My bike is awfully heavy but I love it. I did so much with it.
The more I bike this city, the more I know I’ll need a car at some point but the more I spend time in a car sitting in traffic and the less I want one? Meanwhile on my bike, free, using my body to propel myself, getting that sun into my bones, cruising beautiful side streets I feel like I’m the smartest.
Los Angeles is all about you doing your thing, right?
I have now a couple hundreds of miles biking L.A., did it in traffic, crossed super heavy locations, did hills, rain etc.
So first I have to say that I have biked all my life pretty regularly, I also have been skateboarding and playing shoot’em ups. Those activities made my “upcoming things coming at you” radar super acute. You need to be able to decipher what’s going on pretty fast and act accordingly. That’s the challenging part (but also fun part to me).
You also need to know how to ride straight while looking behind from the left or from right. This is not an option, it’s vital that you can do that but don’t worry, kids can do it so you probably can too.
Once you have those skills:
1/ Respect the rules
I know most bikers don’t and that’s why cars hate us. If there’s a stop, you stop. I don’t care about your momentum or your lifestyle, I care about your life son. Follow the rules is the first rule of not getting hit by a car. It’s pretty obvious but so many bikers think that because they wear a helmet they can do whatever they want. Wrong.
2/ Know what you’re doing
You need to know where you’re going, if you should be on the left or right lane before being on your bike. You have doubt? Stop on the side and read your map, itinerary for the next segment to come. It’s scary for cars to see an indecisive bike. Don’t change your mind like you are alone on the road (oh, I think I should turn left like right now), even if you are it’s bad habit. Again, safety first.
3/ Smile
Nice, gentle smile. Cars love that shit. They feel like they allow you to ride “their” roads, which is the good vibe to be in. Don’t be a dick because whatever happens, you are still only on two wheels with no protection so don’t be a dick. In the animal world it’s called survival, in the human world it’s called not being dumb.
4/ Buy kevlar tires
I haven’t had any puncture in a while with my classic tires but kevlar tires are what you want if you want to make sure that flat will almost never happen: professional riders use some for thousands of miles before getting a flat. Expensive, but worth it.
5/ Sometimes, you have to assert your dominance
It’s not really dominance, but you need to make sure cars know you exist: you are in traffic, about to turn left in the left lane waiting for the light. Stretch out, be visible, wear bright colors. Once the light goes green accelerate like you have shit to do, don’t act like you’re chilling that drives cars crazy. Assert your presence and get the fuck back to your bike lane on the right asap.
6/ Don’t necessarily trust Google bike maps
They are mostly good but sometimes (and again it highlights how machines are dumb) they are not: like they don’t want to put you in traffic on a big boulevard but will make you cross that boulevard through a side street, which is way more dangerous. Being in traffic isn’t great but sometimes it’s actually easier to bear with it for 3 minutes instead of dangerously trying to avoid it.
Enjoy.