After Four Days I Got A Woody!

June 26, 2008 at 10:43 am in Biking in LA, ICME

I’m weird enough already in that I’m a middle-aged guy who bikes pretty much wherever and whenever I can. While most men my age are fixating on Harleys, I’m obsessing over hub options for a new wheelset I wanna build for my trusty singlespeeder that I’ve finally named: Le Noir . Yeah: oddball. To the nth. But when you factor in that I become progressively attached to things I find while pedaling around town that takes my strangeness to a whole new dimension.

I saw him first this past Monday on my way to work. He was face down on the asphalt where Alcott t-bones into Crescent Heights a block south of Pico. Even though he was pretty beat-up I recognized the plaid shirt sleeves, the vest, the blue pants, the cowboy boots, the empty holster. The only thing missing was his hat which little did I know apparently covers up his exposed brain.

I kept on riding. I saw him again the following morning and didn’t even break cadence, but now he was in my head and while pedaling homeward that evening I found myself seeking him out as I approached Pico. Sure enough, still there. Same thing Wednesday morning and evening. Finally this morning when I crossed Pico southbound and saw the mere speck in the road that was him I couldn’t take it anymore. I had to intervene. I had to come to the rescue. There was something just not right about him being lost another second.

So I stopped and snapped the above pic and then picked him up and jeez he’s in bad shape. His spurs had been crushed to nubs and his aquiline nose had a permanent upturn counterbalancing a right foot that was bent downward no doubt from being run over more than a few times. Nevertheless, the smile was still there and something of a twinkle in his one unblackened eye and so I started to put him unfortunately hatless in my pocket, and wouldn’t you know the first place I looked a few yards down the street, there it was. Having reunited him with his crucial accessory, I stashed him in my pack and got on with my commute feeling as silly as I was satisfied.

6 Comments »

http://frazgomeanders.blogspot.com frazgo

Thanks for the great headline. I needed that laugh.
If you really were that desperate for a woody we have a toy box full of those minatures that have not been used in years.
http://soledadenmasa.wordpress.com soledadenmasa

I once got a Woody in the back of a Greyhound bus.
http://noirbettie.com/blog/ Annika Barranti

Just don’t show it to my kid! He is crazy about that movie. We once saw a Buzz Lightyear toy at Target and it is a miracle we made it out of that aisle empty handed.
jscottamy

Hey Will,

I’m thinking about taking the biking plunge due to the gas prices and am gonna get a bike (though I live in S. Pas and work at Sunset Gower 8.6miles!!). I see bikers, especially around Scoops, with the single speed like your le noir. What’s the upside to that over the usual 10 speed?
http://www.wildbell.com WILL•I•AM CAMPBELL

jscottamy,

Good or you in considering biking to work.

For me the main upside might be an esoteric one: the purity and simplicity of it all. From a dollar-sign perspective there’s definitely a benefit in that with a singlespeed bike there’s just less stuff to go wrong — no derailleurs, cables, shifters to break or need adjusting — but as my friend Manny says “gears are good!”

And he’s right, especially if you are considering “taking the plunge” as you said (and certainly with a South Pas/Hollywood route that has a variety of elevation gain/loss).

I loves me the singlespeeder stuff (not to be confused with fixed gear bikes, which are the very velo essence of purity and simplicity), but I would recommend you get a multi-speed bike that allows you to manage the route you’ll travel and grades you’ll encounter along the way with the most efficiency and least amount of discouragement.
Ox Jaw Hand

I laughed when I first saw your post because on Saturday I found this little guy in a Venice parking lot. As I kept reading, however, a horrible thought came to me: I left him behind!!

I jumped on my bike (and by “bike” I mean “car”) to see if he was still there but I wasn’t as lucky as you were. Maybe I’ll put up some ‘lost’ signs and see what happens :)

Godspeed my blue little headless, armless freak…Godspeed.

After Four Days I Got A Woody!

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