BikinginLA

Today’s common theme is bicycles and the celebs that love them.

LA Ram’s safety Taylor Rapp is one of us, riding 125 miles over the holiday weekend — including one 103-mile century.

Snoop Dogg’s wife is one of us, too. Which gave me the best smile I’ve had in days.

Yes, Tyler the Creator is one of us. And cooler than most of us.

Christian Bale donned a mask but skipped a helmet as he rode along with his five-year old son in Los Angeles.

The Bieb did his riding bare faced and bare footed.

Harry Styles rode through the ‘Bu with a bare head and sans face mask.

On the other hand, Joe Jonas armored up with a mask and skid lid for his ride through LA. But someone should tell him bike riding is good for his pregnant wife Sophie Turner, too.

Young and Restless star Robert Adamson was one of us, before some jerk stole his Blue Specialized Levo mountain bike in West LA.

Clearly, riding a bike is nothing new for Britain’s royal family.

Chris Dangerous, drummer for the Swedish rock band The Hives, is one of us.

And we already knew LeBron James was one of us. But evidently, so is his entire family, as they took a holiday weekend ride through empty LA streets.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=20&v=kkiuGs3m_PE&feature=emb_logo

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LAist says LA’s Slow Streets program is picking up speed as it spreads through the city, even if some people respond by attacking the signs.

Evidently, though, a mostly closed street has the power to soothe an outraged mind.

https://twitter.com/topomodesto/status/1265011983167844352

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If you ride a bike despite a disability — or maybe because of one — NACTO wants to hear from you.

@bikinginla thank you for referring Megan to us! Do you know of any other disabled cyclists who might want to be interviewed? https://t.co/m8SaUqsOcS

— Anna Zivarts (@AnnaZivarts) May 25, 2020

Speaking of which, this woman is living her best life on a mountain bike, despite a crippling case of juvenile arthritis.

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The 15-year old Indian girl who carried her injured father over 700 miles back home on the back of her bicycle continued to make news over the weekend.

India’s Cycling Federation has reached out to offer her a tryout with the national cycling team, which she rejected to focus on her studies.

However, some people criticized that offer as a PR stunt that demonstrated “the worst kind of insensitivity.”

And Ivanka Trump took fire for praising the girl, instead of criticizing the transport shutdown that forced her, and countless others, to ride hundreds of miles to get back to their homes.

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The war on cars is a myth, but the war on bikes goes on.

Police in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan are investigating after a man shouted racist slurs and physically attacked a 15-year old boy of Asian descent as the boy rode his bike, accusing him of “spreading the virus.”

A British columnist seems to think the idea of stringing piano wire across a roadway at neck height to clothesline a family of bike riders is thigh-slappingly funny. He would be wrong about that.

Police in the UK are looking for a motorcyclist who kicked a man off his bicycle for no apparent reason.

Horrible news from India, where a vegetable vendor was beaten to death by a road raging driver after accidentally colliding with his car.

 

But sometimes, it’s the people on two wheels behaving badly.

Laguna Canyon trails are taking a beating due to illegal mountain biking modifications.

A Florida man is ticked off — and deservedly so — at the sidewalk-riding bike rider who threw ice at the man’s deaf wife because she couldn’t hear him yelling at her to get out of the way as she walked her service dog.

Costa Rican bicyclists ignored the country’s health minister and took to the streets in groups, despite coronavirus restrictions.

And don’t do this to anyone. Especially when the driver is a columnist for the LA Times. And who the hell is Becky, anyway?

https://twitter.com/AbcarianLAT/status/1264351940143534081

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Local

Bike paths in LA county are finally, and officially, open.

Metro responds to the coronavirus crisis with a motion to allow open streets funds to be spent on Slow Streets, temporary outdoor dining, and tactical urbanism projects. Meanwhile, the Slow Streets movement is spreading to Los Angeles County, too.

Speaking of Metro, they’re adding bus-only lanes on 5th Street, 6th Street, Grand Avenue, Olive Street and Aliso Street in DTLA. Bikes can use them too, as long as you don’t mind having a bus up your ass. Correction: In scanning this story, I missed author Joe Linton’s suggestion that bike lanes could be added or moved to the left side on one-way streets, or made protected on others, to avoid conflicts with buses.

And speaking of LA County, they’re moving forward with plans for a 2.5 mile bike path, and a 1.8 mile multi-use path, as well as two bike, walk and equestrian bridges, to connect with the San Gabriel River Trail through the cities of Southeast LA County.

Santa Clarita sheriff’s deputies will carry out another bicycle and pedestrian safety enforcement operation tomorrow, from 7 am to 11 am. So you only have to mind the letter of the law for four hours.

BikinginLA sponsor Cohen Law Partners introduces Malibu’s launch of the new Go Safely California program to prevent pedestrian deaths. Although if they really want to prevent pedestrian deaths — as well as bike riders — they should do something about that killer highway that passes for the town’s Main Street.

 

State

Officials abruptly closed a section of Fullerton’s Wilshire Bike Boulevard to bikes and cars with no warning to allow restaurants to expand out into the street; the closure is expected to last through November.

A Santa Barbara man is riding 22 centuries this year to raise $100,000 for diabetic research, in honor of his ten-year old son, who was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes six years ago.

Sad news from Fresno County, where a 72-year old Clovis man was killed when he allegedly swerved his bicycle in front of a motorcyclist.

Oakland’s Slow Streets program continues to evolve, adding Essential Places to enable safer access to essential neighborhood services, including grocery stores and food distribution sites.

More bad news, after a 65-year old woman was killed when she swerved right to avoid a car coming from the opposite direction, but crashed into her riding partner and fell in front of it.

A Humboldt County woman is itching to get back to her round-the-world bike tour after her trip was shut down when the Argentine border was.

 

National

Maybe Phoenix, Arizona’s 12News can explain how a bike and a car could collide with no humans involved. But if there was no one on the bike or in the car, who was seriously injured?

There’s a special place in hell for whoever slammed their car into a bike-riding Arizona family and fled the scene, leaving a three-year old boy to die in the street.

A Wisconsin man refused to leave a Dairy Queen drive through after they refused to serve him because he was on a bicycle, instead of in a car. So they called the police to have him removed, instead of just selling him a damn hamburger or dipped cone, or whatever the hell it was he wanted.

An Indiana nonprofit teamed with a martial arts academy to give 100 bicycles to families in need.

Hats off to a Texas university cycling team, which is using the interruption in the racing season to deliver groceries to seniors during the pandemic.

New York’s leading advocacy group hopes the city’s new open streets plan leads to a new approach to the city’s streets.

They get it. The Boston Globe says cities should use this time to re-imagine a post-pandemic commute.

Florida police have found the boy who was caught on camera stealing the bicycle that was an 88-year old woman’s only form of transportation; while they haven’t recovered her bike, kindhearted community members chipped in to buy her a new one.

 

International

Even the United Nations sees bicycles as the key to a post-Covid-19 green recovery.

Cycling News explains how to find the right commuter bike. Hint: The best bike for your commute is the one you have.

A Montreal man became the city’s first bicycling casualty in the past two years after falling when he swerved to avoid a pedestrian.

A Toronto writer says Carmaggedon is coming when people emerge from their Covid-19 shutdown, but bike lanes can prevent it — but only if the city “has the guts to use them.”

If the UK wants to experience a golden age of cycling, it will have to make women feel safer riding bikes.

A very forgiving British Catholic bishop says it’s his fault he fractured his skull after getting doored, because he didn’t wear a helmet. A dooring is always the driver’s fault, for not making sure the open door won’t interfere with other road users before opening the damn thing. And if he or she had, the bishop wouldn’t have needed one.

Dutch brand VanMoof is riding the crest of the bike boom wave.

A Spanish bicyclist is finally on her way home, after getting stuck in an Indian city for 78 days due to the country’s coronavirus lockdown; she had ridden through 18 Asian and European countries before her journey came to a sudden end.

A late blooming Philippine bike rider says it’s not enough to just throw some paint down and call it a bike lane.

Authorities found the body of an Australian man in the bushland over a month after he disappeared while riding his bike, terming his death “suspicious” while they search for his missing bicycle.

A Sydney, Australia man explains how he went from suffering a heart attack to becoming a daily bike commuter.

Police stats show cops in Australia’s New South Wales are using the state’s draconian helmet law as a cudgel to target poor and vulnerable people, while avoiding enforcement of the law in wealthier — aka whiter — neighborhoods.

It’s true. Aussie traffic counts show people in the country are riding bikes more than ever before.

 

Competitive Cycling

This is what it feels like to fly off the road — and off the mountain — in the middle of a Giro descent.

We have our third new Everesting record in the past two weeks. But this time it’s on the women’s side, as American cyclist Katie Hall broke the existing women’s record by a massive 2.5 hours.

Despite his fall from grace, Lance is still a millionaire fifty times over, thanks to a well-timed hundred grand investment in Uber. Meanwhile, a sports site catches up with fellow doper, ex-Tour de France winner, CBD purveyor and all-around Lance nemesis Floyd Landis.

And no, you will probably never look that good on a bike. But it doesn’t hurt to try.

How cool was Fausto Coppi??

Well, put it this way, could YOU look this good in plus fours?

Bonus points for frame pump and full 'guards. pic.twitter.com/Qc8sXZzJEI

— The Handmade Cyclist (@handmadecyclist) May 24, 2020

 

Who needs a dating app when you can fall in love over mountain bikes? If you’re going to sell drugs from your bike, maybe cover up those tatts so you aren’t so easy to identify.

And Alex Trebek gets it.

Safe streets radical on an old Jeopardy! ✊ pic.twitter.com/ACdAIT5CBF

— Sean Meredith (@seanmeredith) May 25, 2020

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Be safe, and stay healthy. And wear a mask, already.