Swarm!

Swarm! http://www.bikeswarm.org/ en-US Copyright 2008 Wed, 14 May 2008 12:49:07 -0800 http://www.sixapart.com/movabletype/ http://www.rssboard.org/rss-specification VeloCity San Francisco Cycle Hawk was also able to make it out this time around, and has a complete update on their site.

Anne from Chrome snagged a pretty awesome photo of me in my Swarm! jersey after taking 1st in the womens. Unfortunately, there weren't any female messengers to win the tickets to Toronto, but the other ladies gave me some stiff competition.

Jack took 3rd place in the ultra-competitive open Men's category even with a swollen mountain bike afflicted knee.

Congrats to Fergus on winning his ticket to Toronto!

]]> http://www.bikeswarm.org/2008/05/velocity-san-francisco.html http://www.bikeswarm.org/2008/05/velocity-san-francisco.html velocity hellyer san francisco messenger track Wed, 14 May 2008 12:49:07 -0800 Mt. Wilson by bike, on a weekday in April

Riding to the top of Mount Wilson overlooking Pasadena is always an
adventure. How can a 19 mile climb fail to be? Particularly
considering the fact that after the first half there's little sign of
humanity beyond the road you're riding on, and the final five miles
have spectacular views of the higher, eastern San Gabriel mountains
with sometimes snow-capped Mount Baldy in the center. When I rode it
towards the end of April this year, I had a little more adventure than
I'd planned on.

Towards the end of April I agreed with a friend to ride Wilson one
morning. Due to some poor planning, I awoke from five hours of sleep,
with a hangover. Nevertheless, I'd been wanting to do this ride for a
while so got ready to go. This revolved around eating a pile of
English muffins thickly covered in margarine and vegemite with a cup
of strong black coffee. As I was leaving, I called my friend. "Sorry -
I'm sick. Next week.". Should I just go back to bed, I wondered? I
decided that epic-ness outweighed beds, so set off, feeling a little
out-of-sorts, but determined to ride the mountain, and determined to
enjoy it.

The first section was hard. I had to ride up into Glendale. I got
lost. I got overtaken by some hipster kid while I was track-standing
at a light. I felt queasy. Chevy Chase, up into La Canada, was brutal.
I was really tired, despite going slower than usual. When I got to the
foot of the San Gabriels at the intersection of Angeles Crest Highway
and Foothill in La Canada I sat and ate another muffin and watched
piles of sporty looking roadies crushing up the first section of the
hill. The thing about sporty looking roadies is that they're often not
as fast as they look, but today I was wary of psychological breakdown
if I were overtaken time and again by blank-faced roadie androids. I
decided I'd try to latch onto the back of the next crew who went by.

But, no-one else seemed to be coming, so I set off. Actually, it
wasn't that hard, once I'd gotten going. And in fact, it turned out
that there was a bunch of roadies up ahead who'd presumably come in
from a side-road. I tried to catch them but they were maintaining a
pretty good pace. The first ten miles of uphill wound up into the dry,
rocky San Gabriel mountains with panoramic views of the surrounding
peaks and, behind me, back to the LA basin. Really cool. I finally
picked off one of the riders but the others were unattainable. I
dripped sweat.

Halfway to the top of Wilson, Angeles Forest Highway diverges north,
eventually descending into Palmdale after a brutal, but not visibly
steep, ascent. At that divergence there's a small ranger station, an
outhouse and a water fountain. It's located at a brief respite in the
ascent so I pulled in to stock up on water and rest. There were
probably 15 other riders there, chatting about upcoming races. They
looked thoroughly hardcore so I talked to a hiker instead and
recommended he hiked up to the top of Mt. Josephine (see bikepLAgue
#2!), as he couldn't find the hike he'd intended to do. Then when a
contingent of the roadies set off up to the top, I set off in
(moderately) hot pursuit.

No dice though, again they were marginally faster than I was. I was
doomed to deal with this mid-section alone, a remote-feeling stretch
of road winding up the base of a canyon and the site of many a Dark
Moment in my cycling past. At least I wasn't flailing as I used to on
this section. At the top of the canyon is a second branch in Angeles
Crest Highway at an intersection named Red Box; this time, however,
you veer south-east onto Mt. Wilson road, leaving the highway to
meander towards the higher eastern San Gabriels. I didn't stop, but
waved hello to a couple of roadies who were resting up there. One of
them broke off and caught up with me: "Mind if I just sit on your
tail?". "Damn, I was hoping you were going to pull ME up", I replied.
We rode together and chatted. Nice guy. He'd never ridden Wilson
before and must have been impressed by the eastern vista towards
snow-capped Mt. Baldy. It's so strange to think we were less than 20
miles by road (or probably five, as the crow flies) from the sprawl of
Los Angeles. We made good speed to the top but it wasn't easy.

He joined his riding buddies while I went for a good sit-down, water
and some plain tortillas (55 calories each; my new energy bar of
choice). The panorama can be stunning from Wilson down to Long Beach
and beyond but today, LA was draped in low clowds. Pasadena was clear
nonetheless and the abrupt escarpement of the San Gabriels as they
drop off down into Pasadena is spectacular.

It was then that my roadie ride transitioned into an adventure of
meeting people, and having to think on my feet.

First, a couple of guys, probably in their early 60's, drove up and
strolled over. We chatted. They turned out to be genuine, great
people. And incredibly knowledgeable of California. One was British,
on a regular visit to his American in-laws, of whom the other was one.
They knew the Californian mountain ranges intimately: the San
Bernardinos, San Gabriels, San Jacintos, Sierra Nevada. We talked of
Lassen and Mt. Shasta. They knew Death Valley and the geography of the
LA basin. They'd climbed Mt. Whitney and were familiar with the John
Muir Trail in the high Sierras and had driven hitch-hiking Pacific
Crest Trail hikers into towns. Inspiring. In hindsight though, it was
ironic that we talked about hitch-hiking.

They resolved to move on to look around the Wilson observatory site
and I resolved to go home for a shower and more thick black coffee so
we bid each other a happy farewell and set off in our separate
directions. I was happy to find the bicycle easy beneath my feet and
braced myself for the cold first section of the descent. I'd spotted
patches of snow on the edge of the road towards the top. However,
after a mile of brisk descent, a sharp POP! rang out, and my bike
became difficult to control. I hit the brakes; a corner lay ahead and
I wondered if I'd had a flat. If so, the corner might be hard to
negotiate at 30 miles an hour.

But I managed to pull the bike to a stop without falling. Check both
tyres. Front: fine. Back: fine. Hmmm. Spokes, then? I got off my bike
and checked my spokes. Ah. My fancy borrowed rear Ksyrium wheel with
it's flattened spokes and deep rim had lost a spoke and, with only 20
or so spokes, had gone pear shaped. Literally. So, what now? I tried
loosening my brakes; the wheel was probably wobbly by over a
centimeter, so that wouldn't work. How about remove the brakes
entirely? Unfortunatley I didn't have an allen wrench with me and
anyway, the wheel was so out of alignment that it was rubbing against
the chain stay. Re-true? Well, it needed a proprietary tool which I
didn't have, and the remaining spokes were too tight to adjust by
hand. Break another spoke so as to even up the alignment? If you like
the idea of sawing off your arm when it gets trapped under a boulder
then that's cool, but that option seemed hard, unclear as to whether
it'd even work, potentially expensive, and it worried me that that'd
set off a chain-reaction of broken spokes, leaving me with a hub
unconnected to a rim. I realised that there was no way I'd be able to
ride the bike - it'd either be a hitch-hike down to town, or walk. As
walking was assured, I decided to start off with that option. It was
probably around midday and I figured I could walk the ~18 miles down
to La Canada in six or seven hours. Good job I was wearing running
shoes instead of "proper" cycling shoes.

However, after I'd covered a few steps, a pick-up truck came around
the corner from the observatory and promptly stopped when I stuck my
thumb out. Yes! I threw my bike in the back and jumped in the cab, a
little self-conscious about wearing spandex, but relieved to have a
ride. The driver was a jovial construction worker who'd had a job up
at the observatory in the morning. For the second time in the day I
was inspired, not only by the ease with which I'd got a ride, but by
the story he told me about getting up to the observatory for 5am this
morning, hours before his job started, to walk along some trails and
see the sun rise. Amazing. We drove down the road chatting. I joked
that I'd been cheated of the fun downhill after all the effort
involved in getting to the top. It would have been difficult to
describe that I enjoy the uphill, not the downhill, to a non-cyclist.

As we got closer to La Canada, my ride asked me where I was going. I
replied "Downtown LA". He offered to drop me at a Gold line station
which I happily accepted. He dropped me at the Mission station where I
got a train into LA.

Now all that remained was to walk half a mile to a bus-stop and catch
a bus home. I walked over and sat at the stop. A guy on a mountain
bike rode by and asked if I needed anything. As I figured he wouldn't
have any replacement Ksyrium spokes on his person, shouted, "fine,
thanks!". Then a woman came out of the restaurant next to the bus
stop. It turned out that she raced at the velodrome and knew some
friends, including the owner of my fancy, self-destructing wheel. It's
a small world.

And then, the bus came.

I ate a lot of pasta when I got home, and was grateful. An adventure
of scenery, sweat, people, generosity, and luck.
]]> http://www.bikeswarm.org/2008/04/mt-wilson-by-bike-on-a-weekday.html http://www.bikeswarm.org/2008/04/mt-wilson-by-bike-on-a-weekday.html adventure road Wed, 23 Apr 2008 21:37:12 -0800 Velocity '08 updates
Friday April 11th-
Blade Runner Alleycat 7pm 4th and Flower. This is going to be amazing, so you should really check it out.

Opening party starts at 9PM at Basswerks 5411 W. Adams Goldsprint qualifiers start as soon as people start showing up. Semi-finals will start at 11pm NO MATTER WHAT!
$5 entry, free beer sponsored by New Belgium

Saturday April 12th 12PM at Encino Velodrome. We'll find out who is the fastest male and female messengers, and city bikers. Top male and female messenger goes to Cycle Messenger World Championships in Toronto.

9PM After party at Barcade 371 N Western.
We'll be doing awards here for the track events.

Sunday April 13th 2PM-8PM
Heliotrope Village Block Party
Track events, polo, ice cream, beer, and debauchery.
The Bicycle Kitchen will be a part of a really dope raffle including a vintage Falcon Track frame with a full Campy set up. All raffle proceeds will benefit the Bicycle Kitchen. ]]> http://www.bikeswarm.org/2008/04/velocity-08-updates.html http://www.bikeswarm.org/2008/04/velocity-08-updates.html Sun, 06 Apr 2008 18:50:07 -0800 Car Free Los Angeles? According to this Wilshire Center Earth Day event, April 22nd has been declared, by The City of Los Angeles, Car-Free Day. There are two movements linked from that page, the first being the World Car-Free Network. They have a long history and have developed the base that many other movements have built upon. Way back in 2000 Bogota, Columbia (yes, that Bogota) had their very first Car-Free Day based on the tenets of the World Car-Free Network. The second link is to Car Free Days, a newer organization with more of an environmental slant. We are excited to see what happens here in Los Angeles, which is hopefully something. ]]> http://www.bikeswarm.org/2008/03/car-free-los-angeles.html http://www.bikeswarm.org/2008/03/car-free-los-angeles.html Mon, 31 Mar 2008 12:45:46 -0800 Ride to the Ride!

Swarm! is happy to announce our first bicycle advocacy campaign: Ride to the Ride. For many of us riding to rides/races is done out of necessity: many of us just do not own cars. And once you see Los Angeles from that perspective you see what is possible. And it just so happens to improve our cycling and make the city a little greener.

Below is the text for the postcards that just came in the mail from Greener Printer. They've got that classic photo of Merckx that everyone loves in color on the front. Want to help get them out there? Stop by and see our friends at Orange 20 Bikes in Heliotrope Village and they'll flow you a handful. See you in the streets.

The Great Eddy Merckx was asked what three things
one could do to be a better cyclist and he said
"Ride your bike, ride your bike, ride your bike"

Riding to the ride not only increases your mileage, fitness and experience, but each time you replace a car trip with a bike trip you:

Increase the visibility of cyclists: making the roads safer for everyone
Decrease pollution and smog: improving our air quality

Join us in improving the air and roads for cyclists by leaving your motor vehicle at home.
For more information on traveling by bike, see www.bikenow.org or the LA Bicycle Coaltion.

]]> http://www.bikeswarm.org/2008/03/ride-to-the-ride.html http://www.bikeswarm.org/2008/03/ride-to-the-ride.html Sat, 29 Mar 2008 20:18:03 -0800 Chris Kostman blog Rough Riders: Any bike, Anywhere]]> http://www.bikeswarm.org/2008/03/chris-kostman-blog.html http://www.bikeswarm.org/2008/03/chris-kostman-blog.html Tue, 25 Mar 2008 09:41:53 -0800 Feel my Legs, I'm a Racer x3

This year's race was awesome with a good turnout, and eventually even rain that wasn't supposed to happen. Most everyone that knows him is aware that Cole (wolfpack) broke his collarbone and 2 ribs coming down Baxter 1, and hit the bump in the cross street. He managed to slide about 15ft up the next hill he was supposed to ride up. Cole also managed to get back on a bike in a week.

For the 3rd year in a row, our very own Jack 'won' the race, and Brian second behind him.

Everyone at the finish. It started raining just in time!

]]> http://www.bikeswarm.org/2008/03/feel-my-legs-im-a-racer-x3.html http://www.bikeswarm.org/2008/03/feel-my-legs-im-a-racer-x3.html Races and Rides feel my legs i'm a racer Sun, 02 Mar 2008 19:21:24 -0800 Cyclehawk Velocity 2008

April 12th

Friday night, Emergency Room Alleycat.
Saturday morning, the main track events.
Saturday evening, goldsprints/party most likely at a bar in downtown.
Sunday day, block party! skids, trackstands, tricks, etc, beer, food, etc...

This should be fun for everyone, messenger and non-messenger. If you aren't a working messenger, you can't win the tickets to Toronto, but you can win some cool stuff. The track stuff will be at Encino, because well, they are fun people, and we like them.

]]> http://www.bikeswarm.org/2008/02/cyclehawk-velocity-2008.html http://www.bikeswarm.org/2008/02/cyclehawk-velocity-2008.html Races and Rides alleycat cyclehawk goldspring party track velocity 2008 Wed, 06 Feb 2008 18:44:19 -0800 eat!sleep?bikes!
There is nothing funny about a 508-mile, non-stop bicycle race through Death Valley, but for these Los Angeles riders fun is a priority. Powered by burritos and fighting sleep deprivation the four attempt to become the first fixed gear team to race the Furnace Creek 508. Eat!Sleep?Bikes! follows them as they trade in messenger bags and U-locks for brakes and spandex to take on the 'toughest 48 hours in sport'. Along the way we learn about their obsession with bikes and veganism, living in Los Angeles without a car and promiscuous chimpanzees.

Trailer after the jump!
]]> http://www.bikeswarm.org/2008/01/eatsleepbikes.html http://www.bikeswarm.org/2008/01/eatsleepbikes.html Races and Rides bonobo Death Valley eat!sleep?bikes! Furnace Creek 508 sacha perry vegan Tue, 29 Jan 2008 17:50:32 -0800 Feel Your Legs!
Sat Feb 23
Feel My Legs, I'm a Racer

10 hills, 10 stages, 1 morning. A race for some, an epic adventure for others. It is a tour of some of the les

s traveled streets in Los Angeles, from downtown to Silver Lake and beyond. There is no entry fee and limited support. No car support please, spectators welcome on bicycles (you won't have to ride the hills).
Just riding up any one of these hills is an accomplishment. 10 in one day is seriously hard. Be prepared.

Meet at Sunset Blvd and EdgeCliffe Dr. (Silver Lake Farmers Market)
Sign-up at 845am, leave at 915 (!!)

More Info
]]> http://www.bikeswarm.org/2008/01/feel-your-legs.html http://www.bikeswarm.org/2008/01/feel-your-legs.html Races and Rides hills los angeles race swarm Tue, 29 Jan 2008 16:52:20 -0800