Joyous memories of biking through SoCal as kids — is that freedom dead and gone?

The best way to explore the sprawling neighborhoods of greater L.A. is not by car, but by bike, a truth many Angelenos came by as kids riding down hilly cul de sacs, through downtown alleyways and along oceanside paths.

While most of us have upgraded our handlebars for four wheels and an ignition, AirTalk listeners haven't forgotten the feeling of taking a bike out for a ride around the neighborhood.

Discovering L.A. behind handlebars

For a kid with a bike, L.A. can be a playground.

Juanita in Diamond Bar grew up in East L.A., riding her bike throughout the various alleyways with her brother. She said they would ride up Garrity Hills in the heights and then speed back down.

“ Sometimes I'd have my brother on the handlebar and come back as fast as we could,” Juanita said. “Sometimes we didn't make the turn and we just slammed into the wall.”

Jamie in Culver City shared how she and her friends would ride their bikes down Sunset Boulevard to the UCLA campus so they could play in the inverted fountain.

“ We were smart enough, we got on around Barrington and then we went down Manning, which was a marvelous hill," she said.

Going the distance

If you think people in SoCal drive long distances, you’ll be surprised at how far these listeners went when they were kids.

Chris in Hermosa Beach said one of her frequent routes was biking from her mother’s house in Huntington Beach all the way to her father’s in Los Alamitos, a two-and-a-half hour trip along the Pacific Coast Highway.

“ Nobody knew what I was up to, so all I had was my Walkman and my Thompson Twins cassette tape,” she said.

She said sometimes she would get to her father’s and no one would be home, so she would have to turn around and bike back.

Freedom is a kid on a bike

John in Granada Hills grew up in Los Feliz and would ride his  new 1968 Schwinn Stingray Blue from his house to Ninth and Hill to the Coast Federal Savings Building.

“ After that ride, I felt that there were no limits anymore,” he said.

“We would ride from Inglewood all the way to Venice Beach,” said Juan in Hawthorne. “As long as we showed up for dinner, my parents had no clue where we were all day. It was just complete freedom.”

 Steve in Huntington Beach said he used to pick a new direction to ride his bike in everyday and see how far he could get. Starting at his home in Cypress, one time he ended up in Long Beach. Another day, he ended up near Disneyland.

“I still remember that sense of adventure, of discovering things and seeing things,” he said.

A new generation of riders

Steve said he made an effort to instill that sense of adventure into his children by making them ride their bikes to school, which he said other families found surprising.

“One of the great joys of being a kid is riding a bike,” he said.

For those looking to recapture their childhood memories or help the next wave of adolescence experience the joys of bike riding, Paul in Boyle Heights recommended getting involved with CicLAvia, a nonprofit that hosts bike riding events throughout L.A.

“I grew to love biking as a kid, but I love it even more as an adult,” he said. “The love doesn't have to go away.”

Listen