Copenhagen. Life. Cycle. by Biomega from Copenhagenize on Vimeo.
The brilliant Mikael Coleville-Andersen has produced a lovely new advertisement for Biomega bicycles that we have to share.
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DJ Chicken Leather enjoying some Eagle Rock Brewery Solidarity Ale.
The ride was such a pleasant one that I decided that afternoon to try and do a “Brewery Ride” of one sort or another on the 1st Saturday of each month.
This Saturday, March 6 ,2010 we’re heading back to the Eagle Rock Brewery! Meet us at the Flying Pigeon LA bike shop (located at 3714 N. Figueroa St., Los Angeles, CA 90065) at 3 p.m. We’ll be on the road at 3:20 p.m.
San Francisco's "Summer Streets" event is a great example of what CicLAvia can do for Los Angeles. Image: sfbike/Flickr
Sometimes, life can get you down. Towards the end of the summer of 2009, I was feeling like nothing would ever change in Los Angeles. The cycling communtiy made some big strides in getting more people to ride bikes, and had changed a few small laws and policies, but people were still getting killed and maimed in daily hit-and-run crashes, the mayor’s office didn’t care about bicycling as transport despite his “green” rhetoric, and I didn’t see anything else on the near horizon to change things.
When I first heard about a group of citizens organizing a CicLAvia in Los Angeles, I thought it was a typo. I’ve seen Enrique Penalosa, the former mayor of Bogota, Columbia, give a talk about something called a Ciclovia several years ago at the MTA headquarters in Downtown LA. The Ciclovia in Bogota is a weekly event where the main roads in the city are shut down to automobile traffic for a few hours, and the people are allowed to ride their bikes, roller skate, walk, and play on a Sunday morning. So, what is this thing everyone is calling a “CicLAvia”?
Quite simply, the CicLAvia is Los Angeles’ version of Ciclovia. We’re a bit behind the on this as well! New York, San Francisco, Chicago, and other cities have each implemented their own versions of a Ciclovia.
To some it may seem silly, or trivial, to close off a long stretch of a major roadway on a Sunday morning to allow people to get some exercise, ride their bikes, and enjoy the streets. To me, it seemed like the most significant shift in Los Angeles’ political culture I was likely to encounter in my lifetime.
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I filmed this short clip of my daily commute with my daughter in our special Dutch cargo bike – one variety of several available for sale at the Flying Pigeon LA bike shop.
The bike ride that day was a wet one for my right hand (as the left was holding the umbrella and everything else on the bike was covered up). The rain let up for a few minutes, which enabled the umbrella to briefly come down and the camera to come up to capture the moment.
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A Rich Raya mural, reflecting a bit of car culture, painted at the Pep Boys in Highland Park, CA.
If you’re looking for something fun to do this weekend, come join us for (another) Spoke(n) Art ride this Saturday, February 13, 2010 at the Flying Pigeon LA bike shop. Meet us at the shop, located at 3714 N. Figueroa St., Los Angeles, CA 90065 at 6 p.m., we will ride to the corner of York & N. Figueroa Street at 6:30 p.m.
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The Flying Pigeon LA shop, your friendly neighborhood mainstream counterculture bike shop! Part of our cargo bike selection is pictured above.
It took a cross-continental love and a couple of long plane trips, but a Canadian has nailed LA’s emergent cycling scene: it’s not a subculture we’re a part of her in Los Angeles’ cycling community, it’s a “mainstream counterculture”. There is much more from the Bespoke blog post “Los Angeles & the ‘Mainstream Counterculture’” published on December 5, 2009:
Ed Begley Jr. will be doing a book signing for his new "Guide to Sustainable Living" this Saturday, February 6, 2010. Flying Pigeon LA will be there!
I’m heading over to see environmentalist, actor, celebrity, and author Ed Begley Jr. at a book signing at Mission Tile West in South Pasadena today, Saturday, February 6, 2010 from 2:30 p.m. to 5 p.m. Mission Tile West is located at 905 Mission Street, South Pasadena, CA 91030 (right next to the Mission station for the Gold Line).
The Bike Working Group's "Backbone Bikeway Network" for Central Los Angeles ca. February 2010 by Mihai Peteu.
Yesterday afternoon, KPCC’s Patt Morrison had a 20 minute segment on a map for a Backbone Bikeway Network created by the all-volunteer Bike Working Group in a segment called “A cyclers’ paradise—a private highway?“.
This is our latest creation - a deluxe 5-Speed Flying Pigeon bicycle. Price? $749 as you see it here.
It has taken about a month, on and off, to build our latest 5-speed Flying Pigeon PB-13. You know how it goes, dremel this, re-face that. “Should we use the Schwalbe Delta Cruisers in creme, or creme with a reflective sidewall?”
Well here it is, I’d say mid-build. We’ve still got to put a nice basket on it. We’re debating a rear lock for the wheel too – AXA, Abus, or Flying Pigeon brand (we’re not sure yet). Oh yes, lights! We’ve got to figure out what sort of head light and tail light combination to install on the bike. As you see it here, the bike has as its most dominant features:
SRAM Spectro P5 hub with a coaster brake on our Deluxe Flying Pigeon 5-speed.
This is in addition to the massive amounts of dremel work, and the re-tapping and re-facing of the various parts of the bike with ball bearing assemblies. The headset and bottom bracket have been replaced with good quality VP (from Taiwan, VP make Cane Creek and other name-brand headsets and bottom bracket) parts. The cranks we’ve installed are 28 tooth shorties – allowing a very, very, easy time pedaling this sprite lil’ bike around.
The 5-Speed Flying Pigeon PB-13 (as you see here) will retail for $749. Here is how we look at it: for the price of a ONE SPEED Dutch bike, you can get a FIVE SPEED Flying Pigeon. Now, the frame is not going to be as solid as the Dutch bike, but clearly there is a value in what we’re doing with our line of Deluxe Flying Pigeons.
A Brooks B67 leather saddle installed on our Deluxe Flying Pigeon 5-speed - looks nice, rides great.
With lights, a lock, and a nice basket, the price will climb a bit (but so will the utility of the bike). You can see why there is debate involved in specifying the parts on a new bike! We don’t want to keep the price high, but we do want the bike to be ready to make it’s future owner happy; we feel that baskets, and other “accessories”, can make or break a bike’s utility.
Would you like your own Deluxe Flying Pigeon? We can custom fit all sorts of gear to these bikes. You’ll get a hand-built, one-of-a-kind, city bike for less than a production bike from many other manufacturers. Prices start at $499 (single speed) and go up to $699 (five speed). Options like the Brooks saddle, and other neat stuff add some to the price of each bike, but we don’t charge retail prices for those additions.
The best way to spec. out a bike with us is via email at info@flyingpigeon-la.com
We’re a shop dedicated to bikes with an upright riding position (see our Flying Pigeon, Nihola, Batavus, Gazelle, Achielle and other bikes for examples). However, if you’re looking to lean over when you ride (a bit more efficient aerodynamically), we do stock a couple of quick-riding city bikes at Flying Pigeon LA.
