alicestrong

I'll be wearing a black "I Bike LA" T-shirt...hopefully the ride won't be too big. I'll come a little early...

TamaraEden

Avi and I will be there. We're going to actually drive so we can go eat lunch later. Other option is to take metro which is close to home but that only saves $1.50 compared to parking. Oh, and I found a Japanese vegetarian place in Little Tokyo called Shojin. Their site shows some TASTY looking dishes, all natural. Entrees are a bit pricey but rest of the menu is a good deal, especially the $10 lunch special. Anyone in?

grrlyrida

I heard it was good. I'm having a veggie sausage at Wurstkuche. My ride buddy isn't vegetarian so I have to eat at a place that serves both.

alicestrong

Well let's see...ride wrap up.

Avi and Tamara got into a fight with an escalator and their bikes got beat up.

Nessa attracted the press ( may have been her pink ensemble ) and it's going viral...

Other than that, a typical quiet Sunday morning meander downtown...

TamaraEden

Shall I give the blow by blow?

Woke up at 6:45 so we could eat, head out, park, register and not be rushed. Got downtown. Parked. We had two options for bringing the bikes up to the actual Pershing Square. We made a HUGE mistake by taking the VERY, unusually, oddly narrow escalator. As we were going up my wheel jammed against both sides. I kept moving. My bike did not. I guess I ran into the bike and was pushed backwards as my body, ankles, neck, and bike twisted up falling back on my husband whose bike also then twisted and jammed. He pushed me up while grabbing the coffee that went flying from my hands. It was scary as all ****. It wasn't funny. My adrenaline was going. BUT...looking back, oh how I wish I could watch that in slow motion! I'd post it on YouTube as a biking safety video. Afterall, my worst biking accident so far happened on that damn escalator!

We ended up not being able to ride as my wheel was jammed (but it was just a stupid fix of the quick release and resetting the wheel). However, husband's front wheel appeared out of true but when we brought it to Orange 20 the bike mechanic told us the wheel was actually completely bent. So...we had to buy him an entire new wheel! Lame! We made up for it today by taking a nice ride around Lake Balboa and will do the Labonge ride on Wed.

TamaraEden

PS: Nice to quickly meet grrlyrida. Sorry I was pissed off and in pain when you saw me. You probaly thought I was just rude

David13

Well, I regret that I missed it. But I had to go to La Canada/Flintridge.
300 bikes is not bad. I thought there might be many thousands, but 300 would not be crowded at all.
Tamara
What luck that you were not injured. I can't imagine how a tire could jam there, but I will definitely watch that next time I take a bike on an escalator.
Alice
Thats a nice photo of you there. I think they overstated your age by about, what? 20 years?
dc

TamaraEden

David, VERY narrow escalator, moving, wheel turns. Escalator was about as wide as width of a wheel...lame...I know

westlafadeaway

It was a fun ride. They had a cop who would stop at the intersection while we blew throguh the red lights. But then he'd have to speed past us to catch up, which didn't really make sense. Two cops on wheels could have done it much easier. It was a chance for the bikes to take over whole streets for just a few hours. Very fun. And, I won a $20 front/back light set up...

GP

A sunflower?

alicestrong

A sunflower, si...left over from another ride on Friday...

I had a nice time with grrlyrida and her friend Lisa who is getting back into riding after a hiatus.

Again, sorry about the bike unfriendly escalator that ate your wheels, TE.

buck65

Yeah, that was a nice photo. I was going to ask Alice for her secret to late-50's wellness. But the article clearly has some jumbled information.

alicestrong

Last year there were officers on bikes, I was looking forward to that again but...whatevah...

Those lights were courtesy of Joseph at Flying Pigeon LA...

alicestrong

Ha ha you both are too sweet...You know I used to not want any pictures of myself (especially candid) on the internet but then as time went by I realized if I was going to keep doing social type bike rides that would pretty much be impossible. Now with camera phones and portable video forget it...everybody is taking pictures everywhere.

By the way I ended up going to Coles for lunch with a couple of other friends. There were lots of people that I knew at the ride.

Where's grrlyrida anyway??

gumbii

can't believe i missed it... sigh... stupid family came over and i couldn't leave... fail...

buck65

yeah...massive amounts of fail. but don't worry, CICLE has a bunch of events similar to the pace/scope of this one. you should check them out.....haven't been on one of their Urban Expeditions yet. While they're not escorted by police officers, they look like lots of fun.

grrlyrida

It was a nice ride. Rode in parts of LA that I wouldn't normally do without a police escort. It was fun seeing and riding with Alice again. Nice meeting Tamara and her hubby. Sorry you guys missed the ride.

My only disappointment was that I didn't win the fixed gear raffle. :sigh:

Mr. Beanz

So like what? One ride together and she's already calling you "Nessa" but I still gotta call you Va-Nessa?

Dang, we know those gurls on video!

alicestrong

Ha ha...we had video, too...

You didn't show, so you were replaced, Ace...


...

Mr. Beanz

............

alicestrong

Aw now, you know you can't be replaced...

Mr. Beanz

Aw now, you know you can't be replaced...


Funny, the little periods aren't actually periods in my post. They are very small words, too small to see but it says,"aw, you know I can't be replaced"

alicestrong

Oh and no crashes that I saw, either...



Can't say the same for the last LaBonge ride I was on. A gentleman went down with a suspected collarbone fracture...

grrlyrida

I thought the most squirrelly cyclists on the ride were the ones demoing the electric assist bikes. When I saw their green t-shirts, I stayed out of their way. I saw a few close calls.