(This spokecard picture is borrowed from the Midnight Ridazz website.)
This post title come's from Cesar's words to describe last week's crankmob, which was fantastic.
We were talking about how cool it was for there to be an incredible event taking place, and for us to be lucky enough to be present at it. Usually, the stupendously fun things happen elsewhere, and you hear about them later from people who were lucky enough to go, but this time, we were those people, and it was just as stupendously fun as we'd hoped.
Tonight was Los Angeles Critical Mass, which, while perhaps not quite as much fun as crankmob, also managed to be gotten through without nearly as many injuries. (There was some minor drama, but I'm not getting into it here.)
I did not take any shaky cell phone photos tonight.
All photographs in this post aside from the spokecard picture above are provided courtesy of Kevin Russell Teves (keven_jac@yahoo.com). If you need a photographer, drop Kevin a line.
I started out in Crankmob Park, the little park in Culver City formally known as Media Park, where there was supposed to be a group gathering to ride over to the starting point. As it turned out, that group was three of the guys from the ride last Tuesday (AND NEXT TUESDAY, COME ALONG! It's a mellow loop around West L.A.), and a woman named Liz who'd heard people were meeting there as well.
We then road out to the meeting point at Wilshire and Western.
From there we rode into Downtown, through the Staples Center complex, up Figueroa to the 2nd and 3rd Street Tunnels, through the tunnels making a great deal of noise, and out to the 4th Street Bridge, where we parked and hung out and looked at the city. This was nice, as now I know it wouldn't be impossible for me to commute by bike into Downtown if I end up there at my next job.
Then we rode back around the Mid-City Area, and up into Hollywood, where the Critical Mass ride stopped, and the "People's Ride" began, which took us up into Hollywood, where we rode East on Sunset, and back West on Hollywood Blvd.
Riding in traffic on Hollywood Blvd. could not have been more hilarious. For the most part, everyone was very pleasant and patient and good-humored. Even the LAPD, who were not overly thrilled about the "circle of death" in which some riders rode around in circles in the intersection for a minute or two, keeping any traffic from moving at all, were the calm, capable good-natured professionals that they have always been in my few dealings with them. A few minutes later a squad car pulled up next to me, and one of the officers yelled "Hyah! Hyah!" like he was encouraging a slow horse, and then yelled "Catch up with the group! No stragglers!" which was made funnier by the fact that said group was executing a rather complicated left turn across multiple lanes across a busy intersection shortly in front of me.
Then we rode back down Sunset and stopped at a Ralph's. At this point, much of the group was headed on to Los Feliz and Echo Park, but a few of us were pretty beat and decided to head back to the Westside. We rode back, and as we were headed down Wilshire, I was shooting the breeze with a nice young woman, explaining the manifold virtues of the helmet mirror, and talking about how different it was to be riding with a small group, where you have to be EXTRA careful about watching out for stoplights and traffic and whatnot. A few minutes later, she shoots through an intersection and almost gets T-boned by an oncoming police car. The officers get out, talk to her, give her a field sobriety test, she gets a ticket for running a red light, and, after spending a great deal of time and care figuring out how to properly load her bike into their vehicle, drove her home. Could have been a lot worse. (Apparently there were a couple of other tickets for "corking" intersections and running red lights.)
L.A. is the greatest city in the world, and riding around on a bicycle on a summer night is the best way to see it. You get a sense of the topography by pedaling uphill that you just don't get in a car, and a view of the sky and the buildings and the open air that are even better than in a convertible (not that there isn't a lot to be said for convertibles.) Even better, most of urban L.A. is reasonably flat, which is nice, as I probably wouldn't get nearly as far if I were shifting down to the smallest chainring on a regular basis.
All in all, a 99% fun night!
Check the calendars in the links at the right to find out what fun rides are in store for the weeks to come.
(Also, if anyone has any interest in learning to unicycle - Jamey Mossengren at http://uniproshop.com/ has a Torker LX 24" for $109. He's one of the few unicycle dealers in the LA /OC area, and this is one of the best beginner unicycles on the market. Check out his website or give him a call at 612.240.8786. He's a good guy to deal with, and this could be a fun thing to have at one of the party rides.)
Then we rode back around the Mid-City Area, and up into Hollywood, where the Critical Mass ride stopped, and the "People's Ride" began, which took us up into Hollywood, where we rode East on Sunset, and back West on Hollywood Blvd.
Riding in traffic on Hollywood Blvd. could not have been more hilarious. For the most part, everyone was very pleasant and patient and good-humored. Even the LAPD, who were not overly thrilled about the "circle of death" in which some riders rode around in circles in the intersection for a minute or two, keeping any traffic from moving at all, were the calm, capable good-natured professionals that they have always been in my few dealings with them. A few minutes later a squad car pulled up next to me, and one of the officers yelled "Hyah! Hyah!" like he was encouraging a slow horse, and then yelled "Catch up with the group! No stragglers!" which was made funnier by the fact that said group was executing a rather complicated left turn across multiple lanes across a busy intersection shortly in front of me.
Then we rode back down Sunset and stopped at a Ralph's. At this point, much of the group was headed on to Los Feliz and Echo Park, but a few of us were pretty beat and decided to head back to the Westside. We rode back, and as we were headed down Wilshire, I was shooting the breeze with a nice young woman, explaining the manifold virtues of the helmet mirror, and talking about how different it was to be riding with a small group, where you have to be EXTRA careful about watching out for stoplights and traffic and whatnot. A few minutes later, she shoots through an intersection and almost gets T-boned by an oncoming police car. The officers get out, talk to her, give her a field sobriety test, she gets a ticket for running a red light, and, after spending a great deal of time and care figuring out how to properly load her bike into their vehicle, drove her home. Could have been a lot worse. (Apparently there were a couple of other tickets for "corking" intersections and running red lights.)
L.A. is the greatest city in the world, and riding around on a bicycle on a summer night is the best way to see it. You get a sense of the topography by pedaling uphill that you just don't get in a car, and a view of the sky and the buildings and the open air that are even better than in a convertible (not that there isn't a lot to be said for convertibles.) Even better, most of urban L.A. is reasonably flat, which is nice, as I probably wouldn't get nearly as far if I were shifting down to the smallest chainring on a regular basis.
All in all, a 99% fun night!
Check the calendars in the links at the right to find out what fun rides are in store for the weeks to come.
(Also, if anyone has any interest in learning to unicycle - Jamey Mossengren at http://uniproshop.com/ has a Torker LX 24" for $109. He's one of the few unicycle dealers in the LA /OC area, and this is one of the best beginner unicycles on the market. Check out his website or give him a call at 612.240.8786. He's a good guy to deal with, and this could be a fun thing to have at one of the party rides.)
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