BikePool a hit!

The Bikepool this weekend went smoothly and at its peak, I think we had between 20-30 people. Not bad for an event that was pulled together on a shoestring and advertised for less than a week! We're hoping that by doing the ride every week it will slowly grow and people will see the bicycle as a viable means of transportation.

Some snaps from the ride!

Some beauty shots...

Took some snaps of the Bilenky around town...

It's here and it's awesome...

I spent the entire weekend shooting at the Grand Prix and the only thing that kept me going was knowing that my Bilenky would be at Union Station Sunday morning. Right after I finished my assignment, I took the bus home, changed and went to the transit mall with Laura. There we spent an hour and some change on the Blue line to the Red line to Union Station. Although, I was beat from a full day of shooting, I wanted to go and get the bike.

The bike box was actually made up of two bike boxes stuffed together.


The first glimpse of that beautiful orange paint!


It's a pinata on wheels.


I managed to slice my thumb pretty good from over eager use of a blade to remove the newspaper.


The sign is unvelied and it looks awesome!



The finished product, still at the freight baggage area at Union Station.



Beautiful light and a beautiful bike.


The maiden voyage in the garden area of Union Station. A victory lap is in order.

World Class....

Well, it's not every day that you get to photograph a world class athlete. This was from a portrait session for Memorial Hospital. Antisha is now training for the Olympics after having heart surgery with the Da Vinci robot at Memorial Hospital in Long Beach. Pretty amazing and inspiring and she was great fun to work with.

BTWD...coming together.

I posted this on the Long Beach Cyclists site...but thought it was relevant here too..


Thanks for those that made it to the meeting tonight. We've got a small but efficient group and I think we'll be able to pull off a great event with the resources we have.

Some good news to share:
-Long Beach Cyclists on BikePortland.org! Bikeportland is a great site that covers all the local news in Portland but has also become an inspiration for bike advocates around the country.
-PlanetBike is donating some awesome giveaways for Bike to Work Day! PlanetBike makes some great and well thought out bike accessories (like the awesome Superflash, regarded as one of the best bike tail lights ever) as well as giving 25% to advocacy. They've also re-done corporate offices to run off solar!
-WalzCaps is donating caps for BTWD! They make some of the best cycling caps in town. Everything from sporty cotton to stylish wool caps.
-KHS and Bikecommuters.com are donating a great 3-speed commuter! Perfect for trips to the farmer's market.
-We'll soon be doing a partnership with JensonUSA where 5% of sales will go to help support the Long Beach Cyclists! How awesome is that! Look for it soon. So the next time you need to get some neat swept back handlebars or bar tape you can help the LBC at the same time.
-We'll soon be partnering up with Bikestation, Portfolios Coffeehouse and Jones Bikes to create Long Beach's first bikepool from downtown to the Farmer's Market! Stay tuned for more news about this fun community outreach program.

Also, our next meeting will be at The Small Cafe again on April 23 at 7pm.

And one more thing, special thanks to Carl who commutes from Anaheim Hills to Long Beach (20 miles!) for coming out to the meeting.

Anyone want to buy us a Bike Blender?

The local advocacy group needs a creative way to raise funds. One of the ideas I keep batting around, which I'm sure they're tired of, is getting a Bike Blender as a fundraising/media gathering device. I have visions of local racing hero and ex-teammate of Lance, Tony Cruz, spinning some delicious smoothies for the name of bike advocacy.



Any takers? :)

Bike advocacy blues...

The last few days have been a stretch of phone calls, meetings and emails to try to get Bike to Work Day together. This is the mundane and thankless part of advocacy. There are forms and those forms lead to other forms and it is an endless paper trail. Each and every step of the way there is a permission process or a gatekeeper keeping you from the person you have to talk to. For example, just to try to find out how I can set up an event on a local campus it took four phone calls from the Student Union, Programs Counsel, Special Events to the bookstore of all places.

It seems like it is always someone else's job to help you.

It seems like there is always too much to do and too few to do it.

It seems like even though you're trying to do something right someone is disgruntled, unhappy, dissatisfied or saying "no" without offering a solution.

Somehow, I thought that this would be easy. Get people together and do something. Act. Words into motion. Revolution. But that stuff is for the movies. Advocacy is a slow process. It is more of a war of attrition than a blitzkrieg.

I guess if advocacy were easy we'd be abounding in cycletracks by now.

So close, yet so far...

A photo of the nearly complete bike. They're going to make a different front rack (one that curves slightly upward so loads will clear the steering tube on the fork) so delivery is going to be pushed back to next week. Ugh. Really wanted to ride it but it might as well be done right the first time 'round.

LBCyclists meet!

Had a great meeting at Polly's on 2nd Street. It was our first public meeting of the Long Beach Cyclists to discuss Bike to Work Day. I also previewed a poster I'm designing for the event. Something a little humorous but understated.

Korean dancers....

Some snaps from an event I shot at Sage Hill School's Multi-cultural festival. Amazing dancers with great traditional dresses.

A tough job, but someone's got to do it...

Had another fun shoot today at one of my favorite beer/food spots of all time, Beachwood BBQ in Seal Beach. The shot is for an upcoming IPA review in the District. I thought to make the photo a little more interesting, I'd throw in some hops that were provided by a local brewer.

Is 11am too early for beer? Not when it's good beer :)

It's coming together!!!

Got sent more snaps from Bilenky of the assembly. Damn it looks good!

Here it looks like they're putting in the headset using a big threaded rod and some spacers!



Looks more like a bike now!

Tastiest shoot ever....

Doing some food for the District....get to eat some afterwards. Awesome! The first shoot was a little tricky. Forgot the speedring to my softbox so I shot it with an umbrella instead. Good light but not as directional, but in the end I think it worked out fine.

Great bike video!

I've posted this on two other sites today but I think it's just that great. Created by a fellow Long Beach Cyclist, it demonstrates the amount of control you can have with your bike. You can be an active agent in how traffic acts rather than just a moving road hazard.

SWOBO Jersey Review..

I posted my review of the Short Sleeve Merino Jersey by SWOBO on bikecommuters.com. Check out the article here.

A new blog on the block...

Just put together a blogspot page for the Long Beach Cyclists, a bike advocacy and social group I'm a part of. If you're a cyclist and live in the LBC, check it out and join!!! We need your help!