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Not a particularly long ride, since it was only from the Sawtelle entrance to the Ballona Creek bike path out to Mustache Bridge, but that was perfect, since I'm still getting used to riding fixed gear.
After flatting on both of my last two rides, I switched to slime filled tubes, and they kicked ass so far.
It was nice to do a ride where everyone was sober for once. Not that the party rides aren't tremendous fun, but a slow ride in which everyone made it from point A to point B with no pointless crashes or drama was pretty sweet.
The weather was perfect. Not like this is rare in L.A. or anything, but
Then we got to Mustache Bridge, where a couple of members of the LAPD were talking about cycling safety, and giving out the numbers for the lead patrol officers in the area if any of us had any complaints.
One officer told me that being ticketed for being an unlicensed cyclist was very unlikely, but it seems like this board has the exceptions to the rule. Did get a nice free LAPD water bottle though, so maybe that will help on the next nighttime ride.
The MasterCard summary:
A fun slow ride with perfect weather - $0.
Not getting flats due to slime tubes - $5.99 per.
Getting free LAPD schwag as a result of a ride posted on Midnight Ridazz - Priceless.
be careful of tubes with slime inside. if you puncture your tire at a high psi and the detritus pops out, the slime has a propensity to spurt out while the wheel is rolling, sort of like water does when you ride through a puddle. the slime will fly on the back of your shirt or whatever and stain it. that stuff will not come out even with bleach.
Thanks to everyone that came out. If the goal was to get the cop's attention, we certainly did. I didn't even know they were going to be there until I got to the end of the ride. As usual, the great Will Campbell made a video you can see over at Metblogs:
Well, wherever this wacky trail is, I'm sure there will be no problems when I'm cruising through there blasting "Great Ballz of Fire" or some shit like that.
The LAPD officers in attendance seemed genuinely concerned about the trail, it's all a matter of funding and getting them more hours. Giving up a Saturday to hang out with a bunch of cyclists can't be their idea of a killer weekend, and I know they spent all weekend at a mandatory yearly training exercise.
We gotta figure out a way to get the city to give more of a crap about the trail. The few cops that have it as part of their beat aren't the problem IMHO.
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