Last Saturday we fired up the Swrve mobile bright and early for a big little road trip.
Actually, it was still dark so it was just early. Really early.
Two rights, a left, two more rights and a few hundred boring miles on the 5 later, we reached our destination- the 2012 North American Handbuilt Bike Show in lovely Sacramento.
We went as spectators with no real agenda other than have a good time, see some cool bikes and maybe run into some friends.
We’re pleased to report the trip was a smashing success on all three levels.
If you fashion yourself a bike geek, you owe it to yourself to check out NAHBS at least once. It’s a total cycling nerd fest in the best way possible. Imagine going to a Dungeons and Dragons Convention and everyone in attendance is a Grand Wizard (or whatever title is bestowed upon the highest level dungeon master). The show was nothing but the elite. The best of the best. Both in terms of builders and attendees.
You’ve probably spent the week drooling over eye candy on other blogs that feature professional photography so we won’t bore you with fuzzy shots you’ve already seen but here’s our trip (at least the parts we can remember) in pictures.
Our first stop was to check out the US Bicycling Hall of Fame in Davis. To say Davis is a cycling friendly town is like saying Mother Teresa was a lady who liked to help people. The tiny glimpse we got of Davis was jaw dropping. Everywhere you looked you’d see a bike- even on official city signage.
According to everyone we spoke to. This is what a slow Saturday looks like at the farmer’s market.
The Bicycling Hall of Fame was full of sweet delicious eye candy that was a good warm up for the day’s main event.
Someday I will have one.
This saw action in the Olympics.
Had these same purple “power sticks” back in the last century.
Patches will be the hot trend for 2013 if we have anything to say about it.
We were more than a little surprised to see our friends from Circles who came all the way from Japan for the show. They the closed the shop down and took the whole crew on a 48 hour whirlwind of a trip. And we thought we were wacky and bold driving six hours each way. Check out their recap here.
My big fan boy moment asking Tom Ritchey if he remembers building my now vintage Swiss Cross which is now Muriel’s.
Already planning a new wheel set around Paul’s new road hubs. Mmm…. drool.
Pablove Indy Fab.
This is Joey. Yes, that Joey. As if there’s another Joey.
Saturday night we met some friends for dinner and went to the party thrown by Stevil Knievel of All Hail the Black Market. We weren’t there for long before we were found ourselves in the path of Hurricane Joey. All the enthusiasm the kid had flying into that the barrier that made him famous was on full display. If the new crop of youngins in the bicycle industry have one tenth the energy of Joey, we’ll be in good hands by the time were full fledged crotchety old farts.
In a word Stevil’s party was a blast. We still had residual shakes from his Interbike bash but we did our part to drink the bar out of beer and most of their other alcohol based fluids. Seriously, a bunch of dirt bag bike nerds were able to drink a bar dry. It was a glorious and impressive site to not remember.
We do though remember most of the good times and the amazing energy that is in the air when so many bike people are gathered under one roof. It’s hard to explain but basically, if you’re part of the proverbial tribe (for lack of a better word) you’re all friends. A great example is how we piled into a cab to mooch a ride back to downtown with total stranger and by the time we arrived we’re old buddies hopping a fence and sneaking into the long closed pool area for a nightcap or five.
Good times all round. See you next year in Denver. Hope our friends at Rapha have enough time to scrape away all the poop.
how did matt’s photo get in there? i’m the swiss citizen! boo hoo!
Shifting gears in L.A.
Many cities around the world, including some in the U.S., are putting the focus on bicycles for short trips. And they’re making it happen. Shouldn’t Los Angeles go with the flow?
By Robert Gottlieb
December 14, 2009
With thousands of people, including L.A. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, gathered in Copenhagen to talk climate change, it’s a good time to take note of that city’s most significant contribution to reducing greenhouse gas emissions: bicycles. More than 36% of its residents ride bikes to work, about the same number use transit, and only a third commute by car. Is there a lesson for Los Angeles that the mayor can bring home as the city tries to reach its ambitious goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 20%?
Clearly Copenhagen has the advantage of being smaller in scale. But that’s not the only reason a transition to bikes has occurred in that city. Similar, though less dramatic, shifts are happening in the U.S., in places such as New York and Portland, Ore., and even Long Beach, which aspires to become one of the most bike-friendly cities in the U.S. Shouldn’t L.A. embrace the trend?
To pry Angelenos out of cars and onto bikes, L.A. will need to become far more imaginative and far bolder than it has been. Here are some ideas:
We should designate some streets in neighborhoods around the city as car-free on weekends. It’s been done elsewhere, even in Mexico City along its famed Paseo de la Reforma. There are groups in L.A. pushing to have car-free events, known in Latin America as ciclovias. Boyle Heights, where street life and public space are abundant, would be a natural place to test the concept.
Does it sound farfetched? If you have trouble imagining it, think back to several years ago, when the 110 Freeway was closed one Sunday to cars and turned over to bicycles and walkers. It was a magical moment for L.A. that needs to be repeated on the streets.
To facilitate a shift to bikes, transit dollars and policy need to focus more on short trips, which account for more than a quarter of U.S. car use and its resulting pollution and greenhouse gas emissions. We need a “car lite” approach, as the bike advocacy group CICLE argues, that facilitates alternatives to cars for short trips. Some college campuses are already largely car-free and bicycle-friendly. We need many more such public spaces.
We need to reach out to those who think bicycles aren’t for them. Copenhagen has been a leader in prodding women, seniors and others who have not been part of the bike-riding world to make the transition to everyday bike use. We need education and outreach focused on encouraging short trips, on communicating improvements in bike technology and on creating bike-friendly neighborhoods.
We need visionaries and “practical idealists” (as Villaraigosa likes to say) to push these kinds of changes forward. Janette Sadik-Khan, New York’s transportation commissioner — who is coming to L.A. in March to receive an honorary degree from Occidental College — has been an inspiration to bike advocates and climate change activists alike. Wander around Times Square or down Ninth Avenue and you immediately see how the streetscape has been changed to accommodate bike riders and walkers.
Finally, we need to change our thinking. We need to view streets as not exclusively for cars. Bike riders need to make common cause with pedestrians and bus riders and street vendors to encourage a new way of envisioning the city.
“The street means life in the heady currents of the urban river in which everyone and everything can mingle,” Rebecca Solnit wrote a few years ago. She wasn’t thinking of L.A. when she wrote those words, but if bikes make a comeback in a city that, 100 years ago, was known as the bike capital of the country, we will be considerably closer to achieving a vibrant urban river.
Robert Gottlieb is director of the Urban & Environmental Policy Institute at Occidental College and is helping organize “L.A. StreetSummit: Biking, Walking and More” to coincide with commissioner Sadik-Khan’s L.A. visit.
Copyright © 2009, The Los Angeles Times
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