Welcome to our Zoo, don't be shy

I'm not new here, just haven't introduced myself before. I live in San Diego, having been here for 16 years. Only intended to stay here for three years, but just can't take myself away from the great year-'round cycling. I cycle most on weekends (luckingly I get every other Friday off) with my wife. You can see us on PCH, especially at Swami's for breakfast or at Pannekins for coffee. (What's a bike ride without food, coffee, and pastries?). We do practically all of our errands on the weekend by bike, including the Del Mar farmers market on Saturdays. We also tour (self-contained) two weeks a year somewhere in the U.S. My yearly goal is always to do 5000 miles a year. Some years I get there, some years I don't.

I've been riding a Waterford touring bike, which is great for touring, but "clunky" for day rides. So I am steeping up my cycling this year. I bought a gourgeous Specialized Roubaix in December, and plan to do a century a month this year. (Hadn't done a century for 16 years). I did the the Tour de Palm Springs and have my first two centuries in this year. I am also attending Lon Haldeman's bicycling week in southeastern Arizona in April, where we will ride 620 miles in seven days. Definitely will be a stretch for me.

Dave

That's leaps and bounds above the "I put my bike in my car to go ride it" crowd.

Welcome, Dave, and thanks for coming out of the lurker-lou pool. ;) Did you like Palm Springs? Come over and give us a report in the repot thread if you are so inclined. We (well, okay...I) love to hear about rides and love pics, so please feel free to share. :D

roses and bluejays
 

Hello all,
My name's Tony and I'm new to cycling and have fallen in love with it, so much in fact that I'm actually looking into purchasing a road bike for distance rides and races....but that's probably about a half a year a way. In the meantime, I plan to use bike for commuting, running errands, and riding through the city to take pictures. I'm an avid fan of art and architecture so I'll definitely be taking advantage of the convenience of my bike to trek through LA for some snapshots. I'll definitely be posting lots of pics in the "random ride images" thread once I've built up the strength and agility to deal with some of the steep hills around here. Here are a couple pics of my bike:
http://img206.imageshack.us/img206/5...lpeposegw5.jpg
http://img179.imageshack.us/img179/7...everje7.th.jpg
http://img179.imageshack.us/img179/1...blemus0.th.jpg
I love writing and reading so I decided to take advantage of the blogger forum with the hopes that others would make blogs as well. Feel free to check mine out every couple of weeks if you're interested in hearing a newb's adventures in cycling. Hope to meet a lot of you at the local organized rides soon!

tony

Awesome bike Tony

Welcome Tony. :) Of course, you know I've been reading your blog. I think it's great how enthusiastically you've jumped into this sport. Feel free to ask all of us any questions you have. I've learned a great deal from many riders on here myself, and they are all willing to give their 2 cents! ;)

Thanks Jim....it is pretty awesome, isn't it? ;)


Thanks ME; I'm glad to be a part of a group filled with such fine people. I'll definitely be asking around for help and advice....especially when it's time to build a speedy road bike! :D

I've been lurking here for a while, post every now and then, and figured I should actually post in here.

My name is Jim. I'm fairly new to the sport (got my first road bike back in May 2007). I, unfortunately, don't get a lot of time to ride as I work at 8 in the morning at a high school, go to school at 11, then give music lessons at 3:30. I try to commute as much as possible, but sometimes having time constraints make it difficult. I started road cycling when some of my friends went to Target and bought $200 Schwinn ("Schwinn"?) road bikes and I couldn't keep up on my MTB. But then one of them crashed, and none of my friends have really touched their bikes since and now I'm the only one that still rides. My cycling goals for this year are to make it up a hill not too far from where I live; do a half, metric, and then eventually an actual century; and also to lose about 20 lbs of fat by my 21st birthday and hopefully keep it off.

I ride a 2004 Tirreno Razza 2.0 (aluminum frame with carbon fork) that I got from Performance for about half price. Once I lose the weight and keep it off for about 2 years or so, I'm going to buy myself a carbon bike.

But yeah, I'm glad to be here.

Welcome, Jim. :) You and I have the same goal only I'm not turning 21...rats! :p As for the metric and century - you hang around here enough and come out on the rides, both will be met rather quickly.

Hello,

I normally only visit these forums occasionally, but one of my goals for 2008 is to ride a century, so I guess you'll be seeing some more of me.

This is me getting caught by a group of Midnight Ridazz at the Ballona Creek Bridge at Marina del Rey:

http://www.midnightridazz.com/images...1186945150.jpg

They were chanting "Mustache to Pass", so I stopped and let them paint a mustache on me. I did a number of rides with the Midnight Ridazz, which was a blast, but now that I have an 8 month old daughter, I tend to go out for a quick ride and come straight back.

Before moving to LA from Charlotte, NC I rode Mountain Bikes for years, and before then I rode BMX bikes when I was a kid, but have never really done any competitive cycling.

I live in Mar Vista between Venice Blvd and the Ballona Creek bike path, so most of my rides involve taking one or the other down to the beach. I have season tickets to the LA Galaxy (the team the David Beckham plays for), and sometimes ride down to the Home Depot Center in Carson to watch the game.

When I was contracting at Toyota in Torrance, I commuted 38 miles round trip via the South Bay Bike Path on my "Urban Assault Vehicle" 2 or 3 times a week. Now however, I mostly work from home, so I need to find some other reason to get out cycling on a regular basis.

Billy, another Tar Heel. Mountain bikes in the Pisgah beats the gang gauntlet of Ballona Creek, eh?

I never actually Mountain Biked in Pisgah. Been on a couple dozen backpacking trips there though. Even though I've been to many spots on the West coast and the Rockies, my favorite backcountry camping spot to this day is Shining Rock in the Pisgah Wilderness area.

Besides which - I had great MTB trails right by my house. I lived right across the Catawba River from Charlotte in the little town of Belmont. From my house, I could go 2 miles down a country road and hit some pretty bodacious trails along the South Fork of the Catawba River. There was an unused railroad trestle going over the South Fork of the Catawba that I'd carry my bike across. It was a 5 second spit drop (200 feet?) down. Pretty wild looking straight down between the railroad ties with all of that air beneath you.

As for Ballona Creek - I've heard of gangs on this path, but I guess since I usually exit at McConnel Ave - I've never seen them.

Sounds like heaven. Welcome to SoCal; you're going to love all the pleasant weather.




Jim, welcome! You're going to find that the SoCal group is very supportive...kinda like a thight knit family. It's good to hear that you have goals and that you're sticking to cycling. With the proper diet and the right amount of activity, you'll shed those unwanted pounds in a couple of months.

Try to eat smaller, balanced meals more frequently (5-6 meals a day no larger than the size of your fist) during the day. Take multivitamins, lots of water, and get enough rest so your body can recover from any of the strenuous activity you put it through. Do this and you'll be fit in no time!

Howdy,

I have been lurking for a couple years now (forgot my old account name), and have decided I should probably say hello. So, "HELLO!"

I have been mountain biking for a long time, but recently picked up a road bike. My steed is a 2005 Specialized Allez Triple. Some future goals that I have are to complete a century and to ride across the continental United States someday.

Most of my riding is around the Irvine area, especially riding from Anaheim Hills to Newport Beach and back. Perhaps I shall see some of you out there.

Adiós,

Matthew

Hi there, Matthew.

I might be seeing you, then. I ride every day around UC Irvine and sometimes, on occasional Sundays, I ride from Tustin Metrolink to UCI.

another lurker so I feel like I should come out of the closet ;)

I bought myself a bike for my birthday last year, June 07 and totally fell in love with it. I ended up getting a second bike in 4 months, wish I had gotten a nicer one to start with. Initially it was to cross train since I also run but now I like riding my bike way more. It's just hard to find the time during the week as I have a crappy commute. I often gets days off during the week however so then I ride lots :D

I live in Pasadena so I pretty much ride at the Rose Bowl up Salvia to Linda Vista or on the SGRT. I don't like to ride on the roads alone so I want to start joining some groups. I finally feel strong enough to keep up and have fun. So far have only been on one group ride, that was with some triathletes that I know. I even beat some of them up the hills, I was so proud. I learned that while I may be able to ride for 50-60 miles at 16mph and have some decent fitness from running my skills as far as dealing with traffic are lacking! Im not using to having to stop and start at lights and all the clipping in and out. I usually hit the SGRT and hammer! I hope to meet some of you this saturday on teh B2B ride and maybe more :)

I know a lot of others here ride the SGRT, so maybe you've seen me? I see tons of people out there and always wish I had others to ride with. I don't have a picture of me on my bike but Im a super short girl with brown hair and I ride an itty bitty, blue and silver cannondale with 650c wheels :D

Welcome, folks.

+1 I've been remiss with spreading the love. Come on in and play and hopefully you'll meet all of us on a ride one of these days. :)

Hi, My name's Bryan. Long time listener first time caller. I live in Escondido and do a partial commute of 17 miles each way into San Diego on my Fuji SX flat bar. I am addicted to riding when ever I can instead of using the gas guzzling jeep. I have been mtb for a while and thought I should save the world by cycling instead of driving. I don't know if its working yet.

Welcome 1Rider! Join the San Diego BF Army.

We have an army? That's awesome! Usually I'm an army of one while riding.

Thanks

Hey guys i'm little RC, I live in Silver Lake and i'm new at riding bikes around the city. My goal is to be able to tour from San Fran to Jenner this summer. Check out my blog and my tour of ca video!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-OSnwKbWr08
http://rcgnome.blogspot.com/
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1...dolly/aeta.jpghttp://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1...y/CIMG0194.jpghttp://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1...dolly/bike.jpg

Welcome Renee! :) A female...we need those (as in, we need estrogen!). Both pics are adorable - you look like one of my best friends from high school.