City bikes at work in country

After 10+ years of living in or near various downtowns we have been spending some time out in the country a few miles outside a small town. City bikes are now doing some farm duty.

Rainy day

Had a busy week so decided to ride SJ to Mountain View and have a adventure.

Car-Lite Trip, by the numbers

Did I do what I set out to do? I say “yes.” Drove ~270 miles but did get rid of the car mid-trip Took two ~10-mile Lyft rides to/from Santa Barbara. Connected to and from Amtrak and across LA without a car of my own or a ride Did all trips to and from work, […]

SoCal Car-Lite Trip, Day 4, Part 2: You Can Bike to LAX

I didn’t take the whole route but generally this thread led me in the right direction from Venice. To me the key is routing to the In and Out on Sepulveda Boulevard. There are a few stretches of on-street riding in Venice on the way down to Marina del Ray that were typical urban California bike […]

SoCal Car-Lite Trip, Day 4, Part 1: Early Rise, Workout, and Work

So my restful night on day 3 gave me enough juice to get up early. Not early enough to go to 5am Crossfit or anything, but early enough to go to 6am Crossfit. I hadn’t done any substantial workouts since last week (other than the mini visit at Gold’s, which was so short it doesn’t […]

SoCal Car-Lite Trip, Day 3: Work a day in LA

Woke up a little on the late side, think that the lack of downtime has stressed me out a little. Went on a quick run down to the “world famous” Gold’s Gym, which was quite the experience–I had a day pass from the hotel so did a very brief set of shoulder presses and squats. […]

SoCal Car-Lite Trip, Day 2: Work in Goleta and Car-free Trip to LA

Started the day a bit early on a quest to mail a postcard. I found the giant post office center in Goleta was too early to buy a stamp. With the car gone and checkout time looming, I converted the bike into travel mode: rolled up the B-bag, carefully packed the packing cubes into the […]

SoCal Car-Lite Trip, Day 1: Ditch the car and Visit Santa Barbara

Started the day with a walk to get coffee. I beelined to a plaza where Starbucks was shown on the map but halfway there I saw The French Press coffee and diverted over. I had some really good coffee and a croissant: Afterwards I did some frugal traveler work and grabbed groceries to keep in […]

SoCal Car-Lite Trip, Day 0

Have long-discussed taking a trip down to LA for work. As part of the planning process I came across a “travel tips” document that said something to the effect of, “of course you need a car.” Me, replying to inanimate object: “Challenge Accepted.” Ironically I started this car-lite trip with a 250-mile one-way drive in […]

A utility cyclist goes road biking

Awhile back I bought a road bike: Since “steel is real” and my budget for a(nother) bike was fictional, I bought an old 70’s road bike. So far I have added new handlebars, some awesome fenders, and a new saddle. I *removed* a rack, making it my least-useful bike–one day I referred to it as […]