Rapha RIDES "Los Angeles" (2017) 3:25 (USA)

There are two kinds of people in this world. People who say they hate L.A. and people who live here.
It's not the beach or the Hollywood sign. It's a tourist town and also it's a town that has no business being a tourist town.
The bicycle is a crossfader, the way to travel between all these collections of neighborhoods without a city. This film was directed by Spencer McDonald, and is the final installment of Rapha Rides, a series of six short films highlighting six different cities: San Francisco, New York City, Chicago, Boulder, Seattle and Los Angeles.

For L.A. we have artist Geoff McFetridge waxing philosophic about what makes L.A. and for those who don't live here, it's not what you think. This city really is defined by what it isn't as much as what it is. L.A. is a hard city to embrace, and no one, except people born here,' love it immediately. It really takes a while, and as car-centric as L.A. is, the city really can be enjoyed by bicycle. Oh sure, this film is the idealized version. (Spoiler alert, you can't get to snow from the beach in two hours no matter what they say) and in 2014, we led the nation in bike deaths which is why I only bike on the beach. But then with the rampant homelessness and junkies in Venice you tend to bike around needles and people who are passed out.

But if you overlook all of that, the architecture, weather and interesting neighbourhoods really do have a lot to offer. Rapha's done a great job of chronicling this. More importantly, since they are actually selling products and not cities, they've done a great job of making the bike and apparel look fantastic as well.

DIRECTOR + Editor (on LA, Boulder, NYC, SF) - Spencer Macdonald
Production Company / Creative Development / Post Production: Avocados and Coconuts

EP/ Producer - Dalia Burde
Production Manager - Bijan Rafie Tari + Sound
1ST AC - Troy Dickerson
2ND AC + Drone op - Drew Kass
Color - AJ Molle
Audio Mix - Chris Konovaliv
Creative Director - Amani King