Quasi Appropriate E-Mail

This was sent to me by a friend today. It is certainly something I had not given any thought to. The text of the email stated-

" When you purchase a bike, make sure the color of the seat is taken into consideration. "



We have all been warned.

Continued Challenges

This post does not have pictures. You will soon realize why.

This evening, the Calitexican and I headed out for what should be the traditional Friday night tacos and beer (my fish tacos were wonderful). Having just purchased some new books while waiting for her arrival (Son Of A Witch, Everything Is Illuminated & the Collected Works Of Willa Cather) I was anticipating a great evening.

After wonderful conversation (Cali's good friend S., who was with us, has just as much fascination as I do with the subject of work related disease) and great food and a few Negra Modelos we were ready to hit my favorite night spot for some jazz and whiskey (The Rite Spot). There was an open staple to lock up to and the sound coming out of the club promised good music and a mellow crowd. I was anticipating a Laphroig (neat, water back) to enjoy with the stand up bass playing... when my hand and lock both met with a nice, wet, pile of recently rained on dog shit. There is nothing quite like walking into a jazz club, covered in crap, certainly not something I have ever experienced before. I will say though, it did get me priority into the single stall bathroom, despite the line.

People. Please. Don't tie your dogs up to the bike parking. It is really just not a good thing.

Effortless? Humph!

Have you had that day where being on your bike was just wrong? Nothing around you is that different, but it is all wrong nonetheless. I had that today. Even going downhill required effort. My hamstrings were screaming less than a quarter of the way to picking up Declan. He whined and complained all the way home about every little thing he could think of. He wiggled so much in the seat I couldn't keep the bike straight (which wore me out even faster than usual). By the end of the ride I felt like crying every time I had to stop and put my foot down- even keeping the bike up at a stop had become too much.

It happens. Riding a bike does not magically cure all the ills of the world. You can still have a crappy day on a bike. It just isn't quite as crappy as it could be. You still get to see things and smile at people and see the sky.

Colours still stand out, and you can stop to admire them. You can see how other people do what you do.

Even with that, some days just blow. Nothing you can do but take a picture of it.

Will You Be My Neighbor?

This is my neighbor. I don't know his name, but he rides his Madsen through our crazy, hilly neighborhood with his three kids in the bucket! My kids had seen him around, but it wasn't until today that I was able to get a picture. For a few minutes, my street looked the way I wish it always did- a Madsen with kid, Xtracycle with teenager, 10 year old on her own bike, Dutch bike with groceries, trail-a-bike with son behind Dad. A healthy street. I hope the rest of the neighborhood got a good look : )

In other fun news, Mr. Rogers has a song about just getting on with it and trying (featuring a bicycle). I wish I could find a download or something on YouTube, but no luck. Sooo, click here. It should be the theme song for the entire North American bicycle movement.

¿quién es esa niña?

in the words of madonna above and below..."who's that girl?"

Change Your Life. Ride A Unicycle!

This always makes me laugh. Especially this rider. Valencia street, pictured here, is in the middle of massive design changes. The end result will be great, but the construction phase is challenging. This is one of the busiest bicycle corridors in the City and with great, huge chunks of the bike lane dug up everyone has to be patient and really try extra hard to share the very limited space. So what do some people do to make it all work? Ride a unicycle!!!

tu y yo...are looking for the bicis!

so to pick up where we left off the last time: the super cutie pie duo of pilar and dorothy were looking for a bike for pilar in LA.

the last time dorothy discussed types of bikes that are available from beach cruisers to bmxes to 10 speeds to mixtes mountain bikes. pilar decided she wanted to look for a hybrid bici.

so for this time, as they look for bikes, they come across a JAMIS. and i love how they discuss the finer points of language. as in how do you pronounce jamis? pilar, being a (self-described) chilean valley girl, says it would be "HAH-mees," whereas dorothy mentions that if you're in "america" you say "JAY-miss." please, see for yourself.



um, how cute is pilar riding around on those lil comfort bicis? :-D

anywaysssss...

part three has them narrowing things down to pilar's dream first bici at the "walmart of bike shops."



so what bike did pilar choose? i dunno! i don't know if i can find the last episode. sad face.

regardless i wanted to share these videos for a few reasons. one being that these were southern california women of color (for lack of a better term at the moment, but we're working on a better one...stay tuned) interested in looking for bikes and helping others by modeling how to buy a bike if one does not now how/where to start.

chances are if you are reading this blog, most likely you have a bike or know where to start when looking for one. but, sharing the beginning steps i always feel is important in that maybe now that the weather is starting to mellow out, the days are getting longer that maybe you all can grab a friend, someone you never thought would hop on a bike and get them started. maybe they are shy, maybe they are scared, maybe they don't have any money. whatever the case may be, there is always an option by just sharing and starting the conversation.

and to close, i'm going back to dorothy's own words back in the first video i shared with you all:

i don't have a car ... and i definitely want to show it, not just say it. i'm looking forward to hosting more rides so that not only can people learn how to ride, but also learn about their city. it's nice to hear that people are open to something like a bicycle in los angeles. maybe 5 years ago that would have been really crazy.

i don't know about y'all (yah, ahm from texas ok?), but i think those words nicely encapsulate what we are about on this here blog. don't you?

what about y'all? are you doing what you can to get someone you know involved in riding around?