RIDE-Arc is a monthly social bicycle ride that originated out of the Southern California Institute of Architecture (SCI-Arc), inspired by other organized social bicycle rides, but an entire animal of its own.

Part architectural tour, part urban anthropology, RIDE-Arc rides are known for providing a unique mix of having fun while riding your bicycle and an adventure in discovering fascinating aspects of the Los Angeles area.

The rides take place every 1st Friday of the month in the evening, with starting locations varying in the Los Angeles area with the particular ride's theme and route. Each ride has a theme that ties together the location, the route, places of interest, and commentary. The ride themes and locations are announced both on the mailing list and this website the week of the ride. The actual route of the evening's ride is revealed at the start of the ride.

A brief history of RIDE-Arc:

Early in July of 2005, graduate students Alex Amerri, Gabe Leung, and Steve Kim of the Southern California Institute of Architecture decided to organize a bicycle ride for fun. Within 24 hours of this first spark of an idea, a route was put together, spoke cards made and an e-mail sent out to the school. Remarkably, 10 people showed up. The ride went well and was quite fun. Those who attended the first ride recommended that similar rides happen more often.

The rides continued on a monthly basis, advertised to SCI-Arc students, faculty, and alumni. Fittingly with a school such as SCI-Arc, the attendance at these rides was low. Slowly, however, people from outside of the school's self-enclosed domain began to attend the rides, invited by friends. Their positive reactions to what RIDE-Arc provided acted as a catalyst for the changes that would take place.

With the ride of October in 2005, the RIDE-Arc began to be advertised publicly through the strong bicycling community of Los Angeles. As more people joined in with each ride, RIDE-Arc started to take a new form and reflect the philosophies of it's founders, that Architecture is not just buildings, nor is the built environment separate from the people that make a place what it is (and vice versa). RIDE-Arc became a fun way of bringing architecture to the public and simultaneously opening the understanding of our urban landscape to concepts beyond buildings and objects.

Since its conception, RIDE-Arc has grown and developed into a well known social bicycle ride with a strong following. Participants, who also contribute to the ride itself, range from architects to PhD candidates in Physics to bicycle messengers to white collar executives to social activists. We are as diverse as Los Angeles itself and exploring our local environments with open eyes and open minds - while having fun riding bicycles, of course!

RIDE-Arc started on a last minute whim, and look where it is now. Follow through on your ideas and they can lead to even greater things.

Revisiting History/Captured in Tones:
Black History in Los Angeles [encore]

Ride-Arc for September 5th, 2008. 9:30 pm. San Vicente + Pico + Venice.

This ride description is digitally enhanced.

(image CC rights through the UC Regents, purveyors of thousands of student's excuse for debt.)

Some of our long-time participants may be thinking: "What? Black History again? But it's not even February!" Oh, you naysayers, silly persons! It all starts with this:

Yes, that. No, no, it isn't a Santa's factory up in the North Pole - that has, in fact, now reached the bottom of the ocean thanks to the miracles of Global Warming. That, dear friends, is the original model of the Clearman's Northwoods restaurant. Why a model? Because there are only two Clearman's Northwoods restaurants. Only two - and they're both exactly the same. This past Tuesday evening one of the RIDE-Arc founders met up with his father for dinner at some point between Orange County and Los Angeles county, which can be a bit interesting for someone who avoids the Orange Curtain at all reasonable costs. After following a mysterious black car for what seemed like endless turns through duplicate business parks, immaculately sprayed chemical lawns, and a moving forrest of SUVs, this magical little building appeared before our main character's eyes.

20 years later, it's the same thing, but from a slightly different perspective. The last time this RIDE-Arcer had entered the Northwoods restaurant was in Arcadia, where the mythical plastic-log-cabin building covered in the snow of the San Gabriel Valley was juxtaposed with a permanently docked and scuttled postal ship. Yes, a postal ship. That was 20 years ago. The conversation with his father went something like this:
"Wait, there's another one of these?"
"It is exactly the same as the one in Arcadia. These have the best steaks."
"I try not to eat too much red meat, dad."
"You're vegetarian again?"
"Ha! No."
"Good, you're having a steak."

The main-character of this little tale used to frequent the model - err, restaurant - often as a young child in Arcadia. For an 8 year old, it's a pretty cool place to be. Aside from their famed cheesy bread, there was a 'salad' heavy in a range/mayo dressing, because you see - it better preserves the salad for the harsh winters of... Arcadia. The interior is perfect for an 8 year old's imagination of living a hardy life of hunting, fighting off grizzly bears, and snow. Snow. In Arcadia. 20 years ago. You'd think that, surely, the snow would melt by now. Experiencing a restaurant such as this two decades later is a bit surreal, but fascinating. Everything seemed the same, yet from a refreshed perspective, the experience was different. The horribly uncoordinated celebrations of birthdays by the staff were noted this time around, not applauded with glee. The menu selections on the propped-up menu shaped like a large black iron pot were no longer limited to the kid's box. Now, with nearly 4 years of graduate level debt sent towards a degree in Architecture, the RIDE-Arcer looked at the restaurant with an entirely different perspective.

The revisit brought on a refreshed perspective of experience. With a revisit, particularly one that is unpredicted, you experience things with a new perspective, a new sense of exploration and attention that has been developed over the time that has passed. It's like running into an ex-lover: some things may have changed, others haven't - it can go either way - but you will experience that person from a different perspective, and potentially with maturity, a renewed sense of appreciation and value while carrying the wealth of your current position in life.

So, you may be asking, why the Black History ride?

Why not? Cycling is truly one of the greatest activities (and sport) in the entire world, propping both woman and man upon the most efficient machine known to man. The only sport where the athletes come to the audience, for free. The only method by which you can truly explore communities and neighborhoods unencumbered by a large metal cage, unrestricted by the number of friends you share the experience with, and unrestrained by the lack of refueling options.

Besides, you should know that the topic was in fact chosen by the results of the Brentwood Grand Prix Men's Pro/1/2 race. The finish came down to a kid raised in Los Angeles and a Cuban rocket. Justin Williams won that race - and RIDE-Arc's September theme - by a half wheel, much to the relief of the RIDE-Arc crew because Cuban history in Los Angeles is wider spread than a few restaurants along Venice Blvd. Ugh.

We're revisiting the Black History in Los Angeles ride. Edited and revised route like an encore performance of your favourite blues musician, fresh from a re-breaking of the heart. For those of you relatively new to the storied history of Blacks in Los Angeles, this will be a great experience complete with what is perhaps the best urban planning for a community in the country and finishing up with an everyone's-invited late night throw down of Waffles and Chicken at Roscoe's Chicken and Waffles.

**** THE MEETING PLACE FOR THIS RIDE IS AT THE PARKING LOT OF THE SHOPPING CENTER AT THE INTERSECTIONS OF SAN VICENTE, VENICE and PICO....****

Location Map: http://tinyurl.com/2gorya

The ride's route will end at Roscoe's Chicken & Waffles, were we hope you'll join with us for a late night snack.
One or two "small" "climbs" - but very minimal relatively speaking. 20 miles of suburban explorations.