yearbook

2nd Annual Bike Ride: Aug 18

Uber-dork

This was the second annual bike ride from Upland to Huntington Beach. I did it the year before, and I survived. This was going to be cake. I think my dorky over exuberance at the beginning of the ride might have jinxed us all.

While I was again using a rental bike, and clearly sporting the rental uber-cool helmet (only dorks add uber as an adjective) I think I broke through my dork plateau by riding with a camelbak, a radio, and really small glasses.

The hardest part of the start of this ride is getting up at the crack of dawn (and getting the bikes and trailer the night before). But once we were up, we were ready to go. It was a cool foggy morning, just the kind of weather I love but everyone else abhors.

We all flew down Benson. Gotta love steep downhills. It wasn't until we'd all made the right turn onto Holt that I realized the conga line had already run into some trouble. Karen didn't even make it out of Upland before getting injured. She evidently was enjoying the coast down Benson so much she failed to notice that she was losing control and she crashed. [see red dot on map]

She looks so cute here. This photo reminds me of Laurel and Hardy. I believe she transferred to the support vehicle after her injury. This was just the first of many other injuries.

Map of incidents

Karen has an ouchie

No, we did not stop there.

For no particular reason, our journey takes us past a strip club, Baby Dolls (violet triangle). And no we did not stop there. Heck, they're not even open that early in the morning. Although the smile on Max's face is classic. I wonder if he knew what the backdrop was for the photo being taken . . .

A little further along, one of our riders, Kim George, took a nasty spill and was helo'ed to a hospital. It wasn't the same kind of cell phone culture back then, and most of us had no idea that anything had happened until much later.

[Approx. orange square]


just wanted to thank all of you for your help during my tumble yesterday and for all of the thoughtful phone calls & emails i've received since. i can't remember how many times the ER staff reminded me how lucky i was that 1) my friends had the presence of mind to call 911 and 2) that i was taken to a trauma center to be looked at and 3) i was wearing a helmet. all said and done, i have a concussion, but no broken bones (even though i swear my hand is broken!!!), and one gnarly-looking face staring back at me in the mirror. needless to say, i won't be paddling for a while - nor will you find me on a bicycle! ;)

i don't remember anything that happened (included the cool helicopter ride), but i do remember that the first few miles were great fun and i'm really happy that i was with good (& responsible) friends when everything went down.

special thanks -

Dinner was at Macaroni Grill

bob & matt for being my cso heroes and knowing exactly what to do. court for directing traffic among other things even though i clipped her bike and mangled her ankle (note to others - never paddle next to OR ride in front of me...it's just dangerous).

steve for calling 911 and i'm sure giving some perfect location coordinates (thank god for GPS).

vi & jason for helping matt get to the car and making sure i was OK - i hope you got my msgs.

whoever it was that relayed the msg from the sheriffs that i was diverted to another hospital so that matt could be with me (from the description, i'm guessing it was the wong sistaz & co - but i didn't want to assume).

i'll see you guys when the scabs wear off and this damn headache goes away! thanks again for everything.

cheers,

Kim


What's wrong Scott?

There were a few other incidents potentially serious, but thankfully no one else had any serious injuries. I believe Anthony Pinga and someone else were trying to do jumps on the side of the road and ended up eating it. There was torn clothing and a little blood, and even a little ding in the borrowed bike, but we all trudged along.

I vaguely recall Denny's and the lunch at Leo Park, but what truly sticks in my mind was that last hilly portion to the ocean. It felt like the bike seat was being shoved up my ass along with a red hot poker and a few thousand salt encrusted needles. It hurt bad. I couldn't sit on the bike seat anymore and was forced to alternate between pedaling standing and attempting to sit side-saddle because dammit I was going to finish this ride.

By the time we finished I think I was almost in tears. I'm such a horrible bike rider. From talking to others, I do believe my experience was unusual in my lack of butt endurance but who knows. Maybe I had the seat height adjusted wrong. I know I was using the wrong damn gears -- never did get the hang of that. Maybe i'm just an out of shape dorkus.

At the end, Leon or I drove the truck and the other the van to cart everyone back to Upland where we cleaned up and had dinner at Macaroni Grill.

Well, that's all I can remember from this ride. Its been 9 years since this trip. Hopefully, others will have their memory sparked by this and add their two bits.

Kenny (2010)


Riders

Max Kiert
Ruth Kiert
Karen Cheng
Eddy Kim
Kenny Kim
Jesse Wong
Jason Cheng
Leon Cheng
Sean Im
Olaf Jaeckstein
Samual Kang
Anthony Pinga
Scott Wu
Tiffany Wu
Arthur Yeh

Support

Wynne Wong
Henry Kim
Susie Yang
Los Angeles Racing Dragons Foundation

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