Behold: The 8 Presidents Ride

By
Will Campbell
 – February 2, 2010Posted in: Biking in LA, Entertainment, Events

8pres2I don’t really need reason or logic to get on my bike and go riding around town by myself, but seeing as I haven’t put together any organized group rides since last May, and one of my pocket resolutions is to be more goddam sosh’bull and shit, I figured seeing as Presidents Day Weekend is coming up that it wouldn’t be unreasonably illogical of me to plan a ride that will wander around town involving eight — count ‘em: eight! — streets big and small named after past presidents, also of varying degrees of stature either physical and or mythical. You’ll get some Hoover, some Van Buren, some Jackson, some Madison, some Washington, some Lincoln, and some Jefferson. Who’d I forget? Oh yeah, some Adams, too. Sorry Johnny. No disrespect.

So if on the coming second Saturday in February you and your functioning bike find yourself in town and you’re mildly intrigued by this concept of biking for fun and stuff, then you are totally welcome to join me, and get a commemorative limited spokecard for your participation. Here be the particulars:

The What:  The 8 Presidents Ride
The When: Saturday, February 13; Gathers at 10 a.m., departs at 10:30.
The Where: Meet at Wilshire and Hoover by the tennis courts on the south side of Wilshire across from Lafayette Park.
The Where We Going: About 30 miles, pretty flat; the route is mapped here. Ride ends where it begins.
The How: This is a casually paced ride, probably averaging around 10-15 mph. There will be improvised snack/drink stops along the way and No Rider Left Behind. Helmets encouraged, so are functioning street-able bikes, along the gear needed to fix any flats that may occur.
The Why: The why not?

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  2. We Ride By Night
  3. The Return Of The RIDE-Arc Rides
  4. RIDE-Arc Tonight: Fright On!
  5. Memorial Ride for Ilia Parkin spotted outside my door…

About the Author

Will Campbell arrived in Los Angeles via the maternity ward at Good Sam Hospital way back in the sixty-fourth year of the previous century and has never lived anywhere else, which makes him two things: middle-aged and a native. He can count 16 residences over the course of his nomadic existence as a latchkey kid and deadbolt adult and presently he resides in Silver Lake with his wife Susan, their four cats, three treefrogs, two dogs, and a Russian tortoise named Buster. Blogging since 2001, Will's web endeavors extend back to 1995 with laonstage.com, a comprehensive theater site that was well received but ever-short on capital (or a business model). For better or worse, the pinnacle of his online success arrived in 1997, when much to his surprise, a hobby site he'd built called VisuaL.A. was chosen "Best Website" in Los Angeles magazine's annual "Best of L.A." issue (in large part no doubt because he shrewdly avoided using blinking text which was all the Web 1.0 rage back then). He enjoys experiencing (and writing about) pretty much anything creative, explorational and/or adventurous; is an alternate transportation proponent, a horrible golf player and an OK tennis player. His prefered mode of civic travel is a bike, and he loves all creatures great and small -- especially the ones people can't stand like coyotes, and opossums and spiders and potato bugs. As a rule he carries a camera with him pretty much everywhere he goes. Oh yeah -- And when he was a leeeetle boy he thought he was related to his idol, Dodgers pitching legend Sandy Koufax because they were both southpaws. Secretly he still wishes it were true. He can be found on Twitter via: @wildbell. His email addy is wildbellatgmaildotcom.