{"id":1869,"date":"2014-07-09T16:27:16","date_gmt":"2014-07-09T16:27:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/har0ld.com\/playground\/?p=1869"},"modified":"2014-07-09T16:27:16","modified_gmt":"2014-07-09T16:27:16","slug":"biking-la-some-tips","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/har0ld.com\/playground\/2014\/07\/biking-la-some-tips\/","title":{"rendered":"Biking LA, some tips"},"content":{"rendered":"


My bike is awfully heavy but I love it. I did so much with it.<\/em><\/p>\n

The more I bike this city, the more I know I\u2019ll 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\u2019m the smartest. <\/p>\n

Los Angeles is all about you<\/em> doing your<\/em> thing, right?<\/p>\n

I have now a couple hundreds of miles biking L.A., did it in traffic, crossed super heavy locations, did hills, rain etc.<\/p>\n

So first I have to say that I have biked all my life pretty regularly, I also have been skateboarding and playing shoot\u2019em ups. Those activities made my \u201cupcoming things coming at you\u201d radar super acute. You need to be able to decipher what\u2019s going on pretty fast and act accordingly. That\u2019s the challenging part (but also fun part to me).<\/p>\n

You also need to know how to ride straight while looking behind from the left or from right<\/strong>. This is not an option, it\u2019s vital that you can do that but don\u2019t worry, kids can do it so you probably can too.<\/p>\n

Once you have those skills:<\/p>\n

1\/ Respect the rules<\/strong><\/p>\n

I know most bikers don\u2019t and that\u2019s why cars hate us. If there\u2019s a stop, you stop. I don\u2019t 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\u2019s pretty obvious but so many bikers think that because they wear a helmet they can do whatever they want. Wrong.<\/p>\n

2\/ Know what you\u2019re doing<\/strong><\/p>\n

You need to know where you\u2019re 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\u2019s scary for cars to see an indecisive bike. Don\u2019t 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\u2019s bad habit. Again, safety first. <\/p>\n

3\/ Smile<\/strong> <\/p>\n

Nice, gentle smile. Cars love that shit. They feel like they allow you to ride \u201ctheir\u201d roads, which is the good vibe to be in. Don\u2019t be a dick because whatever happens, you are still only on two wheels with no protection so don\u2019t be a dick. In the animal world it\u2019s called survival, in the human world it\u2019s called not being dumb.<\/p>\n

4\/ Buy kevlar tires<\/strong><\/p>\n

I haven\u2019t had any puncture in a while with my classic tires but kevlar tires<\/a> 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.<\/p>\n

5\/ Sometimes, you have to assert your dominance<\/strong><\/p>\n

It\u2019s 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\u2019t act like you\u2019re chilling that drives cars crazy. Assert your presence and get the fuck back to your bike lane on the right asap.<\/p>\n

6\/ Don\u2019t necessarily trust Google bike maps<\/strong><\/p>\n

They are mostly good but sometimes (and again it highlights how machines are dumb) they are not: like they don\u2019t 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<\/strong>. Being in traffic isn\u2019t great but sometimes it\u2019s actually easier to bear with it for 3 minutes instead of dangerously trying to avoid it.<\/p>\n

Enjoy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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\u2019ll 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, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/har0ld.com\/playground\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1869"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/har0ld.com\/playground\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/har0ld.com\/playground\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/har0ld.com\/playground\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/har0ld.com\/playground\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1869"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/har0ld.com\/playground\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1869\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1870,"href":"http:\/\/har0ld.com\/playground\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1869\/revisions\/1870"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/har0ld.com\/playground\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1869"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/har0ld.com\/playground\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1869"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/har0ld.com\/playground\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1869"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}