Every Day is a Good Day For a Bike Ride

Waiting for the train.

2009-04-19T22:12:00.001-07:00

Cruising around La Jolla. Very nice!

2009-03-21T11:29:00.001-07:00

Top o Topanga

2009-02-28T08:39:00.001-08:00

Hello. What have we here?

2009-02-11T16:39:00.000-08:00

This battle station is fully operational.

Good bye dear friend.

2009-02-05T10:49:00.001-08:00

Via con dios!

Lighthouse

2009-01-17T10:17:00.001-08:00

Too bad it isn't dragon powered.

Getting a jump on the new year.

2008-12-31T08:28:00.001-08:00

If you woke up to snow...

2008-12-21T15:31:00.000-08:00

Sucks to be you.

Finally! Back on the bike.

2008-12-03T23:40:00.001-08:00

Heading east into the sun.

2008-11-11T20:03:00.001-08:00

2008-10-08T17:08:00.001-07:00

Time to break out the cowbell.

Why so long between posts?

2008-08-19T23:45:00.000-07:00

Because I've been constantly dreaming about the couple days I spent riding up in Solvang, the Danish capital of California.

Jack, my new insta-friend.

Littering isn't cool.

2008-07-22T16:41:00.001-07:00

Don't be a dumb ass

Top o' the world ma

2008-07-20T12:14:00.001-07:00

Mt. Wilson 5600 feet.

Seven observations from the first week of the Tour de France

2008-07-13T18:56:00.000-07:00

1) Craig Hummer needs a nickname. I suggest The Leprechaun. Why? Because until this swim coach/bull riding commentator showed up at the Tour de France, I thought there was no announcer on earth worse than Al Trautwig. But nope, Versus achieved the impossible and found that mythical creature without all the hassle of going to the Land of Make Believe. Well, played Versus. Well played. A rodeo was a great place to look for someone to call the action of a bicycle race.

2) You can cancel your plans to assassinate Smilin' Bob the Enzyte guy. Considering the makers of Enzyte are in the midst of a $100 million indictmen t for conspiracy, money laundering, wire and mail fraud this will probably be Bob’s last summer of cashing residual checks- unless they’ve already been bouncing.

3) Manuel Beltran didn’t dope just so he could ensure his mediocrity. Nope. He shot up like it was 1998 all over again for the noblest reason of all- to protect the sanity of the viewer at home by giving Versus a very compelling reason to stop running that “I’m gonna set myself straight” spot every other minute.

4) Lance dumped Bob Roll out of his Fave Five to make room for Matthew McConaughey a long time ago. Maybe it’s time for Bobke to ride off into the sunset. In his place, I’d suggest YouTube sensation Kige Ramsey. Compared to mush mouth Bob, Kige sounds like George Plimpton.

5) The Awesome Auger actually looks pretty awesome.

6) Thor Hushovd and Magnus Backstedt could both probably do pretty well if they crossed over to the sport of dudes laying on dudes, er, I mean World Extreme Cagefighting.

7) Jens Voigt says he won’t be attacking this Tour. Yeah right. No totally means yes.

Thanks Nate!

2008-07-12T18:15:00.000-07:00

Been on vacation, returned with a cool souvenir from world famous Monkey Wrench Cycles.

Black jersey + 100 degrees = Bad Idea.

2008-06-21T13:53:00.000-07:00

It was a tad warm out there today.

Late night fro yo

2008-06-18T23:12:00.000-07:00

Finally!

2008-06-14T19:41:00.001-07:00

First ride in two weeks.

5O reasons to ride.

2008-06-09T10:46:00.001-07:00

Under construction

2008-06-05T00:05:00.001-07:00

No time to ride when there's a house to paint : (

Late night mtb ride

2008-05-22T21:19:00.001-07:00

Hollywood hills

2008-05-21T09:16:00.001-07:00

Tuesday = race day!

2008-05-20T18:12:00.000-07:00

Welcome to Hollywood

2008-05-18T20:04:00.000-07:00

Note the sweet gold boots

Pit stop

2008-05-17T09:38:00.001-07:00

Drive your bike to work day.

2008-05-15T19:46:00.000-07:00

I'm such a punk.

Happy hour

2008-05-14T17:58:00.001-07:00

Back to our regularly scheduled program.

2008-05-13T17:42:00.000-07:00

Secret plans for victory

2008-05-06T18:13:00.001-07:00

Memorial Day came early.

2008-05-04T19:24:00.001-07:00

Two hours old and already dirty.

What Josh Missed Today

2008-05-03T20:25:00.000-07:00

We climbed up Chevy Chase...

Tomas was Mr. Matchy Matchy...

And all was quiet under Suicide Bridge : )

Today's forecast- perfect

2008-05-01T11:12:00.001-07:00

Late night cruise

2008-05-01T01:08:00.001-07:00

A hammer down situation is afoot.

2008-04-29T17:56:00.000-07:00

Good morning gentlemen.

2008-04-27T11:29:00.001-07:00

The temperature is 11O degrees. Holy sh!t it's Viper.

Top secret training.

2008-04-26T19:25:00.001-07:00

Twilight hill repeats.

On the way home

2008-04-25T19:43:00.001-07:00

Ran into a buddy

The guns of Brixton

2008-04-23T11:27:00.001-07:00

Out with the funny little Englishman.

Happy Earth Day!

2008-04-22T10:27:00.001-07:00

Please pick up your poop.

Green is the New Extreme...

2008-04-20T22:15:00.000-07:00

All right stop. Collaborate and listen.

Remember way back in the last century when Vanilla Ice unleashed "Ice Ice Baby" on our unsuspecting ears?

Not only did he give us the gift of the greatest one hit wonder followed by the saddest career this side of Dana Plato, his flowing prose launched a thousand ad campaigns.

Without bothering to the actual research, it's pretty safe to assume that sometime in 1990 there had to have been an ad exec who was stuck in traffic. And he was using that opportunity to listen to "Ice Ice Baby" on repeat on his brand new in-dash CD player that skipped like a smooth stone across a calm pond the moment his car started moving.

Probably by the 11th time through, the line "To the extreme I rock the mic like a vandal" hit our ad exec friend like a ton of bricks.

Or a pile of nachos. Extreme Nachos.

Or maybe that lyric wiped across his brain like an extremely powerful odor fighting stroke of Extreme Right Guard.

Or perhaps it skewered his mind like that raging bull you once saw on Extreme Animal Attacks.

It doesn't matter really because as far as marketing buzzwords go, extreme is dead.

Let's just hope it had a green funeral.

The other day I was on my to the ol' jobby job and waiting for a red light. I wasn't stuck in traffic because I wasn't driving. I was riding my bike like I do 4 days a week and like I've been doing since the zenith of extreme.

My commute, if you even want to call it that, is three miles each way. Without breaking a sweat it takes about 15 minutes door-to-door. By car this same jaunt ranges from a once in a blue moon 10 minutes to a slit your wrists with a rusty nail 35. But, most days it takes about 20.

Funny how that works.

So back to that red light.

While waiting for it to turn green, I noticed a new billboard telling me to "Move Green." A message that was brought to my attention by the Sundance Channel and eco-conscious folks at Lexus and Citi Smith Barney.

Check it out...

It didn't take long for my inner bike geek to notice that the bicycle featured on the billboard was a brakeless fixed gear bike.

Upon closer inspection, it just wasn't any ol' brakeless fixie but a IRO.

Allow me to count the ways this chaps my hide.

1) For 99.9% of the population a brakeless fixed gear is the wrong choice of bicycle. Oh sure not being able to coast gives you all the Zen bliss without the annoying I-had-to-forsake-Jesus aftertaste but in the pantheon of bicycle choices, I'd sandwich a fixed between a 20" BMX and a short wheelbased recumbent in terms of around town practicality.

Also, if this bike were really meant to be an eco-friendly commuter, where are the lights for night time use and the rack for hauling groceries (from the local farmer's market, natch). At least the art director gave a nod to all the hipsters out there. Judging by the buried saddle, who ever moves green on this machine is moving on the wrong sized bike.

2) All impracticality and bikesnobbery aside, this bike in question really won't illicit more than a impatient scoff from a motorist stuck in traffic. If you didn't know anything about bikes, what would this particular bike remind you of? That old, uncomfortable 10 speed you had as a kid or maybe rode to class in college if you predated the mountain bike? Yeah, I'm talking about the one that made you throw out your back when you heaved it into the bushes many years ago. Like, Robert Redford totally wants you to fish that boat anchor out of the shrubs and start pedaling it to work. It's up to you to save the world one rusty pedal stroke at a time.

3) The choice of featuring an IRO. While Tony probably feels like he pulled a major coup getting top billing on a billboard without having to pay for it, do you think he's losing any sleep at night over the fact that other than being painted green, his Taiwanese made bikes aren't exactly made the greenest? Sure, Taiwan pays better and has a better human rights record than its big brother China but what about environmental controls in manufacturing? What about that 3,000 mile boat ride his bikes have to take before being schlepped by truck to their final destination?

Granted, what he does is the same thing the big boys do but at least some of the big boys are actively trying to do something about it instead of trying to make anodized purple cool again.

Please, don't think of me bitter sort who rides his bike down to the beach on weekends just to poop in the ocean. It's just that I really have a hard time believing that "The Green" is nothing more than an attempt to cash in on a trend while the gettin' is good.

And you can't count me out- until green becomes Extreme Green.

Can you imagine how much sweeter American Gladiators would be if Wolf were jousting with a stick packed with repurposed plastic grocery bags?

Oh, it'd be a lot sweeter for sure.

Special Guest Shadow

2008-04-20T12:42:00.001-07:00

My good buddy Josh...

Mmm... Juicy

2008-04-19T11:16:00.001-07:00

Secret Beverly Hills orange grove.

Bacon time!

2008-04-16T09:16:00.001-07:00

Post time!

2008-04-15T17:57:00.001-07:00

It's the sounds of science

2008-04-15T14:30:00.001-07:00

Of course i do

2008-04-14T10:33:00.001-07:00

Sparklehorse

2008-04-09T20:14:00.000-07:00

Game on!

2008-04-08T17:53:00.001-07:00

6th Street

2008-04-06T19:36:00.000-07:00

Is like riding though a tunnel of trees.

Took the long way to the Greek.

2008-04-05T14:34:00.001-07:00

Aerosmith tickets front row. Can you name the movie reference?

Just a hazy Saturday

2008-04-05T11:35:00.001-07:00

Mullholland Drive looking east.

Rollin' down Maple Street

2008-04-05T10:51:00.001-07:00

Editorial Comment

2008-04-04T10:46:00.000-07:00

Sorry. No photo today. At least not yet anyway and I even brought along the "good camera" to take a picture of something I've been meaning to photograph for the better part of a week now but what I saw this morning was enough to make me forget all about it.

Today I was joined on my commute by another person on a bike. Actually I can't really say that I was joined because he not once but twice blew the stoplights at a couple of very busy intersections. And the kicker is that on the second there was myself and another dude on a bike (three people on bikes is nearly Chinese rush hour by LA standards).

But our little tube socked bike riding friend really didn't want to be our friend and blew through the light without an ounce of compunction.

If two cyclists waiting for a stoplight can't guilt another into waiting for the light then I guess the only thing that can is an up close and personal visit with the front of a Metro Bus.

Flying

2008-04-02T09:07:00.001-07:00

On the way home

2008-04-01T21:48:00.001-07:00

Rollin' with a fro yo.

Morning commute

2008-03-31T09:54:00.001-07:00

Ain't nuthin' but a g thang

How's this for a view?

2008-03-29T14:04:00.001-07:00

Graffti and mountains all at once.

Totally rideable

2008-03-29T14:00:00.001-07:00

Not!

Going down

2008-03-29T12:40:00.001-07:00

At the top

2008-03-29T10:52:00.000-07:00

Going up there

2008-03-29T08:41:00.001-07:00

6th and Fairfax

2008-03-28T20:02:00.001-07:00

The worst smelling corner in all of Los Angeles.

Heading to the hills.

2008-03-26T06:59:00.001-07:00

Off to the races!

2008-03-25T17:41:00.001-07:00

LACMA at night

2008-03-24T21:51:00.000-07:00

Happy Easter!

2008-03-23T19:29:00.000-07:00

Heading to the hills.

Saturday morning

2008-03-23T00:10:00.001-07:00