AIDS LifeCycle

This is the closest experience to Utopian living I’ve ever encountered. This is #7 for me. If you want to support me, I’m Rider #1700 David S.

I bought my first bike without training wheels (an 8 speed steel hybird) the day I signed up for ALC, barely 6 weeks before rollout. Since then I’ve fallen 3 times on my second bike (an 18 speed aluminum road bike), my percentage lowering to a 40% chance of falling every time I get on my bike. The ALC damage? Gained 8 pounds, burned super ugly tan lines all over my body including ridiculous glove tans and sunglasses tan, scarred up my legs and arms with battle wounds, ran away with beautiful memories and new friends and completed every single mile from SF to LA!
Things to do again next year:
+ Get with a team! The three training rides I did with team Long Beach saved me a lot of pain and regret, as did their helping me pick out a more suitable bike, pairing me with a crazy wonderful tentmate Brady and getting packing logistics down to a science.
+ Identify people by helmets or shirts to shuttle together from the airport. Most people fly in on Saturday, Orientation day.
+ Run the 8.5 miles roundtrip from Doubletree hotel to Cow Palace.
+ See the chiropractors and sports meds. They helped me pop a rib back in and got rid of my weird elbow pain from archery two weeks ago!
+ Ear plugs are your best friends at night
+ Chill at Rest stop 4 for their shows and parties: my little brony, victoria secret models, dance parties
+ Make friends. Then recruit them to set up your tent.
+ Meet people in the food lines and sit with them; learn their stories, why they’re riding
+ Witness a marriage proposal
+ Eat more ice cream at Paradise Pit!
Things to do next year:
+ Socialize or bring things to do while in line for everything on orientation day
+ Utilize Über!
+ On day 1, the line was 90 people deep for coffee at one point. Plan accordingly.
+ Bring own foam roller to roll in tent
+ Take it easy on the 109 mile day but know that the later it gets the windier it is
+ Repeat the Quadbuster hill over and over like the team bunnies
+ Go to butt clinic and get taped up
+ Bring money for ice cream in Santa Maria
+ Either bring clothes pins and a clothes line OR bring enough clothes to last you through all seven days, not both
+ Don’t bring cotton anything. My towel never ever dried ever.
+ Attend the candlelight vigil to remember those who aren’t able to ride
+ Ride out earlier the last day: it’s going to be a race against the sweep vehicle if you roll out too late
+ Have your ride and meet ups coordinated on the last day
+ Start fundraising early! Here’s my link if you can help the cause! ;)
I decided to ride this year for wholly selfish reasons, to challenge myself physically and learn how to ride a road bike (learn how to drink when still riding and how to pump tires. I was riding at 50psi in both tires for six days of the ride). This experience completely changed me. I hung out with the most loving, accepting people while in this little community of 3000 other riders, roadies and motos. Everyday was, «I’m on your left, beautiful» and «I love your helmet, sweetie!» and «You’re my hero for doing this in toe straps!» I’ve had more experienced riders push me up the hills on my bike while on their bikes. I decided to sign up for next year because HIV and AIDS affects the people I’ve come to love in this community and I want to see the end of this devastating ailment. ALC touched my soul and it can touch yours, too, in 7 days time.
Welcome to the ALC family.

I’ve done this ride 4 times and was a Roadie on the Traffic team for ALC 11. Each time is an new and amazing life changing experience and my circle of friends only grows. Whether you ride or roadie, its a loving, selfless and encouraging community that travels from San Francisco to Los Angeles to raise awareness and knowledge about AIDS and HIV. We also raise money for the San Francisco AIDS Foundation and the LA Gay and Lesbian Center to help people living with AIDS and HIV… and some of these beneficiaries are riding or working right along with you and they are inspiring!
Here is a link to a video from ALC 10. I can’t wait for ALC 12!

I am now a 5^th year veteran, but have followed the ride since ALC 2 through my dad. My dad did the ride for 5 years in a row, on ALC 6 I made the big jump and rode with him. I will say that riding ALC literally changed my life. It has been the single most moving experience I’ve ever had.
Since ALC 6 I have retired from riding and I only Roadie, I LOVE IT! Being a roadie has enabled me to meet so many people over the years. The friendships I have built through ALC are life long and I don’t know where I would be with out ALC.
If you’re ever thinking about doing the ride as a rider or as a roadie, DO IT! Life is too short to sit back and watch it go by! I guarantee you will have time of your life and want to come back every year. It’s the one place I can go to every year and experience a utopia away from every day life.
AIDS and HIV is still a problem today and right here in our own back yards. Stand up and do something to make a change! The San Francisco AIDS Foundation and the LA Gay and Lesbian Center have done, so please support the cause.

What an awesome event this is! I am riding in this ride this year and raising money for it. I couldnt be more excited.
I have known people who have done this ride and say that it is an amazing experience. I was able to volunteer for orientation weekend last year and was hugely inspired by these people who dedicate many months of thier year to raise money and awareness for such a great cause. I am REALLY proud to be involved.
Feel free to donate to my cause =) Melissa Bates

ALC 9:
One of the most challenging and rewarding things I’ve ever done. The people are so caring and the friendships you will forge are lasting. A completely singular experience and a transformational week.

I did ALC8 and loved it, even tho I had a lot of physical challenges.
Here’s my summary, with pics!
In short, this is one of the most fun ways to donate your time and fundraising efforts. If you ride via SF, you’re supporting the SF AIDS Foundation, if you come up to SF and ride via LA, you’re supporting the LGBT center in LA. These groups help a community that can really use the support — your effort is totally worth it.
If you sign up to do this ride you will get fundraising tips and support from ALC (be shameless — I got almost half of my minimum by posting donation requests on facebook!), you will make some great friends, you will have a really amazing accomplishment under your belt (even if you do ride the SAG wagon or get a ride from sweep, like me) and you will help some groups that don’t get much support otherwise.
If you can’t take a week off to ride or are nervous about it, VOLUNTEER! I can’t take the week off this year but I’ve volunteered for a couple of years and it’s so satisfying. Your effort as a volunteer is cherished and totally needed. Contact the volunteer coordinator, Emily Mariko Sanders —
— who is training for her 10^th ride in a row (and making costumes for all 7 days!).
Yay ALC! We love you!

Very excited to be a volunteer «Roadie» on the AIDS/​LifeCycle 9 this summer… the folks at ALC have been incredible to work with.
The online registration process was easy, and the agency holds regularly scheduled workshops for prospective riders and volunteers. Fundraising for the event is a breeze, as the organization provides participants with a wide variety of tools, information, and materials to help even the least-​experienced fundraisers become ROCK STARS.
Every participant or volunteer gets a personal point-​of-​contact who acts as your advisor /​counselor /​teacher along the way. I cannot wait until the Ride in June!

Midori will be Participating in the June 6−12^th, 2010 «AIDS/​LifeCycle» — — 7-​day bike ride from San Francisco to Los Angeles.
Please help Midori support this important cause by donating what you can. Every little bit helps.
To Donate please go Midori’s donation page:
To learn more and or to register to ride for the cause go to:

Tony E. has written a great review of this ride, so I’ll add a few points:
1. Best way to actually SEE parts of California you’ll never notice in a car.
2. People are really friendly on this ride. Yes, even the bitchy ones.
3. You’ll never be able to eat so much and not gain weight.
4. Public restrooms will never scare you again.
5. Camping is fun! Just remember the Ambien, earplugs, and eyeshades.
6. Did I mention you’re supporting the SF AIDS Foundation? They do WONDERFUL things for the community. You’ll be doing a wonderful thing by riding.
And in closing, a few memories over the past four rides I’ve participated in:
— Opening a portapotty at 4:30 AM on day 7 to see a shocked woman inside (lock your door!)
— Spending $ 80 at Super Rica in Santa Barbara
— Having the sprinklers go off underneath my tent at night
— Tequila shots at Ventura pier
— Watching my helmet get blown across the road between the wheels of a swerving car while helping a rider patch their tire.
— All the hundreds and thousands of people cheering us on at Day 0 ride-​out and every day after along the route, you guys are awesome…
If you’re curious, do it — it’s a great lifetime experience.

One of the best weeks of my life!

A PROVEN ANSWER TO MODERN LIFE JADEDNESS.
To describe this event as a charity cycling event from San Francisco to Los Angeles is a shameful understatement. On the surface, yes, most of its participants embark on a mission, pedaling a bike nearly 600 miles down the big-​arse state of California over 7 days, sleeping in tents each night, and raising a minimum of $ 2500 for AIDS/​HIV beneficiaries that make a huge difference to the greater community. THAT in itself is admirable in heroic proportions, especially considering how many people sign up scared shitless about doing something like this when they’ve never ridden a bike for over 15 miles before.
The athletic transformation people undergo from Winter to early Spring by the time the event comes around is nothing short of spectacular. But even more remarkable is the sense of community that develops with the coming together of all the participants — both cyclists and non-​cyclists (those who volunteer as ‘roadies’ who bust their asses to no end to form the logistical backbone of the event operations). In all, nearly 3,000 people who travel together in early June demonstrate how possible it is for people who come from an increasingly insular and apathetic community to produce one of the most amazing, euphoric life experiences that simply leave you wanting more of it afterwards. The best part of it all: everybody’s being themselves in the process — their most, honest, raw, exposed, beautiful and giving side of themselves.
I’ve participated in AIDS/​Lifecycle and its predecessor event in California 4 times — each time as a cyclist. The days I’ve spent on those journeys are some of the best I’ve ever lived… frankly put. They’ve given me humbling perspective on what I might normally define as a life challenge, and they’ve rewarded me with intimate revelations about how GREAT people really are in a world we may often start to get fed up with.
I invite you to read more about my most recent account:
Hopefully, this inspires you to experience it for yourself. After all, you really need not BE a cyclist to do so. In 2008, I’ve committed to working on this event as one of the said «Roadies», living up a promise I’ve made many times over that I’d give back to it this way some time.
Care to live vicariously through me? Then clicky here:
On behalf of the community served by the San Francisco AIDS Foundation, thank you for your kind generosity and good will.

Fantastic event! It was my first time participating with ALC and on a training ride, no less. It was highly organized, focus on safety, accommodated all levels and well attended. I will ride this event again next year for sure.
…if only I din’t have to camp… i’d ride ALC.

AIDS Lifecycle (ALC) is a 7-​day, 600-​mile fundraisder bike ride from SF to LA held annually in early June. I first did ALC in the summer of 2004. I decided with much trepidation to participate the fall before. I was in poor overall health, lethargic, and at 280 lbs.
My GF at the time encouraged me to join, and throughout the training season (Nov-​May) I was vacillating wildly. I used to love bike riding, but I knew I couldn’t bike more than 10 miles without being winded. How in the hell was I going to bike 600?
My first traning ride was in Orinda in November. I participated on my own as none of my friends were cyclists. I was the only one with a mountain bike (with slicks) but I wasn’t judged. Everyone else had road bikes and I soon learned the difficulty of keeping up with bikes that were 20% more efficient and 20% lighter. I almost passed out at the halfway point of the 18-​mile ride. I was averaging a measly 11mph.
I was self-​employed at the time and living in Alameda, so I biked nearly every day around the area. By May, I did my first century (100-​mile bike ride) in Napa and was thrilled! I couldn’t sleep the night before the ride. I remember biking out of Golden Gate Park and onto Sloat Blvd and all of a sudden tiring and wanting to quit. I wanted to quit at least two dozen times that first day. But I kept going.
I’m leaving out a lot of the details in the middle.
Before I knew it, I was in LA. I had done it. My dad was at the end and he was so proud of me (he didn’t even attend my college graduation) he couldn’t stop telling everyone at the restaurant we went to after he picked me up. By the end of ALC4, I had raised my avg speed to 14mph and had dropped 35lbs.
The salient memory from that ride was on day 4 as we were biking through central California. My feet were swelling from the non-​stop pedaling and the heat. They hurt so badly I silently wished to myself that I had no feet. As if as sign was sent to me, a few miles up the road I passed an absolutely amazing guy who had lost both of his legs and was doing the entire ride on a bike powered with hand-​operated pedals. Ok, God, I get it. Point taken.
I did ALC5 the next year and convinced a friend to do it with me. I didn’t do ALC6 but I was a training ride leader and still was actively involved. Now ALC7 is coming next June. I won’t participate because it’s a 6-​month commitment basically every weekend, but I still write on the discussion boards, host the web application for people to find tentmates, and still go to training rides.
Now I’m down to 210 (lost 70 lbs) and average around 17mph. The joy I found in cycling has been re-​discovered. The friend who did ALC4 with me and I are now going to try the Death Valley Double Century next March 1.
ALC changed my life, from the people I met, the memories I gained, the achievements I’ve realized, and the improvements I’ve achieved. If you have any desire to help the gay community and/​or those with AIDS, I strongly encourage you to participate in any way. One of these days I’ll be a roadie, volunteering my week helping out the 1500+ riders who embark on this life-​altering experience.

Me in Spandex shorts, sleeping in a tent for a week, surviving on Clif bars and Gatorade, watching drag queens ride bicycles up mountains faster than me. Me in Spandex shorts. Spandex!
I ride to say AIDS has to end. I believe it is our individual and collective responsibility to do all we can to take care of each other and keep each other safe, through education, empathy, and encouragement.
What have you done today to make you feel proud?

This six-​day bicycle ride from SF to LA raises millions of dollars for critical services for people living with HIV and AIDS. ALC is a huge fundraiser and an amazing challenge for its participants. I was on the massage team for the ALC cyclists last year and think everyone who rides in it is my personal hero.