Yesterday I had a day off, so what better to do than take my shiny new bike on the beach? Well, take the shiny new bike on the beach, go to the bike shop and buy cool accessories for said shiny bike, and then take lots of pics of the new shiny bike on the beach!

From Brommie at the Beach

( More pics under cut! )

I was on my way to take the train to my folding bike ride when this guy grabbed my hands, which were on my bike's handlebars, and started harassing me, saying "let me ride your bike, let me try it" over and over and puling on my handlebars, even as I said "NO! You can't ride in the train station, please just leave me alone!". The guy did piss off eventually, but he was staring at me and calling me all sorts of names as he was doing so, including "crazy lady" and "motherfucking bitch."

I HATE this sort of shit, where just because I am a woman, assholes like him think they can bully me, touch me and my bike, call me names, and just get away with it. I do NOT deserve this kind of treatment and will absolutely NOT take this shit lying down. I didn't want to escalate the situation too much and I was running late too, so I just went to a security guard and asked him to catch the guy and tell him not to do that to me or anyone else again. It was a slap on the wrist measure, and I could have chewed him out even more if I had the time, but I wish that getting hassled by security was enough to at least make him think twice about doing this to another person. Or not. Old habits die hard.

The bike ride went ok though. It didn't go so well at first...I got at Union station at exactly 8:30, and was looking for the other riders milling around the ticket machines, but couldn't find anyone. Two riders did sign up for the optional train ride, but I guess they weren't able to make it. Then there was this incident with the above idiot. I did meet up with Folderfanatic, one of the posters on Bikeforums though!

I got on the train (which was delayed several times by freight!!! Aren't passenger trains supposed to have priority?) and arrived at Anaheim stadium at 9:50. Couldn't find any of the other riders, unfortunately--I was looking for them in the parking lots and around the Rampart st. entrance, but nada. If any of you left because I wasn't there at 9:30am, I'm sorry! That was bad logistics on my part--I didn't account for the train getting delayed *that* much. Next time will be better, I promise. I looked around the parking lots until about 10:10 am, but no folder riders were to be found, so I just called v6v6v6, a regular on my folder ride, who was running late, and met up with him to do the ride with just the two of us.

We cycled the 15mi from Anaheim stadium to Huntington beach into a really nasty headwind...weather forecast said it was around 7-10mph!!! OMG, our legs hurt! I was riding the Kent because the piccolo's shifter/hub was being temperamental and kept ghost-shifting to 1st gear and that's definitely not safe to ride (she's at the bike shop now, the poor thing). Needless to say, I had a bit more difficulty with the winds than v6, who had his MuSL.

We got to the beach in record time--two hours. Not bad for two pootlers fighting against the wind! Had lunch at Ruby's, where I got the most protein-laden burger and they had and some hot tea. Hey, gotta replenish and warm up. V6 and I also talked about plans for future rides--we're definitely repeating the February one in the Orange Line bike path, and for the summer ride we are doing a beach bike path ride starting from either Redondo or Long Beach. After lunch, v6 and I briefly contemplated riding back with the tailwind, which would have been much easier than earlier when we had to fight the wind, but then we decided not to HTFU and just took a cab back to Anaheim stadium to give our poor legs a rest.

When we got back to Anaheim stadium, lo and behold--there were two other riders on Raleigh 20s, one folding, and one non-folding. They were there for the ride too, but somehow I missed them...I guess when I was looking for other riders, they were at the rampart street entrance, and they did ride on ahead of us. We chatted with them briefly, tried each other's bikes, and exchanged contact info, then v6 gave me a ride back to my place so I wouldn't have to take the train back. It turned out to be a nice ride, even if the start wasn't so good. :thumb:

Pictures will be up on the site by tonight. I don't have very many, but Joel, one of the guys on the R20s did take a lot and will be sending them to me.