Events: LA River Ride 2016

Yesterday marked the first time that both my wife and I would participate in the LA River Ride, something we learned about early on when we returned to LA nearly two years ago. It was from a woman who happened to be wearing one of the jerseys when she stopped in the grocery store to buy some stuff for her ride. As biking events go, this is one of more interesting ones because no roads are closed to hold the ride. Hosted by the Los Angeles County Bicycle Coalition, the ride is intended to give riders a taste of the cycling infrastructure (or lack thereof in some cases) that pervades the city and surrounding areas before connecting to the LA River Bikeway. Riders are encouraged to use their urban riding skills and follow traffic rules with ride marshalls helping to make sure people are riding courteously and safely. Given the potential for chaos when hundreds of cyclists take to the streets, the organization demonstrated for the event is downright impressive.

While the full route is just over 100 miles, I was only able to convince my wife to commit to the 50-mile route. That ride would take us from the Autry Center located on the grounds of Griffith Park in north LA all the way down to Dills Park in Paramount. A good portion of the ride was through the streets, but there were also long portions along the LA River, which varies from bland and unattractive concrete channel to lush green flora with accompanying fauna, depending on where you are.

Event: Bike Fest 2015 and the Wolfpack Hustle Short Line Crit 2015

Image courtesy of Downtown
Long Beach Associates

Imagine my surprise when I arrived home on Saturday after hanging out with West Brother to find that the streets right around my home closed off to traffic. There was a vague inkling of local retailers and restaurateurs mentioning that there was some event going on over the weekend, but no one had clearly indicated what that event was. And of course, the last few weeks had been so busy, I had not paid that much attention to the little posters popping up in the shop windows. Once I managed to make my way back to my parking space, it was time to go explore and find out what was going on.

As it would turn out, going on literally steps from my front door was the Long Beach Bike Fest, a celebration of all things two wheeled with vendors hawking their wares, local advocacy groups recruiting for members, and, of course, the obligatory biergarten to satisfy the thirst of the throngs of local cyclists who had come to attend. What was not expected, however, was the presence of a closed course race track on public streets. As a part of the Bike Fest, a square track had been cordoned off for the Wolfpack Hustle Short Line Criterium race. The race was open registration, meaning just about anyone with a bike that could pass inspection, could register to participate in any of the 4 races.

Event: 2015 Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach

2015 marks the first year that East Brother and I were able to attend the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach. It is an event that we have both been trying to find the opportunity to go in person to for a number of years now. With East Brother's return to California and a concerted effort to free up the Sunday in both of our schedules, we finally made it to the Grand Prix on April 19th, which also just so happens to be the main event: the Long Beach Grand Prix Indy Car race.

For those of you unfamiliar with the Long Beach Grand Prix, it is sort of like the Formula One Monaco Grand Prix in that the race is basically constructed using public roadways everyone drives [Editor's note: And rides bicycles on!] on every day. Every year, for a few days in April, the City of Long Beach closes down the roads near Shoreline Village to facilitate the transformation of city streets into a race track and brings in the spectacle that is an Indy Car race to the city that houses one of the largest ports in North America.

Event: Golden Era Motors

Growing up in Southern California, an absolute paradise for the automotively obsessed, I had a lot of exposure to a pretty broad variety of cars. Our neighbor across the street in my childhood hometown had an old 1940s era Ford sedan that he worked on periodically in his garage. Another neighbor just down the block had a classic 60s era Camaro that I am not sure ever ran during the more than a decade we lived in that cul-de-sac. Of course, I also grew up on a steady diet of Knight Rider episodes and became a huge fan of shows like Miami Vice and even the later Nash Bridges (yes, the Don Johnson connection was intentional there) that featured some of the coolest cars you could find on television. I even freely admit to being a fan of the Nicholas Cage remake of the classic movie Gone in 60 Seconds, mostly because it was so much car porn.

With a history like that, you can imagine I would jump at the chance to drive a classic American muscle car. The opportunity is a rare one, so when I read that Golden Era Motors was touring the country with a collection of classic American iron, there was no way I was going to pass up on the opportunity.

Booking for a Saturday midday, I figured that it would be a bit less busy and give me a chance to chat with the team running the event. I recruited West Brother to join me for the experience.

Events: Rusnak Auto Group Driver's Challenge

When the invite arrived in my inbox, I could scarcely contain my excitement. It has been a while since I have had the chance to attend one of these events that offers the opportunity to drive a variety of different manufacturer's products back to back. I reached out to my brother and we quickly got ourselves signed up to participate, opting for a group that would allow us to have plenty of fun while driving a selection of cars that gave us plenty to chat about.

On the day of the event, we hopped into West Brother's S2000 and headed up to Santa Anita Race Track (that's horse racing, for those not familiar with the LA area), which has an enormous parking lot that was not only housing this event for Rusnak, but also the homecoming dances for several local high schools. We checked-in and promptly jumped into line, just in time to be regaled by the sound of the dealership porters running a lap before they put away the cars from the last group on the small, but well-designed, track.

Events: Herb Chambers Cars and Coffee July 2014

Last October, I attended the Cars and Coffee event put on by local dealer mogul, Herb Chambers. The event was great as it drew lots of enthusiasts of all stripes and included lots of people who genuinely appreciate cars. The variety of both cars and people who attend is astounding and I had the good fortune to find one more opportunity to check out the event this year. This time, instead of Sharon, MA, the event was held at Flagship Motorcars, a Mercedes dealership in the Herb Chambers family located in Lynnfield. It is well situated on a side street off of a major highway, allowing, one again, for a spectacular show as drivers departed the event. What sets apart these Cars and Coffee events from the official one for the Boston area is the fact that the dealership has access to a huge selection of exotic cars that they are not afraid to trot out and put on display. This means that even if participants are not able to make it, at the very least there is plenty of eye candy for all to see.

Click past the jump to access the photo gallery and to see select photos and videos from the event.

Events: The New York International Auto Show

The Big Apple put on a good show this year. I drove into town on Friday afternoon and had a nice time catching up with a friend I had not seen in a while. With an early start on Saturday, I got to take advantage of New York's world class public transit system, including the fairly recently installed Citibike bike-sharing service, and arrived at the Javits Center bright and early. Waiting in line, I had a chance to chat with a lovely couple, who also had come down from Boston to attend the auto show, and observe the chaos that was caused by the governor deciding that he wanted to make an appearance. Taking advantage of early entry, I was able to spend some quality time with a number of cars, shoot a lot of photos, and generally enjoy my long day.

Toyota wins the prize for being the most ADD at the show, with not only a huge number of cars, but also all sorts of entertainment options such as racing simulators, distracted driving simulators, fuel cell car ride-alongs, and much much more. GM looses points for figuring out how to get stuck in its own wing away from the rest of the show, making it less crowded, but also less inviting, although their display was quite plentiful. The biggest losers were supercars, which were poorly represented with only one local dealer bringing a few to show. The biggest winners were almost certainly consumers, who got to see just how good cars of gotten in the last decade.

Below, we take a look at a number of the significant vehicles from the show and I offer my thoughts about each. You can also view the full gallery of photos from the show in our Photo Gallery.

Events: Boston Cars and Coffee October 2013

Back in May, I attended my first Cars and Coffee in the Boston area. As the fall foliage season comes into full swing, the car gathering season draws to a close up here in New England. Many of the cars we see at these events will get put away for the winter as the roads around here quickly become coated in salt when the temperatures start to drop. As a final hurrah for 2013, I took the K1200S to the final Boston Cars and Coffee scheduled for the year. It was a beautiful day and many people clearly had the same idea as attendance was good, with numerous cars out enjoying the good weather. Because of its location, on the grounds of the Larz Anderson Automotive Museum, there is not the usual chorus of high performance departures as there are at Cars and Coffee events in other parts of the country, but the idyllic setting and excellent company keep the enthusiasts coming back for more.

Click past the jump to see a few select photos from the event as well as access the full photo gallery.

Events: Herb Chambers Cars and Coffee October 2013

Back in May, I attended my first Cars and Coffee in the Boston area. While the official Cars and Coffee event at the Larz Anderson Automotive Museum is a great setting, its location within the residential neighborhoods of Boston makes it a much quieter affair than the raucous party that is typical of the Cars and Coffee crowd. Luckily, one of the local dealership chains holds its own series of Cars and Coffee events, set at various dealership properties throughout the Greater Boston area. I attended the last one of the 2013 season, located at Herb Chambers Lexus in Sharon, MA, just outside of Boston. The crowd was quite sizable and because of its location in a primarily commercial part of town, it was possible for gathered crowd to cheer on the drivers as they gave us a show upon departing the event.

Click past the jump to access the photo gallery and to see select photos and videos from the event.

Events: Boston Cars and Coffee May 2013

Cars and Coffee started as a gathering for automotive enthusiasts of all stripes and got its start in Southern California and has since grown to cities all over the country and even internationally. Each area brings a different crowd with different cars: DC had a large number of extensively customized classic performance cars, Irvine tends to draw a serious supercar crowd, and now Boston brings a large selection of AWD performance. I had a chance to drop in on Boston Cars and Coffee at the Larz Anderson Auto Museum in Brookline, MA. Click on any of the photos after the jump to see the full album.