You think you’ve got it bad, dealing with badge-heavy cops in LA sometimes? Here’s a brief report from my cousin Fabio in Curitiba, Brazil:

During Brazilian version of Critical Mass, known as Bicicletada, September 27, in Curitiba (south Brazil), about 20 cyclers were threatened with heavy weapons and forced to abandon group pedalling. …Activists destroyed illegal excessive electoral campaign posters that polluted urban esthetics. Several police vehicles started to follow the cyclers who were stopped by exaggerated action. [This] was just at the moment when activists obstructed a car in order to help an elderly man to cross a street at the administrative city destrict. Militaries needlessly pulled out weapons (picture) against the cyclers putting people lives in danger. No one was arrested.

Photo credit www.bicicleteiros.com

Though Curitiba is touted as Brazil’s “eco city,” it also suffers the highest rate of car ownership per person in the country. And obviously isn’t all that friendly to the truly eco- and community-friendly mode of travel we all love.

I guess we should be glad that LAPD has guys like Beck and Krumer in it, who are trying to ensure that the department “gets it”–however belatedly.

This is not the hottest day I’ve been riding around in–that happened a couple of years ago, when I pedaled the Velo-Retro Ride–65 miles door-to-door from my place, lots of small hills–on a day that never dropped below 100°F and peaked at 116.

But with the temps ranging from the mid-80s at the beach (where you knew I’d end up) to around 105 inland (ie, where I was escaping from), today did manage to sneak into the “hot” category.

And it was gratifying to see that, despite, the elevated temperatures, there were bikes everywhere. From the Hollywood farmers market, where I began the day, through Bev Hills (where I took advantage of the tree cover), to the westside, which was swarming with riders.

Not just dedicated roadies, who are nuts anyway and would ride through Hell if it got their heartrates into the target zones–but reg’lar folks on hybrids and mixtes and basket bikes, and a good bunch of fixie folk as well.

The photo shows the bike valet that Santa Monica provides for the farmers market on Main Street. According to Eric Weinstein of Bikerowave, whom I bumped into there, the valets park about 500 bikes a day on every Sunday. And, he added, they’d parked four thousand bikes for Santa Monica’s Glow last night!

Imagine how much space four thousand cars would have taken up. (Even four thousand electric cars, which do nothing to solve the spatial and social distortions car culture causes. I add that because electric car promo Alt Car Expo is coming soon, relentlessly dedicated to solving the wrong problem…though at least they’ll have a bike valet too.)

On through the day…bicycles everywhere: parked around Abbot Kinney for the flea market, ambling down Main Street chasing restaurants, and variously zipping, wobbling, or cruising the beach bike path.

There is no more gracious way to get around than on a bicycle. And the rest of America is finally starting to realize that.

I’ve been riding the streets for transport off and on–but mostly on–for forty-three years now, and I was just thinking that that means I started bicycling seriously at just about the same time that my daily rider was built, far away in Italy. Almost as though we were destined eventually to be together, isn’t it?

It took a long time to find that old Bottecchia, though: I’ve had her only four years, and I have no idea whether she’d had one owner or fifteen in the time before. Nor how many miles. I do know I’ve put nearly 25,000 miles on her since 2006. Like her rider, plain but tough.

Of course, while the frame is old, the parts are mostly new (and mostly from Orange 20!). She was sold, back in the day, with a Campagnolo gruppo, but now the only Campy bit is the seatpost clamp. And of course she’s no longer a ten-speed racer but a fixed-gear commuter, sporting fenders and rack and Nitto bullhorns. Steel frames can last damn near forever–I regularly run into a fellow by the beach whose daily rider was built in 1927–but parts come and go like clothes, changing with season or with style.

Fortunately we’ve got shops like the 20 now where you can find something besides the usual race-bits-and-Spandex–bars from Nitto and Soma, hubs from Surly and Phil, tires for everything from sand dunes to flatland, and even competent mechanics.

Keeps my old frames going, and they in turn keep my old frame going.

We did a nice forty-miler today, the Bottecchia and I, down to the coast and then south along the sea. It was nice to leave behind my usual political involvements and just remember what we want all those bike lanes and racks and share-the-road signs for after all: so we can get out in the world on our own two wheels, clean and quiet. No noise, no smoke, nothing wasted, lost in that enduring dream of earthbound flight that only the bicycle makes possible.

Stay crazy!

A lot of people had to ask “What’s he doing in Guatemala?” This year the Cycle Messenger World Championships or the CMWC 2010 was in Panajachel, Guatemala. Over the years it’s been done in places like Tokyo, Toronto, NYC, Copenhagen, Budapest, Philly, Zurich, Washington DC, San Francisco, London and Berlin.

There was a series of mud slides and tropical storms that destroyed the figure eight velodrome and shut down the roads in and around Panajachel. Getting there from Guatemala City was an adventure for most of the participants. In Panajachel the roads are mostly cobblestone and some were literally destroyed by the flooding. The race was well thought out and physically very demanding. Main race winners were Craig Etheridge from Seattle, 2nd place Austin Horse NYC, 3rd place Sino from Japan and 1st place lady Josephine Reitzel from Lausanne, Switzerland.

Erin and myself attended as volunteers and ran an Orange 20 Bikes check point. Cache raced and Ozzy and his crew from Echo Park Cycles ran a second check point. When we were done we all gave away our bikes to locals. Mine was a Fit PRK-1 BMX bike. I gave it to a kid named Luis.

Next year’s event is in Warsaw and Chicago took the vote to host the 2012 CMWC. Our friend Jorge from Mexico-Fixed made a great bid to host CMWC 2012 but the vote was a tie until the proxy votes were counted. Maybe we will see this event happen in Mexico in 2013. Jorge put on an incredible pre event in Mexico City this year and there is talk of collaborating with him to host the NACCS in his city in 2011.

Nice tail wind, some spectacular scenery and once you hit Leo Carrillo you even get a few decent rollers! It’s always nice to see a Tarck Bike race bring out so many roadies and endurance racers.
Thank you to everyone that came out especially the young cats(you guys are the future) with parental support cars and the biggest smiles I have ever seen! By participating in these races you help fuel the fire to keep throwing races that get harder and harder. Pushing everyone to be a better cyclist and never say never. Check out more of the race checkpoint photos…HERE!

One half of the crew is in Guatemala showing our support at the 2010 CMWC and the other half will be putting in work racing from Santa Barbara to Santa Monica! LA…let’s go race BIKES, the times are a changin! All hail the Tracky!

Sorry for the inconvenience…we’ll see you on Monday!