Ira Rides His Bike: San Francisco to LA

Thursday, February 28, 2008

San Francisco to LA - The Night Before

It's the night before I leave for my trip down the California coast with my brother Gary. Gary is traveling from Tours, France to ride with me from San Francisco to Los Angeles. I traveled to France last year to ride with Gary in France. We will meet at the airport tomorrow night and catch a flight to San Francisco early Saturday morning.

I will be riding my trusty Cervelo Soloist Carbon and Gary will be riding a new Trek Madone 6.5 built with parts from my now infamous "garage wrecked" Colnago. I find that parts from an older bike sometimes make great parts for a new bike. I also passed on some Kysirium wheels that I know Gary will enjoy. I got two bike boxes from my local bike store and have the bikes tentatively packed and ready to make the trip Saturday morning on Virgin American. I always worry when traveling with my bike and having to rely on it for transportation when I arrive at my destination. Guess I will need to call my wife to pick me up if I arrive in San Francisco and my bike is broken.

I'm looking forward to seeing Gary tomorrow night when he arrives from France. The weather looks good for our trip and I've packed 3 tubes, 1 tire, 3 air cartridges, 1 multi-tool, 1 crash kit, arm warmers, leg warmers, 1 pair socks, bib shorts, short sleeve jersey, rain jacket. I will be wearing a pair of jeans, polo shirt, and crocks on the plane and will change into my cycling gear when we land. I'll bring a razor, shaving cream, deodorant, tooth brush and toothpaste.

4 comments:

Unknown said...: Go Ira Go. We will be riding from Gelson's to Oceanside and back tomorrow and I'll have to find another wheel to suck. We will be happy to hear how your adventure goes. Please ride careful my friend and say hi to Gary for me.
Blessings,
Lonnie; February 29, 2008 at 6:05 PM
Jeff L. said...: Hi Ira and Gary, Have a wonderful and safe ride...it sounds amazing. I'm glad I'll be able to follow along via the blog. Wear your sunscreen even if it's cloudy...all my best, Jeff L.; February 29, 2008 at 7:24 PM
Unknown said...: Ira and Gary,
Everything sounds great! I'm jealous (kinda). Just keep pedaling and enjoy the beautiful coastline. Look forward to reading your next blog.
Ride safe,
Dave W.; March 2, 2008 at 8:25 AM
marcy said...: Ira--

You're my hero!

I want to go on the next trip. We can share a razor and toothbrush.

See you soon, and be safe.

marcy; March 2, 2008 at 11:37 AM

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About Ira and his Bike(s)

My name is Ira and I ride my bike. I do lots of other things but all through my life, on again and off again, I have ridden my bike. When I was a little guy, I got into collecting stamps. I loved old stamps and in order to find them, I needed to ride my bike to far away post offices to search for the best. On the weekends, my friend, Steve Spengler and I would pack our lunch, fill our backpacks and ride our bikes to places like Lawndale, Torrance and if we were really ambitious, San Pedro. We would make sure that every post office in each city was on our route and we would visit each one in hopes of finding the oldest and best stamps.Back then, I rode a red Schwinn Varsity - 31 pounds and 10 gears. I would zoom "down the hill" from my home in Palos Verdes to Torrance and I would call my mom to pick me up and drive me back up the hill. Even back then, I didn't care for climbing hills. My Schwinn Varsity was a great bike, but I always had longed for Peugeot U10. The Peugeot was an exotic French machine and only weighed 28 pounds. With this bike, I figured maybe, just maybe, I would be able to ride my bike both down the hill and back up.When I was 15, I got a job at Mayers bakery cleaning the floors and dishes. I received $1.35 an hour and I socked all of the money away to pay for my new Peugeot. It was now 1973 and my new Peugeot would cost $179.00. After a few months working at Mayers, the new Peugeot was mine!I rode my Peugeot everywhere. In 1973, I got involved with American Youth Hostels. The AYH group in Palos Verdes sponsored bicycle rides on the weekends. I joined AYH and routinely rode 50-75 miles on the weekends. We would go up the coast to Malibu or Trancas or down the coast to Seal Beach or Huntington Beach. We would sometimes bring backpacks and camp on the beach and if I was really tired at the end of my ride, I would call my mom to drive me up the hill. (I still didn't like to climb).At the end of 1973 and early 1974, one of my friends, Tim Roach, invited me to ride in a "club race" with the Lomita bicycle Peddlers. I rode and raced and loved it! I began to ride almost every day and was bitten by the bicycle racing bug!Soon after I started racing, I bought my first racing bike, a Stella. Stella was a beautiful French machine with simplex derailleurs and Campagnolo brakes and sew-up tires. Sew-ups's are the tires that you glue to the rim. Back then there were no hi-pressure, low profile clinchers. In order to get 100 pounds of pressure in a tire, sew-ups were the only way to go. In order to patch a tire, you had to take the stitches out of the tire, patch the tube and stitch the tire back up!During my racing days I was fortunate to be able to travel throughout the US racing my bike. At the end of high school in 1976, I rode my Stella to first place in the California State Championships road race and 10th place in the National Championships in Louisville, Kentucky. I also rode a Raleigh track bike to 3rd place in the California State Championships on the velodrome.In 1981, my stamp-riding buddy, Steve Spengler and I rode our bikes, not to the local post office, but across the US - from Portland, Oregon to Burlington Vermont. On this ride, I didn't call mom to pick me up. It was a trip I will never forget.Over the years, I have ridden many different bikes, including Colnago, 3Rensho, Griffon, Teledyne and Masi and Merlin. Just recently, after wrecking my Colnago by driving my Porsche into my garage, with my Colnago bolted to my roof-rack, I bought a Cervelo. The Cervelo soloist carbon frame is one of the lightest ever made and I need all the help I can get.

Ira Rides His Bike

Thursday, February 28, 2008

San Francisco to LA - The Night Before

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About Ira and his Bike(s)

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