A Night Out with the Los Angeles Motorcycle Riders
Urth Cafe, home of the 20 dollar salad, long lines, and the occasional fire. Deep in the Arts District of Downtown Los Angeles, Urth Cafe is also the longstanding home of the Los Angeles Motorcycle Riders (LAMR) weekly meet on Tuesday nights. A calm respectful gathering of mostly performance bike owners with the addtion of the odd cruiser or cafe racer. On June 18th, over 100 motorcycle enthusiasts were in attendance with new riders actively joining in. Shenanigans were non existent. While there was a constant coming and going of law enforcement officers, nobody was stopped or questioned. They just want an overpriced coffee as well.
Almost a decade ago, Scott Adrian left Texas and moved to Los Angeles. He explained how he had nobody to ride with, “I tried to find riding groups, they just didn’t exist, LA Riders was a bicycle group, that’s all I could find”. Undeterred, Scott created the LAMR facebook page and through word of mouth he slowly grew a group of like minded individuals. Mark Jardiolin, another prominent member of the group recalls meeting Scott on the Snake, a prolifically well known canyon road segment of Mulholland Highway. For the first year or so, there were only four or five friends meeting up in appreciation of a kindred passion. Slowly but surely the group has grown to what it is today.
The members of LAMR are courteous and welcoming. Considerations of age, experience, gender, and race (at least that kind of race) are non existent, if you ride, you are welcomed in. The average participant at LAMR is a bit older than other sport bike groups, but don’t tell them that. LAMR is a group of professional adults who ride. There were very few stunt bikes in attendance and almost every machine had a visible license plate (a paper plate is a sign of a rider up to no good) . Gleaming superbikes with 20k plus price tags were showed off with pride as the fruit of their owner’s labor. Lawyers, nurses, business owners and entrepreneurs are prevalent amongst the LAMR population. None the less, this isn’t a Ducati Owners Club where visitors get looked down upon unless they shell out home downpayment sized amounts for their bikes. In addition to the super bikes, 600 cc supersports like the Yamaha R6 or Honda CBR600 and mid range streetfighters like the Triumph Street Triple or the Kawasaki Z1000 (Fairingless bikes with powerful engines and a more upright riding position) were swelling out the ranks.
For this weeks meet up, Scott put up an event bulletin on the Facebook page. While the meeting is brought up in the “About” section of the page, the weekly meets are not usually advertised. As a result of the event being shared, there was a huge turnout. Little groups of riders ranging from duos to fives were streaming in constantly. By 9:30 PM, motorcycles were parked around the corner, on the sidewalk, and packed in two rows along the side on both sides of the street.
Increased exposure brought out many first time visitors, some in groups and some as individuals. Early in the evening for instance, Kelsey Lomen from Eagle Rock rode in for the first time on a pristine Suzuki SFV650 Gladius. Kelsey is a medical student at UCLA. She was eager to meet as many people as possible and jumping from conversation to conversation. She had been a member of the Facebook page for a few months but hadn’t heard of the meet since the info is tucked away. Thanks to the publicizing of the meetup, she’s now going to be a regular at the meets. The meet is not only for locals either. Quite a few visitors came from Ventura County or San Gabriel County. Some traveled as far as from San Diego to be in attendance.
The Los Angeles Motorcycle Riders Group has over two thousand members on its Facebook group. Members organize track and street rides through the page and there’s always someone looking to hit Angeles Crest Highway with fellow members. The Group has barbecues and other entertaining functions in addition to ride oriented events. The page is home to constant humorous conversation riddled with inside jokes and subtle ribs towards other members. It’s all in good fun and rarely do moderators make their presence known. The page has a multiple group specific bulletins to guide new members. A Survival Guide is up that provides new members with the basic information about the page. LAMR provides content to help improve riding skill level whether for a beginner or an advanced rider. For those unfortunate enough to face Johnny Law while riding “vigorously”, articulated examples of Trial by Written Declaration letters are shared to assist those facing court litigation. The LAMR even have their own expendable and lovingly abused “mascot”. Yousef Hamed is the willing recipient of it all in good faith.
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