A bike, in Los Angeles?

I’m headed to Los Angeles today to spend the week visiting customers and stafffing our booth the World Congress on Computational Mechanics (basically similar to last year’s USNCCM-equivalent). Since
Ride Around Washington is a scant five weeks away, I am bringing my bike in hopes of getting some hot-weather riding. I know: “a bicycle? In Los Angeles?” We’ll see how this works out. I’ve already set my expectations low.

Packing the bike was much more challenging than I remember it being when I did it last October. Since then, I had the disc brake installed. It all fit nicely once I pulled off the crank and kickstand. The remaining parts are bungeed within the case to reduce the jostling that will ensue after TSA rifles through my personals artefacts.

TMI time: I am officially greying. The discovery occurred during my July 4th weekend camping trip. Doubtful that there would be showers, I left my shaving kit at home. At the end of two days, I was looking rustic, a mere flannel lumberjack shirt and can of cheap domestic beer shy of the “mountain man” image. By the end of the trip, there was no denying the Santa Claus-colored chin hairs. Then this week, I discovered a couple of platinum jobbers on my head. They’re subtle, but if the light hits just right… salt and (mostly) pepper.

With a lottery magnitude optimism, I hope that the white chin hairs could mean I wouldn’t need to shave quite so often.

Also for the record, my major concern about my thinning, scalpal rainforest is sunburn, not vanity.

6 thoughts on “A bike, in Los Angeles?”

  1. Just wait until you find your first grey pubes. For some reason, that was a lot more more traumatic for me.

  2. What if you go along the beach? People rollerblade there all of the time so I imagine biking will be possible.

    By the way, I am LOVING my new bike. I will have to post about it soon. I took a nice ride this morning down to Seward Park.

  3. Terri: I’ll find out tomorrow evening. My current plan is to find a way through this part of Los Angeles to highway 1, which preliminary indications suggest is an okay place to ride. There is also a trail of some kind along the Los Angeles river.

    I saw a bunch of people riding near the section of Santa Monica Blvd (under deconstruction; no apparent bike lane) “near” UCLA.

    John: How’d your one-day STP go?

    Ted: Thanks for putting this into perspective 🙂

  4. Drat Apparently the rear disc rotor is bent. (I knew I should have packed a torx driver). Looks like I will be heading to a bike shop (or riding without a rear brake).

  5. I prefer to think of grey hairs as a mark of distinction. They symbolize accomplishment, not deterioration (literally — grey hairs seem to be thicker and stronger than the ones they replace!). I also tend to refer to them as “silver” instead of “grey”, which I think is more attractive and also captures that notion of increased value. 🙂

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