Hands Stay Steady On The Wheels Of Steel

Been cycling around everywhere lately on Sarah's Beachcruiser bicycle that she left behind for me when she went to San Franscisco. It's a great way explore around the Venice/Santa Monica area, although your range is a bit restricted in a city laid out like LA. But it's still opened up possibilities for supermarket food shopping and thrift-store digging, and the bike is so perfect for rolling along the bike paths on the beach that it's entirely plausible the Beachcruiser, was designed specifically with Venice beach in mind.

The attitude toward cycling here is different for a couple of key reasons. Riding on the pavement is not discouraged, it's more likely to be seen as a safer place for cyclists to be. It's easier here as well because for one, not many people are on the pavements, and because theres so many cars, theres so many more private off-road parking spot, and therefore dropped kerbs everywhere to get on and off the pavement with the ultimate smoothness. They don't expect you to have lights at night, it's not illegal, in fact the only traffic offence relating to bikes is riding over the alcohol limit, something I've never heard of anyone in the UK being nicked for. I haven't been beeped at once. I used to get vans driving after me, drivers screaming their heads off in Clerkenwell.

Riding the wide avenues in a warm breeze, Oli's chapter-defining LA selection on the iPod, on my way to Vidiots to rent a film, shrimp tacos on Lincoln, the beachfront coffee run, food shopping, calling for Jon & Alex, all made possible by those two wheels, and definitely one of the great simple highlights of this first few weeks.