Bike crush.

Now that I’m moving to a bike-friendly city, I’m really looking forward to getting some mileage out of my foldie. The irony, of course, is that I’ll have a place to keep a regular old non-folding bike, so I’m questioning if the foldie is the best choice. It probably is – it’s the best-riding bike I’ve ever owned. I may have loved my old Schwinn dearly, because it was the best-fitting bike I’ve ever had – but the clunky shift mechanism and the fact that I couldn’t easily find someone to work on it made it less than perfect. The foldie both fits and rides well, so it’s kind of a no-brainer.

Still, I’ve been keeping an eye out for other small bike options. By small, I mean 24″ – I’m both vertically-challenged and super uncoordinated, so it’s critical that my feet touch the ground easily. Recently I saw a girl riding a Coco bike down my street, and I immediately became intrigued.

Apparently Forge bikes are made specifically for Target, but they are supposed to be a cut above the usual poorly-made big-box bikes. I’m skeptical; I had an incident some years back in which my big-box Huffy comfort bike seized up on me while I was riding the Long Beach bike path, causing me to fly ass-over-teakettle into the sand. They don’t sell these in the stores, at least not around me – has anybody seen one in person?

ETA – Welcome, everyone who came here via Not Martha! The recommendations are much appreciated; however, I’m looking for feedback about the Forge Coco bike specifically. I know there are lots of great bikes out there, but this is the one I’m curious about.

 

Girl + bike = C-word.

Photo-0002.jpg
Originally uploaded by chez shoes.

So I got up early this morning, and decided to start my day with a just-for-fun cruise down 4SBB.

At 4th and La Brea, I hit a red light. It’s early, but there’s still enough traffic to make it seem prudent to wait for a green to cross. Next to me is an unassuming-looking guy in a Jetta*, also seemingly waiting to cross La Brea. (I mean, he didn’t have a turn signal flashing. So he must be going straight, right?)

Light turns green. I start going straight. Guy starts turning right. I stop, he stops, throws up his arms in a “what’s the world coming to?” kind of gesture, rolls down his window and says “Stupid (c-word), I’ve been waiting for you to go!”

I can only assume that in his self-absorbed little world, he was going to make a right turn (without signalling, that is) so OF COURSE I couldn’t possibly have been waiting to do anything but make a right turn. Either that, or he expected me to cross a major thoroughfare against a red light and get out of his all-important way. Either way – WTF?

I just gave him stinkeye and shook my head at him and rode off. But not before he managed to get in one last dig: “Stupid (c-word), GET OUT OF THE STREET.”

Now that’s an original one. *rolls eyes*

*It’s worth pointing out that the guy didn’t look like the typical type that harasses bicyclists. I mean, he *looked* like a nice guy. Generally speaking, the not-nice guys don’t drive Jettas or other reasonably-sized cars. And they usually look a lot richer, or a lot more stylish, than this guy did. Just goes to show you, I guess.

 

Riding the bus: second attempt.

Unlike the first time I tried to take the bus to work, yesterday the bus actually came. Whether or not this was a good thing, though, I’m not sure, because it was the most crazy crowded bus I’ve ever been on in my life! Reminiscent of the Tokyo subway – seriously, people on the outside were pushing the back doors shut because otherwise they wouldn’t close. Full of kids headed to Uni High in west L.A. – what this says about our local high school, I can only wonder – loud and obnoxious and not exactly the sensory experience I had hoped for at 7am. Silly me, with my fantasies of sitting and reading a book.

I ended up standing, awkwardly, with ten pounds of laptop on my back, trying to reach the grab rail that is just a teensy bit too high for those of us shorter than average, from my corner all the way to Santa Monica. And ended up, of course, with my back in pain the whole rest of the day.

The ride home, on the other hand, was dreamy*, and if I could catch a morning bus that would allow me to sit and read the entire time I’d be all over it. I think further experimentation is in order, but not this week, since my boss has whomped me with another unreasonable deadline, so staying at work into the wee dark hours is a likely prospect. Darned work, getting in the way of my attempts at eco-friendliness!

*Dreamy, except for those STUPID televisions they have on the buses. WTF? Is there anything more depressing than being part of a captive audience for dreary news stories and subprime loan scam advertisements? Please.

 

Note to self.

Even though you may think you’re the absolute shizz on your new folding bike, do not attempt to ride down 3rd Street to the Fairfax Branch library at 3pm on a Saturday.

Because although you may choose to ignore the horror that is The Grove, millions of people do not, and hordes of sheep will be mall-walking in slow motion, making sidewalk riding impossible, and the motorized hordes will be focused on looking for parking and oblivious to everything else. And there’s no bike lane on 3rd, of course, and barely room for cars, let alone me.

Oh, and? Even though Pan Pacific Park, which leads right to the library, has lovely paths that are perfect for two-wheeling on, bikes are not permitted in the park.

In spite of all that? The thing is darned fun to ride. I just need to find some alternate routes.

(Photography by Blurry Lens.)

 

Sweet Pea.

How adorable is the Sweet Pea folding bike made by Dahon a couple years back? So, so cute, and designed for people 4′10″ to 5′6″ – hey, that would be me!

Sadly, it appears to have been discontinued, even though Dahon still features it on their splash page, which I find to be cruel, cruel torture.

Later today I’ll be looking at the far more conservative Mariner, and hoping the Craigslist seller is willing to bargain a bit.

The practical side of me knows that this is a better choice – with seven speeds instead of the Sweet Pea’s one, I’m sure I’ll be a lot happier. Plus, as someone who doesn’t much like to be conspicuous when out on the mean streets of L.A., I don’t suppose a pink bike is the way to go!

 

Car-free: the experiment.

While paying over $4 a gallon for gas has become pretty commonplace here in SoCal, I have yet to do it. Yes, I’m just cheap frugal enough to go out of my way several blocks or more just to pay, oh, $3.97 a gallon.

Somehow, though, that doesn’t seem like enough. The higher gas prices have gone, the more I’ve begun to question my own dependence on a commodity that really does much more harm than good in so many ways.

So yesterday – my sole day off this week, but that’s a rant for a different day – I looked into various options to help cut my fuel dependency. While I’m not giving up my Corolla entirely, the plan is this: find ways to rely on it less in the short term, and in February, when it’s paid off (not to mention 10 years old), if I can’t afford to trade up to a hybrid, I hope to be able to go entirely car-free.

I’ve talked about my bike before. I love my bike, but I don’t have any place to store it where I now live, unless I haul it up to the second floor and park it in my apartment. While this isn’t outside of the realm of possibility, I’m thinking a folding bike might be a better way to go. I test-rode a Dahon Curve yesterday, and fell instantly in love. I’m pretty sure there will be one of these in my future – they’re not cheap, though, so it will take a bit of saving.

I also test-rode a cast-off 20″ Schwinn mountain bike belonging to a teenager who has outgrown it. Yes, long legs and all, I’m still small enough to be able to ride this thing. I’m thinking this bike could live outside, chained to a street sign post, with little threat of being stolen – I mean, it’s small! It’s purple! Not exactly the most desirable thing to a serious bicycle thief. It rides just fine and would get me to Trader Joe’s and back, and I wouldn’t care if it got a bit weathered.

Today, though, will be the biggest part of the experiment: I’m taking the bus to work. This entails getting on an express bus that ends with an almost-one-mile walk from the bus stop to my job, all the while lugging a rather heavy laptop. While I’m all about the walking, I’m not so sure that the return trip, after 9+ hours on the job, will be something I can commit to. But there are incentives: my company pays for a transit pass, plus a $125 CASH BONUS, each month to anybody who gives up their parking pass. Dude! That’s a pair of shoes a month! Or, within 4 months, that’s a Dahon Glide!

Put in those terms, I think I can do this.

UPDATE: Epic fail! I went out to the bus stop 10 minutes before the bus was due, only to see it pulling away early. I waved, but he just shook his head and didn’t stop. The next several buses didn’t go far enough west; then the next one just passed right by me without stopping! Defeated and 30 minutes later, I headed for my car. Eff you, Los Angeles MTA. Next time I’m trying the Big Blue Bus.