Rollin'

Jeff and I have been talking for some time about riding the Strand in its entirety. The Strand is the bike / ped path along the beach in the South Bay. It winds it's way from Rat Beach in Torrance up through the beach cities, through Venice and Santa Monica, and just into Malibu. Sure, it sounds scenic and leisurely, but all that beauty comes at a price. The path is more than twenty miles long. One way. And while it's not much in the way of up and down, peddling my 30 pound American steel single-speed cruiser is akin to riding uphill constantly. But I admit, the pain was part of the attraction for me. It might not be EPIC like traversing the Grand Canyon, it still made for a pretty great and joint-inflaming June morning.

the route

Matt swung by my apartment and I drove us down to Torrance to meet up with Jeff. We started peddling around 7 or so and rode for the better part of the next 5 hours. I was feeling pretty good at the halfway point, but sore butt, thighs, and knees increased exponentially after the turn.

the takeoff

halfway there

not quite as energetic after the second half

We all made it back with varying degrees of discomfort, but no major issues. Jeff finished it pretty easy what with all his "gears" and all, but he did ride the hills up to his house after so that upped his degree of difficulty.

finished

sweet relief

Easily my favorite part was that the cafe at the end was serving root beer floats that day. All in all it wasn't too awful. I'll probably do it again sometime this summer. But I'll have to figure out a better video setup than what I had this time. Maybe work on that DIY isolation system.

Strand Bike Ride from Ryan Tuttle on Vimeo.

A few more pics.

Tour de Tuesday

Matt and I have been meeting up on Tuesday nights so he can avoid American Idol. Generally we just grab a bite or catch a flick or watch some Flight Of the Conchords or just hang out and generally be awesome. Never before did this involve any amount of exercise beyond opening and shutting a car door, but a couple weeks ago we went for a bike ride down to Manhattan Beach to grab dinner. Justin was supposed to come too, and we'd turn it into a photo op as well, but he bailed. Somehow we managed to get along without him.

I had been trying (unsuccessfully) to think up a rig to attach my camera to my bike. If you look at the pic below, you might see the moment of inspiration finally arrived.

Pumping air. Sadly that air was little help in stabilizing Matt's
loose rear wheel. He could use some Heavy Duty maintenance.

We got inspired by some NASCAR highlights on SportsCenter, so we figured I could just screw my camera into my dSLR GorillaPod and last the GorillaPod to the bike frame with duct tape. Genius? You decide. Here is a closer look at the handiwork.

My idea was to do some time lapse movies as I rode my bike around the strand / town. Per the yooz, the first few didn't turn out great. The bike is just too stiff and the uneveness in the road transfers right up to the camera resulting in a jittery, motion sickness inducing video. I was able to steady it a little better once we got down to the smoother Strand, but it's still a little jumpy.

Strand Bike Ride Time Lape from Ryan Tuttle on Vimeo.

I'll have to build some sort of isolation system for it this summer. I was also thinking of getting one of those 3rd wheel trailers and securing it to that. Most importantly, I think I need to waste a lot more time tinkering around with this. We had a pretty good time, and I got a little more practice with my new fast lens. Even though it's a little washed out and a little out of focus, I liked this one of Matt.

Hi there.

It shows how great portrait shots can be with a lens like this. The shallow depth of field really emphasizes his face (not usually a good idea with Matt, I know) and blurs the background.

I'll post a couple more pictures below. Everyone enjoy the rest of the weekend. And Happy Mother's Day to all you moms out there. And Mom's go ahead and get your drank on for some extreme relaxation. You deserve it. Slow your roll.

I estimate that roadie was going approximately a brazillion (thanks,
Matt) timesfaster than me based on the image blur. I did the math.

I thought this one was kinda cool. You might disagree.

Saw Kate outside the new pub.