everywhere. The bottom of the concrete channel was so worn away and rocky after years of use that it felt like biking down a stony riverbed. Wildest moment was when we hit the next tunnel section after that overgrown river section, it was filled with HOT humid air that smelled powerfully of beach and fogged up both my glasses instantly. I was riding blind into a giant square tunnel the size of a semi truck. There were apparently bats everywhere but I couldn’t even see em haha!

[hellojed]

During the moped rally we got to watch PedalPalooza, which has like 5000 bike riders? I noticed some cyclists in a group ride, and 10 minutes later they were still coming! A few of them stopped by our party spot and hung out, including this guy on a Tall Bike

[hellojed]

I always say I’m going to write up about my moped rally bullshit and then I never do, I think I have the draft from last year’s rally lying around somewhere.

Anyway this year is portland’s first since the pandemic. and their last one was really lousy: They had multiple rides on the same day, there was a miscommunication about a bar tab and the bar was just giving out alcohol for free and it was a running joke, and the end spot for the Saturday ride had no support so several of our members stepped up and brought amenities and cleaned up afterward.

This year they were incredibly relentless with being on time, something that never happens at a rally. No ride left late, and every stop was too quick to relax. I’ve been to five of these and every one is different, but most of the time there’s a relaxed laziness to the rides - not so this time.

Before I left I was going to do some quick maintenance on my Puch maxi, the previous week I had set the timing and put on new braking controls after a previous crash broke the ones on it. The “old” ones were made in Germany, but the “new” ones had “West Germany” stamped on them. The last thing I was going to do was swap out the transmission oil. As I was putting the drain bolt back in it started to tighten…then loosen…then it kept going, and I was like “uh oh”. Turns out the drain cracked in half so it wouldn’t seal anymore, and that meant that right before I was about to put my bike in the car and drive to portland, I was out of a bike for the weekend. Well, I had my tomos, which I had taken out of service because I noticed some rubbing on the tires from the fender and wanted to get a new one, but then I was like “fuck it we ball” and I pulled it out. I swapped out the transmission fluid and threw it in the back of my Honda Fit, then pointed the car south.

Traffic from Seattle to Portland took 5 hours, instead of the 2:45 it usually is, thanks to stop and go traffic from Seattle to Lacey. it took 3 hours to get to Olympia, when the traffic finally cleared. I was going nuts, I kept thinking “cars are terrible”. A member of our club rode down to portland on one of his mopeds, a ride that took 6 hours, and he got there before us. and I was like “maybe I should have done that”.

Once I got to the air bnb I decompressed and got the bike unloaded, people started to trickle in and unload. The ride was going to “start” at 7:30, and I had gotten there at 6 and spent an hour getting ready, I figured we could ride to the start spot and eat a real meal and get a beer before the friday ride, per tradition.

But no, when I arrived and got my rally pack the Puddle Cutters were insisting we were going to start at 7:30 on the dot, I was incredibly hungry and ordered food anyway. 15 minutes later came the 15 minute warning to start, I couldn’t believe it. They were running the rally like a damn ship. I ran in to cancel my food order, but when I did the server came out right away with my burger, which I spent the next 15 minutes wolfing down since I had spent 5 hours in the car.

Friday night’s ride at a moped rally is pretty magical, because it’s pretty much everybody before anyone drops out or breaks down. It’s the most chaotic and the fastest. People stop and wave, and the entire time I’m riding around I’m like “wow, I forgot portland just had places you could get brunch at and hang out at”. We go around a big roundabout for maybe 5 minutes? Then a gas stop, which I don’t have to do because I always try to gas up before a ride. The ride continues until Rocky Butte, the road to which I’ve walked before, so it was really fun to blast up it. Then we go all the way to the top of the park, bikes and all, as I try to keep mine upright going up the steep rocky path.

It was golden hour at the top, and I was like “wow I didn’t know Portland was beautiful like this”. we hang out for a bit before, yet again, the ride continues. On road the way down from Rocky Butte I hit a patch of dirt and feel my bike slide out for a moment, getting flashbacks to my last wreck and hoping nothing like that happens this time.

On a short moped ride like this you try to keep pace with the lead bikes because if the group gets too spread out there aren’t enough people around to block intersections, the other problem is that there are bikes slower than yours that block you in, so it’s a game of finding a good time to pass and then sending it.

However there’s one point that traffic doesn’t stop for our group, and it’s Portland’s fucking trolly train, which sails through the intersection right in front of me and some other riders. This cuts off the ride, but we continue until ahead the road is blocked off with police tape? And then our group goes in a circle. My friend opens his helmet and lights a cigarrete while riding going “i give up”. Eventually we make our way to the end spot, but not before passing a burned up car that hit a building the other day after hitting a median at 100 mph???

The end spot is a garage, they have a kiddy pool full of beer, but no ice! Augh! They have the 2nd grossest portapotty I’ll encounter this weekend, but whatever, I meet with people and say hi. There’s a fella from Austria at the rally! Moped culture is alive in Europe, but you generally can’t ride a modified moped on the streets like here, so it’s a pretty big experience for someone coming to the US. There’s a dance floor and DJ and I dance to some New Order. Someone has a paddle, in the rally pack is a bingo card and you can get a stamp with some impact play, and despite it being kind of mild it actually kinda hurt lmao.

After a while I get tired and we go to the air bnb, and we try to find something to watch so I suggest “Streets Of Fire” on archive dot org. It’s 1am so I go to fucking bed after it’s over.

[hellojed]

SATURDAY

Turns out the windows in the Air BnB face Eastward, and I set up my air mattress in front of the eastern exposure, so at 6:14am the sunlight blazes into my room and I wake up against my will. I cover my head with a shirt to black things out and snooze a little longer. Our AirBNB only has beer in the fridge, so it’s brunch time. The ride is supposed to leave at 1:30, it’s about 11 or so, we go to a place called The Radio Room and it’s…very swanky? the coffee is great, the breakfast isn’t $25 for something mediocre. I packed for the entire day before leaving, figuring we won’t have time for another AirBnB stop.

We head down to St Johns, all the way on the ass-end of Portland IMO, every time i’m in portland it feels like it takes a million years to get to St Johns. Sabatinos is in a new spot, and it’s a Royal Enfield dealership now too. I borrow an air machine to pump my tires up and buy some gloves, since mine are blown out from the last crash. The ride is leaving…early! 1 instead of 1:30! There’s no time for me to go to the 7-11 and get a bottle of water and snacks for the coming 90 miler. I figure I’ll get some at the first gas stop…

Ride starts and we toodle through downtown, and I notice my bike is getting really hot. 350 is the danger zone because 400 is when aluminum melts and the bike might seize. The stop and go traffic makes mine go up to 350, and I get concerned but figure it’ll cool down when we get out of the city.

At our first gas stop and it’s the most pathetic gas station I’ve ever seen. They have two coolers. I get a bottle of water that will fall off my bike later. I gas up, and because these mopeds basically sip gas and have gallon sized tanks one generous person can fill up multiple bikes for under $20. A kindly puddle cutter member gives me a splash of 2 stroke oil (as the gas station has none) and we head off.

Except…I forgot to turn the petcock on and as the ride surges up hill my bike dies because it runs out of gas, and I can’t turn it and have the engine restart, I have to stop. But I can’t pull over because people are at me from all sides at full speed, so I stop in the middle of the road and put it on the center stand to restart the bike. Onward through the Portland hills. I remembered this road from a sunday ride from my first moped rally in Portland, its a nice ride, and we again go through the graveyard.

We head south, and on these rides you get to really see a city and “go deep” into unknown territory on a machine you aren’t sure is going to make it. As we ride East along the Clacksman river my bike starts to get really hot going uphill, and then I remember hearing someone saying this 90 mile ride was made to “break bikes” while looking at the elevation profile of the ride, seeing some massive uphills ahead. My bike goes up to 350…360…380. It kisses 390+ and I show my friend at a stop (my temp gauge has a “max temp” display so you can see your high score). Every one of these hills I half throttle the bike hoping that holding it back will save it, while I watch the temp gauge go into the danger zone, then breathe a sigh of relief as we go down hills and the bike “cools off” to around 350.

The long country roads make the ride really stretch out, as I pass the slower bikes I find myself by myself. Not caught up yet to the faster bikes, but leaving the slower bikes in the dust. It’s nice, but I have my eyes on the temp gauge the entire time.

And then there’s a huge hill, and my bike heats up again, and as I reach the top of the hill it crests 400. Then 405…419…then it cools off. I realize that at half throttle the bike it running really lean, but I have it half throttled because I get more response and feel a slight loss of power at Wide Open Throttle, however, I realize that WOT = more gas. Gas cools down a bike. So…I full throttle it the entire way. I am climbing hills and the bike is cooling off. I feel a lot better. then we get a really good view of Mt Hood. And it’s so beautiful that I’m feeling like life is really great and start to cry, but I can’t stop and wipe my tears so I force myself to stop crying!

We get to the next stop and I have just enough time to fill up again, buy some 2 stroke oil, some snacks, and a bottle of water. Then the ride starts to leave and I’m like “come on man”, you don’t know how long the breaks will be, but they’re over before I’m ready to go. I’m pissed because my bike’s overheating, I don’t have 2 stroke, the last gas stop had nothing, and we’re running at a relentless pace.

At the “midway” stop there isn’t any food like I was sort of expecting. We hang out for 30 minutes and I spend it re-adjusting the rear axle of my bike, since the drive chain is incredibly loose and I’m losing power because there’s so much slack. A kindly random guy lends me a crescent wrench and a 18mm ratchet so I can loosen the rear axle, pull it out to tension the chain, and then tighten everything down again, marking the bolts with paint so I can see if it gets loose or not. I also find that the bathrooms at the parks are padlocked shut so I use the grossest port a potty of the weekend.

The rest of the ride is full throttle the entire time, to keep my bike from overheating, so it’s fast. As we wind our way through the hills and make our way through East Portland we go from farmlands to anonymous and terrible suburbs, then finally to familiar territory. The entire time I’m not sure if the bike will make it to the end. Our club decides to head back to the air bnb instead of going to the very end, because we are all very tired, and so we do. I roll the Tomos into the backyard and give it a very affectionate pat on the gas tank for doing 90 miles at wide open throttle over 5 hours straight.

[hellojed]

Here’s a photo of me from an instagram story the Austrian guy took. I’m on the left, and it’s about 10 miles into the ride as we’re going over a bridge.

[SUPERSONNICK]

a real two-stroke poet (so his name says)

[SUPERSONNICK]

for those who have access to Netflix, there’s a documentary (Tour De France: Unchained) that recaps the 2022 season, and kudos to the show, it kept me interested through the whole thing, binged it over 2 days — it was that good, yeah.

Better than recent seasons of Drive to Survive (no big feat, that seems to have run its course, what with its structure becoming obvious/too predictable), although they have type-casted similar tropey characters for plot reasons (that, for worse rather than better mimic Drive to Survive) that drag the show down a bit … thankfully, i was fully unaware of teams/drivers/plotline, so the dramatique plotlines did their thing, gonna check out Season 2 when it hits.

Recommended!

[SUPERSONNICK]

Mandatory listen while watching:

K̲r̲a̲f̲t̲w̲e̲r̲k̲ - T̲o̲u̲r̲ d̲e̲ F̲r̲a̲n̲c̲e̲ [Full Album] 2003

Tourrrrrrr Deeeeee Fraaaaaaance

:headbang:

[hellojed]

went to my friends shop anniversary and saw some sweet ebikes

the drift trike is terrifyingly fast