It’s in the news daily now, oil (and gasoline) prices are hitting new highs and the whole world is concerned about it. Here in LaLa Land (Los Angeles) naysayers are lamenting that the City is dragging their feet about installing bike infrastructure and car drivers just won’t change their habits to seek alternate transportation. This may be true regarding the lack of infrastructure, but we are pressing on regardless. It is not true that the general public will not seek alternate transportation. It is happening as fast as it can.

Local Bike Shops that have hitherto catered to the spandex set who want the latest expensive carbon fiber 30 speed wonderbikes are ill prepared for the bicycle commuter revolution. Manufacturers are beginning to see the light, but it takes time for the supply pipeline to fill. New offerings include fully-equipped commuter bikes. Some made of steel, some single speed, but all simpler in design and meant for urban streets.

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Slick tyres, chopped bars and a luggage rack make this Raleigh a Commuter

Here at the Bike Oven, we can barely keep up. The demand for bikes and repairs is overwhelming. People are digging up those ten-speeds and bringing them in for refurbishing (sometimes a daunting task) or conversion. But more often they want ready to ride bikes (we call them RTRs at the Oven). As fast as we can twirl the wrenches, we take the Sow’s Ear donated bikes and turn them into Silk Purses. The most popular and sought after bikes are the single speed road bike and urban commuter conversions. As a training exercise and during slow moments (rare!) we take suspensionless mountain bikes and convert them using parts that have been stripped from the hopeless cases that have been donated.

Once a mountain bike, this Schwinn Mirada now is a single speed road bike

We sell these bikes to raise cash to pay the rent. Usually just hours after an ad is placed on Craig’s List, our converted bike is sold. Typically, people walk in the door and announce that they want a bike to ride to work. Usually they go for something simple - a single speed or a slick-tyred, chopped bar mountain bike. They come in as couples wanting two bikes. As families with small children, as students, as urban hipsters, most in their twenties or thirties. For this demographic, the move away from car dependency is already happening.

Another mountain to commuter coversion, this one a Diamondback

We can advocate all we want and we will continue to do it. We can lean on our various Departments of Transportation, our Metro Authorities, our City Council, our Planning Committees, and our Traffic Commissions. It would be nice to get some positive response from these groups, but we are getting there anyway with and without their help. When confronted with a compelling problem, people will react with what seems to be the best solution for them. There are miles of paved streets in Los Angeles, many off of the main arteries that serve the crush of car traffic. It doesn’t take long to figure it all out. As word spreads about what kind of bike to ride, where to get it and where to ride it, our urban commuter numbers will increase and we will be accepted by the motoring public. It’s already happening, and this is just the beginning.

A derelict Shogun road bike gets new life as a Single Speed

My recent Nuts ‘n’ Bolts article showed how to convert your old ten-speed to a fixed-gear bike. It seems that “single speed” is the new “fixed gear”, at least here in Los Angeles. Recently, at the Bike Oven, requests for single speed conversions have caught and passed requests for fixed gear conversions. When you think about it, much of the fixie cachet is present with a single-speed. No derailleurs, jockey wheels, shifters, or shift cables and a lot less chain whipping around. However, now you really need that brake (or preferably - brakes) unless you want to wear through your tennis shoe against the rear tyre to stop every time.

At first, the quickest and dirtiest single-speed conversion was to simply remove the derailleur gear and shorten the chain so that it would go around one chain ring and one cog on the multi-speed freewheel or cassette. Now, most opt for the cleaner and lighter single chain ring and single-cog BMX freewheel setup.

My article would be near identical for a single-speed conversion. Except you screw a BMX freewheel onto the hub and omit the lock ring. Watch out that you get the correct BMX freewheel though - get one with English threads and not Metric. BMX bikes use both which are also available for either 1/8 or 3/32 chain, same as fixed cogs. Good prices on these can be obtained from the sources mentioned in the article.

Two types of BMX Freewheel

Another thing to watch for is that some BMX freewheels are non-removable (without a hammer and punch or chisel). Get one that uses the standard 4-prong extractor, Park FR6 or equivalent.

Actually, I find that night riding is quite a bit calmer than daylight riding. Auto traffic is lighter, busses run less frequently, there are fewer trucks and delivery vehicles, and most auto drivers are more relaxed. It is still important to ride confidently and predictably, demanding your share of the road and doing nothing to surprise motorists.

There is one huge difference, and this is the essential difference that can make night riding either pleasant or treacherous. Lighting. Yes, you need as many of those blinkies as you can put up with. Now that 99 cent stores have great selections of these, there are no excuses. Here is what I use, all items bought for 99 cents.

Two red rear blinkies, each with 5 bright LEDs. Complete with seat post mounting brackets, 99 cents each. Alternately clip onto your belt or backpack. I recommend the seatpost mount for consistantly accurate aiming.

One white LED front flashlight, mounted on a quick-release handlebar mount that I fabricated from bits and pieces of scrap aluminum and a plastic handlebar reflector clamp. If you don’t have these parts or don’t have the skills to do this custom fabrication, the 99 cent store LED flashlight can be mounted to the handlebar with a rubber band. Just loop the rubber band over the front of the flashlight, under the handlebar, then up and over the back of the light. You can cut the rubber band from a discarded bike inner tube.

Not shown is an amber LED blinkie (not from 99 cent store) that I mounted on the seat stay. I use this in foggy or rainy conditions for extra visibility.

Over the years of night riding, I have noticed that every time I add to, or brighten up, my lighting, auto drivers notice me faster and from farther away and give me a wider passing space. Contrary to the myth, I have noticed that flashing lights on a bike are better than steady-state because motorists have come to associate blinking lights with bicycles.

I’m beaming. I’m thrilled. I’m filled with Langer’s Pastrami. You see commuting on my bicycle not only made it possible to visit the dentist early this morning (no cavities thank you) but to make a brief visit to possibly the best deli in the world– Langer’s Delicatessen. “Located across from historic MacArthur Park, Langer’s is an important part of Los Angeles’ rich cultural heritage” and situated in possibly one of the worst neighborhoods to park a car. This is where the bicycle comes in– I plotted a route from my dentist to my job that involved riding down Alvarado. Once I passed MacArthur Park, I brought my bicycle inside the restaurant and placed my to-go order of pastrami on rye. In-out in 10 minutes with grub and the purchase of a 60 year anniversary commemorative coffee mug. Damn!

Sure it was 10:30 in the morning but how often can you have what Nora Ephron, writing in The New Yorker described as “the resulting sandwich, slathered with Gulden’s mustard, is an exquisite combination of textures and tastes. It’s soft but crispy, tender but chewy, peppery but sour, smoky but tangy. It’s a symphony orchestra, different instruments brought together to play one perfect chord. It … is, in short, a work of art.”

Ah, the bicycle bringing gluttons like me to food with ease… Wanna learn more about Langer’s Delicatessen then visit www.langersdeli.com.

Hey everybody,

We are reincarnating CMCM with an inaugural ride, Friday, September 28, at 6:00 p.m.

Meet up in the parking lot of Memphis Costa Mesa (2920 Bristol Avenue, Costa Mesa) for a tour of the city.

We’ll wind up back at Memphis for beer and food.

See you there!!!

It is the year 1895, Igor’s great grandad, Ebinezer, pedals his way to the new “Bike Stove” (a community blacksmith shop founded by Ben Ali, a former used camel dealer) where a batch of donated wagon and buggy wheels needs to be converted for use with the very latest craze - bicycles!

A few locals timidly follow this rebelious pioneer to the hotbed of the anti-horse movement. Not visible, on Ebbie’s backpack, a patch reads, “Ban the Bridle” and “Say Neigh to Nags”. A banner over the Bike Stove entrance pleads, “Reduce World Dependence on Hay. Take Back the Streets, Purge the Piles of Puckey.”

The Teamsters Union is fighting back; buggy whips are being stuck into bicycle spokes at an alarming rate. Local sheriffs are arresting velocipedists for scaring horses and scorching through town squares.

Bike Stove regulars were unavailable for comment but are drawing a great deal of sympathy from barkeeps and dance hall girls. Mae West has been seen embracing a Bike Stove ‘Smithy’ and exclaiming, “Is that a tyre pump in your pocket, or are you just glad to see me?”