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since people stopped wearing costumes, started stealing, started shouting insults instead of inside jokes. since drugs replaced art, and alcohol replaced play.
alec responding to a comment by mikeywally
05.22.10 - 2:40 pm
there was a time when every crank mob was more amazing and more magical than the last. then too many new people came with too many hangups, and rather than finding out what it was really about, they saw it as an excuse to act irresponsibly.
there was a time when you could post a ride on this site and only cool and interesting people showed up. those days are gone, at least when it comes to crank mob. now the only way to keep that special atmosphere is to ask everyone to spread it by word-of-mouth only.
because of that, i thought last crank mob was the best one ever.
this isn't your ride to decide if its private or if its not, and to make it your choice is insanely disrespectful. You of all people i would assume would be smarter than to do that.
i dont really know anything about this ride anymore. im sorry if upset you alec that was not my intention. im sure the ride will go off fine without a hitch tonight. i didnt know it was this serious. ill see yall at pier pressure.
Thank you for saying sorry. That word works magic with me. Richie already moved the start point once just because people were implying that crank mob was this weekend, not even telling the start point. I'm sending you the invite on fbook.
alec responding to a comment by mikeywally
05.22.10 - 3:56 pm
so it's not gonna meet there now? what about all the people who arent in the "cool circle" but are still good people and bring no harm to the ride? it's so uninclusive and hard to be a part of it.... i really want to be there but i haven't even got anything on facebook
If you all really want to have a private ride for the cool kids then don't use the internet. You should just call up (don't even text) your chosen few and go for a ride. This top secret stuff is really lame. It's like you're going out of your way to let people know that they are being excluded.
it would just be nice to have a way to know whats going on with the ride and where it will meet because i dont want to ride all the way to a non-existent start point. i just want to add my own blend of F.U.N. to the group. is that too much to ask? i just feel so unincluded in this clique mob. i'm not a hoodster teenager...... most of us here arent
Yeah I have to admit the high schooler attitude of cool kids only is pretty weak. Crank Mob is suppose to be an all inclusive fun paced party ride.
I totally understand that a lot of jerks started showing up on rides which is why ride leaders needed to step up as well and demand people to leave. If you don't want that level of responsibility then don't lead the ride. Since for the most part people are cool they will go along with kicking out the jerks.
I'd rather just ride around LA, Chill out in a park at breaks and have a good time.
I guess I am just pissed because I spent the past two nights sewing in El Wire into my jacket and now there is not Glow Ride. Crank Mob would be an awesome ride to show it off as well.
i totally get what you're saying, and you both seem like nice people, but you point directly at the problem: you wouldn't have known that crank mob was happening if you hadn't heard about it here.
there were just too many people that thought crank mob was about being disrespectful and riding illegally, which it's NOT. if crank mob stays word-of-mouth, then you just have to get to know the people who ARE crank mob, both the ride leaders and the regulars.
that way, new people get a chance to understand what it's really about, so that crank mob can be the cool and awesome animal that it used to be.
if a sympathetic soul wants to text me the meet location and time so that I can come and add to the fun... please do.... three too three too five won nineteen fifty... i'm not a negative addition to the group...
Once im done with my tall bike im be the one leading CrankMob you just watch!!
Joking! But some day I will ride with CRANKmob again!! Till then I will continue risking my life and going to the other rides!!
Hell, I went to pretty much every crank mob since the very first one. I have a wheel full of your spoke cards. I thought I knew exactly what crank mob was about. It was a party where you could come as you are and have an amazing good time for free. I guess I was wrong about that. Anything as fun and free as crank mob was will always attract a certain amount of idiots. That's just the way it is.
Velocipede responding to a comment by tortuga_veloce
05.22.10 - 5:01 pm
you really think it has anything to do with being "cool"? fuck, I feel bad I even brought this ride back. On a positive note this shows how big this community is. That there are circles of friends that don't overlap. It wasn't like that 5 years ago.
fuck this thread.
alec responding to a comment by TheDude
05.22.10 - 5:51 pm
I'm sure the organizers regret that some respectful ridazz (it has nothing to do with being "cool enough" or not) have been excluded from C.R.A.N.K. MOB but that's what happens to rides and events that get overrun by out of control idiots.
This is a beautiful day.
Reminds me of when I got out on the town:
"DO you think I can get in wearing this?"
"If that place does not want you in, we don't want to be in that place."*
*Hope yall see the analogy here.
Its so nice out. Call up your friends and go ride with them. Forget your bike and go surf. There is swell and the moon will be up till late. The water is nice as hell right now.
Go ask a stranger a ramdom question and see where the conversation goes.
Guys its about to be summer and the girls are being super flirtacious. Girls, yall sexy and you know guys love you. Try a new type.
Write a poem about how this is a redux of how you were excluded by the people you admired in high school.
Since you want to keep this ride chuckle head free you should invite the people you have and know will be fun to have on the ride but also invite say 25 new people each ride. Send them email and have them meet you at the start just to say hello and thanks for the invite. If the ride goes off without a hitch then you gained more people that are just down for a good ride and some fun people.
Rebuild Crank Mob only with those who all agree to no Graphitti and no Stealing. And you enforce it by "Mob Rule" to those that don't abide. When that group of punks may have to face 100 other riders they will be less likely to steal or tag.
here's my suggestion: a month before, pass out a chain email giving instructions on how to get on the mailing list. (ie, go on crankmob.com and type this password on a specific day of the week.) then require them to read some agreement that they will fight graffiti, and then answer a stupid quiz to make sure they read it.
then announce the start the morning of crank mob so mikey wally doesnt get a secondhand invitation and fuck it up.
one more thing: saying don't be obsessed with this one thing when people are obsessing about one thing and, oh yeah, here are alternatives to this one thing...
i dont know what it is, but non sequitor is not the word for it.
one more one more thing: what was crazy about it? maybe you thinking it was crazy just shows how appropriate me pointing out alternatives to that one thing.
I was going to this crank mob thing but then I found out about this cool comedy show where the actors from ABC's LOST will be doing bits with comedians at the Upright Citizens Brigade tonight. It's gonna be rad!
http://losangeles.ucbtheatre.com/shows/2383
what i find surprising is that this guy mikey wally must be very cool to have committed an error and still get an invitation... while you have a couple of guys begging to get in...
you guys should head out to this event ... it is free and although crank mob may not invite you... this one is open to you and your friends...
Really, guys? You're going to put something on the Interweb Gossip Machine, aka Facebook, and then act like somebody raped your mom when it gets repeated? Man, if we ever get invaded by Nazis I am TOTALLY not letting you guys into my top secret underground cell of freedom fighters.
I thought I had friends here that would invite me to this kind of thing. That kinda sucks to know that isn't the case anymore. I will keep that in mind.
I feel genuinely left out of something which I have expressed my love for so many times in so many ways and with such a heartfelt passion. This just kinda sucks, but OK.
The one I love doesn't even know I exist, if you catch my analogy.
also on a side note I agree with alec, fuck this thread.... Obviously I am not exactly gonna be missed if nobody cared enough to think of me, so I would hate to show up uninvited and crash your private ride. I would hate to find out about something like that (from a very unwelcome "spill the beans" type of post) and then feel unwelcome when I find out mikeywalley was being a prick.
Why should I care, don't have that long left anyway ...
(this is not a direct response to you alec, i clicked the wrong reply link in retrospect. i have so much love for you, and what you have done, and I understand how much BS is being flung your way right now. That was not my intention with this post, I am just very saddened by this.)
or maybe I m just a big baby.
TheDude responding to a comment by alec
05.23.10 - 1:23 am
honestly you guys should just call it something else so that people aren't all butt hurt about it when they find out.... CRANK MOB the ride as the city of LA and beyond knows it, is a huge open invite celebration. There's no way to uninvite assholes to a ride sensation that big unfortunately.
der waz rida on rida violents at teh augustus 09 crakn mob. one bicyz rida stabbed anuther bicyz rida. teh udder bicyz rida nearly diez - firty dayz in teh eye-cee-you.
This whole thread just makes me cringe. Every part of it, from the people begging to get an invite to the people refusing to divulge the top secret starting point. Honestly it reminds me of that old MTV show, "Sweet 16". There was this one episode were this girl only had a certain amount of invites in a sealed envelope and people at her school were jumping around yelling things like, "Please, please, I have to be there!" Do you remember that episode? That's what Crank Mob has become now and its just so awful. Usually I am good at figuring out solutions but it seems there is none in this case. The original Crank Mob is a memory, and an amazing one at that. The only thing I can think of to potentially recreate the originality of CM is for the first hour of the ride to be "scramble mob". So basically, the meet up spot would be announced, publicly. Then SEVERAL organizers would ride in different directions, bringing along the "good vibers". After stopping at different locations, the entire group would regroup at a new preplanned location, hopefully leaving the thuggish ones behind. Hmmm, this sounds complicated but who knows? It could work.
we shouldn't use the name midnightridazz anymore because some people made it look bad. we should just give up and start over instead of making it how we want it.
larsenf responding to a comment by Roadblock
05.23.10 - 10:57 pm
Just like this entire board is a figment of a reality I created in my mind due to being placed in deep-hibernation on the generational sleeper ship, ThunderPelvis.
Time to wake up, that pesky Lucian Destroyer's about to send us all to our murky graves....
That's not what I'm saying Larsen. Your analogy would be more acurate had you said:
"you shouldn't use the name midnight Ridazz because you are making the ride invite only"
I'm just saying CRANK MOB was such a huge
phenomenon. so many people contributed to it and felt a part of it, that to make it invite only is going to hurt the legions of peoples feelings who felt a part of it. So why not just retire the name for now and create an invite only ride with the same
organizers.
Then you won't half to worry about people
crashing it....
Roadblock responding to a comment by larsenf
05.24.10 - 12:45 am
CRANK MOB was always about trying new things, and this is just one more example.
CRANK MOB has gone all the way from being the biggest ride in LA to one of the smallest, and it's still going on. what other rides can say that?
as to Roadblock's comment, CRANK MOB doesn't have to be about being a huge open-invite party, just like you can hold a barbeque at your house and call it the "wolfpack barbeque" and only invite the people you know.
and yeah, people got butt-hurt, but one thing that made me happy about last night that nobody got hurt for real.
CRANK MOB was always about trying new things, and this is just one more example.
CRANK MOB has gone all the way from being the biggest ride in LA to one of the smallest, and it's still going on. what other rides can say that?
as to Roadblock's comment, CRANK MOB doesn't have to be about being a huge open-invite party, just like you can hold a barbeque at your house and call it the "wolfpack barbeque" and only invite the people you know.
and yeah, people got butt-hurt, but one thing that made me happy about last night that nobody got hurt for real.
@ Foldie....I wasn't on the ride....just picking up Matt from the rabbit hole to go to polo and they were taking off to go to Pier Pressure and I had my camera with me...
You are invited to a ride where you don't have to be judged worthy of attending. Please join us at the FMLY ride, in a couple of weeks. June 5th, see posting on the side here---->more fun than this other ride, and we are nicer too! Look me up, I will introduce you to a bunch of people as well. Welcome!
people complained when people started using facebook to organize rides instead of midnightridazz now people are complaining that we are using old fashioned word of mouth. its not invite only you just have to have been told or asked someone. if the dude asked me if crank mob was still not happening i would tell him.
It only takes two phone calls to find out where they meet. IMO this was one of the best crank mob rides I ever went on and since there was only 30-50 people there it was problem free and lots of fun.
when a fancy fashion designer wants to have other lines that are on a different tier than their primary line they just do a little re-branding. ie. DOLCE & GABANA might become D&G or Muy Dolce or DOL'n'GAB whatever ...
maybe some subtle re-branding is what's in order so people who were once a part of the all inclusive C.R.A.N.K. MOB™ won't be mistaken when they didn't find out about it.
I recommend something that rings of the original but evokes the more boutique quality of the new ride.
or you can just say fuck the complainers.
and just keep doing it however the fuck you like.
We cleaned up the paper then used it as kindling to burn down some nearby buildings.
I keed. Of course we cleaned up! That was the upside to keeping attendance down, the lack of general hooliganism. And of course there was a bunch of bike riding, I just try to minimize the time I spend riding my bike with no hands and an alcohol buzz while operating a camera :)
I'm glad it was my first. I thought it was perfect. And I think we rode for quite a bit but not knowing the westside I was lost the entire time so I have no idea what streets we rode except for Gateway/Pico, and Colorado to the pier. And the ride continued after we left at 4am so there was plenty more riding, hell, I think a sizable group is still riding as we speak.
I don't get whats so hard to understand about this...
It's NOT an invite only ride. It's a WORD OF MOUTH only ride!
Don't like it? Tough shit.
There's nothing i'd like more than for another ride to come along and show the majority of LA bikers how to have fun and respect the public while being SAFE!! The same people who go to CRANK MOB show up to PIER PRESSURE and no one is begging to get the invite to that public ride. Why does CRANK MOB give you an excuse to have more fun than on ANY OTHER RIDE OUT THERE!?!?!?!?!
We can all have fun. Forever. Cmob has nothing to do with it.
fun has to do with being around cool people that you know and are like-minded, so no surprise that word-of-mouth promo leads to fun and good times, people will know eachother
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Ridazz Roulette!
That settles it. I'm not coming now.
tyler....you've been on more than a few crank mobs...why so much hostility?
Do go to a ride if you aren't invited.
