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11/21/2010: "Would a Fender Offend Her?"
Really, would a fender offend her? By "her" in this context I of course mean your two-wheeled sweetie, and I ask because of an email I received from my good friend Bill this morning.

In it he mentioned that since it had rained last night, and there was standing water everywhere, he and his wife Jeannette--both lifelong cyclists--wouldn't be able to ride their bikes to church this morning.

Ballona Creek Bike Path After the Rain
Ballona Creek bike path after last night's rain
This struck me as odd, since a simple cape makes it easy to ride in rain, and besides the storm was rapidly clearing, so you wouldn't need rainwear at all. Then I remembered....

They both grew up in the roadie days, of course. They ride race bikes without fenders...without even fittings for fenders.

Well, I ride a race bike too, but it's a race bike from the '60s, when pretty much all bikes came with fender braze-ons.

So, as the clouds rolled away and a pure and golden light flooded across the gleaming and still very wet roadways, I was riding...and they were stuck in a car in Venice Boulevard traffic. (I was headed to my own "church": the Bridge at Playa del Rey.)

Really, fenders...they aren't that bad. Mine even weigh less than a pound in total, bolts, struts, and all.

And they grant me freedom...freedom to ride all the time.

I took my rain cape along in a pannier, too, just in case. But (I am wary of our autumn weather's carpiciousness), I'd put on sunblock as well. The sunblock got a good workout. As did the fenders.

As did I, on a beautiful freshly-washed Sunday in LA!

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