2009 Bike activism in LA

Posted on by Matt Ruscigno 1 Comment

While I do a variety of things that do not include updating my blog, Stephen Box over at soapboxla.blogspot.com wrote a terrific article called 2009: The Year of the Bike that anyone interested in bike advocacy in Los Angeles should read. We have an uphill battle, but the energy and effort by people like Stephen is paying off. He’s part of the Bike Writers Collective who organized the LA Bike Working Group (I wrote about it here) in response to the City of Los Angeles ‘Bike Plan’ that reduces the number of bike lanes from earlier plans.

Stephen ends the article with this:
The year 2009 closed with LA’s Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa using the word bicycle in a sentence. He said, in an interview with KPCC’s Patt Morrison, “In the area of bicycling I’ve gotta do a better job and the city’s gotta do a better job.”

To those of you in any number of major US cities this is not a big deal. Your mayor probably rides a freakin bike, but Villaraigosa had never even muttered the word ‘bicycle’. I’m not getting my hopes up because he talks way (way) more than he does, but it is a step in the right direction. Come on Los Angeles, we are so close. Let’s step it up in 2010.

Dont Get Fat ‘training camp’ Days 4 and 5 ahead

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*Update for Day 5* Due to Angeles Crest still being closed we’re going to do a flat-ish 100 on PCH. Still meet at Cafe Tropical at 7, ride at 730. Route will be Sunset->Santa Monica blvd ->Federal->San Vicente->Ocean-> the nibble down to PCH->’the rock’->return. Eat at Carousel at Santa Monica and Normandie. I’m ready to fight mapmyride.com so no map! Westside meet-up can be the bathrooms/water at San Vicente/Ocean probably 9ish. Email bikeswarm on gmail if you’re trying to hop on and I’ll be sure to check it.

Michael riding up Epic-er road in
Glendale/La Canada with DTLA in background


Today we met at CycleWay Coffee in Hermon for some chillin and caffeine consumption, rode the hills of Mt Washington, South Pas and some other little-known roads and ate at Hugo’s tacos in Atwater, which included a damn hot habenero salsa. Map of the route for your riding pleasure. More photos and updates over at bikeswarm.org. Thanks to everyone who has come out!

Join us tomorrow:
Dec19 Sat-Meet at 7am for coffee at Peet’s on Larchmont, rolling at 730am to Palos Verdes for a 73-mile route to India Sweets and Spices on Venice Blvd. Here is roughly what the route will look like.

Battery covering 7 Seconds’ Young Till I Die for motivation:

http://www.youtube.com/v/hfuhWEda5NM&hl=en_US&fs=1&

Don’t Get Fat ‘training camp’ Dec 16-20th

Posted on by Matt Ruscigno 1 Comment

Update 2: Friday Day3 route. Ride to the ride from Sunset blvd and Griffith Park blvd (Silver Lake farmers market location) leaving at 730.

Update:
Day 1 route and join us for a 655-755am yoga class at Urth Yoga on 2809 W. Sunset Blvd. Indoor bike parking and $5 class and $1 mat rental!
Day 2 route

Join Swarm! as we drink coffee, ride in spandex and eat vegan food all over Los Angeles during a 5-day Don’t Get Fat ‘training camp’. Each day we’ll meet at a coffee shop, ride a great route and end at a vegan-friendly restaurant.

photo from AdventureCORPS

Dec16 Wed 8/830am- Intelligensia, riding Beachwood through the Hollywood Hills onto Mulholland (40 miles-route), eat at Flore

Dec17 Thur- 8/830am- Trails Cafe, riding Griffith and Elysian (40- route), eat at Pure Luck
Dec18 Fri- 8/830am- CycleWay Coffee, riding the hills of Mt Washington, South Pas and some other little-known roads (50), eat at Hugo’s tacos in Atwater
Dec19 Sat-7/730am- Peet’s on Larchmont, riding Palos Verdes with two options of difficulty (60/75), eating at India Sweets and Spices on Venice Blvd
Dec20 Sun-7/730am- Cafe Tropical, riding Big Tujunga, Angeles Forest/Crest. (75-100), eating at Carousel

(first time is coffee, second is rolling, estimated mileage in parentheses)

What should I bring?
Snacks, tube; the usual for a self-supported ride. Also money for coffee and food. On the longer rides we’ll have an additional stop for food and water.
Can I keep up?
If you do Wolf Pack Hustle, BiciKillers, Caturday Warriors or something similar, yes.
Will you wait up?
Probably. Though if you show up in jeans on a track bike, probably not. Unless you are Cole or some other monster then you’ll have to wait for us.
Do I have to do everything?
Hanging out is mandatory unless you can’t then that’s cool.
Does it cost anything?
The value of these rides is greater than money; we require your time and stokedness.
What are the percentages for the climbs and what wattage can I expect to put out per hour, on average?
These rides are probably not for you.
Who is putting this on?
A ‘bunch of fucking boring semi-employed geeks’ known as Swarm!. Questions? Get in touch at bikeswarm on gmail.
Swarm! events for 2010
Feb: Dan’s urban cyclocross race, I Got Fat training camp
March: Thus Climbed Zarathustra; Feel My Legs, I’m a Racer (5th year!)

vegan pizza

Posted on by Matt Ruscigno 2 Comments

When I went vegan at 17 my Italian mother was not happy at all. Mostly she feared I’d starve to death without manicotti, ravioli, lasagna or pizza. In the mid-90’s vegan cheese consisted of only tofutti slices that are about as similar to cheese as the package they come in. But I was motivated by the likes of Chokehold and Earth Crisis (though maybe not enough to have Firestorm karaoke at my wedding) and was committed to never eating these foods again.

homemade eggplant pizza as seen on Pizza Intolleranza

My how times have changed. ‘Which vegan cheese do you use?’ is now a normal question at pizza places. Just got back from a short trip to NYC and ate more ‘cheese’ pizza than I have in years. Pretty stoked though I hope people still work on developing great recipes that aren’t dependent on vegan cheese. On some levels that is happening as is evident by my friend Gian’s vegan pizza blog. I recently sampled some and was quite pleased. Since I developed my lasagna de bartolomeo vanzetti recipe (as seen in Please Don’t Feed the Bears) I have not played around with Italian recipes nearly enough. Will do though. Thanks for motivation, Gian.

another great email

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Re: I finally got the BOB Trailer

Matt,

We finally finished our over 4 month, 12,000 mile trip to and from Alaska. Your Bob Trailer worked well! Here is an article that came out in Steven’s local Orlando, FL newspaper after we reached Alaska back in August. We finished our trip at the end of October. Steven got so attached to his trailer that he would like to keep or buy it off of you. Please let me know what you decide.

Sincerely,

Danny Chew

website: http://www.dannychew.com

a great email to receive

Posted on by Matt Ruscigno 2 Comments

subject: your old surly long haul trucker

you'll have to pardon the bad scan, but this is me at the end of my
trip this summer.  after riding santa cruz to los angeles i got super
stoked on touring and flew out to seattle a week and a half later.  24
days after that i was back in santa cruz and then came back to la to
ride to the border to top it off.  your old bike has seen 1902.6
glorious miles of the coast this summer =)

Bike Plan, Ongoing

Posted on by Matt Ruscigno 1 Comment

Since my Let’s Get Down to Business post I’ve been thinking about why the Bike Plan is important. Five years ago I would not of cared nor thought it worth spending time on. You know what has changed? Us. Those who pedal in this city. We’ve come a long way. We have numbers and energy that I didn’t imagine possible in 2004, yet those outside of our circles don’t see it. They need to see us, hear from us and know what we are about.

Yes, I know the city doesn’t give a fuck about us. Special interests run government and we’re irrelevant to them. But you know what? We are motivated, passionate, loud and our cause is just. This is exceptional. The 2009 Bike Plan is actually less useful/relevant to cyclists than the 1996 one, but their cogs keep turning and doing what they do – nothing. If we don’t cause a ruckus and spell out why this is so fucking important to people – not just cyclists – those cogs will just continue spinning into oblivion and uselessness. Let’s put a wrench in it!

Joe Linton wrote that LA’s Bike Plan is a Step Backward on Bike Lanes from the 1996 plan. If you have not made a comment regarding the Bike Plan, what are you waiting for? Here is the real site and then a fun, mirrored one with a little more umph (where your comments still get submitted to the city): www.labikeplan.com. Alex Thompson gives a more thorough critique related to the Council District Transportation Advisory Committee with some great talking points. Enci discusses why non-cyclists should care about the Bike Plan.

Also LA’S BEST BIKE PLAN – BWG WORKSHOP:
Meeting at Santa Monica/Vermont Red Line Station at noon on Saturday the 31st and heading Downtown for the 1pm workshop. On facebook also.

Meet @ The Exchange at 1pm: 114 W. 5th St., Downtown LA, CA 90013

A new city meeting has been added in Northeast LA:
Wednesday, Nov 4
Ramona Hall
4580 N Figueroa Street, Los Angeles, CA 90042
6-8pm

New Moon Century

Posted on by Matt Ruscigno 3 Comments

My friend, housemate and co-conspirator in many adventures, Sasha, organized a century ride on Sunday Oct 18th: the New Moon Century. It was in the beautiful Santa Monica mountains and utilizes many of the terrific roads on the Mulholland Challenge and the Different Spokes Century (which incidentally is the first bike ride I ever paid for AND where I learned about double centuries way back in 2004). All of the proceeds go to an anti-hunger organization and Sea Shepherd!


Sasha is one of those people that when she gets a good idea, she just plows forward and learns as she goes. I could learn something from her, as I tend to over-think and over-organize before even getting started. It was all a little chaotic, but the best things in life usually are. We had a great team putting this on, including a SAG vehicle driven by Janet Christiansen, who finished Race Across America this year.

About 75 people rode one of the three options- 36, 62 and 100 miles. Outstanding considering the narrow focus: kosher! vegan!

Lunch stop volunteers and riders
For Jacob and Mike, sitting on the left, it was their first century


I helped at the lunch stop and had the honor of explaining to people what the hell tofurky and vegenaise are. Some were not interested and it was funny to watch them make a tomato, avocado, mustard sandwich, which is what I have to do when it’s real deli meat. But most people did try and seemed to enjoy it.

I had a fantastic time hanging out at Peter Strauss Ranch in the Santa Monica mountains and helping people accomplish something as demanding as a century. Putting on and helping at events can be as rewarding (and tiring!) as actually doing them. I also got to meet some new people, including a vegan cardiologist who I had only communicated with via the internets. She has a write-up on her great blog.

Thanks to the groups who helped out: Orange 20 Bikes, Clif bar, Tofurky and others:

Mandatory vegan restaurant hang-out post-ride:
Vinh Loi Tofu