Capital City Trail + SW Commuter Path loop

 I have been trying to get more bike rides in since the weather has been so nice. I did a 19 mile round trip ride earlier this month, going from Olbrich park to the start of the Badger State Trail back to the park again. This was a fun ride and I got to see the city in a new way. After this ride, I looked online to see what other bike paths I could go on. I saw a nice possible loop using the Capital city trail that met up with the SW Commuter path. I noticed that a portion of the path I wanted to use required a trail pass. No problem I just needed to grab some cash and I would be set.

It was a fun ride and I took a lot of pictures as I went. Other cyclists thought I was in need of assistance since I was pulled over trying to take pictures haha. Photos of the route can be found here. I took to many pictures to just throw up on the blog here. The distance I covered was 25 miles and it went through the city, the suburbs, a hunting ground area and some farmland. I will eventually add the Badger State trail to this route although I can only go so far on it due to some of that path being dirt. I don't feel comfortable riding my 700 x 23 tires on dirt.

Me on a part of the path.

Madtown Maidens Alleycat Race

Madtown Maidens Alleycat.

On Cinco De Mayo I set out to ride my bike in an alleycat race, the Madtown Maidens Alleycat race to be exact! I signed up earlier in the month and paid a $5 entry fee. I'm always down for doing things that will get me out on my bike more. The race is an all female race that has the riders stopping at checkpoints to do various silly things. The difference with this alleycat from others is that we are told to follow traffic laws/rules and not cause trouble.

I went with a  fellow co-worker, Chelsea. She was actually the one who told me about it. I worked the same day as the race so after work I went home, showered, got dressed, ate lunch, set up the bike rack on the trunk of my car (with Erland's help) & then finally headed off to pick up Chelsea and her bike. We got to the starting point and met up with a group that Chelsea knew called the Greasy Gears. They are a group of women that ride bikes, prepare their own  go-go dancing routines & perform them. I don't & can't really dance, so I dig the bike riding aspect part. The race started and ended at Harbor Athletic Club and we had to be back by a certain time for it to count

Start of the race.

Riding off to the first checkpoint

We had 8 checkpoints on our manifestos to do. We completed 6 of them due to running out of time. First one was to go to a diner that sold pies and the checkpoint consisted of naming a pie and also what knowing pie was (3.14 type) and writing it down.

Trying to figure out how to get to 2nd checkpoint.

The 2nd checkpoint was at a coffee place where we had to write a haiku about bikes. (Mine was awful) 3rd checkpoint was at a park where we had to complete a small obstacle course around orange cones with a ball between our legs.

Doing checkpoint #3.

Riding away from the park.

4th checkpoint was to go to another park and write down what was on the sign. This one gave us trouble because we couldn't find where it was. It also involved a bit of climbing, but we checked it off our list! 5th checkpoint was to go to a furniture store and draw a bicycle on poster paper. the last checkpoint we did was at the end and it was to do a dance with the Greasy Gear members who stayed to man the last station. The two we missed were to go to a house and get a sticky note off a door & to go to a bike shop to pump a tire.

Dancing with the Greasy Gears.

My manifesto.

The end had a lot of  food & refreshments to enjoy as well as prizes. I didn't win anything, but I had a lot of fun. Some parts were tough and kicked my ass, but I really enjoyed all of it. There are more photos of the event on this Facebook page  & on Madtown Maidens page

Bike ride around the lake

My bike on the path.

I went for a bike ride around one of the lakes here in Madison back in September. I drove to a park near the Capital city bike path, parked my car in the lot and started from there. It was a bit chilly but it was a very nice ride. The portion of my ride that was on the bike path was really cool. I got to see parts of the city in a new way. It was after the bike path ended and I had to maneuver through areas I was unfamiliar with ,that my ride became less "enjoy the views" and more of "look at map on phone to figure out which way to get back to car"  

On the part of the ride where I had to be in the road I was really really impressed by how much space the cars gave me. I know Madison is considered a bike friendly city but, man I was really surprised about how well behaved cars are around people on bikes. I guess it really pays to have bike paths everywhere and enough people cycling on roads to have drivers used to others on the road. 

View of the lake along the path

As  the bike path ended and I started my way maneuvering through the streets, I came across this road under construction. I didn't want to chance riding on this so I walked  with my bike until I saw a sign that pointed me in the right direction. I think I probably could have ridden on this dirt but, I was too nervous to try it.

Ducks!

Overall I had a really fun time and I hope to eventually ride around the bigger lakes. Here is the route I took.

Group Ride April 17, 2011 Toluca Lake/North Hollywood

 I was looking up rides on the Midnight Ridazz site and found one. It was in my neighborhood and wasn't to long of a route, was in the day and seemed like a good first group ride so, I decided to try it. It started in Toluca Lake and went through North Hollywood.

The page with the ride details.

I rode down to the starting location from my apartment around 9:45 to get there at the starting time of 10am. When I arrived I saw other people on bikes  already there. I signed a waiver form, got a name tag and was ready to go. I moved to the starting area in the street and waited with the others. I got into a conversation with a women named Nancy. She asked me how long I had been riding and told me about her club called Los Angeles Wheelman and the rides they do. I told her I had just started to ride again and that it was tough to get rides in with school and work keeping me busy. I would have looked into her club but since I am moving to a different state soon there wouldn't be any time to join. She was very nice and it looked like she was riding a cool touring bike.

Me signing the waiver form. I was looking up Erlands #.

The group waiting to go. I'm on the left talking to Nancy.

Joining the ride were Los Angeles City Councilman, Tom Labonge of the 4th district and weatherman for NBC 4 News, Fritz Coleman. It was really hot for being 10am on a Sunday and the councilman was running late! Some of the riders were not happy. Tom Labonge finally arrived and we headed out on the ride. We had 2 bicycle cops escort us, which was awesome since they stopped the car traffic and made it easier overall to get around.

Councilman finally arrives.He is the one in green.

We stopped at a fire station to say hello and got a photo taken with the fireman. The fireman handed out water and Gatorade to the group which was really nice of them. I already had a water bottle so I didn't take one. at one point during teh ride I saw someone riding with live birds on them. I'm amazed they didn't fly away!The ride ended back at the start by the farmers market. Then from there I rode back home. Overall it was a fun ride.

The leader of the ride (in white) at the end of the ride.

Note: I didn't bring my camera to this ride because I forgot. These pictures come from the online city news website. I think its awesome that I found some pics with me in them! Photos by Tiffany Kelly

Bike route: The route plus riding to and from my apartment made it a total of 10 miles according to my cyclocomputer. Not a lot but it was an easy ride and I'm still new.

Picture of route. I couldn't figure out how to get a direct link to it sorry!

Ciclavia! April 10, 2011

 "Ciclovías started in Bogotá, Colombia, over thirty years ago as a response to the congestion and pollution of city streets. Now they happen throughout Latin America and the United States, connecting communities and giving people a break from the stress of car traffic. The health benefits are immense. Ciclovías bring families outside of their homes to enjoy the streets, our largest public space."  -http://ciclavia.wordpress.com/

Ciclavia Route 

   Even before getting my bike I looked  for events/group rides etc that I could join. During my search I had discovered  an event called Ciclavia. 7.5 miles of closed off Los Angeles streets, open only to bicycles, pedestrians, and  roller skates/rollerblades. I could not miss this! I took the metro rail subway from the North Hollywood station to the Santa Monica/Vermont station and rode south to the Heliotrope and Melrose. There I met up with my good friend Erica. In my rush to leave my apartment I forgot to bring my water bottle so I went to the first convenient store/mart so that I could buy some water. As I paid for my water I chatted with  the owner of the small corner store. (We spoke in Spanish) She spoke about what a great day it was to ride bikes and to get out there and sweat. I agreed with her and told her it was nice not to have to deal with all the traffic cars make for a few hours. The place was packed with people but somehow Erica did manage to see another friend with his son at the event just as we were starting to ride the route.

Our rides (L) My bike (R) Erica's bike

It was so fun to ride on open streets without any cars. This was my first big group/crowd ride and it was an interesting learning experience as well. I managed to hurt my left foot when a dude in a recumbent decided that talking on his cell phone and just stopping in the middle of the road was okay. To try and avoid him I had to move to my left but there was another women there already so, to avoid ramming into her, I had to quickly put my foot down to stabilize myself. Problem with that is I use straps and the process of trying to get my foot out of the straps fast enough did some damage to my foot and it hurt like a bitch. This was the only sour note on an otherwise fantastic ride.

Recumbent jerk from earlier in the ride

Neither Erica or I had bike locks so we "valet parked" our bikes at a bike rack parking station run by the Los Angeles County Bicycle Coalition. They were set up in Little Tokyo so we were able to walk around and check out the stores and have some lunch.After we were done checking out Little Tokyo we started our ride back the way we came so that we could find a metro station and head home.

Little Tokyo bike valet.

More pictures from the ride can be found HERE

Some video footage of the route. (it's not possible for me to get footage as I ride)

Hobby #5 Cycling

Past experiences with bicycles
My earliest memory of a bicycle was when I was younger and asking Santa for a bicycle. Getting it that Christmas morning will be something I will never forget. I ran down the stairs  really early in the morning and there it was. It was a pink bike with streamers on the handles. It was awesome! My second memory concerning bikes is  middle school through high school. I had a hand me down mountain bike that had belonged to my older sister. I rode it everywhere. It got me to school and as I got older it got me to my job (6 mi round trip). The longest ride at that age was when I rode it from Altadena, CA  to El Monte, CA which was 14 miles. Great memories with my old bicycles.

Present
I decided to get a bike again. This time around I did a lot of research into what type of bike I wanted and I ended up with this.

2010 Scattante R-570

I felt, for the price I payed, that I got a good quality first road bike. I bought a helmet and some power grip pedals using my REI dividend and started to ride. I have been riding on the nearest bike path, Chandler bike path, in North Hollywood/Burbank. Starting slow and steady to get used to the drop bars and the pedals/straps combo. From my apartment to the end of the bike path one way and then back home again the distance is 6.8 miles.

 I have been having lots of fun riding again. I don't ever plan to race with it or anything but in the future I want to try and commute more with my bike. Will probably start with riding to work this summer and see how that goes since L.A drivers are not very bike friendly when it comes to sharing roads. I also have the goal to try and ride on as many bike paths as I can in this area by the end of the summer. I will be using the map from http://www.labikepaths.com/ to  find them. One down a whole lot more to go!