Night Rider

Koreatown Ridazz

On the Koreatown ride, we went from Ktown to Santa Monica, Venice, and Marina del Rey and back. I rode over 70 miles on Wednesday night. There were a couple of girls on that ride too, Traci and Annie. Traci is a small and cute petite Asian girl, but man, she can fly. I like going on the fast Midnight Ridazz group rides. I'm not into the social Midnight Ridazz rides. They're okay to try at first, but they're too slow. Plus, I hate the circle of death thing they do in intersections sometimes. They hurts our cause against getting respect from drivers.

The Ktown ridazz went on a very fast pace. I was out of shape because I was sick for a couple of weeks and didn't ride for awhile. The amazing thing was that most of them were on fixed gear track bikes. They only had one fixed gear, had no brakes, and could not coast, but they were jamming. Fixed gear bikes give riders "souplesse" or incredible suppleness of the legs.


Alhambra Ridazz

On the Alhambra ride on Thursday night, we went pretty fast too. This was supposed to be a no-drop ride, but when some riders are too slow and the rest are too fast, then the speedies don't want to wait up all the time. So, eventually the slowpokes get dropped and get lost. I try to keep the group together and drop back to get the rest of the pack up to speed. For some reason, I always worry about the other riders and don't want them to get dropped and lost. It's hard work because I have to speed up to the lead pack and then slow down for the ones in the back. So instead of keeping a steady pace, I have to quickly accelerate which uses up a lot of my glycogen stores. I have to pace myself because I end up riding a lot because I bike to the rides and back.

One of the riders named James let me try out his fixie for awhile. He was kinda worried I might fall since it's different from regular road bikes, because you can't coast. I have excellent balance, however. He had a really nice Bianchi. I love Bianchis, especially the ones in Celeste color. I want a fixie now.


Young Nak Cycling

On Saturday morning at 7:30 I met up with Phil "Freepcreep" Lee's bike team, Young Nak Church Cycling. (Not to be confused with "Young Naked Cycling" as Google Search suggests.) We met at the Rose Bowl in Parking Lot "I". We rode from the Rose Bowl to La Tuna Canyon and Sunset and back. Joel Kim, who is a triathlete, and his wife, Christine were there as well as Yun Hee, Timus, Corey, Richard, and Joshua Kang. We rode over 33 miles. Then, we had some lunch at a cafe in La Canada on Foothill and Angeles Crest. They were a pretty good group. I want to keep cycling with them on Saturdays. I guess it's good to go to a big church because they even have their own cycling team. They're training to ride to San Diego for a charity ride. I plan on going with them. If I can't get a ride back to Los Angeles, then I'll have to ride back. It will be a race against time to get back to my Sunday morning service at 8:00 a.m. on Sunday. I'll have to ride all night by myself in pitch blackness to get home. Riding to San Diego doesn't seem like such a big challenge since I've biked 120 miles before. I think riding to San Diego and back to L.A. will be a bigger challenge for me. I just don't like the fact that I'll be going by myself in the middle of the night without a support group in unfamiliar roads. I'll have to bike through the huge Camp Pendleton Marine Corps base too. Hopefully, they'll let me ride through. Otherwise, I'll have to ride all the way around the huge complex or ride on the 5 Freeway.

I got a flat tire while riding down La Tuna Canyon. Josh helped me fix my flat.


La Tuna Canyon

This ride seems to be my nemesis, because I got another flat on my rear tire getting there while riding there after church on Sunday. I rode on a flat tire for 15 miles. It was really hard to control because my rear wheel kept squiggling around. I also had my heavy backpack full of my church clothes, shoes, and bike stuff. I started fixing my flat tire on the side of the road near some shade. This horse mom and her colt daughter were staring at me while I was fixing my flat tire. I guess they were wondering what I was doing. When they got bored, they left, but after awhile they came back to see if I finished fixing my flat. After I passed Pasadena, I got another flat tire. This time it was the front tire. I looked and saw there were about 8 tiny thorns stuck on the tires. My back tire previously had a small piece of glass that pierced the tire. Then I tried biking home on my flat, because my tire just wouldn't pump up even though I patched it up. The presta valve was broken. Those presta valves are so fragile. They break when you just press down on it slightly. I can't believe they haven't come up with a better presta valve design yet after all this time. Anyway, I plan to go back, because I have to conquer every ride. I hope I don't get another flat going there. I can't let a ride jinx me. If it happens again though, I'll probably never go back.

I also had to deal with a bunch of rude drivers honking their horns at me, trying to run me over, and yelling obscenities at me. Those guys just don't know the rules of the road. They think that bikes can't be on the road. They think I should be on the sidewalk, which is ridiculous. They try to run me off the road by moving to the right as soon as their car is a little ahead of me. I hate rude drivers. I'd kill them if they were not in their cars. They just don't know what cyclists have to go through. They get pissed if a bike slows them down for half a second. They just don't want to go around to the next lane. Jerks! Anyway enough of my ranting. I need to ride more.


Labor Day

I've been so tired lately, that I got sick again. Yep, I got another cold after Labor Day when Sarah and I went to the Cabazon Desert Hills Outlet to go shopping during their sales. I feel like I should be stronger from all this cycling, but I guess I'm overexerting myself by riding too much and not getting enough rest. I haven't been sleeping much. I have a hard time falling asleep.