History of Biking in LA
Thread started by
ToddAlmighty at 03.25.11 - 10:16 am
This story is awesome, and if you ride in LA you HAVE to check it out. There some very cool pics of LA in the 1800's Can you guess where this picture was taken?
http://www.kcet.org/updaily/socal_focus/history/cycling-through-socal-history-31537.html
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On Western looking North south of Wilshire?
barleye03.25.11 - 10:48 am
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ok....i have to say, i swear to the non existent god that I looked at the link AFTER I posted the above comment. the Incline is the same as this photo on Western in the spot I'm referencing.
barleye03.25.11 - 10:53 am
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I really liked it until the damn fixies at the end.
onelessfixie03.25.11 - 11:10 am
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I love looking at old pix. Thanks for posting this.
Avi03.25.11 - 12:07 pm
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That would be a crazy coincidence it your pix matched up with the one from yesteryear--but I'm not sure they do, man. The peaks of the H'wood hills are much further in the distance in the old pic--in fact, they look totally different altogether. Made me wonder if (1) someone got it wrong, and the pix isn't on Western, or (2) the current Western is in a different location than it was many years ago. I've got no basis to confirm that one way or another, but shit has gotten shifted around over the years (i.e., Angels Flight).
I suspect that if it is Western looking north, it's much further south, like around Venice or Washington (where the article says a very nice bike route was). That could describe the flatter looking peaks of the Hollywood Hills in the way way distance.
Awesome pix nonetheless--yours and the oldie.
dudeonabike responding to a
comment by barleye
03.25.11 - 4:39 pm
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look like they crashed :[
n no cops to tell them to mov a long.
that must hav ben sweet!!!
fixie4life03.25.11 - 4:52 pm
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look like they crashed :[
n no cops to tell them to mov a long.
that must hav ben sweet!!!
fixie4life03.25.11 - 4:52 pm
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Go trip out on the old LA pix here--not of bikes, but many of Western through the years.
http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/showthread.php?t=170279&page=80
dudeonabike03.25.11 - 5:09 pm
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1926
"North from Wilshire on Western"
http://jpg3.lapl.org/pics37/00068431.jpg
It's all flat. ??
dudeonabike03.25.11 - 5:15 pm
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@ barleye The Photo does say riding north on Western Avenue toward Hollywood but great shot and comparison of the Members of the L.A. Times Bicycle Club in 1894 and today's LACM.
Trippy what a little over 100 years can change. Makes you wonder what is the cycling community going to be like 100 years from now and what are they going to think of our pic's?
Anyway ppl check out the whole story lots of cool stuff and pics of the Cahuenga pass and the LA Bikeway (a freeway for bikes) sometimes progress sux, and maybe the future will repeat the past and one day have it again.
ToddAlmighty03.26.11 - 1:33 pm
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Neat article! I have a preemptive facepalm reflex that prevents me from clicking play on any cycling video titled "I Am Los Angeles," but I think it's great to be able to put the present in context.
About the location on Western, it seems like just north of Olympic or just north of Pico would be the only places with topography that's anything like the road in the photo (unless it all got graded when they developed it). The "size" of the hills in the distance is a function of the field of view of the camera, so even if they look bigger in barley's photo, that doesn't mean it's not the same place, just a narrower angle.
If
this illustration/map from 1894 is accurate, it couldn't have been taken from Washington or anywhere south of Pico, since there were windbreak trees all along there. Unfortunately, it doesn't cover the area north of Pico, so there's no way to verify whether the topography looked like that. But really, who knew that there used to be a little pond sitting at the location of present-day Vermont/Olympic?
nathansnider03.26.11 - 4:22 pm
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Speaking of maps from the golden age of cycling,
this map is amazing! The interface is kind of crappy because they want you to buy their maps rather than browse them on the web, but seriously.
nathansnider03.26.11 - 4:28 pm
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Ridazz Roulette!