Westside BikeSIDE!

Either in October 2004 or November 2004 I went to my first bike ride in at least a decade - The Westside Ridazz. Westside Ridazz is (was? let’s bring it back!) a small group ride organized by the men of El Segundo - Brian, Alec, and Max. They organized all kinds of crazy rides, a Wild Wild West ride, a ride around the oil rigs above West LA College, and once an impromptu tour of Westside trees led by Liz Bernier (including a ride on the Rancho Park Golf Course).

On that one ride of about 14 riders I met most of the core of Westside bike culture at that time. Among them were Andrea Clemons, Liz Bernier, Brian Davidson, Alec, Max, Dave Benhoff, and Jesse Kretschmer - all of whom are still rabble rousing bikeheads, though one of them defected east (we don’t capitalize east on this blog). They were an inclusive and vibrant group, and lately I miss the unique rides with a tight group.

You can still go to one ride on the Westside and meet most of the bike culture regulars. Santa Monica Critical Mass collects most of the Westside bikers together once a month, but you’re not likely to remember all their names at the end of the night. Last month Santa Monica Critical Mass numbered at least 220 riders - a ride that didn’t even exist until February 2005, when it drew six riders. Probably over 50 of the riders have participated in significant ways in bike organizing on the Westside in the last two years.

To say that biking has grown on the Westside is a vast understatement. It’s not a contest with central and east LA, although it is fun to playfully antagonize them, but it’s worth noting that once we rode to the east for bike entertainment now we’re dragging a significant number of eastsiders West. But for better, less antagonistic, evidence, witness three months of unprecedented participation in Santa Monica Critical Mass with two epic afterparties, the backroom formation of the Bikerowave, renewed participation by Westsiders in rides east through satellite rides, and the parking of upwards of 200 bikes weekly at the Santa Monica Farmer’s market.

Having grown so much recently one might anticipate a slowdown in the growth of biking out West. Instead, in Midnight Ridazz fashion, like a blackhole the Westside seems to be gobbling up all the motorists and transforming them into bikers at a frenetic pace. You wonder if the monster will stop to breathe.

There’s a ton of great projects going on out here and I hope their leaders and participants will take the time to post on this blog. In particular I hope we’ll have posts about Santa Monica Critical Mass, the top secret Bikerowave, Roll With It (citywide but participation is particularly vibrant out West), urban planning, the situation at UCLA, and ways to get more peeps biking on the Westside. My personal preference is that posts focus on the advocacy aspects of biking out West - particularly ways to get “asses on bikes” (Lars!), but that’s my personal preference. Like Critical Mass I hope that Westside bikers will take this blog where the group decides, even if it is down Lincoln Blvd. My only stipulation is that the posts should focus on biking on the Westside.

Exit the Wu, enter the Westside . . .

the BIKESIDE!

Alex Thompson
PS - Photo = Santa Monica Critical Mass, August 2006. Taken by Nicolas Cadorette Vigneau.

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