eepok

OCTA (Orange County Transportation Authority) is hosting their 2nd Annual Bike Festival in Huntington Beach this year. (https://www.octa.net/Commuters/Bike/bikemonth.aspx)

Huntington Beach Pier Plaza, Ride your bike to the festival and spend a day of fun in the sun. Learn about bike safety, receive a free inspection, win great prizes and get your bike ready for national bike month.

It's no race or ride, but a place to see and meet other riders, advocates, engineers, etc., be counted, and show the prevalence and normalcy of bicycling. I would suggest, if you are so inclined, to go in baggies or casual clothes (not Lycra) to further support the "Real People Ride" campaign. Unless you're not a normal person, but instead a super hero, then by all means wear a cape and night vision goggles. (Does anyone have night vision goggles? How are they on the unlit class 1 bike facilities?

Anyway -- show up, have fun, be counted!

GP

You judge whether people are "real people" based on their clothing?

eepok

Neither I nor campaign obviously doesn't seek to differentiate between fictional or factual people (to do so would be silly), nor does it seek to suggest that those who wear high-performance clothing to ride a bicycle are untrue to themselves in the philosophical sense. Instead, the "real-ness" refers to the pedestal on which non-athletes place the very common road cyclist. The athletic capabilities and confidence that road cyclists exude seem unreal to many new bike riders and the bike-curious. In fact, as someone who works in advocacy, I know that too many people are hesitant to begin riding a bike more than around the block on an odd weekend on a mild day in spring because they are intimidated by the most visible bicyclists in the area: the ones in Lycra training on the road on expensive bicycles. They think that if they're going to ride more than a couple miles, they need to be super fit and and wear form-fitting clothing.

This campaign seeks to break the assumption, or even prejudice, that one must be super fit. It wants to show others that real, normal, non-athletes can ride for their health and transportation, save a couple bucks, and maybe do the environment some good.

Here's Giant of Australia's advertisement within the same vein: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=feOMTBxdZDg

bored117 

Uhmm... okay? Is the real people idea from OCTA or you? Pffft...

The crowd that are afraid of riding are not because of the "lycra crad" warriors... (FYI, I see a LOT more commuters on Lycra than "normal clothes" around Irvine, CA which OCTA serves)...
What's next? People would be afraid of swimming because of those speedo wearing swimmers that are superfit? They won't even go to beach?

eepok

It's actually kind of the national movement. Note the plain clothes on the people in the League of American Bicyclists' National Bike Month Guide. And yes, there are plenty of people who don't go to the pool or beach because they don't feel comfortable showing off their larger bodies in swimsuits. But I think you get the wrong impression from the campaign as did the first responder.

I don't use the term "Lycra-clad warriors" or "weekend warriors" or "MAMIL" or anything of that sort (except in this description) because it implies some sort of issue with the rider... and there is no issue with the performance or sport rider. The hesitation isn't with other bicyclists that would be sharing the road or path, but with the assumed requirements of biking any significant distance. The idea isn't to exclude the performance-focused cyclist. It's to include and bring into the fold those who are less confident and whose bikes are rusting in the garage. It's in advocacy effort to increase the prevalence of bicycling. More bicyclists on the road = better legislative and funding attention = a better bike community for all.

You understand the intent, right? People wish they could bike like this, but they're afraid they have to bike like this.

fat_bike_nut

Hi eepok, thanks for letting us know about the event.

I don't really post much on bikeforums anymore, but I still lurk and read threads. I went there this morning, stayed for about 30-45 minutes to check out the booths and meet with other bicycle riders before departing (I have other things to do today but wanted to stop by). One of the ladies at the OCTA booth was surprised when she asked me where I pedaled from. Yeah, well Garden Grove's only about 15 miles away. It's a 30 mile round trip for me

I was surprised at the variety of riders there. I was not expecting to see other guys on touring bikes, for one thing. If anyone's wondering, I was the guy in a red shirt with the tan-colored Surly Long Haul Trucker with 26" wheels and a Brooks saddle.

Condorita

Where in Garden Grove do you live that the ride was that long? I rode from Broadway and Dale in Anaheim, down Dale to GG Blvd, to Newhope to McFadden to Beach to Main, then returned via Main, Beach, and Orange, and only managed a bit over 27.

That included a stop at the HB Jax store to spend the $10 gift card I won on the spinner thingy. I picked up another 24-oz Polar bottle, since I couldn't find anything else of interest.

fat_bike_nut

Oops, my mistake. I was going off the route that I normally take. Actually, more like 13-ish miles one-way. So 26-ish miles round-trip. Took a different route today than I used to take, so it's a little shorter. I went down Bushard to Brookhurst, crossed PCH and then used the beach bike trail to get to the pier. Then I remembered that I had to go up the stairs to get to the event! D'oh!

I'm going off of the mileage calculated using Google maps because I don't use a cycling computer. So that might play a part in the mileage estimate? I just do an "out-and-back" instead of a loop for most of my rides, so I calculate my total mileage by doubling the one-way distance.

Normally I head to Mile Square Park (3 miles from home) and take Warner to get on the Santa Ana River Trail (another 2.3 miles) and head south to the end, then take the beach bike path to the pier. I decided not to go that way today. I don't like riding the SART on weekends because there's too much pedestrian and bike rider traffic mixed in together. When I take the SART route, it's about 14.6 miles one-way. I think I rounded it up to 15 because I included riding into Main Street from there.

tjcough 

I was going to stop by the event also, but I had work this morning so I was unable to attend. I live in Garden Grove, and its about 15 miles from my house to the pier. I usually go from Harbor to Brookhurst then ride down to Westminster and hop on Bushard from there and go straight to PCH. I prefer riding down Bushard becuase I think its quite a nice street, especially when cycling. Im not too fond of the SART, especially on the weekends, like you said.

eepok

You had the great dynamo light setup, right? I was in a high-vis vest on a brown hybrid and red panniers.

fat_bike_nut

Oh, so that was you! Yeah, I remember seeing a brown bike with red panniers and the guy riding it in. You were definitely hard to miss with that bright vest

My light set-up at the moment is actually kind of crappy, all battery powered. Maybe you noticed one of the two Novara Safari bikes that mine was parked next to. They had great light setups and one of them had a Surly Nice Rack in front.