I was in Long Beach CA yesterday, and I thought the bikie culture there was interesting.
It definitely exists, but it's Japanese-style, as opposed to PNW- style. In other words, people ride - but mostly on the sidewalk, no helmet, at relatively slow speeds. I saw only one person looking like someone around here - with panniers, riding in the street with the other vehicles. I saw lots of riders, though, and bikes parked in front of stores and public facilities. They claim the first Bikestation in the country.
Since LB is right on the coast, there are a lot of hybrids and beach cruisers. People ride of the sidewalks because many of the residential streets around the downtown area are one way, or the streets themselves are somewhat narrow. When I first moved here I was really uncomfortable about riding on the sidewalk, but it quickly became apparent that in many cases this was the safest solution for both bicyclists and motorists. Oh, did you get to ride the beach trail from Shoreline Village to Belmont?
My parents live in a beach town neighboring Long Beach, and there are your spandex road bikers, but they aren't hanging around the beach towns because they are looking for hills and the beach towns are flat. The great thing about the incredibly flat beach towns is you do see everyone out there riding. Often on beach cruisers, which are extremely heavy, and hard to get going any faster than your average pedestrian. So putting beach cruisers on the same sidewalks as power walkers and joggers doesn't give you the same speed differential you'd see if all the carbon fiber bikes were racing through the neighborhood.
