Category: Bike

  • 50ish songs, Best Music of the Ride

    50ish recent songs, mostly picked by my phone.

    Just Like Heaven – The Cure

    Prologue – Schlong
    This will always make me think of Renee, who introduced it to me.

    Changes – No Vacation
    Falling – Howard
    Big Rock Candy Mountain – The Beat Farmers
    Nowhere Man – Low
    The Haunted Mansion: Grim Grinning Ghosts – Disney
    It’s Alright, Follow – Tarek Musa
    Good Day (Extended Edit) – The Kinks
    Paper Planes – I’m From Barcelona
    Paper Thin Walls – Modest Mouse

    Word To The Mic – dj BC and The Beastles
    These folks have multiple full albums of Beatles/Beastie Boys mashups. Some of them (like this one) work pretty well.

    She’s Leaving Home – The Beatles
    Over the Rainbow (live) – Rufus Wainwright
    Tumbledown – The Jesus and Mary Chain
    Empty puppet – Mary Bell
    Hold Your Head Up – Argent

    The House Where Nobody Lives – Tom Waits
    Specifically, this live version from a 20 year old VH-1 special. I like it a lot more than the album version, but it’s really hard to find a decent recording of it.

    Sympathy for the Soul of the Beast – Celebrity Murder Party
    Happy Together – Mel Torme
    Summer Wind – Frank Sinatra
    Red Right Hand – Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds
    Worse Things Happen At Sea – Toy Dolls
    Critic Intro – They Might Be Giants
    Pop All The Stars – Emmett Kai
    King Kong – Tom Waits
    Blow Me Down – Harry Nilsson
    Strawberry Fields Forever (Take 26) – The Beatles

    Once In A Lifetime – Talking Heads
    The second-best song of today’s ride.

    Prince Charming – Adam Ant

    She’s Got A New Spell – Billy Bragg
    The best song of today’s ride.


    Gypsy – hana vu
    1 2 3 4 – Feist
    Maiwaige – The Princess Bride
    This Time Tomorrow – The Kinks
    Gypsy Town – Wet Illustrated
    Don’t Stop Now – Crowded House
    Birth of the Cool – Miles Davis
    Infatuation – The Rapture
    Fatal Attraction (And It’s So Strange) – The Ultraviolets
    Wrong About Bobby – Eels
    Money – Pink Floyd
    One For My Baby (And One More For The Road) – Billie Holiday
    Paul’s Pal – Sonny Rollins Quartet
    Fade – Goth Dad
    LNT – Stevan
    My Funny Valentine – The Miles Davis Quintet
    Highness – Envy And Other Sins
    Telegram Sam – Bauhaus
    Song For Dan Treacy – MGMT
    Schoolhouse Rocky – Bob Dorough & Others

    Young Fresh Fellows Theme – Young Fresh Fellows
    This wasn’t on the ride. If it had been it probably would have won best song of the ride.

    Also: Really good ride today. 30 miles and a better-than-normal average pace. All it needed to be perfect was for me to remember my water bottle.

  • 50ish Recent Songs, and the Best Song of Today’s Ride

    50ish recent songs, mostly picked by my phone. About half of them were from today’s ride, where I decided to get a pinch flat AND whack my hand into a utility box.

    Oh, and I didn’t tighten the bolts on my new cleats enough, so one came loose. NEAT.

    Big Time – Peter Gabriel
    The Most Beautiful Girl (In The Room) – Flight of the Conchords
    I Heard It Through the Grapevine – Marvin Gaye

    The Girl Is Mine – Richard Cheese and Lounge Against the Machine – You haven’t heard this song until you’ve heard a lounge version with Stephen Hawking.

    Cartrouble, Pts. 1 & 2 [Original Album Version] – Adam and The Ants
    No Rain – Blind Melon

    Julie’s Been Working For The Drug Squad – The Clash

    Hot Hot Hot!!! – The Cure
    One Way Or Another – Blondie
    Everybody’s a Star (Starmaker) (mono mix) – The Kinks
    The District Sleeps Alone Tonight – The Postal Service
    Yew – BUHU
    Hard To Handle – The Black Crowes
    Bedlam – Elvis Costello And The Imposters
    Train In Vain – The Clash
    Birthday – The Beatles
    Pretty In Pink – The Psychedelic Furs
    Chicago (acoustic version) – Sufjan Stevens
    Three Car Jam – Minutemen

    Love Will Tear Us Apart – The Hot 8 Brass Band – presented in its original form as a New Orleans jazz band song.

    The Loved One – INXS
    Miracle Cure – The Who
    13 A Sky Blue Rhapsody – ccc – ill chemist
    Boys Don’t Cry – Grant Lee Phillips
    All You Ever Think About Is Sex [12″ Club Version] – Sparks
    It’s The End Of The World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine) – R.E.M.
    Breakfast – Evolution Control Committee
    A Sight For Sore Eyes – Tom Waits

    American Tune – Paul Simon – Winner, Best Song of the Ride. I think Katherine knows this song.

    New Moon on Monday – Duran Duran
    Scarecrow – Beck
    Everybody’s Got Something To Hide Except Me And My Monkey – My Brightest Diamond
    Livin’ on a Prayer (Bon Jovi cover) (BL Rewind 2) – The Boat People
    Nusrath Fateh Ali Khan – Piya Re Piya Re (Remix)
    When I’m Sixty-Four – The Beatles
    Alina’s Place – Fredrik

    The Old Saloon – The Lonely Island – The most important song of a generation.

    Falling – Howard
    Where Do I Begin – The Chemical Brothers
    Little Miss S. – Edie Brickell & New Bohemians
    The Mighty Hercules – Johnny Nash
    Lucky #9 (video version) – The Moldy Peaches
    Poses – Kiki Pau
    Graceland – Paul Simon
    Abracadabra – Steve Miller Band
    Hammering In My Head – Garbage
    Same Changes – Sam Phillips
    Tomorrow Wendy – Andy Prieboy
    Transatlanticism – Death Cab For Cutie
    The Tracks Of My Tears – Smokey Robinson & The Miracles

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3K1vJ0r0ax0
    Hombre Secreto (Secret Agent Man) – Plugz – I used to play the hell out of this soundtrack.

    Today’s ride. I actually had a short second ride, but it was slow and silly.

  • The three best songs of today’s ride

    I had to try out my new shoes, so I did my usual loop around Balboa Park. It was a good ride. One sign of a good ride is a moment where I think “this is a really good bike song.” Today there were three. In order from least to most good (today):

    They Might Be Giants: Istanbul (Not Constantinople)

    Brian’s favorite band. Their cover is much perkier than the original version.

    The Jam – Town Called Malice

    A great song that Weezer casually stole and made happy, it would have been number one if not for the last song of the ride…

    The Dead Milkmen – Punk Rock Girl

    Oh, this song. It would never make any top ten list of mine, but it sure feels good when you’re on the last half mile and you want a little push.

    Today’s ride:

  • New Shoes

    My bike shoes are three and a half years old. They were fine- biking is not exactly tough on the soles- but I needed a second pair for work. Of course, as soon as I ordered the new pair, the old pair started falling apart. THEY KNEW.

    My bike shoes.
    Left: old and busted.
    Right: New Hotness.
    In the back: gloves (in case you need to dye your hair).

    The new ones look more like sneakers, which is nice. They also look more like clown shoes, which might be okay as well. BONUS! One of my bikes is yellow, and the other is olive green. my feet will match either bike, which is what makes bikes fast.

    Leo from Twin Peaks would be so happy.

    I was going to put a video of Leo saying “new shoes,” but he’s gross and drooly., so you get some Angelo Badalamenti instead.
    Leo is excited.
    I told you he’d be happy.

  • My fingers didn’t like this ride

    I ride a lot in the summer. I’m used to heat. I ride wearing gym shorts and a t-shirt.

    Today was not hot: Sunny, but mid forties to low fifties. Not the best weather for thin shorts. I did adjust my clothing a tiny bit: I wore a long sleeved shirt. That helped my arms, but did nothing for my fingers or ears, which were mad at me for most of the ride.

    Tomorrow: gloves!

  • Today’s Silly Little Ride

    I thought the hardest part of riding every street in the San Fernando Valley would be the long stretches, but so far it’s the back-and-forth required to get every side street and alley.

    I’m sure once I start getting up into the hills I’ll wish I was doing twisty flat rides again.

    Today’s goofy ride:

    You can see my total progress here: https://www.strava.com/athletes/1133075/heatmaps/3eaec873#12/34.22072/-118.47229

  • Some Bike Ridin’ Stuff

    Managed to get in a nice 26ish mile ride today at (for me) a good pace. If I get back to riding more than once a week, I might get okay at this again!

    I should get back to my “ride every street in the San Fernando Valley” project. I’ve got the Southeast corner pretty well sewn up. The hard part about the rest of it is I have to either drive my bike somewhere else (which I hate), or I have to re-ride for a while on streets I’ve already done (which will take longer).

    The map so far. I might be ten percent done. Maybe.

    Also, completely by accident, I found a great old bike song. This is a “new” (circa 1978) version by R. Crumb and the Cheap Suit Serenaders.

    Weird comics AND old music. What a renaissance man.

  • Today I named a Bridge

    I decided it was time to load up my lungs with smoke while there was still some around, so I went for a longish bike ride. Along the way I came to the new bike/horse bridge over the LA River. I decided it can only be called The Finger.

    The Los Angeles River bridge to Glendale.
    I give you The Finger.

    The bridge isn’t quite open yet, so I didn’t get to finger The Finger. I look forward to future Finger fingerings. Maybe they’ll build four more and we can get the whole hand.

    This was my wacky ride, in case you’re curious. It features lots of overlap and crisscrossing.

    If you want to follow me on Strava, this is me: https://www.strava.com/athletes/1133075

  • I Love My Bike – My Bike Tolerates Me

    I’m really good about finding reasons not to ride my bike. Rain, a cold, a thing for work that has to be done by the morning, whatever; if there’s a reason not to ride, I usually take it. And that’s dumb, because I love riding my bike. I love it so much that I set up a special blog just for recording when I ride. Now I’m trying to ride more, and I’m trying to put most of my online self here. So, bike posts get posted here and mixed into everything else. Whee!

    Here’s today’s ride: short, hot, and slow. Just like me!

    Map of today's bike ride.
    18 miles, 13 mph. Like lightning! Like really slow lightning!

    Tomorrow, riding gets more difficult. Daylight Saving Time ends, which means sunset shows up around five, and riding in the dark on Los Angeles streets can be spooky. And winter is coming, so cold and rain are on the way.

    See? Excuses.

    But I do plan to ride more at least until the next Ciclavia. It’s right by my old neighborhood, so I feel obligated to ride it (and ride to it). I hope it doesn’t rain.

  • Bicyclist-Killing Driver Gets 90 Years

    Driver who hit, killed bicyclists sentenced to 90 years

    While there is some satisfaction in finally seeing a person who killed and injured bicyclists, It’s frustrating that it takes a crime as horrific as killing two people, injuring many more, and then getting caught laughing about the testimony for some form of justice for the riders and their families to be meted out. Far too many of these killings end with an “oh, well.” In this month alone, three people on bikes were killed in a one week period, and I’d bet a nickel that the worst anyone gets is a suspended license. I don’t really think even that weak punishment will happen.

    I teach in Burbank. A student at my school was hit while riding her bike. The driver watched while the kid pulled herself and her bike out from under the car. The driver got in her car claiming she was calling the kid’s parent, then drove off. A fellow teacher who is a hardcore rider got knocked down riding his bike in a bike lane on a main street in Burbank. The driver got away with it. That’s two people I know who were ridinging completely legally and nearly got killed in the last six months.

    Have you ever seen a ghost bike? They look like this:

    Ghost Bike with sign "A Cyclist Was Killed Here"
    Image source: https://rvamag.com/news/community/a-ghost-bike-memorials-removal-and-what-it-means-for-the-community.html

    I’m pretty careful when I ride, but Los Angeles roads are not built for me. A lot of Los Angeles drivers believe that getting to their destination a few minutes faster is more important than me getting to my destination alive. Watch for ghost bikes. Watch for me so I don’t become a ghost bike.

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