Biking again, this time in water
I spent much of this year getting repeatedly ill with different unknown non-Covid respiratory illnesses, so I'm only now starting to bike again. I've lost loads of my stamina and have a long way to go before I'm able to do 30+ mile rides again, I think.
But two weeks ago, despite it all, I was able to do an unusual yearly bike ride I've been desperately looking forward to. I've done it several times now. We go somewhere we are not technically allowed to be, then bike through a great deal of water in the dark. I won't say where this is, but it rules, and it is basically my favorite event of the summer.
I was very worried that I would miss out! I scheduled my entire New Orleans vacation in order to be back in LA in time to do this ride. After New Orleans, I was still recovering from the third respiratory illness I contracted in 2025, and my prep rides were very difficult and exhausting. But in the end, managed to do the big cool ride without dying or getting too tired! This is excellent!!
I find that every time I do something silly on my bike, I get better and better at packing light - not "packing my fears," as they say. This year I brought less gear than I've ever brought on this ride, but I still overpacked a bit with food. Here's how I set myself up, and my bike:
That thing on my back is the Chrome Doubletrack frame bag I was using as my main bike bag for a while. I used an Alpaka stabilizer strap with a magnetic buckle as a compression strap to hold it in place. That strap is very good... it's capable of acting as a stabilizer strap on several different bags that I own, but I mostly use it on this one. I've found that having a very small, hip-bag-sized bag strapped securely over my upper back, between ir just below my shoulder blades, is the most comfortable way for me to carry all the diabetes shit I need while on a bike.
In previous years I've worn some really stupid shit on this ride. You tend to get completely covered in dirt and algae when you bike through shallow water, so I was biking with, like, nasty old shorts, and then REI bike shorts under those shorts. This time I just wore completely normal bike kit and just washed it immediately. I've finally realized: I don't need to keep mud off my nicer biking clothes! You can just wash them. Another fear you don't need to pack, I guess.
I've been thinking a lot recently how much more dangerous it would be to get questioned by police while biking in an "unusual" place in 2025, compared to 2022 and 2023, when I started doing this stuff. There are often immigrants on the group rides that I join, and it feels like there is really no law that protects their safety anymore. I hope we survive this period of complete insanity in LA while preserving our ability to push what's technically allowed, stick our heads behind the curtain, and bike and adventure on and in and under urban infrastructure that most people don't ever go to see. I want us to preserve our freedom to bike in places and in ways that normies don't understand or enjoy, basically.
Authoritarian personalities wouldn't enjoy a lot of the shit you can get up to when you've got a bike and a creative personality. I feel very lucky that so many people in this city are constantly cooking up creative, strange, alarming things to do with their bikes!