BikinginLA

We’ve got a long list of bike events this month. So grab a cup of whatever you’re drinking, and settle in for awhile.

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The Abbot Kinney outpost of Bay Area bag maker Timbuk2 is hosting a Break Up With Your Bag food drive next weekend.

Here’s how they describe it.

Timbuk2, the San Francisco-based creator of intuitive, stylish and personalized bags to outsmart the city, is hosting a two-day Break Up With Your Bag event from Saturday, December 9 to Sunday, December 10. Stop by the Venice shop for a chance to give back to the local community and gain something special in return. Have some extra food or an unused bag lying around? Timbuk2 encourages their neighbors to donate to someone in need for something they can use in exchange.

Here’s how it will go down:

• First, bring in any non-perishable food item OR any gently used bag, no matter the brand, that’s ready to bid adieu.
• Next, Timbuk2 will donate every used bag to Bikerowave, and every non-perishable food item to the Los Angeles Regional Food Bank.
• At last, Timbuk2 will hook it up with a new item for 40% off!

To enhance this rewarding experience, Timbuk2 will provide tasty snacks and refreshing libations from Fort Point Beer. So mark those calendars and grab a bud, because breaking up feels good when it means giving back.

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In other bike events this month,

Bike SGV invites you to join them in tonight’s La Puente Holiday Parade.

Heal the Bay is hosting an Explore Ballona! Bike Ballona Creek ride this Saturday.

I. Martin is holding their “Shut Up Legs” Saturday morning ride, while Helen’s Cycles is hosting a Monthly Group Ride tomorrow, and a TriFit Beginner’s Ride on Sunday.

Bike SGV celebrates the season with their annual holiday awards fest Noche de las Luminarias Saturday afternoon.

Join Bike Oven in the NELA Holiday Parade this Sunday.

Also on Sunday, the LACBC teams with AARP for the December edition of their popular monthly Sunday Funday Ride, offering a tour of Griffith Park. And no, you don’t have to be over 50 to participate.

Bike SGV is celebrating the Monrovia Holiday Parade on Bicycles December 7th.

Also on the 7th, the LACBC is holding their annual Open House.

Santa Monica Spoke is hosting an Ugly Sweater Holiday Ride with the Mayor of Santa Monica on December 9th.

Also on the 9th, the LACBC is teaming with former pro Phil Gaimon, author of the new Draft Animals, for the 3rd Annual Clean UP Mulholland.

CicLAvia returns to iconic Wilshire Blvd on December 10th.

The very busy Bike SGV is holding a Cycling Santas Holiday Lights Ride on the 16th.

The 12th edition of LA’s iconic Feel My Legs, I’m A Racer hill climb competition rolls December 17th.

Also on the 17th, Walk Bike Glendale and the equally busy LACBC are hosting a Holiday Bike Ride.

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Today’s common theme is dockless bikeshare — and dockless bikeshare problems — around the world.

A new semi-dockless bikeshare system from Zagster promises to overcome the problem of abandoned bikes by offering a system that can be locked to their docks or any bike rack. Although that could mean bikeshare bikes hogging limited bike parking.

Dockless bikeshare is raising safety concerns in Dallas as abandoned bikes litter a popular tiding trail, even as a fifth bikeshare provider prepares to come to town.

A writer for Bicycling offers thoughts after riding dockless bikeshare around DC for a week.

A bike industry website says the uncontrolled spread of dockless bikeshare is not what European cities want.

Sydney, Australia’s government councils have given dockless bikeshare operators three months to clean up their act.

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Another common theme is adaptive bicycles. And the kindhearted people who help keep their owners riding.

It takes a real schmuck to steal an adaptive bike from a Danville school; fortunately, police were able to recover it.

Friends are crowdfunding a new adaptive tricycle for an Iowa woman with cerebral palsy, after someone stole the one she used to ride to work.

Ohio firefighters buy a new adaptive bicycle for a 12-year old girl with cerebral palsy after she called asking for help finding one.

After someone stole a three-wheeled bike a man with Down’s syndrome used to ride to his job at a Cleveland restaurant, his boss quickly ordered a new one for him.

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This is day eight of the 3rd Annual BikinginLA Holiday Fund Drive.

You can donate with just a few clicks by using PayPal. Or by using the Zelle app that is probably already in the banking app on your smartphone; send your contribution to ted @ bikinginla dot com (remove the spaces and format as a standard email address).

Any donation, in any amount, is truly and deeply appreciated to help keep SoCal’s freshest bike news coming your way every day.

As an added bonus, frequent contributor Megan Lynch will provide a free download of her CD Songs the Brothers Warner Taught Me to anyone who makes a contribution during the fund drive. If you’ve already contributed and would like a copy, just email me at the address above and I’ll forward it to her.

And thanks to Chris K and Megan L for their generous donations to help support this site.

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Local

A very polite editorial in UCLA’s Daily Bruin calls on Councilmember Paul Koretz to provide desperately needed bike lanes in Westwood Village. Maybe they’ve forgotten Koretz’ promise to business owners in the Village that he’d never allow bike lanes on Westwood Blvd in the Village.

LA plans to complete two LA River bike path projects by 2025 as part of their Twenty-Eight by ’28 list to complete before the coming 2028 Olympic Games.

CiclaValley recognizes the bad driver of the month.

Santa Clarita opens a new trailhead leading to the Santa Clara River Trail, complete with bike racks and a repair stand.

Los Angeles reaches a settlement with El Segundo that will allow planned improvements to go forward at LAX, including a consolidated rental car center and improved bicycle and pedestrian access.

Now you can rent ebikes in Long Beach’s Shoreline Village.

 

State

San Diego County agrees to a $77,500 settlement in the death of an unarmed man as he was working on his bicycle in his parent’s garage.

San Bernardino authorities have filed a murder charge against 34-year old Dominic Simmons in the death of Elroy Preston last Sunday; Simmons allegedly ran down Preston as he rode his bike after the two had been in the same home together.

San Francisco police hold a fundraiser for a bike cop who was severely injured when he was run down by a driver in October.

No irony here. After an Oakland cop refuses to ticket a driver parked in a bike lane because he has better things to do, a Streetsblog writer see his patrol SUV in the parking lot, with a police bicycle on the back.

Lake County’s Bike Angels are planning a bicycle giveaway next month for anyone who survived October’s Sulphur Fire.

Seriously, always look both ways before you cross the street, unlike this Chico rider.

 

National

Momentum looks at why North American cities rarely rank among the world’s best bike cities, and what we can do about it.

Ohio police are looking for a bank robber who made his getaway by mountain bike.

A Cambridge, Massachusetts bike rider calls on the city to suspend new bike lanes for the winter, saying they make traffic worse by putting bike riders in the middle of the lane, slowing traffic. Which makes it sound like he doesn’t know the difference between a bike lane and sharrows.

A Brooklyn bike shop owner wants you to visit your local bike shop December 9th for the first Bike Shop Day.

Philadelphia cyclists demand safer bike lanes now, after a woman was killed by a garbage truck while riding in a bike lane.

A Georgia woman won’t be behind the wheel again for a very long time, after she was sentenced to 25 years behind bars for killing one bike rider and injuring another after plowing into a group of riders while driving distracted with methadone and other drugs in her system, and her two-year old daughter in the car with her; she was still driving despite two previous DUI arrests. Yet another example of keeping a dangerous driver on the road until it’s too late.

Heartbreaking story from Florida, as a woman survived Hurricane Irma in a dramatic rescue, and fell in love with her rescuer, only to die at the hands of a hit-and-run driver as she was riding her bike.

 

International

The UK’s Cyclist Magazine writes in praise of the bicycle.

A British advocacy group calls on Britain not to miss a huge opportunity to change the country’s future by expanding safe bicycling networks, as 37% of say they aren’t willing to let their kids ride to school.

An Irish writer calls for an end to hate speech directed towards bicyclists, which is banned when directed towards other groups. The 1st Amendment means a prohibition like that would be illegal in the US.

A French company launches what they consider the world’s safest bicycle, complete with electronic anti-lock brakes, automatic emergency braking, and a 360-degree warning system. Full body bubble wrap is optional.

Aussie riders call for safety improvements along a highway that’s a popular but frightening riding route, which one rider terms a “goat track.”

 

Competitive Cycling

A European website recounts the biggest scandals in pro cycling over the past year. Of which there were many, evidently.

The Giro d’Italia won’t start next year’s race in West Jerusalem after all, after Israeli officials threaten to cancel the race because there is no east or west Jerusalem as far as they’re concerned. But the only thing that actually changed was the wording on the website.

 

Finally…

How a NASCAR racer overcomes his fear of spandex. You may not be able to make it up the world’s great climbs, but now you can down your coffee from them.

And if you don’t like your commute, just paint your own road signs.

Thanks to the aforementioned Megan Lynch for that last link.