

You’d have to say that the weather had the laugh on last Saturday’s Tweed Ride in NE Los Angeles: there they were, three hundred people and their bikes, and most of them dressed for a cold day in the Scottish Highlands.

It was 85°F, hot even for LA in January, but somehow fitting: after all, Tweed Rides are part of the All-Powerful Bike Lobby’s plot to free the timid prisoners of the car, whose compulsive driving underpins much of the Global Warming that’s been bringing us all such exaggerated and irregular weather…. Drought in the entire Southwest, floods in the American breadbasket, superstorms hammering both sides of the Atlantic Ocean and much of Southeast Asia, and Australia and Texas burning to ashes.

Meanwhile, Ammuricuns are convinced that it’s utterly impossible to ride a bicycle to work or a store. So getting a few hundred folks of all ages, genders, and colors parading around NELA in tweed jackets and ties, long dresses, heels, and wingtips, riding ten miles in the heat without looking even a bit bedraggled, can be a real eye-opener. No sweat, no spandex, no sufferfest, just smiles and sharp outfits.

And a chance to visit some hidden treasures in the ‘hood: the ride planners guided our unwieldy but oh-so-relaxed peloton to a number of off-the-battered-track delights, including:



The Judson Studios, a family-owned stained-glass workshop over a hundred years old and still prospering, in a classic old house set behind a tranquil grove off York Boulevard.



El Alisal, also known as the Lummis Home, for Charles Lummis, who built it of river stones from the Arroyo Seco, in what is now the heart of Highland Park.



The Audubon Center at Debs Park, a double treat, as the park itself is pretty well-hidden if you’re not in the immediate neighborhood, and the Center is said to be a “Near Zero Energy Building,” almost entirely off the grid.



The Arroyo Seco Bike Path, almost entirely useless for commuting (and closed when it’s rainy), but a sweet way to explore the Arroyo, view its numerous bridges, and hide from the noise of the automotive world for a couple of miles.

After regrouping at the Highland Park Gold Line station, a number of the riders headed off to the Hermosillo on York for an after-party. It was late, and I was hungry, so I pedaled a mere block to the bike-friendly Good Girl Dinette, which Pigeon Master Josef had introduced me to.

Thank you to CICLE.org and Metro for sponsoring the ride, and taking care of all the annoying organizational necessities!

A couple more photos: