Critical Turkey Mass. Hartford, Nov 2009.

The motley crew as an uptight rent-a-cop was trying to kick us out of Constitution Plaza!

Well, thanks to the cold and the earlier rain, we went old school; you remember those rides of yonder with 5 or 6 maybe 7 people. no so much a mass. not so critical. but still a good time, although this was a freakin' cold one! brrr.... We had a total of 5 people, one dog, one mini-boom box attempting to keep us warm with tropical tunes and an empty spot on a tandem. Big up to everyone who came.

We had a brief encounter with the holiday lights up on Constitution Plaza before heading across the river and along the East Hartford Riverfront. The beavers have been extraordinarily busy between the boat ramp and the Charter Oak Bridge. They are taking down some big river trees. It's crazy and worthy of its own post and photos from a daytime visit.


Scruffy very much enjoyed his special seating on the top tube.


Riding under giant horses is always fun.

Thank you MaryLynn for the photos. my camera kinda died this night. Read more!

Critical Turkey Mass, this friday!

[please imagine a witty flyer of some sort is this here space. perhaps a street full of turkeys riding bicycles and drinking tropical drinks...

i really thought i'd find time before arriving back in the 'beat to make a snazzy flyer, or at least one of my usual bootleg ones, but its hard to do that while traveling sometimes. especially if staying with the ECT pedicab peeps in Columbus where sleep and sobriety were not options!]

!!Critical Turkey!! It has seemed like a great idea to me for months as I looked forward to returning to Hartford for a few weeks and doing the ride with a boom box blasting tropical tunes. And then i arrived to grey skies and rain. blahhhhh!!!!

Sooo..... critical mass? maybe? The weather forecast as of 6pm Thursday calls for a Friday 6pm temp of 42 and rainy and feelin' like its 33. fuckshitdamn! that prolly ain't gonna work. perhaps we'll get a break from mother nature and if not, perhaps the ride will be very short and simply make a break for the nearest bar?
who knows? but as long as it ain't coming down too hard, i hope too see a motley crew of stubborn bike riders! Read more!

Critical Mass. Columbus, Ohio. August 2009

That title above should read something like; Being critical of the lack of a mass in Columbus, Ohio. It was surreal. Freaky. Inexplicable. Strange. Disappointing. I arrived at the State House lawn 30 minutes early hoping to meet some peoples, but found nobody. Eventually, around 5;30 I recognized someone I met the day before, a friend of friends of mine, Issac. I had no idea he was in the middle of a massive years long cycling trip. He was from Canada and hanging around for a month. I was from Hartford/Key West and hanging around for a week. And there we were, the only people who showed up for Critical Mass and both of us were out-of-towners! Huh? Yep, and it gets worse and strange. Really strange!


So, first, here's a pic of everyone ready to ride. Me on the left and Issac on the right. Thank you to the random lady reading on the bench for taking out picture and making sure no one had their eyes closed. I really was looking forward to the ride. It had rained all day, but cleared up pretty nice and I wanted to explore and mingle. But nothing. Nada. Zilch.


So, this guy in the blue t-shirt comes up to us wanting us to sign some stuff about clean and affordable energy. We couldn't help as neither of us were registered Ohio voters. I asked him about the critmass ride, hoping he'd know something. He kinda laughed and said he hadn't owned or ridden a bicycle since college, almost sounding like cycling was beneath him or something. He then wandered off still chuckling to himself as Issac and I wondered about his commitment to clean and affordable energy and feeling super confused. Whhhaaaaat!?!?

We headed over to the Tip Top bar, which I was told had $1 PBR's for cyclists and was a pretty hoppin' hangout. We arrived to a great mix of people, several bicycles locked up and lots of people who looked like urban cyclists. We ordered a round and tried to talk to a table of people who obviously biked. I asked about Critical Mass. They said not many people usually go and it kinda sucked. I excitedly suggested they make their own flyers and make it a great ride. The response? "Someone used to make flyers." And that was that.  They also mentioned the monday night rides but were not fans of it citing irresponsible riding. They weren't particularly friendly. Perhaps if I returned in cut-off jean shorts and Issac got a fixie, things would have gone better.

Issac and I sat down at a nearby table and crowd watched. One dude was actually wearing a critmass t-shirt! Yep, during the time the ride shoulda been happening, someone was drinking at a bar, wearing the shirt? WTF Columbus? Really?

UPDATE Stopped in a few bike shops today and it turns out the Monday night has upwards of 200 people with good weather (like today!) and critmas is pretty much dead. Well, weekly sounds better than monthly! Looking forward to the ride tonight. Might also head back down to the river around sunset for some explorations.

TUE MORNING UPDATE!

BTW the Columbus Monday Night Ride was pretty sweet. There were 40ish people and went everywhere. wow. so very, very happy to have had 35's, gears and brakes! Met some nice, sharing peeps and even took turns going around an unlighted BMX track! sketchy...but fun. One dude crashed on a street and totally taco'd his front wheel. The thing was toasted. Really burnt toast at that. He removed the wheel and smashed it on the ground until it was reasonably tru again, put it back on the bike and off we were after a great rest stop in the middle of industrial southern Columbus. Well done!  

There were a few red light runnings, multilane blockages and beer can litteringt that I felt was a bit obnoxious and irresponsible, but overall the ride was great. Thanks Columbus!

Click Read More for a story about a redeeming 20miler along the Olentangy River Greenway!



Saturday, after an afternoon breakfast, we embarked on a ride along the Olentangy River Greenway. T'was great being out of traffic and in a somewhat natural setting. Urban wilderness we'll call it. I'd happily swim in the Connecticut River before jumping into this one! But it was pretty and a good amount of people were out on it. It parallels High Street, several blocks away, for miles and its a great alternative to the busy street.


We passed this great bike rack parking lot outside of a large building on Ohio State University. The trail skirts the campus for a bit. There's also some options for riding right next to the river or on higher ground. Its all paved, but there were lots of side trails for mountain bikes too.


I don't remember the name of this pedestrian bridge, but I really liked the curves of the wood.


Mikey and Jason catching up with emails and texts!


What a glorious day to fly down a little hill...


Jason is really diggin' the flying.

We eventually met up with Chrizzle, who just bought a sweet city cruiser and rode High Street the whole way back with a few pitstops along our merry way. Thanks again to Chrizzle and Jason for buying those chocolate chip cookies! 

I am still trying to figure out the scene here. There's a good bit of infrastructure here, lots of people on bikes and even quite a few bike shops; though some seem to focus on hipster clothing more than bike stuff! Drivers seem pretty cool except for two rednecks in a pick-up truck yelling at us to "get the hell off the road!" Other than that, cars have been super respectful. There's bike racks all over and lots of people pedaling around. OK, i am off to tear apart my van looking for the handlebar tape i bought at EMS in West Hartford. The Gunnar has got to get rewrapped!

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thank you Ted White for Return of the Scorcher

Return of the Scorcher is one of the movies on a Ted White DVD, which also contains the more talked about, We Are Traffic. WAT is a great documentary about the Critical Mass movement and its creation in San Francisco in the early 1990’s. It gave me the inspiration to begin making flyers for the Hartford ride and try and get people to come out and enjoy the city. I love this movie. It certainly changed my life and helped grow the ride in Hartford.

My smoldering romance with Return of the Scorcher has suddenly erupted with fireworks! I watched a borrowed copy of the DVD for the longest time, which my friend Steve had bought to use at a CCBA event. At some point last year I finally returned the movie to him and haven’t seen it since. A few days ago I received my own copy from this link and have watched it a few times. I cannot get enough of Return of the Scorcher and all the amazing vingettes of bicycle culture from Guangzho (Canton), China back in 1991. Most of the citizens use bicycles and tricycles for commuting and business as well as dating. The whole part about riding women sidesaddle is wonderful! There’s also a scene in which George Bliss describes giant intersections with no traffic signals and bicycles competeing with cars, trucks, busses and motorcycles to cross lanes of traffic. He described the bikes leading the charge across the street as a critical mass; which gave the founders of CM the idea for the name!

There’s also quite a bit of footage from Amsterdam showing bicycles as daily transportation and showcasing all the infrastructure built to support a lifestyle on two wheels. The use of the bicycle in the Women's rights movement is also really interesting. Dang, the whole DVD is super interesting and super inspirational. I am not sure how many people have seen or heard of this movie, but I felt a need to thank Ted White for making it and encourage y’all to enjoy it.






And here is the rest of it.


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Massive

I guess I should have remembered to take pictures of people instead of only my bike looking sad by the Arts Academy.

It's been the same three people who've shown up for Critical Mass in January & February. We're certainly not massive and we're not particularly critical either. In fact, our ride probably doesn't warrant the title of Critical Mass, we're more of just a bike ride. We're not really taking back the streets from anyone, but we've definitely covered far more distance than those big rides of last year. Read more!

Some Stuff

First, and most important to those who love donuts or doughnuts, Tastease Donuts has sold 500,000 donuts and on Friday, March 6 they're offering a free cup of coffee and donut to anyone who comes in between 7am and 11am. Tastease is at 70 New Park.

Second, it being the last Friday of the month, it's Critical Mass day. Come to the Bushnell Park Carousel at 5:30pm and we'll go ride somewhere.

Third, make sure to block out time on your calendar for The Eel on March 7. 2pm reg and 2:30 race. $5.

Fourth, I didn't go to Ice Bike to work this morning because I was running too late. I hope it was good.

That's it. Ride safe this weekend.

Oh, always carry a pump and patch kit, even if you're just riding on your lunch break. It prevents you from having to make a sad walk back from East Hartford.

Read more!

Critical Mass. Hartford, Dec 2008. The Holiday Ride!

LL Cool J said it best....I can't live without my radio!

Well, better late than never! Friday night...a few weeks back...was awesome! We had a real winter Critical Mass ride complete with lights, decorations and holiday music. It was great to see so many familiar faces as well as some new blood out to ride around the city. The weather may have been cold, but the ride was hot! Lots of people decorated their bikes with colorful lights, glow sticks and light-up santas. I am sure it was the largest ride yet in the winter months. There was a UConn game at the Civic Center (yes, i still call it that) and of course all the traffic that goes with it.

The boombox was blasting mostly punk and reggae covers of Christmas music. I found a few Chanukah and Kwanzaa songs on itunes and threw in the Ramones' version of "its a Wonderful World" just to round things out. Many people cheered, smiled and laughed as we did laps through the area.

We also rode to Constitution Plaza and around the decorative lights and Christmas trees up there. And all got separated for a while when leaving, until reuniting and enjoying more of the crowded downtown streets.

Eventually we headed down Asylum Avenue towards West Hartford and made it to Woodland Street when we found out someone needed a chaintool back at Bushnell Park. In the holiday spirit the whole ride made a 180 and sped back to save the day. We did several more loops around the Civic Center while repairs were made. Ya know... i might have some chronology wrong here; but just the same, it was a wonderful ride. Everyone was super friendly, sharing tools and libations and ideas for next year's ride. Thank you to everyone to braved the cold and helped make Hartford a brighter place! Wooo-haaaa!


Marylynn is always dressed for the occasion!


Chris laughed in the face of death with his lights. and looked cool doing it!


Coreylynn was rocking two peace signs radiating good vibes in all four directions.

What happened next? What bar did we go to? Want to see the neked group shot?

click READ MORE!






Did i say neked? I meant natural light...I didn't use my flash! Sorry for any confusion.

We decided to ride to the Spigot and took the scenic route on Park Street for most of the way.


Brendan, is that your cable looking up my boom box along with the bikes? Thanks dude, good looking out!

And more photos here from Caresse!



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Critical Mass Hartford this Friday! The Holiday Ride...

carol's sweeeeet flyer...thank you!!!!!!

Come burn off all that yummy food you ate the last two days! Hartford's wintertime critical mass rides are usually as sparse as the leaves on trees; but lets change that and light up the town and spread some holiday cheer!Light up your bikes! Bring extra bells. Decorate! Make it happen!

This could be the beginning of a new tradition in Hartford....decorating your bikes for the December ride. People might start traveling to the 'beat to take part in the ride, pedaling in from around the globe!

Walgreens has LED lights than run on AA batteries, 15 to a strand, for $3.99, sometimes 3 for $10. Hook it up! Beware, many of the sets with white lights have runts, so bring two AA batteries to test before buying! The multi-color lights are all good! Here's a photo of the box i found on the interwebs. These lights kick ass!

glow sticks, bells, garland, tinsel, wrapping paper, other lights, its all good! Read more!

Critical Mass. San Francisco. Nov 2008

The big one! The OG ride. Wow!

After traveling, camping, exploring, and enjoying abundant sunshine and redwoods in northern Cali for two months, but missing bicycles; I have returned to civilization! I actually returned just in time to meet up with shoup in Oakland, borrow a bike and get our butts to SF to ride critmass with a few hundred new friends. Its great to be back and posting again. And great to be on a bike again. I'll be back in hartford this week and i guess i'll also be wearing gloves and more clothes due to this thing in the beat we call...wintery mix! burrrrrrrr! Cali has certainly spoiled me!

The ride begins @ Justin Herman Plaza at 6pm, and just like hartford, the ride began a bit later. I think there were about 150-200 to start, but later on, a half hour into the ride, the mass swelled to 300-400 riders. Wow. This was my first CM at night, and lots of people had outfits, glowsticks and all kinds of colorful lights for night ride parties. Nice! The vibe was awesome with music, lights, yelling, smiling and people in crazy outfits and custom bike wierdness.

There were two bikes with boomin' sound systems. This was the louder one, and it was LOUD! But the other had disco lights and a disco ball lighting up the streets and more danceable beats, but they both kept us keepin' us smilin' and hollerin'. We need more of this in the beat!


shoup bobbin' and weavin' through people, cops, busses and trolleys in Union Square

Union square was a mess! thousands of shoppers and gridlocked traffic...before we arrived. Add in hundreds of cyclists and dozens of motorcycle cops and you got anarchy! Woo-haa!


We had to regroup after that whole mess and did so in the middle of an intersection for 10 or 15 minutes, obnoxiously blocking all traffic. The cops just sat there, watched, and kept the cars in check. I couldn't believe it was happening, but it was certainly acceptable. The police, lots of police, were escorting the ride mostly on motorcycles. We led and sometimes corked, but the popo's were blocking many intersections and yelling at cars that tried to go through green lights and into the mass. Yes! Any time a car tried to run a green light, cops would sound horns and sirens and make them stop and wait. The police seemed to just be keeping cars out of the ride. Strange! It was kinda nice, but I also kinda wished they weren't there at all, and we just looked after eachother.

>
We rode up through the Stockton Tunnel, hopped the center curb and rode back down the otherside. That's the bubble lady. She had an automatic bubble blower hooked up to her bicycle and mad lights! Yeah bubble lady!


The ride returned to Herman Plaza and half the riders stopped and the other half of the mass continued on towards the Mission. This group slowly shrunk until Shoup, Jeff and I were leading a dwindling mass of a few dozen people down Mission Street, with more than a dozen motorcycle cops behind us!! When we finally pulled over to get beer for the park at a corner store, the remaining riders and cops scattered even more. The police motorcycles outnumbered the bicycles at this point!

there's a few post ride pics after the jump!




a tasty post ride deuce deuce of redstripe in dolores park


shoupy and i in the park. beer and bicycles seem to really affect him!

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Spoooooky goings on in the Beat!

Alright...so we messed up in joining the Hooker Day Parade on Sunday. We had a plan, we had a theme idea. I was in Vegas, Joel found himself in Wethersfield, El Prez in New Haven, Karma was most likely working, Chillwill is in Cali, Ken was confused, and I think I heard that Brendan was ready to go. Oops. Well, it sounds like the parade was a lot of fun, and it got people in Hartford excited, so that's always a good thing.

But what's on tap now that fall has fallen, you ask? Good question! Here's some things for your calendars for the next 1.5 weeks:


Friday, Oct. 31st.

Bike to Work??
Old State House, 7am - 9am
last Friday of the month
Hmmmm...this event appears on the BBB calendar over there on the right. It does not appear on the CCBA Bike Everywhere calendar. There it says that they ended in September. I know last year, they had "Icebike to work" things for the colder months. I'll look into this in the next day and report on the status, and I'm sure future scheduling will occur after the next Bike Everywhere meeting in a couple of weeks.

Critical Mass, Halloween Edition!!!
Meet at 5:30pm, Bushnell Park Carousel.
It’s the last Friday of the month! Celebrate with riders around the world for this global, grassroots celebration. Join a hundred of your newest friends on a ride around the city at a chill pace for about an hour and a half. Check old posts to see past rides. The summer’s rides were wonderful, and now we can REALLY freak out!!! It's October 31st! All Hallows' Eve! Helloween! The last ride in Daylight Savings Time! Dress up yer bike! Dress up yerself! Bring some candy! Get some candy! By the time we push off, it'll be dusk, the leaves will be flying, and it'll be extra spoooky! Seriously, feel free to ride in costume. Creativity encouraged. Anything can happen!
http://critical-mass.info/


Tuesday, Nov. 4th.

Progressive Happy Hour (PHH), Election Night Edition.
Kenny's (Red Rock), whenever to whenever.
Holy Shit. HOLY SHIT!!! Really??! The election?! We've only been exposed to this election cycle since about 1971. That's what it feels like. You know...Canadians held a national election in October. Guess how long that took from the time they announced it to the time it was over. No seriously, guess. 30 days. By law. Anyway...hell, here it is in the US of A. Obama. McCain. Nader. Barr. And the rest, with Palin & Biden popping in to provide comic relief. Polls in CT close at 7 pm, so I'm thinking of getting there early to start drinking the pain away while we watch the pundits on the teevee make big asses of themselves. I'll probably be making up the drinking game as the night goes on and others are welcome to join in. Early rules I've thought of are 1) sports metaphors, 2) calling a state before 20% of precincts have reported, 3) unnecessary and excessive use of expensive touch-screen zoomy maps, and 4) any appearance of a dry-erase whiteboard. I'm also going to bring presidential games and activities. Points to those who show up with trivia about our lesser-known presidents like Millard Filmore. Anyway...show up. And for cripes sake: VOTE. Or exercise your right not to vote. Freedom, baby.

Wednesday, Nov. 5th

BBB English/Irish Pub Bike-Crawl
7 pm - 11 pm
After the success of Beat Biketoberfest, it was suggested that we try some sort of irregularly scheduled bike-based pub crawls around the Beat. Well, my first thought was to try to do them on some sort of occasion. November 5th is known in the British empire as "Guy Fawkes Night" (aka "Bonfire Night") in commemoration of some catholic extremist dude with an unfortunate name who tried to blow up Parliament with gunpowder on that date in 1605, but was a complete douche and failed miserably. So the Brits, with no 4th of July celebration because they lost that whole silly affair in the colonies, put this as their holiday to blow shit up. Well, we aren't going to blow shit up, so I'm leading a tour of popular English/Irish drinking establishments in the area to mark the date. I think the order will probably go: Vaughan's, McKinnon's, Half Door, & ending at the Corner Pug, unless someone can come up with another viable stop. Yeah, yeah...it's a school night, so it won't be a big blow out all-night affair, but a classy traipsing affair as our first public pub bike-crawl. We'll start at 7 pm at Vaughan's on Pratt Street in downtown Hartford. All are welcome. "Remember, remember the 5th of November!"
(someone want to add this to the blog calendar, please?)

Saturday, Nov. 8th

THE EEL
Charter Oak Landing, 3 pm
A gentleman's race along the river that is both on the road and off. This is so going to rock. Any further updates and promotion will be provided by Brendan.

Read more!

Critical Mass. August 2008.

Yes! Yes! Yes!

This was a great ride on a beautiful night with lots of new people and another foray through our beloved Keney Park. Colleen brought her pops, Valdez brought his daughter, everyone brought a great vibe and we all had a great time. There was also a father and son from South Carolina. or was it North Carolina? Gimme a holla! Minimal car issues and more people stepping up to cork intersections when needed and talk to drivers kept things running super smoothly.


i was running super late in a mad dash to get my old school 3speed on the road for the ride. i met up with the group in East Hartford with only one speed, but one sweet looking bike!!! yeah baby yeah! The 3speed was one of a dozen or so free bicycles i picked up last week. Want one? check this post for what's left.

The ride crossed Founders' Bridge and wound its way to Main Street in East Hartford, where everyone pulled over to wait for Dawn, me, Karma and Brenden. It was fun arriving late having no certain idea what had been decided and where we were going. We headed North into South Windsor and across the bike/ped lane of the Bissell bridge. Rachel flatted out in the boat launch park and Rick and Krash got her fixed up as others rode in circles to escape the bugs. Dang skeeters! Others chatted, new friends were made and there was interesting relay riding with tastey, frothy batons!

Then it was off to Keney Park as the sun set. We passed several parking lots full of life; car stereos bumping music, BBQ's and North End peoples enjoying a great Friday afternoon in the park drinking brews. Everyone was super cool, waving, shouting and we all shared some great energy. Ahhhh. Sometimes things in Hartford just flow wonderfully.

We exited the park in the dark at Tower Avenue and rode straight down Barbour Street to Capen St. and then east to North Main Street. Barbour was a pretty crazy, sketchy, wonderous, great, paradoxial ride to say the least. We passed the scene of a recent shooting, though i don't think many knew it. Most groups of people and all small kids waved and yelled with genuine smiles. A few yells of, "Duuuude and Awesome" in faked "white" accents were kinda funny. The large black dude that came into the street and was pretending to grab cyclists as they rode by while yelling, "gimme that bike!" seemed more of a joke gone too far than any kind of threat, but some people certainly didn't enjoy that. There were certainly a few other negative and ignorant comments here and there, but by and large it was all good. No, F that. By and large it was all great!

We took a lane down Main and returned to the club area where many of us went to Mad Dawgs for pizza, 40's, beer and pole dancing. yep, that's a winning combination right there.


Rich was really making it happen!


Corey showing us how its done safely with a helmet and eye protection!


40's are fun! They really make me a better (pole) dancer!


Afterwards we decided to buy copious amounts of beer, pizza, burgers and have a postride firepit bbq party in my backyard. Wow! What a great way to end the night. By the way, the party planning and flat fixing was great to be a part of. I saw lots of people stepping up, wanting to help and really making it happen, especially at the party. Beer was bought at several locations. Krash and Wizzy brought two pizzas. Boz was persistant as not one, but two grills failed him, and he had to finish cooking in a frying pan in my apartment! Everyone really worked together and looked out for one another. I really like that.

Thank you and big ups to everyone in the ride and along the ride, it was a great time!

many more photos if you click Read More below!




North Main Street.


This was fun to carry in my messenger bag and on my handlebars from the local bodega.


i wish i had a better photo of the bicycle parking in my garage for the party. T'was a beautiful sight to behold!


Rich has mad stupid skills; he can even hoolahoop!


But it was Dawn's and she's a hoolahoop master and had the thing going up, down and all around.


hmmm. looks like lucas is handing me a beer. jeff, stop staring at Dawn's butt! Rich, stop bragging about yer skills!


Dang! Rich! You dance too! I also remember dancing with Bianca, but i also remember spinning myself into a fence as i fell into the flowers.


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ride daily, celebrate monthly...or all the time!!!

Start friday morning with a ride to The Old State House for Bike to Work and enjoy a free breakfast of coffee, juice, bagels, bananas and other tastey morning goodness from 7am to 9am. Mingle with other commuters, check out bikes and loiter around as long as you can get away with! tell yer boss yer late cuz of a flat! mmm....bananas!


Need a fun ride after work? its Critical Mass! Meet at the Bushnell Park Carousel 5:30pm. This informal ride leave a little after 6pm and wanders around for about an hour and a half. Where? There's talk of going to East Hartford. Or the farm-made icecream spot in Bloomfield on Cottage Grove Road. Bring yer ideas, bells, whistles, energy and have a great time. Always an afterparty somewhere!

Come earlier to try out some bike polo, sez Dave M, "“Pre-Mass Mallet Bash” - jumpstart your c-mass ride while wielding a mallet and netting some fun trying up bike polo. 5:00pm in the field near the Carousel."
wow, that's alot of "quotation" marks!

next month has some really big events mid month, again both on the same day!
The CCBA's Discover Hartford Bike and Walking Tour is Saturday, September 12. Last year about 1200 people had a great time on the tour, don't miss it this year! Sign up and more info on the website!


but save yer legs, cuz that same night is Hartford Hardcore 4! The 4th year of one of the best alleycats in the city. We were easy on y'all with last month's Wear Yer Rubber's race, Sean and company will not be so nice! good luck suckas! ride fast, ride safe. Read more!

Critical Mass July 2008 and afterparty

I think there were somewhere around 35 people with a good mix of new faces and regulars as well as everyone in between. Two tandems! One bride with veil. And no flats this time! I really like riding in the parks, though the streets have been fine lately; very few cars beeping horns, no death threats etc. We have been much better about corking intersections by talking to the drivers while blocking side traffic. A smile and explanation works wonders and 99.99% of cars are mad cool with the bicycles riding by in our mass. Critical Mass isn’t a protest…it’s a celebration!

Please y’all, please stay stopped at red lights when we arrive as a group and have to stop! It’s a great chance to regroup the ride and keep the mass together for safety and traffic. Let everyone catch up and redensify the group; no stragglers trying to pass cars to get back to everyone. We all seem to understand keeping the group together when the light turns in the middle, but don’t take off on a red! We have to be responsible for each other and look out for each other as a group. Taking off from a red light during a slow section of traffic will only split the group when the traffic picks up in a few seconds. Please think about this and remember, just because a few take off, you can make a better decision and stay!

Check karma’s post from a few days ago for the play by play. I’m just soapboxing this one and posting lots of eye candy.

By the way, why is it that teenagers in the South End seem to yell much more foul shit at us than any other neighborhood? Why? What is the appropriate response to a porch of kids yelling, “White Power!!!” That happens like every single ride down that way.

Well, here's a few photos to get started. I think I tend to take photos of people I know cuz I am horrible with names and spelling; so gimme a hollerrrr if i butchered yer name or got it wrong or something like that.

There's a crapload more if ya click on READ MORE!


Carole, AmyZ and Lindsey chillin' in the park before the ride.


Franklin Avenue.


I love this photo! ChillWill (me!), my 40 and the always fashionable Mary Lynn! So classy.


Krash felt comfortable leaving his Bianci unlocked in the friendly crowd of bikers. Sucka! About 40 minutes later he had to turn his back and go inside to pee and we quickly moved into action and relocated his bike someplace much safer. It took him a bit to find it, even though it was the shortest tree on the block!


I wish we did this twice a month. Mid-month ice cream ride anyone? yeah baby!

click below for many more photos:





More Franklin Avenue


Ben, brakeless and ahead of the pack in Cedar Hill Cemetary


Critical Wedding!


Find the beer!


Bianca is very safe. She drinks with a helmet. After what happened to Krash's Bianci, i don't blame Bianca for playing it safe!


Cheers mates!


Robin and Steve discussing his warm 40!?!?


Rich is like, "No Fair! i don't smoke!"


We know how to dress in The Beat.








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