What is L39ION doing?

[Pbase]

@AJS914

When my brain sees “L39ion”, it wants to think “LeNineIon” or maybe skip the 39 and see LION.

Well, their logo IS a Lion, so I guess they got that part right

[JSTootell]

@AJS914

The thing is, kids don’t ride bikes much anymore.

Blame the parents. My GF’s neighborhood is full of kids out playing on bikes, skateboards, and razor scooters (and ball sports too). There is a public skatepark in the park around the corner from my GF’s apartment that is always packed. Her kids leave their gaming system at their dads house where they only spend a few hours every other week, because they are out skating all the time (the youngest broke his arm TWICE last year skating). The park is also full of kids playing basketball and such.

Next time you think “kids these days”, replace kids with “parents” and you might be on to something.

Only difference between my GF’s kids and me 25 years ago is they don’t ride a bike to school like I did (though I started driving at 16 and stopped riding a bike for 15 years), and they have Tiktok (I had a pager).

Those same teens have been going out on their own to skate at random places for years now. PARENTS are the ones preventing kids from going out playing.

@OreoCookie

Jerseys with numbers. Once you see it, you can never unsee it. I know, what a crazy idea. I hate having to put safety pins through my expensive jerseys and just giving people one number for their entire career is such an obvious solution, especially once you look to other sports.

THis has been a peeve of mine for a while. At the local MTB series we get a single plate for a season of racing. But coming from motorcycle racing you basically just pick your number and keep it for life (maybe having to change it if you move up a class and someone already has it). I was #59 for like 10 years. When I did my first Pro XCT MTB race I got a new number plate, and was shocked when I showed up to my second XCT race to get a NEW number plate?!?!?

@RJones07

Coincidentally, one of the L39ion riders, Ama Nsek, placed 2nd in short track xc at US MTB Nats this year. It was also just a week after he’d placed 2nd in the RR and 5th in the crit at US Amateur Road Nats.

I had a run in with him at one of my first MTB races. I was still on a borrowed 40 pound hardtail when he came up behind me (I was obviously lap traffic) and just heard the politest “can I pass you?” request I have ever heard, immediately followed by a sincere “thank you” after I moved over and he disappeared in the distance.

@AJS914

Maybe I’m just old, not hip enough and don’t get it.

I am old and not too cool, and I get it.

Not much is done on websites anymore, everything is social media.

@RydeRuff12

Don’t they race/ train in Cali? I would think Cali is just as hot as Northen VA, maybe not as humid.

Whether or not it was a line out of an excuse book, or real, I don’t know. But…

LA isn’t “maybe not as humid”, it is night and day different. LA is dry, super dry. So dry that I will have no problem riding in 100+ degree heat months at a time. But having spent plenty of time in Virginia, the humidity back there is insane at FAR lower temperatures.

[bbarrera]

@JSTootell

I am old and not too cool, and I get it.

but but but as a kid you had a pager!

[RJones07]

@AJS914

Their internet presence has improved but when I tried six months ago it was hard to even find the team’s web site. If you search for “L39ion”, you get a Rapha page as the first hit. I do see the team’s site as the 2nd link now but six months ago, it didn’t even show up.

Plus they seem to have nothing at: https://www.legionoflosangeles.com/

Site under construction. Maybe they don’t even own it?

I think that’s basically because most marketing is done via social media these days. Not a lot of up and coming companies are using websites as their main forms of exposure. Their IG presence is huge in comparison. L39ion also have an email newsletter that’s pretty active.

[STP]

@Power13

They are re picking it up because of Jason Gay, who wrote the piece. Otherwise, they wouldn’t be interested in it.

Actually, the Wall Street Journal has always had decent coverage of cycling, primarily in its fitness articles but they also do some racing coverage at least for the major races. The editors clearly see cyclists as an identified group of readers.

That however is not necessarily a great thing. Unfortunately the demographic of cycling fans and participants in the US skews too close to the demographics of Wall Street Journal readers for the general health and growth of the competitive side of the sport. Financially well off middle age or older white men can play a role but that is not where serious growth of competitive cycling will come from.

[AJS914]

@RJones07

I think that’s basically because most marketing is done via social media these days. Not a lot of up and coming companies are using websites as their main forms of exposure.

Nobody must have told Justin that the primary consumer of cycling media are white middle aged men!

[Chris_Dawson]

The Open race was described as Cat 3 and above, but it was non-USAC and there was nowhere on the signup page to put your license number. When you got to the reg tent, they just asked your name, didn’t ask for a license or ID, so I guess anyone could have signed up including riders serving doping bans. I saw a couple of riders who I am pretty sure are 4s or 5s. And they didn’t do junior rollouts.

No primes, and the only prize was a SRAM gift card for the winner. It was definitely an afterthought. That said, it was much faster, smoother, and safer than I thought it might be. There were a couple of times that a junior tried to divebomb a corner, but things got sorted out pretty quickly. My average speed for the entire race was 28.

This is me and a teammate at turn 3 of 4.

As I said, the Open race was definitely an afterthought, but it was smart to include it because, after all, who are the biggest fans of bike racing? Bike racers! Give them an excuse to invite all their friends and family. The Pro race was like a party for the local bike racing scene, which we needed after the last year and a half.

[Pbase]

Great pic!

[bbarrera]

My buddy Trevor is between you, in the pink SGW jersey and blue shoes. Would be awesome if you could PM a full res pic.

I took a video at the finish line, think this is you coming in:

sorry its crappy I’ve got an iPhone SE and did a screengrab on my MacBook.

And earlier in the race:

With one of EG Wed night worlds guys right behind you (he snagged a top 10 finish).

[Pbase]

Very cool of you! Kudos.

[toyman]

@Chris_Dawson

As I said, the Open race was definitely an afterthought, but it was smart to include it because, after all, who are the biggest fans of bike racing? Bike racers! Give them an excuse to invite all their friends and family. The Pro race was like a party for the local bike racing scene, which we needed after the last year and a half.

I think that to the degree possible having more community involvement the better - I would imagine that up to some limits the marginal cost of running another race once everything is set up is rather minor. (especially with little/no prize money.) Having a juniors-only race as part of the day would be a good way to foster development of young riders.
A long, long time ago when I went to some races at the Hellyer park velodrome as kid I remember them passing a can around the spectators for primes - that could be interesting for the more community oriented fields. (not sure how to do this without seeming cheap, but as a kid it really seemed to get the spectators more involved.)

[Pbase]

Great response from Vegan Cyclist

[STP]

@toyman

I would imagine that up to some limits the marginal cost of running another race once everything is set up is rather minor. (especially with little/no prize money.)

The biggest cost for a bike race that touches public roads (aside from prize money) is paying the locality for closing down the roads. That entails police security which is usually how the locality gets compensated (they give you the roads but require police, then charge you for the police - some cities are fairer than others on rates). The promoter also pays for officials and scoring. The rest is usually volunteer labor. So, you are correct that once the course is set up, filling your allotted time with more races does not cost much assuming you are not expanding the time you are already budgeting for.

[RydeRuff12]

FWIW - I posted his video breakdown of the event here: Video - Breakdown of Into the Lions Den

He also interviewed Justin Williams.

[jmmetsar]

You’ve probably seen the meme for the other reason why parents (or perhaps its grandparents) can be blamed? It goes like this, and it’s overlain on top of a picture of a horrible, horrible stroad that could be a generic depiction of anytown, North America.
Boomer: “Why don’t kids play outside anymore these days”
Kids: “Because this is the outside YOU CREATED”