
Bike Commuting to Work in Los Angeles - burritofanatic
http://www.williamha.com/bike-commuting-to-work-in-los-angeles/
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grecy
I rode my bike to work 365 days a year in Whitehorse, Yukon, as do many other
people.

The best I saw biking was -46C (-50.8F) - though my commute was only ~15
minutes. My roommate would do 45 mins, so he'd have to start off wearing many
more layers than I, and stop half way to de-layer.

It's amazing how much more resistance a bike has when it's that cold, and how
many plastics will just snap when you touch them (like the cheap covering on
most bike chains)

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cfallin
Did you have to do anything special when maintaining your bike?

E.g. last time in did winter biking (in Pittsburgh, so not nearly as crazy as
you, maybe 10 F / -12 C) the ratchet mechanism in the freehub would often skip
and I'd find myself spinning pedals. I'm guessing you did something about the
grease/lubricant in your case?

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gkop
When winter biking in Pittsburgh, I found the road "salt" rapidly corroded
everything it touched on the bike, except my aluminum frame. Perhaps the road
salt screwed up your freewheel moreso than the cold.

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cfallin
Possibly, though it got better with warmer weather, so my first guess was
grease viscosity. _shrug_ I hear you on road salt though. I had to be pretty
religious about oiling my chain to keep it happy and unrusted.

~~~
mikestew
Viscosity is a good guess. Whereas the grease will normally flow well enough
to let the ratchet teeth settle into their spots and turn the wheel, in cold
weather the lubricant can thicken enough to fill in the notches and the the
teeth just slide right over the thick lubricant and don't grip anything.
Meaning you freewheel both directions, similar to what you mention.

Maybe if parent is tough enough to ride in Whitehorse in the winter, they're
tough enough for a fixie. :-) (Whitehorse proper isn't all that hilly.)

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fit2rule
I lived in LA for quite some time, and had a car for only about 20% of that
time .. I walked everywhere, otherwise. And despite the myth, its quite
possible to live and work in LA without a car .. you just have to realize that
LA is a big city-of-cities, and recognize the paths connecting those cities.
Of course, things got a lot easier when the LA rail lines were built (alas,
not to their original design) .. this certainly made it possible to commute to
downtown easily enough, from any one of a number of desirable living
neighborhoods.. and for everything else, the bus lines were perfectly usable.
You just have to disregard the cultural programming that only 'poor people and
other lower classes' use public transportation.

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kaitai
Your "city of cities" comment is right on, but I'd argue about the bus lines
being perfectly usable. I tried to go from Pasadena to the Getty Museum once.
It took 3 hours due to the wheel-spoke setup of the bus lines -- I had to go
downtown first and then back out. Six hours on the bus for 1.5 hours at the
museum.

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fit2rule
6 hours on the bus? Okay that is pretty harsh. I lived in the LA/Silverlake
area, and had lots of good times on the subway, buses in that area, etc. What
a pity the rail never made it out to Pasadena .. that would've been world
class if it had.

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jessaustin
This must have been some time ago? Not only does the Gold Line have stops all
through Pasadena, but within months it will go all the way to Azusa.

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fit2rule
Yeah, I left LA in 2002 and moved to Germany. I have a faint recollection that
they were working on the line to Pasadena then, I guess its finished and long
since operational. The few times I've been back though, it just hasn't been as
cool to take the subway .. German trains really spoiled me. In fact, only the
Japanese have been able to match the experience so far..

Anyway, glad to hear Pasadena got its rail. I'll take it next time I'm out
there.

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more_original
For cycling in an area one doesn't know, the Strava heatmap is also quite
useful. It shows the routes that other cyclists take and can be helpful in
finding good cycleable routes.

[http://labs.strava.com/heatmap](http://labs.strava.com/heatmap)

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mikekchar
Wow. I live in rural Japan. I used to use Strava when I was in the UK, but I
really didn't think that it would be so popular here. I was wrong. And it
turns out all my best routes are also quite popular. I'm going to have to
start using Strava again.

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kaitai
For anyone who's considering the bike commute but thinking "I will sweat so
much!" do check out panniers. The OP says he only likes panniers for grocery
shopping, and it's true a lot of panniers are basically buckets you strap to
the back of your bike. But Arkel, a Canadian company, makes:

* a pannier that turns into a backpack

* a pannier that turns into a briefcase (though their new design isn't as conservative as the old one)

* panniers that actually works as shopping bags with handles

as well as a full line of touring and camping panniers. And their customer
service is good -- over the last 12 years I had a zipper and a strap repaired
on them.

I like commuting a lot more when I don't have stuff on my back -- it feels
like it makes me more agile on the bike.

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gkop
Panniers are very luxurious for the reason you cited. Where they fail me is
when trying to combine a bicycle leg with one by bus or subway - the backpack
wins in these cases because I don't need to remove/re-attach my Ortlieb
pannier (which gets to be really annoying even despite Ortlieb's really nice
quick release mechanism on their urban models).

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malkia
Our office is in Venice, close to Rose & Main. My commute is from Mar Vista,
and have to take Rose at the end.

So my biggest complain about cyclists are that some are completely
irresponsible about their lives, and possibly others.

I would see at least 1 or 2 people every week riding in the opposite
direction. Stopped once to tell them that they should be riding in the
opposite direction, but felt like I've been the asshole this time around.

There are some crazy dudes with bicycles that seems to be the local attraction
or so, like one riding with a wood log on his head (wtf?) - I mean he looks he
has it all in control, but roads are not circus arenas.

Then the whole issue (which seems hits France and other countries too) is
whether cyclists should follow the same rules as cars. For example stopping on
STOP/STOP-ALL signs, at least for the most time they respect the traffic
lights.

And I was thinking of cycling from home to work, but after commuting for
almost a year, I think it's just not safe. Though we have plenty of people
that bike everyday to work, and the benefits are good - always good parking
space (no need to use the valet), and some money back for not using the
parking structure. Also we have showers at work :)

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sgt
I am not a regular cyclist but I think we really should go a bit easier on the
bicyclists. When you see a cyclist commuting to work, that means there's one
less car on the road. Also add to the fact that cycling is a lot of fun, so I
can understand you want to go fast and jump around a bit.

As far as stop signs are concerned, let's be more focused on asking the
cyclists to stay safe and maybe talk to one of them if they seemed to be
endangering their own lives. Remember these are _soft_ targets, and sometimes
it's actually safer to ride more aggressively than too passively. I know this
since I am a motorcyclist, so it's fairly similar.

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russtrotter
I enjoyed this article! The quote from the person who was upset about a car
lane being replaced with a bike lane sadly expresses a common sentiment with
the populous.

I'm a year-round commuter in Phoenix AZ USA. Gets really hot here for 4ish
months. For the working commuter, finding a way you can grab a shower by the
time you get to work can be the biggest hurdle!

Happy safe riding all you other nerds on 2 wheels!

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lukego
I enjoyed bicycle commuting in LA. I was based in Korea Town and alternatively
biked to Glendale (via Griffith Park) or unicycled to Beverly Hills (via
Hancock Park). Those were mostly lovely routes. Unicycle is ideal for Hancock
Park because it plays nicely with frequent stop signs.

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burritofanatic
I used to ride through Hancock Park/Windsor Square when living in Korea Town.
That area is very rideable. Unicycle, very cool!

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sgt
He mentions the commute takes him about 50 minutes. I wonder how much it could
be shortened by riding an electric bicycle?

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burritofanatic
If I had an electric/motorized bike, I think it would cut the commute by about
15-20 minutes with most of the gain being on the trail. The perk of biking for
me at least, is the exercise though.

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driverdan
An electric bike will be less exercise but it's not like it's no exercise.
Sure on a flat surface you can go full electric but climbing hills can still
give you a decent workout.

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gcb0
the biggest problem with that crazy Glendale-downtown route: LA have days with
105F. with no wind past Santa Monica.

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lisivka
It is good to cycle with no wind, because it is possible to cycle in any
direction and be cooled. Sometimes I need to do about 1 hour trip in wind
direction in summer — and it is very hard for heart.

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steveax
"Hills make you strong; wind makes you mean." Not sure where I first heard
this, but I always think of it when facing a headwind.

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bchjam
I found that the worst parts of bike commuting around the west side of LA were
crossing under the 405 and any time I needed to travel along Sunset Blvd.
Also, the beach near Santa Monica pier during summer tends to be worse than
the streets.

