2/6/98
Once again, I was on my cousin Eric's old Colnago. Instead of struggling with SPDs, I did the smart thing of just taking a set of pedals that fit my shoes. Problem solved, except for the 15 minutes or more it took to get the old pedals off his cranks. I don't think they were properly greased, or some goon with 50" pythons for arms tightened them on.
I rode from my brother's apartment in Santa Monica on the corner of National and Butler, near Sawtelle. I think it was about 3 or 4 miles to the coast. I managed to get myself on the bike path on the beach. I saw a few other semi-serious looking riders on the trail, so I wasn't too self conscious. I was wondering if all the serious folks stay on PCH or what.
I went south to Venice, where the path ends, and then headed north. At the Santa Monica pier, the trail goes under the pier in what looks like a tunnel. There was some construction going on, but people seemed to be going in both directions on the path, so I kept going. As I got near the tunnel, I noticed that there was some standing water in the tunnel. I remembered from before that it was rather moist in there, as if they have some drainage problems. So I suspected maybe an inch of water. I was wrong. It was more like a foot of water. I was starting to get bogged down as the water slowly rose from the bike's wheels, to the bottom of the pedal stroke, to the center of the bottom bracket, and eventually to my water bottle. My leg was basically totally under water from the knees down. I had to keep going because if I slowed down I would tip over and be totally underwater. I noticed how yucky the water was, with feathers from various birds floating in it, and other unidentified flotsam and jetsam. Finally I was through. I noticed that I had picked up a feather on the shifting cables that ran by the downtube. By the time I got back to the start, most of the wetness had evaporated.
I think the feather is still on that bike, sitting in my brother's apartment.