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matt, it's about bringing the framework for the ride there and hoping for the best.... If it wasn't done this way, it would be led to a liquor store headed towards vermont and hollywood shortly after the start of the ride.
I dunno but the past months have been led, and so what? Its ok if people follow somebody its not like the C-MASS cops are gonna show up and tell us we're fuckin up. I'd love to lead a leg of this in friday
The 7pm start time was called a couple of days after the last LACM ride.
And the only reason this is being done is to bring back the dynamics of how this ride is suppose to be done. No leaders, no route, no time limits, and no part of the city too far to travel.
I remember when it was leaderless, routeless and without destination.
It was fun!!
I remember one time we were riding west on Olympic, and up in front with everyone following was EddieBoy. This is like one of the first times I met him, and I asked where he was going, and he says "I don't know, just ridin; I hope people aren't following me." LoL....I think we road to Westwood/Culver City just following Eddie.
I usually boycott LACm because something ALWAYS goes wrong. But Meh. I'm Leading you urban youth. Monster style. Which means I'll scream at you, if I want to.
My good experiences of CM has been when it was "leaderless",
However, that term is sort of deceptive, because there is always going to be someone who is in front who makes a decision or develops a spontaneous idea and the group follows. The point is not to have a planned idea...
To me its kind of like riding in a flock of birds, you just tend to naturally know where to go. A preconceived notion of where to ride is not the old school I am talking about. Perhaps that is more old school than I have experienced.
I feel that people have the ability to work together as a whole. When somebody's ego gets too big and they want to hijack, then it changes the flow. Get back to just riding and going with the flow.
not to dredge up last month....but the ride should be the polar opposite of last month...which was ride to bogey's (45 minutes stop)...ride to griffith park...ride to peoples ride....
the "route" was set beforehand and someone who knew the route was riding just a tad bit faster than everyone else so it was virtually impossible to change it unless you wanted a confrontation which is lame in itself.......
Vibes are always different in any group. You sort of feel each other out and then you just go in a direction that seems to flow. Its not about a raise of hands who wants to go where. It's about taking turns and sharing in following and fronting the ride. It's almost Zen-like when it is working, and in my opinion, the most fun.
Not knowing where the next place is going to be is fun.
Not having expectations except to ride and to see other non riders get excited about it is fun.
I strongly advise on having stops for the ride. This is usually a lot of peoples first ride and who wants a persons first ride to be exhausting and frustrating? I don't care where the stop is, I'm actually for not having liquor store stops but we really should have elongated regroup stops.
I'll be there. I stopped going when the start time moved and the ride was just a pre-quel to the people's ride. It's really good to know that there are other people who were disappointed with that dynamic. Raquel, get your 94.7 smooth jazz ass to LACM.
I'm riding critical mass until it's time to go see Mike Watt at Spaceland. Old school critical mass, old school punk rock. That's how I roll.
I don't feel like this ride should be obligated to meet up with the peoples ride. I usually leave before or in the beginning of the peoples ride, usually by then everything is a drunk mess & and the vibe of the whole thing is really weird and off putting.
Might I also encourage that we try to embrace some of the same ideals of "Critical Manners", in which riders focus on communication and civility between motorists instead of inviting confrontation.
I'm excited to ride LACM again.
I hope to see it become a fun, safe, and motivational symbol of bicycles on the streets.
OK boys and girls, the noise maker has been confirmed. BBD will be bringing the F.U.N. box.
Alex, Dan doesn't have your number. Can you email me your number so he can call you? He said to be there at the start at 6pm so he can put the hitch on your trailer. Get back to me asap so we can all get on the same page.
i'm just not clear on what happens if somebody gets a flat and they get left behind trying to fix their shit and they lose the group?
that would suck to be left in the middle of LA when there is a huge bicycling group riding around and you are all alone and don't know where to go anymore. :-/
yell out "flat" and someone will stay back and assist...most likely....bring an extra tube, levers, a hand pump, and whatever tools you may need for a repair.
-wrench (if you dont have quick release wheels)
-tire levers (for prying off the tires)
-spare tube (at least one)
-patch kit (in case you only brought one tube)
-pump or CO2 cartridge (because being prepared is punk rock.)
-front and back lights (because whats the point of changing a tire if youre going to get run over on your way home?)
I yelled out flat before and it never works! i always get left behind waahh! never again!
I still think a bike-trailer with several, different tire/tubed wheels stowed away would be a good idea.
Basically, just use some "not so high-end" ones to quickly throw onto a disabled ridazz bike to ensure they're able to make it to the next stop point for the repair of their own wheel/tire/tube.
It would be great if Tallcans Alex leads this ride.
As Allen is always fond of reminding us....there are rules to Critical mass. The main one is...."we are traffic." As a rule this ride should always endeavor to remain in traffic congested areas. Exerting our rights to the road, etc, etc.
Riding to desolate areas without traffic just isn't a Critical Mass and we do that with so many other Eastside rides.
As far as the stragglers and flat tires. Stillline, Eddieboy or a slew of other conscientious and helpful riders usually stop and give aid.
As long as the ride isn't fast and furious, and the regroup stops are spaced out evenly.
Those that are worried about getting dropped. This is a chilled ride, not a hustle. We stay grouped for safety. Just bring a working bike and make sure the tires are pumped up, not just you!
If this is your first CM ride, then what's up with calling out the route Antranik?
I mean any ride that I'm doing, I would want to lay back and get a feel for it. Know what I mean? Unless you just signed on with a fake account and have been around awhile.
I'm just saying if you are trying to show people what a "Real" CM is then why not include some of the people who don't read the threads and are not aware of the new start time.
We got these modern conviences called cellphones. We plan on putting them to use. If you know someone that has one of these modern contraptions and is starting at 7:30, maybe they can call one of us?
I know this isn't the only place LACM is posted....but at the very least, the people that read this thread or last months LACM thread should be ready to ride at 7pm.. if anyone hangs around for 7:30 arrivals, they can grab someones number if they wanna join in the fun.....who knows....the 7pm crew may happen to ride right past the start point at 7:30....
You don't think there will be one person there that's waiting for people at 7:30? I'm betting there will be at least one there. If not, we'll leave a message written on the sidewalk in chalk. Or the lady selling tamalli can give a messge, or we can send a police unit over and let them know what's up, or we can have them start there own and run into them by chance or we can fan out our ride and go looking for them and make up a new name for the ride or maybe we can
i just made a website that will update you on the location of the critical mass if you happen to arrive late and don't know where to go... or get a flat tire and lag and get lost...
it just involves my twitter account that can be setup to send a text to your cell phone.. follow the directions on the site i just made here...
Plenty of people on the ride have hand pumps. As long as you have a tube that fits your wheel you will be fine. If you have no tube, me and a bunch of other people have patch kits which work for most flats as long as you don't have some huge ass hole in your tire or something.
If you ride in traffic alone you really should have lights. However the cops that we usually run into on LACM don't give bikelight tickets very often if at all. So you should be okay with no lights this time but get them as soon as possible.
If this ride were in Santa Monica or Long Biatch you would stand a high chance of getting a ticket.
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Ridazz Roulette!
Might I also encourage that we try to embrace some of the same ideals of "Critical Manners", in which riders focus on communication and civility between motorists instead of inviting confrontation.
I'll show you a teabag, Wimp1.
"What if a bunch of people need to poop?"