Anyways, I started writing my accounts of this trip and then I realized (more like I got lazy) that pictures are worth a thousand words. The stories that the pictures below don’t tell are: riding through pitch black tunnels, getting chased by dogs, eating beef noodle soup, and sleeping at a “love hotel”. I’d happily recount those stories in person for anyone who is interested.

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On another note, I found out last weekend that if I wanted to ride at night, I need to have a headlight and a taillight on my bike. Why? Because it’s the law. Apparently Culver City Police is pretty liberal with handing out tickets for headlight/taillight-less infractions so I bought a LED headlight and taillight at the local bike shop. I don’t ride over to CC that often, but it’s a good idea to be illuminated as much as you can @ night anyways. Maybe I should just wrap my bike with my Xmas tree lights.

As the thefts have increased, some people have taken matters into their own hands. Last month, bike messengers downtown caught two suspected thieves, teenage boys who attended a local Catholic high school, and stripped them down to their boxer shorts before taking their cellphones, backpacks and clothes.

Hurray for vigilante justice!

The article also brought back memories of when my bike was stolen right from under me. For those of you that haven’t heard this story before, a bunch of cholos* stole my bike one day while I was playing tennis. I didn’t think about locking up my bike because it was inside the tennis court right next to me. I couldn’t believe it was happening when the cholo walked into the tennis court and rode off with my bike. After I realized what was happening, I gave chase for about a block but gave up because 1) he was too far ahead and 2) what was I going to do after I caught up? Take him and his homies on?

Bottom line: Do not support those that lean like a cholo and buy the thickest u-lock and chain to lock up your ride!

*I didn’t realize that people on the east coast or people outside of SoCal in general don’t know what a cholo is until a friend who has been working out in NJ told me so. Here’s the def from urban dictionary for those of you who might not have had the pleasure of encountering one <clicky>.

Biking isn’t exactly a new thing in my life. I remember my first bike was a black bmx that my grams bought me in first grade. It had a nice heavy steel frame with black and white checkered foam padding on the handle bar and top tube. Fast foward past all the nostalgia, my current bike is a Raleigh full suspension mountain bike that was on clearance because the line was being discontinued. If you’ve been following my blog (pat yourself on your back if you have), then you know that I’ve been riding it mostly in the MDR/Venice/SM area. Occasionally I’ll take it up to the SM mountains, although I shy away from actually riding my mountain bike in the mountains because 1) I’m scared of mountain lions and 2) I hate prolonged ascents, but it’s a necessary evil in order to enjoy bombing down.

Anyhow, I’ve found a couple of new sites/blogs that pertain to biking that I want to share. The first one is MTBR. I’ve been going to mtbr for a while and it’s probably the most comprehensive mountain biking site out there. The site has a ton of reviews and a pretty strong forum. Similar to mtbr, but with a more local focus, is SoCalMtb. It has a good listing and reviews of local rides, but the forum doesn’t seem to get much traffic. The next site, SoCal Trail Riders (STR), however, has a really strong forum. I only stumbled across STR this week and wondered how in the world I went so long without finding STR. They seem to have a very active membership that organizes group rides centering around some wacky theme (i.e. dress like a pirate).

Two blogs that I want to mention are Biking in Taiwan (BIT) and Bike Commuters (BC). I started looking for biking websites in Taiwan after my mom and her bf strongly discouraged me from further pursuing mopeding my way around Taiwan. BIT came up as the first link and also happens to be on this other blog about Taiwan that I follow. I found BC after looking for reviews for a messenger bag. I  don’t commute to work by bike because work is too far, but BC does offer some interesting bike commuting stories and reviews that could come in handy if I decide to commute to school in the future.

Feel free to share any bike related thing you find with me. And if you ever want to go biking with me, give me a ring. Biking with a buddy decreases the chance of me getting eaten by a mountain lion by 50%.

For 2010, it all depends on what happens in the next three months. My admission decisions to Smith, Owen, and Broad will basically determine which fork in the road I take, business school or what-next. I know which path I want to take, but it’s not up to me once my apps are submitted.

The common thread between both path is that they’re both uncertain, even the business school path. Although I know in general what to expect, there’s still a lot of unknowns. What is of greater concern is what happens if I don’t get into bschool this year. I still haven’t figured out a solid plan B yet. I tell myself, “One thing at a time. Get through your essays and interviews first, then wait for your decisions, then figure out what to do next”. Sound self-advice, but I want to be ahead of the game here because I dislike sitting idle when it comes to my career.

All I can say for certain is that the next two to three months will be very antsy times. I’m going to try and take my mind off of what might happen by throwing myself at mt biking, reading, traveling and maybe rock climbing/mountaineering.

I spent two hours on the trail today, about an hour and fifteen minutes getting up and forty five getting down. The trail is an in-and-out ride, climb in, downhill out. Having not done anything strenuous in the past three months, I almost collapsed two minutes into the ride. I even had to push my bike up certain parts of the trail because it was too steep. Needless to say, I’m not in good shape. Anyways, here are a couple of other things I learned today:

• Be patient when starting out – I went balls out in the beginning, hence the near collapse in the beginning.
• Bring a pee cup, Clif Bars, and wipes.
• Wear gloves.
• I can’t jump a bike like I did when I was ten. I almost went over the front end, landed in the brush, had my gooch scrubbed by my rear tire, and hammered down my seat with my ass. I’m lucky to have made it back with just a scratch on my knee.
• The view from the SM Mtns is awesome. You can see all the way down to the South Bay, Catalina, Malibu, Downtown, and the Valley.
• Don’t confuse a Weimaraner for a mountain lion. It only looked like one because I was having trouble sucking down enough oxygen to feed the brain.
• I need knobbier tires, a proper multi-bike tool, a bike rack, and better brakes. Good thing I brought TL’s SA knife because I needed to re-link my chain when it popped off when I crashed.
• Need haircut, hair in ear is too distracting when I’m trying my hardest not to wreck.
• WTH, there are muscles on the side of our hips?

TL and TBone both expressed their concern after I told them about today’s ride, but I’ll probably head back up to WFR one day after my body has recovered. I’d prefer a flatter ride without all the incline/decline sections, but there doesn’t seem to be any places near me that are like that. I’ll probably skip out on the single track part of the trail until I get better at controlling the bike when I go downhill.