Northcoast??? Dr. Roebuck??? Flakes! :D

Up at 5:30 yesterday to get downtown and ride in the City of Angels 38 mile fun ride. I've never done this ride before so thought it might be cool to check it out. Also a good opportunity to pedal the fixie around the streets of L.A. with a full police escort. Chance of rain, but luckily only felt a few drops at the very beginning.

What I soon realized after starting was that this was a very tightly controlled ride. The cops wanted to keep everyone as closely packed as possible so they didn't have to block intersections for miles of stragglers, which is understandable. However, that resulted in a slow moving group for the most part. On one hand it was nice never stopping at red lights, on the other hand it wasn't much different from driving in rush hour traffic - I must have heard "Slowing!" at least 30 times. And the police. God bless 'em but did they have to dispatch the entire LAPD force to control some cyclists? The moto cops kept a tight rule on the left side of the peloton. "KEEP RIGHT!" blared over their loudspeakers and the "BWOOP BWOOP" of their horns every 1/4 mile was, er, annoying. And once we hit the feed station, nobody could leave until the last rider arrived! I started to feel like they let the inmates out for a ride to stretch our legs, then it was back to the big house.

Overall a nice way to see the city, but I don't think I'll be back next year.

Me and the furxie at the start
<img src="http://gallery.roadbikereview.com/data/roadbike/500/226582COA_ride_JT.JPG"border=5>

A climb early in the ride. East L.A.!
<img src="http://gallery.roadbikereview.com/data/roadbike/500/226582COA_ride_1.JPG"border=5>

Spectators:
<img src="http://gallery.roadbikereview.com/data/roadbike/511/226582COA_ride_watch.JPG"border=5>

<img src="http://gallery.roadbikereview.com/data/roadbike/500/226582COA_ride_2.JPG"border=5>

My own personal escort; 2 bicycle police for every cyclist ;)
<img src="http://gallery.roadbikereview.com/data/roadbike/500/226582COA_ride_cops.JPG"border=5>

Dude! You're blocking my shot!
<img src="http://gallery.roadbikereview.com/data/roadbike/500/226582COA_ride_big.JPG"border=5>

Cruising HW Blvd.
<img src="http://gallery.roadbikereview.com/data/roadbike/500/226582COA_ride_HW.JPG"border=5>

This kid hammered his BMX bike for 38 miles and if you pulled up next to him, he'd get out of the saddle, put on his game face and start racing you! Awesome.
<img src="http://gallery.roadbikereview.com/data/roadbike/500/226582COA_ride_kid.JPG"border=5>

Coming back into downtown L.A.
<img src="http://gallery.roadbikereview.com/data/roadbike/500/226582COA_ride_downtown1.JPG"border=5>

<img src="http://gallery.roadbikereview.com/data/roadbike/500/226582COA_ride_4.JPG"border=5>

fin

Although we too don't really like crowded conditions it does look like it would be neat to do the ride once.

...I did a couple of escorted fun rides years back, and didn't really mind the less-than-blistering pace; I was just out to see things on the bike with worrying (too much) about the traffic.

My hat's off to you for actually riding that thing in public--don't think I'd ever have the stones to do it. :D

MB1 - I kept thinking about your photography and how many great photo ops I was passing up!

I kept thinking "man that would make a great shot", but would involve (even more) stopping, letting lots of riders pass me, then playing catch up again. Most of the shots I took were while pedaling so as not to lose ground. No-hander on a fixie, surrounded by other cyclists while looking at the digi-cam screen. Look out! :eek:

It is rare that Miss M will pose for more that one shot on a ride so almost all of my shots are done from the bike. I too am always missing good shots.

Oh well, your last few posts have been great. Did you notice that I copied your Fargo Street Hillclimb post to the General Discussion board and it got another 500 views or so.

Good stuff.....

based on your ride report, I wouldn't want to do this ride. :(

based on the pics, I would love to do this ride. :D

:confused:

exactly!

based on your ride report, I wouldn't want to do this ride. :(

based on the pics, I would love to do this ride. :D

:confused:

Did you notice that I copied your Fargo Street Hillclimb post to the General Discussion board and it got another 500 views or so.

Good stuff.....

I did notice that but couldn't for the life of me figure out how that happened! "No, you posted to the Commute boards, the first line even says so." Confusing :)

thanks though -
Jeff

Nice pics. It had to be good to ride in LA and have to worry about traffic though. But from what I here a faster pace would have been nice.

Thay do one of those rides here in Chicago but it is at night, from midnight to sunrise. Have not done it but might try it this year.

I went to the bike expo, but I missed the fun ride. I've done a lot of L.A. commuting (from Sherman Oaks to Wilshire district), and L.A. is a great place to ride, but I'd love to have the closed roads and police escort. Giotta love those BMX kids. I woulda done the same thing back in the day on my Team Mongoose. :)

Very nice report!

Love the pictures and the atmosphere. I especially like the furxie. I've never seen that before.. very cool!

Seeing so many pictures of LA makes me want to ride there. Some day...some day.

great post,
RB

Thanks for calling me out as the flake that I am, H'wood. :cool:

I ordered my new bike this weekend so I'll be keeping my eyes peeled for local stuff like this. I think the Arroyo Seco ride is coming up. I'll have to find out.

Great shots, btw.

Great report, Hollywood! Yep, I too am a flake. Thanks for posting the pics.
Peace,

Hey man, I saw you there. I saw the guy in Cal kit yelling "Yeah, MTBR!"