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15% discount on THAI FOOD
Thread started by JayBunk at 08.6.07 - 6:50 pm
hi,
I just want to let everyone know that i'm a manager at a Thai restaurant call YAI's on Vermont (next door to Rite Aid) If anyone want to have a diner or quick grub befor the ride just come in and mention that u r with Midnight Ridazz and i'll give everyone 15% discount...................................................JAY
Anyone want to go test the route with me tonight? I'm thinking about leaving around 7ish from Rite Aid tonight but that's not definite. If you're interested email me.
Also I need some ride leaders and help with the spoke cards. Let me know if you're interested.
a few of us from san diego are coming up early in the day to ride LA before the clown ride. we are planning a ride thru hollywood to the south bay bicycle trail. if any of you LA kids wanna join us post it up and we'll organize a meeting spot. peace, bernie
I would love to SD, but its DrumCore Finals. Sorry this only happens in LA once every like 50years. I hope you all who can, show them some serious bike love hospitality while they are here.
As for the ride, brassknuckles and any one else that can do some juggling or any other tricks, now is your chance to do a little act while corking. I'll bring my juggling pins. Courage, do you know fire tricks you can do while we cork.? Anybody else??????
I'm send a email to Fuzzbeast to make some signs. I was thinking of some signs like they do in SF. "Thanks for your patience", and then on the other side when they start honking. "honk if you love bicycles"
I was thinking "honk if you love clowns" now is the perfect time to kiss your love one". So if you got the ability make a sign to hold up while we cork, do so. Be creative as you please. This could end up being really fun.
Also i need some help leading the ride. Any volunteers to ride up front and keep the pace down so the group can stay together? You'll get an extra big spoke card.
Email me if you're interested (email address is in my profile)
Great ride everyone. Loved the clown outfits. Is it me.. or did a lot of people eat it on this ride? I personally saw at least 4-5 crashes and I hope that dude w/ the guitar case is alright.
I just left the emergency room with my friend who had 4 stitches put in her chin after taking a nasty faceplant on Hoover. Thankfully, she's okay.
I spoke to a friend of mine who said 4 people were hit by cars tonight as well and at least one was seriously injured... This ride had a pretty aggro vibe tonight and people were blasting through big intersections with no corking.
I think I'm done with the monster rides for a while. Badger Song and Cubscouts here I come... (and hopefully the Dark Metric tomorrow night...)
While I was at Cedars, I saw 2 episodes of the original Star Trek and 2 Andy Griffith Show episodes. As bad as Shatner's acting is now it's gotten WAY better, trust me. Viva Nick at Nite!
I enjoyed the freakshow but always hate to hear of so many crashes/bad vibes. With such a large mix the odds are (sadly) that people are gonna go down and act funky.
The injured rider I saw on Washington and LaBrea seemed to be a corker who was hit by an impatient driver. He was laying motionless on the ground and there was a pool of blood behind his head. Very scary. By the time the ambulance arrived a few minutes later he had regained consciousness and was yelling at the cops and the paramedics so he seemed to be much better.
Man Down! Man Down!
A car rear ended me on La Brea/Crenshaw after I corked that intersection. Contusion to my left thigh. Thank you all that helped me with getting things taken care of...THANKS THANKS THANKS!!!! Worse of all for me was the cops almost blaming me because they thought the Ridazz were a bad bunch. F' em.
highlight of the evening was riding down vermont and seeing a clown corking a mini-van with mom inside that had wandered into the stream of Ridazz. the clown was performing for the captive audience of one. L O L!! I have perverted empathy for that poor lady's tortured evening. Let me tell you the clown looked creepy and the performance was very obviously un-rehearsed, in fact it was downright terrible clown mime acting if you dare call it that. Yet it was brilliant, so very brilliantly hideous. I mean it was so bad it was beyond that first "so bad it was good" stage and headed directly for a public access clown horror comedy shot on used VHS tape. I could not stop laughing at the absurd vision of the dancing clown with the headlights of the car providing that perfect carnival creep underface lighting making this horrifyingly bad clown act that much more evil and pure fucking diabolically genius. that driver will have stories to tell for at least the rest of the weekend. and nightmares possibly into monday. absolutely brilliant work mr. Creepy clown whom ever thy be.
;)
Wow, I had no idea there were so many accidents...I am going to assume the accidents were with some of the stragglers? I was riding mid pack and didnt see anything happen to the people up front.
Yah i HATE to see people go down. I hope all that went down are okay. It's important to review the rules of the road. but it's hard when there are that many ridazz. I was riding towards the front and middle of the pack and didn't see anything major.
What fun!!! My first midnight ride - work prevents me attending some of them. Sorry to see the few go down, gotta watch the road. Loved the bloke with the super loud stereo---rock on! I'll have to get some of my other brit friends to add to the numbers.
Thanks Howard from Athena Bicycles for turning me on!!
Hey you stupid fuckers who think it's cool to use the ride to stop and tag up bus stops and mail boxes and shit. You're a fucking disgrace and I seriously hope you get fucked up for your actions. Fuck you!
My first MR ride toos
The coolest thing was to look back as we were approaching Wilshire going down Vermont and see the endless amount of blinking lights. That was awesome. It looked like a long field full of fireflies. Despite the accidents and the dangers, its really so exciting to see such a huge amount of people gathered for something like riding bikes.
Cheers!
PS: check out the meteor shower tomorrow after midnite
Only my 4th ride, but there were indeed alot of crashes. I was riding midish/frontish pack and saw at least 4 crashes. None of the ones I saw were very serious, but all the action kept me on my toes.
Oh and props to the flatland freestylers that came out and put on the show in the parking lot at one of the stops, it was totally radical!
With all the corkers in each intersection, it seemed somehow rude (to the corkers) to not run the redlights.
But my experience at last months Santa Monica Crit Mass showed me how effectively stopping for redlights and stop signs will break up the group. This was bad for a ride like the Mass, with no published route, but the MDR rides do occasionally make the route known beforehand.
Anyway, I don't think there's really any way that you can get a group this large to stop corking and wait for lights and signs. Besides I don't think the noobs read this website anyway, based on the questions about the ride I got, pre-ride, while milling around in the Rite-Aid lot.
the ride must stop when it approaches a red light. this serves two purposes, it doesnt interfere with already flowing traffic which always runs the risk of causing accidents. and it give the group a chance to "dense-up" as the front essentially waits for the back. stopping at red lights and anticipating red lights to stop at is so important. The policeman I spoke to last time told us we could roll through the lights if we have already entered on the green. but we are not to run already red lights. it's really that simple. its not a race.
i agree with roadblack and was a bit confused last night when this wasn't the case - front of the ride last night was very fast paced and I saw a couple times where folks at the front just jammed wedged a path through an otherwise seemingly intersection before going. hellz yeah its had to be pretty fun, but not exactly helpful...
exactly as rb said, this lets us "mass up" before proceeding, and keeps the pace a bit more reasonable for everyone.
whether that contributed to any of the spills last night, i don't know, but I did see more last night than on any other ride i've been on - I hope folks recover and come back next month! because last night was really a lot of fun!
Last night was my first ride with The Ridazz and after chatting with several other riders I was amazed how many were also on theirfirst MR ride. With this in mind maybe the organizers could give out a few instructions over a horn or something. Lets face it when you have a ride on that scale things are going to get out of hand. I saw one potential fight with a 'corker' at a stop sign. I waited in case a bit of water was needed on the fire. Lets not be confrontational or our dearly beloved police will end it all like so many other fun things!!!!
Roadblock this, Roadblock that, we shouldn't run lights, corking this, the police told me that. I think the important thing about corking is that clown that Wink Martindale talked about. Do you not see how important it is in the way you cork an intersection, not if you should or shouldn't cork the intersection. Its the quality of the cork that is important. Did the drivers that you stopped from proceeding, when they felt that the traffic signal gave them the right away, have fun or at least a memorable experience while having to wait for the ridazz to pass?
Corking works when you have maybe 100 riders or less. When you have people sitting for multiple lights it becomes dangerous; you cannot safely cork the intersection of Santa Monica Blvd and Western for 8-10 at on a Friday night.
You cannot continually bemoan the fact that everybody drives everywhere and doesn't respect bicyclists rights and then go pull this shit. I've seen people come up and ask about the ride only to be met with put downs.
I was in the front of the ride for a bit last night and when the ride rolled up on some cars at a red light a few guys blocked them off so they would get stuck in the group. Now you had pissed off drivers (who weren't bothering anybody) and newb ridazz trying to dodge them. Totally unnecessary. You want to be an asshole? Start your own ride and stop fucking with ours.
If someone tries to run you off the road, hey, grab your U lock, but in the meantime, why don't we avoid TRYING to make enemies of people we'd like to attract to our way of life? It's interesting to see Roadblock attacked by someone who hasn't done anything for the Midnight Ridazz. Bike riding is losing its cool factor anyway; go grab your rollerblades out of the closet - I hear all the cool people are doing it...
You are responsible for YOU, when YOU ride. If you don't understand the basics of riding in heavy traffic (let alone on the street), perhaps (and maybe I'm going out on a limb here) you should review the Bicycle Safety documentation located in the upper left hand quadrant of your screen. I'm not trying to be a dick here, but the reality is that NO ONE will hold you hand through this. Now stop being a lazy American and assume some responsibility for a change. I'm not here to shit on the new people (I love seeing new faces) but you all have to realize that the spontaneity coupled with the DIY ethos of these rides means that you have to at least come somewhat prepared. Which means you should, at the very least, understand how to ride your bicycle. If your ride breaks down or you eat some serious shit, you can be sure that we'll stop to help in any way. But we're no ones babysitters, that's for sure. At least not me.
To the people in the front of the pack rocking their bullshit maschimo "I'm faster than the pack and I need to show everyone" attitude; why do you even come out? I must have asked half of you to NOT run red lights and to wait for the pack to regroup and you simply ignored me numerous times. What gives? How many times do we need to "remind" you that this is not a race? I was asked to keep the front pace down by the guy who made the route (and I've been doing it more often than not at rides lately) but it just does not seem to be working. If anyone who is guilty of this can just explain the rationale behind their actions I am willing to hear what you have to say.
That being said, I think that ride was just an example of one where a lot of weird/bad things went down. Certainly that is not the normal vibe of the ride, and it was more a fluke than an issue of our actions, in my opinion.
So, that being said, assume some responsibility for yourself, people in the front slow the hell down and stop running lights, and to the people who were involved in "incidents" last night I hope you make a quick recovery.
I noticed a few people that, when drivers asked what it was we are doing they gave a snotty answer rather than just simply answering the question nicely and inviting the person to join us..... that is the pivotal moment for when a person feels excluded or included and snotty answers most definitely make people feel excluded..... sucks that it happens not sure how to influence those that simply dont care enough about our ride...
hipster has a point, the quality of the cork could make all the difference too... Sexy wandering around in a clown suit was about the funniest thing I've seen on the ride ever. hahahah I wake up in cold sweats laughing uncontrollably about his antics. if we had clown corkers for every ride that would be killer!
there are so many things to consider when conducting these rides and its so easy for a few ill willed people to ruin it for everyone. what can ya do....
I always use the, "what is this" question, as way to challenge myself to a witty answer. I by no means was trying to cut anyone down. I was having fun with my responses. With this issue being raised, what is the most proper response to "what is this"?
What I always thought it was. is a celebration for bicycle commuters. A party for al of those that ride by themselves all week, to get together with other commuters, and ride together in a festive atmosphere. I know this is't the case anymore, so many people take there cars to the rides. I can understand this with people from Ojai, or somewhere over 20 miles away. Anyways I'm starting to get pissy. So answer, what is the proper response to what we are doing?
The ride was fun, but I knew shit was geting out of hand when the people at the front of the pack made a wrong. If you want or are riding the front of the pack, you better make sure you are paying attention to the route...the logistics of turning around 200 plus people makes things unsafe.
Sorry Richard but i feel you 50/50 on that one. A wrong turn isn't a a sign that the ride is out of hand, the ride can always get back on course with a few extra turns. As far as safety goes, i think the only thing that really jeopordizes that would be the manner in which the ride is turned around...whether it be a u-turn in the middle of the street, or go around the block. Either way, as long as everyone in the ride has the same goal of fun and considers everyone else around them, everything should go perfectly well.
the proper answer is something like what you already said Sexy.... we're just having a fun ride on bicycles or to celebrate commuter biking, et al, join us. those two words " join us" are so important. it gives the indication that we arent here to disrupt or protest your car driving we're here to have a party and all are invited. wipes away the "us vs. them" perception pretty darn quick.... and people do want to come out and ride. and so what if they drive 2 blocks to get to the start. I used to drive to the start for more than a year just because I was working late and could never get it together in time to ride over..... it takes time for a driver to let go of their car... change comes at different speeds.......
and talking to the cops might not seem "cool" or anarchist enough for some people but cops are people too and if ya just give them a chance and talk to them and be up front they arent so bad. aonce they realize we arent in this to cause problems they warm up to you too (sometimes) and even sometimes feel inspired to help us through which lets the rest of the community know that we maybe arent a bunch of asshole hipster hippy hipster fucks
yeah we should get Big Bike Dan a sign that says PACE BIKE. or soemthing like that. then let the "fast guys" in front who are all "why are we waiting?!" go ahead on their own ride. but man they are fast! they showed all the bmx and beach cruisers whaat uuup. vroom.
but yeah people are going to be angry, i like the idea of having corking clowns, hahahaha that'd be rad. and seriously who would mess with a clown? that's like nightmare material.
yeah, RODEO CLOWNZZ!!
i had a lot of fun corking this ride actually. i agree a fine quality cork makes all the difference. I made one guy go from completely pissed at us to wanting to give me a hug. I wanted to throw out the "Join us" theme but he had a handicap placard. Anyhoo, anyone else want to Rodeo Clown the next one??
also the guy that got the ambulance treatment was not with us, he was a vagrant. and i hate to say it but it was his fault. he was moving pretty fast on the wrong side's sidewalk through a red. oops! yea it was pretty bad though and i hope he gets better.
I drive a car. Because I live in LA, and my clients are all over the county. so yeah, i have to drive because I can't carry computers and tools in my book bag. But, yeah, sorry off topic. Here is what I'm getting to. Most of us drive, we all know what it's like to drive and what it is like to sit in traffic. Seeing a ped or a bike beat you to a location can and would drive you nuts. If you're on a leisurely drive, going to a party with a bunch of friends and you all had a couple beers before you go, you would possibly see corkers and the mass of bikes as kind of cool, like a parade. But if you are coming back from a party, and struck out with all the hotties, and you just want to get home. you'd want these fuckers to get out of you way. So what do you do? What do you say? No matter what you say or what you do, you can not predict the mentality or the mood of those in the car. That's the best thing to keep in mind. Sexy is good at reading people and responding appropriately, to strangers especially. Not everyone has that gift, and not everyone is witty and funny. I for one am a smart ass, and if I'm riding and they yell "What is this"? I say Midnight Ridazz. Simple & Direct. When someone yells, "Where are you going?" My first response is always "That way". It gets a chuckle from other riders, and the motorist or ped is always confused. Most of the time they probably couldn't understand a word I say. It's probably a combination of the Doppler effect and beer induced slurring.
Despite all the crashes, i had a great time. a good hour was spent alone, hustling down 6th to Good Sams, where one of my homies was taken after a big spill (he's ok, broken arm). I still managed to make it to the end, and clowns were still there!
for those that go too fast, and want to ride it like a race or a hustle.
On the Wes Anderson ride, I told those tha wanted to go fast about the Wolfpack ride and they where all like, "when and where" I want to go to that ride. If people are on their first midnight ridazz ride, how would you expect them to know about these other rides
May I suggest that those who organize those rides make a flyer for those people in the front who want to go super fast on these rides.
Tern, Richie, whoever for the wolfpack, how about making a flyer for all three of the rides on one sheet. You want to go real fast come to the Wolfpack, this night, time and location. or if your in this area come to Badger Song, this night, time and location or if you think you are really cool, and better then everybody else because you live on the west side. Come to the Cub Camp and eat steaks instead with forks instead of hot dogs with dildos.
Big Bike Dan has always lead the pace. Not everyone knows that. I hate rules, but I kind of have built in logic and common sense, so simple things don't have to be told to me like "Don't Run Red Lights" "Ride Predictably (aka hold your line)". But I think a couple simple rules can be announced at the beginning and reminded at the stops.
1. This is not a race! BBDan leads the pace.
2. Hold your line.
3. CLEAN UP YOUR FUCKING TRASH YOU FUCKING PIGS!
I think it's becoming more and more obvious that before riding out, something need to be announced to the group...especially since so many new people are joining.
With that said, I am definitely new myself as I've only been on 5 rides total...but I "get it" and understand there are rules, a culture and trends...so I tread lightly. Assimilation is my key, but that's not the way other people are...
I will definitely change my answers to how I respond to inquiries from drivers and peds, now that I've read some good points here on the board.
"ATTENTION SCUMBAGS, WE ARE ABOUT TO RIDE OUR FUCKING BICYCLES. THANK YOU!"
Here's a better idea....if you don't know, ask! It's simple. That and follow the lead of others. You can pretty much figure out what the deal is by observing. The main thing (in my opinion) is that the more rules and BS prep. work we do beforehand, the less fun this whole thing will become.
We are gently teetering on the paradigm between complete spontaneity and quasi-organization. Let's keep it that way. If you want something more 'organized' (read: controlled [read: boring]) perhaps you need to check out some of the more tame riding clubs out there. You know, the ones that require dues, helmets, waivers and all other things that make cycling fun.
But don't ask me, I'm just another asshole kid on a bike.
my first midnight ridazz was the pajama ride last year. before the start, a small asian woman stood on the roof of a nearby suv and started yelling at everyone to obey the reds and this, that, and the other. i think people obeyed those rules for a good five minutes.
The scale of this ride did change things a bit, however, not enough that it should have been handled differently. And as for the U turn, it was actually pretty fucking awesome (We should do it again).
I actually think a small announcement at the beginning of the ride like "We're leaving now" and maybe something like "keep the pace reasonable this is not a race" maybe with the suggestion to follow BBD might be a good idea. I spent nearly a mile and a half sprinting my brains out to get near the front of the pack on friday just to tell them to slow down a bit because we had become quite stretched out. It's not a rule, it's not organization, it's just a reminder to use common sense. However, the other thing I have been noticing, many of the "fast" riders are actually riding at a somewhat comfortable pace, the difference in people's natural paces just begin to prevail themselves after a few miles, as well as the clot of bicycles in front.
As to some of the crashes, it seemed that some were from inexperienced riders not maintaining their line, especially the girl who rear ended the parked car, some were from poor road maintenance (something that seems to be claiming more and more cyclists), and some were from other causes, however, form the many reports I did hear, the dude who cracked his skull open was not with us.
I think that on a street where we have 3 lanes to work with we might see fewer confrontations with motorists if we kept the far left lane available for cars. Taking over the streets is a blast but if we want to minimize trouble with cars and cops a little courtesy goes a long way.
me and Kyber had a hell of a time trying to slow the pace down. we were riding out in front to "keep the pace down". but people don't really wanna listen and it was hard to get everyone to stop at that one intersection on Vermont for 2 light cycles.
"I think that on a street where we have 3 lanes to work with we might see fewer confrontations with motorists if we kept the far left lane available for cars. Taking over the streets is a blast but if we want to minimize trouble with cars and cops a little courtesy goes a long way."
ditto that. There's no reason to be a dick and block the left-most lane if you don't need to. I was shouting "car back" to riders who would look back and stay in the lane blocking cars. Unnecesary.
I've been doing Ridazz for 2 years and the sight of cyclists wanting to instigate shit with drivers makes me not want to come back. Sucks.
I've corked many an intersection and always politely explain to the driver what's going on, smile, wave, say 'thanks', etc. Might sound lame to you 'core riders, but that will help keep this ride hassle-free.
But, dude, I forgot to be a punk rocker when I was in high school so Midnight Ridazz is where I get my rebellion out of my system. Fuck you, car drivers. I am going to taunt you and torment you until the very end of the ride, whereupon I will load my bike back in the car and drive home. I am so badassed! Grrrrr!
Near the end I thought I had worked my way to the front of the group.
For over a few miles I thought I was in front. Then we made it to the last stop. There I saw an awful lot of us had made it there first.
I think some sort of organization is needed.
I''m glad my idea of following BBD is getting a good response.
Poor Dan. It's not enough that he hauls that trailer for us, night after long hilly night. Now he has to have the responsibility of being the ride leader and pace guy. Are we at least going to give him a good benefits package for all the work he's doing? 401(k)? Gold watch at retirement? Virgins to peel grapes for him in paradise?
If I hear one more post saying that "Someone should organize these better" I'm gonna shit. Seriously, maybe you should try to plan the route, make cards, and keep retards all in line during a massive ride. People put a lot of time and energy into these things and then have to hear about people getting hurt and others complaining about how "somebody should have done this" or "somebody should have done that..."
Then next time you go on a ride, try and remember that someone is going out of their way to make it happen, you might have even road right passed him/her as they corked traffic and got hassled by drivers just so you could wizz your drunk ass by.
Maybe you could post up a "thank you" instead of some aimless rant about how you are the shit. This goes for all rides.
Take some responsibility on these rides. Follow the simple fucking rules of the road. People are starting to feel invincible and that's when someone is gonna get killed.
It's not really responsibility. I've noticed that on nearly every ride no one leaves until he does anyway. Most of the time he's either near or in the front of the group anyhow.
It's only a suggestion out of observation of what seems to be taking place anyhow. I think it's a possible solution to some minor issues, plus something like that would give the group a bit more structure.
I would have no problems buying his beer for the night.
Anyway, the point I was trying to make underneath that smartassery was that Dan is only human, he makes wrong turns like anybody else, and so trying to make him into the ride leader / camp counselor / pied piper guy is probably not such a hot idea. Unless he actually planned the route (or is willing to memorize it at every ride, which is not a job I remember him ever asking for), he is not necessarily going to know the route any better than anybody else. Dan as the de facto pace-setter? Sure. Dan as the guy to expect to know every turn and twist? Not so much.
No, but really, he is right. Dan put a lot of effort into this and even revamped the route to make it better, and all we have here is a million people complaining about shit. He even had a handful of ride leaders (myself included) who attempted to subdue the front, but it didn't work too well.
The reality is that there is no easy way to control 1000 people. We can try, and it does work to varying degrees, but frankly, there will always be that douchebag who is too cool for school and simply doesn't want to exude a single ounce of conformity for fear of not looking tuff anymore. To you, I don't know what to say. A lot of the feel and dynamics of our ride can be summed up simply by crowd psychology, which, for example, very easily explains why certain people take it upon themselves to become aggressive with drivers for no reason at all.
All that aside, everyone gather around for your official MR review, in which you will be given a rank and a super badass badge which gives you the right to be even oh-so-more-awesomer than the guy next to you. I think some of you are really missing the point. We don't need more structure. There is no structure. That's what makes this a beautiful thing. It's the complete LACK of structure that you are observing that leads to the giant smile on your face. However, what we do need is people to work with us, not against us during the rides. Just go with the flow. Hang me for nitpicking on the semantics here, but once you start throwing around words like 'structure' you really have to understand the implications of the word, because it always implies some kind of social hierarchy (when refering to a social gathering), and that is certainly NOT what we're about.
Have you had enough of my psychobabble, or should I continue?
Just for clarity sake, some posts are referring to me (brassknuckle = Dan) and some posts are referring to Big Bike Dan. We are different people. Even i'm getting confused.
Since kyber is putting it out there about me putting the ride together i just want to say that these rides are rarely put on by one person. At least none of the rides i've put together have been done by me alone. For this ride i had a lot of help. Bootlegger, Mr. Rollers, Joe Borfo, Richard_Colossus, Rev Dak, and a bunch of people who I talked to at the ride who agreed to help try to keep the pace down and the group together (off the top of my head, Kyber, T. Bone, Samhain, Sexy, and probably some others). I just want to say thank you to all of them.
I understand that Joe Borfo, however with so many new people at these things maybe some thing should just be stated before the ride starts. I know he makes mistakes PC. We all do and it's expected. Personally I think it adds to the fun. What I see happening is that with 1000 plus ridazz, only about 50 of them or so know who the ride leaders are. So what I'm saying kyber is that there should just be something set in place so that everyone knows what's going on. I know that the goal is not to have some form of social hierarchy. On the same note we don't want complete chaos and anarchy. I think it's a pretty fair argument when it comes to things like property damage, or using rides to go aggro on motorists or intensionally trap motorists in bicycle traffic. The last thing we want is to have the police against us and try to shut the rides down. If enough motorists complain, the city will take notice and nothing positive could possibly come of that.
I never implied poor planning and organization leetard. I think all the corks (myself included) did a great job. I think you are totally right. People work hard pulling these things together and it's pretty unfair that all they get out of it is grief.
My whole point was just some general ideas to help some of the minor issues get resolved. As for the injuries on the ride, it's more the ridazz fault than the group or organizers. lesser experienced riders should pay better attention to their surroundings while riding in groups. I have a strong feeling that alcohol played a strong part in some of the mishaps. That's their own fault. No one else is responsible.
Personally, I had a great time. Since I first started going to these rides It's been the highlight of the month for me. I'm relatively new, and I love being involved.
Ill be the 0.5 %. I almost died once, but it was in the valley. Those rides always seem to have more drink stops.
I thought this was an excellent ride minus the crashes which were the reason behind my own accident. Since then i've been a tad more cautious... sorry for the car analogy, but just like when your rolling on the freeway you keep an eye out for other idiots and ya don't swerve mindlessly without paying attention. Organized Chaos... Works every time...
Look, I'm a noobie mother fucker as they come. The last thing I need to do is be preaching to the fixed gear choir....but, here's my take.
The last thing these rides need is some sort of "structure" that is going to take the "spur of the moment" fun out of the rides. But since, to me, personally, it seems as though there are all sorts of new heads riding, maybe some sort of announcement at the beginning could help things.
While, kyber is right, that 99.5 percent incident free is good, the last thing I would ever want is that .5 percent to be a death. I mean, I saw cats running reds with no sense of corkdom on Friday night...
And just for the record...I got hands on experience on Friday evening just listening to the likes of brassknuckle, Mr. Rollers and Joe Borfo and what it takes to set up one of these rides. Gained a bit of respect for these dudes and everything they put into it. I just wanted to throw that out there just so I don't come off ungrateful or anything...
Not if the .5% incident is somebody becoming grille candy for some SUV... If this gets out of control and some newbie gets killed, it's going to be open season on ALL cyclists.
The interesting thing is that this thread is almost entirely made up of people who contribute to Midnight Ridazz; it seems we agree on what we should do, the issue seems to be effectively communicating the message. I like the idea of Borfo (or whomever) using the Megaphone to give a quick explanation at the begining of the ride. We might make some fliers that outlline the basics:
Please don't fucking litter
Please don't attack motorists
Please leave the left lane available for cars in order to cut down on incidents.
I'm no cop lover but I must say that we've pretty much been left alone for a couple mile long party on wheels...
If people know the basics and why they apply we can use the group to keep the chode behavior to a minimum. There will be far less racing and antagonistic behavior if the group demands common decency. The racer types and people who want to trap cars do it because they think it makes them look cool; make it unhip and you've eliminated the problem.
Big Bike Dan would be the de facto leader; think of him as the pace car... We would put someone up front with him to take care of the route.
Finally, if we must cork, let's do it for one light max. People will sit through one light with little problems; it's when one light becomes 3 that we see people trying to run riders over. What about a spoke card for motorists? Something that said "It's not my fault I was late; it was the Midnight Ridazz!"
Same goes for people who ask questions maybe little business cards with the website on them. I'd be willing to kick in, and I bet most ridazz would as well.
Finally, we rode through the industrial area last night; if we're going to have HUGE summer rides this might be a good place to go, save Hollywood for the less packed winter rides...
I personally feel that I owe a debt of gratitude to the ridazz community and I want to do my part to make sure it survives to be around for the next person. I'm grateful to know you folks...with the possble exception of Marcus... just kidding, bro, thanks for the Univega!
Yeah, the "structure" issue was mentioned and cleared up.
Since I was the one who coined the term in this thread, I'll take it that since it was in quotations you were referring to me.
Cool! I was hoping it wasn't directed at me. I was just trying to make a point without raising turmoil.
I did feed a motorist a water bottle.
He was keeping pace while swerving and harassing some girl.
Called her a cunt and a few other sexist remarks. I asked him what his deal was and he swerved at me.
To me that's attempted homicide. So I threw my full water bottle through his open window. I got him pretty good and he took off.
Fucking douschebag had it coming.
The worst part was that this was at a spread out area of the group and there were only four of us on the road at that point. I know what I did wasn't right either, but I lost it when he tried to kill me. Later on I caught another motorist harassing another girl in nearly an identical situation. This gut just plain took off when I rolled up on him.
how will *anyone* know how many lights a light has been corked?
honestly i think we're doing fine... i mean, we're self tuning as we go along. we see stuff bad happen and we discuss it here and the discussion is what prevents it from getting worse. if you see someone swirving just yell at them to hold their line. if you see someone going too fast say bye bye or to slow down. just, make sure to call pot holes/tracks/turns as you go. these kind of things aren't even rules... they're like... common sense/decency to me and i do it naturally. if there is 3 lanes good luck telling anyone to get out of that lane so the cars can go through! i mean isn't it more dangerous especially with like irate speeders and lanes closing, etc?
i mean my buddy a pretty experienced rider hit a pot hole and broke his arm. he didn't say it had anything to do with anyone else so things happen regardless. we just have to try our best to take care of one another and when someone is doing something wrong we say, "hey yo, no go like that, ride on!"
I agree, neverclever. Some things just cannot be avoided, and I think we're doing a damn good job when you really take a second to think about what exactly it is that we're partaking in.
We're talking about hundreds of people on bicycles, riding through the most car saturated city in america. We should be really happy and proud that bad things (tm) don't happen more frequently.
It's important to remember....it's nearly impossible to control hundreds of people. Unless we ask the current white house regime for hints. Get my drift?
So we should just pat ourselves on the back and blame the motorists for all of our problems. Got it.
You would know how many times a light had been corked if the corkers stuck around and got people to stop for the next light. Most people who cork are Plenty fast enough to catch up.
By the way; we're educating other ridazz, not setting "rules" in place. I see that most of us avoid riding in lanes occupied by oncoming traffic: that's just common sense, not a sign that we're puppets of the man. Same goes for picking up after yourself and treating people who drive with the same courtesy we ask for. Trying to compare teaching basic riding etiquete with the Bush administration is total hipster bullshit; we have a responsibility as a group to monitor ourselves. We're not doing anybody (including ourselves) any favors by allowing a few assholes to hijack Midnight Ridazz. I was there with you when you were trying to slow the front of the ride, if people were educated that issue could have been easily eliminated.
PS> In the examples where motorists were attacking people I'm definitely about vigorous self defense...
If you want order, the orgy-nizer should point out the law of the land before during and after the ride, we will be herded like cattle with a designated point man/woman (Equal Opportunity Rida) and designated corkers, wrenches and caboose.
Oh and does anyone have one of those thingies that turns red lights green?
I'm not talking about common decency, I just assumed (possibly incorrectly) that most people who show up for the rides bring the decency with them. I'm just saying I'm not about to police anyones riding style.
If you want to ride out into oncoming traffic and get yourself killed, then so be it.
Didn't mean to come off harsh on you; I recoginze that you're one of the good ones and in re-reading it looks like it was directed at you; I assure you it wasn't.
As I said earlier, most of this is difference of opinion stuff. Most of us don't want trouble; I think that in the large party atmosphere people sometimes forget, and by reminding them we insure our survival as a group. I know there will always be the dickheads who show up with the express purpose of starting shit but for the rest of the people, a little reminder to share the road and pick up after themselves can't hurt. I'm not suggesting martial law; it's just that unless the more experienced people help manage the risk, we're just getting by on luck. Luck which will eventually wear out.
I think passing out cards to people that have the website on it is a good idea and you facists can't stop me from trying to put it in motion... You're not the boss of me!
So i wrote this long ass tirade but this stupid browser or was it the server (I should call tech support) ate my post. It was probably for the better, and it turns out that Neverclever basically said the same things I was going to say, but simpler and shorter. It really came down to this:
Don't Worry About It.
Midnight Ridazz is doing fine.
It's good to see new faces, and it's good to see people like Richard_Colosus and Rat_Bones come in and show their concerns. They're just like the rest of us, we want Midnight Ridazz to continue and continue.
Like I said earlier, I sometimes overestimate the intelligence/decency of humans and assume that they will just know to pick up their trash and not act like a total prick.
And I'm not opposed to making people aware of unacceptable behavior, but some posters here are suggesting that we take drastic measures to correct a problem that really doesn't exist when you consider the grand scheme of things. To put it bluntly, the assholes will eventually just disappear and stop showing up.
This is a social experiment, after all-- and it will take time, and love to get it to the point where we all reach a mutual understanding of our expectations of the people around us.
Perhaps we ought to consider doing a 'rida awareness' ride, in which we pretty much just reinforce the 'about' section of this website as much as possible. If you read it (and I'm sure tons of people haven't) it touches upon some of the easiest and most important expectations for ridazz who show up to the rides. We can print the guidelines (I don't like the word rules, but hey...that's just me) on spokecards and distribute them. It's the ideal time, considering it's summer and there are a ton of new people coming out.
I just wanted to say something... about the corking... I do believe the corkers definitely need to communicate w/ the motorist and tell them what this is all about... the website... and to get a bike and join us. I did notice a lot more new people corking this time. It's scary enough to cork and to stand there to try to ignore the driver cause you're blocking them but most of the time I see them just looking on and maybe just going up to them and explaining everything will help them feel a little more relaxed.
That's how I really heard about the ride. I read something online about the ridazz last summer and told a friend that we should ride. He said, "We'll see." That always meant a no. Next thing you know... I get a call from him telling me he's stuck at an intersection in downtown with a never ending flow of bicyclists passing by. He asked the corker what was happening and he mentioned MR. I looked at the calendar and sure enough it was the 2nd Friday of the month. That's when I said I've got to try this. Say hello to the Pizza Delivery to the Mafia ride. I got hooked. If it weren't for the informative corker... my friend and I would've never tried it. Well he did it twice and then got lazy. I'm still trying to convince him.
On the Goblins ride... I was at the front of the pack right behind Borfo. We went up Temple and cut across a small residential street (Coronado or Corondolet St.) heading south to the next biggest street which was Beverly when I noticed the front of the pack just stop. I could see Borfo and others stopping the pack in this small street and we probably only stayed there for about less than 5 min. I look back and I could see a stream of white lights. Since it was two long blocks we weren't blocking a major intersection and plus it gave the ride a chance to regroup. And since it was a small street... it was easier for the front to not let riders through because all you needed was 2-3 riders to block others from going through.
I think maybe adding a small long residential street between major blvds would be a good way to keep a big ride like this a chance to stay together. You know... like when you're on the freeway late at night and Caltrans are turning 5 lanes into 2. The whole bottlenecking thing.
I honestly think that we're doing fine and nothing needs to be changed. I'm just tossing the ideas out there.
I gotta give props for sexy and his crazy clown antics. I think I've got audio of some of it. I'll have to find it.
I did convince this one guy going through Park La Brea to join and couldn't help noticing the smile on his face. Like, "Whoa.. I can't believe I'm doing this." which I only saw for a short time cause next thing you know it was 7-11 at Pan Pacific Park but it's shiet like that... that I wished I could've taken a picture of. We've all felt that feeling at one point. I get it all the time when it's time to ride.
Yeah... this stuff isn't easy and I give props to all those that help put a ride together... big or small. Major props to Dan/brassknuckle and all others that made the ride possible and most enjoyable... It was such a great route that I didn't even noticed myself pedaling for the longest. Can't give enough props to all you guys..
Yeah pretty much what dak said is my view too. The ride is doing just fine for the most part. Sure we can work on cleaning up loose ends, but it's working pretty good as a whole. The idea of BBD leading the ride has been out there for a long time. I'm sure he can tell you better than me how long that's been. I think we're always going to have assholes trying to hijack the ride, but we can minimize their effects. The means to do that have already been discussed above, lots good suggestions btw. Really I seriously doubt the ones that are trying to hijack the ride are on the list, so it doesn't do that much to try to reason with them here.
The one thing that I would like to see happen is that when we have a situation where the whole ride is riding pretty much single file, such as when we went through the park, is to regroup before hitting the streets again. What we ended up doing Friday is creating a long chain of bicycles that was at least a mile long. Hard to cork for that long!
The stops are a great way to regroup too. It doesn't have to be anywhere special as you saw, we made it special!
And last but not least, thanks Dan and all the others for putting on an awesome and most memorable ride. Nice job on the spoke cards too. You guys kick ass!!!
who is blaming the motorists? i think we all cringe when we see motorists clash with cyclists. my "gang" rides all the time and we get yelled at ("get a job!") and have had stuff thrown at us and we don't even cork or block anything! thems i don't understand. i more understand frustration of people waiting for 3+ lights but then again it's really not that bad if you think about the grand scheme of the world.
the thing it seems like we don't agree on the most is "corking" and when to use it. i completely agree with the FRONT always stopping at lights. the front should stay as thick as possible like a, um, comet! that prevents lost people, stragglers, less traffic along the roads we're on and less chances of people "trying to make a light" and getting hurt. it's more about our safety in numbers and i'm sure a lot of us are sensitive to the emoitnos of the car driver who are all, "i'm in a car, time elapsing, must get angry, grrrr, clown dancing? ahhh! haha...!" but really it's a safety thing. i mean, if we ALL stopped at ALL lights we'd be strung accross the city and might as well be riding alone! of course there is always the back where it spreads thin but they tend to stop accordingly when they approach an intersection and consolidate together like little pieces of ice following the comet! yeah! we should think of us as a comet! losing pieces here and there but coming on strong around once a month, ha!
i'm so down for rules awareness ride where we have corkers entertaining our car friends! we can do magic tricks! bmx tricks! clown dancing! ... i don't know... mime? head stands?
As neverclever said, corking has it's uses. It's not something I disagree with, hell on the anniversary/art ride I had to dive toward the sidewalk to avoid a bus who disagreed with me corking (at about 35 mph), but whatever, the real thing is, it's going to happen. It's safer.
The trash thing is definitely a big issue. It's one of those things that gets us kicked out of places. I know I got stuck at one stop yelling at about 6 different groups of people who I spotted dropping shit on the ground.
Seriously, littering is NOT COOL.
As to the front/the pace and whatever, Big Dan sets a pace, his. It's up to him to set his pace, and it's up to others to set their own, however, as Midnight Ridazz is a RIDE not a race, I'm just going to keep encouraging people to slow it down whenever I see their pace acting as a detriment to the pack. Stretching the pack unnecessarily is just pointless, especially if there's hills, slow it down a bit at the top, or whatever, let the group, well, regroup. I've seen rides stop on GREEN lights to regroup (it even happened on the Slowest Race, which was an almost as large ride, that later got out of hand pace wise, but that aside).
It's up to ALL of us to help keep the pace under control, everyone needs to keep their speed in check. Were you riding next to a beach cruiser a minute ago? Where are they now? 2 Blocks back? maybe it's time to slow down, and get those around you to slow down. Look behind you every now and then too. Was there a swarm of lights behind you a second ago? are they there now? If you havent made a turn, then there's a chance that you're dropping the pack, slow up and wait a few, they'll be there in a second.
I mean seriously.......
I used to drive all the time. The way I saw it was that I had the ability to go ride even more places. No cyclist should be pissed at people for driving cars. That's just plain fucking ridicules They should only get pissed when motorists road rage cyclists. Who cares if some one drives to a ride? Not everyone can ride 40 miles to get to the ride, then do 20 miles on the ride with another 40 back home. That's asking a bit much. If I decided I wanted to go bike Las Vegas,I'm not gonna ride there. I only rode a few miles to the clown ride before I hopped on the metro the rest of the way. No it's not a car, but I wasn't going to ride for miles just to ride many more while drinking and then ride home. And frankly, I wouldn't drive let alone ride through half the area's in LA. by myself at 3:00 in the morning.
I'm glad you asked, Fuzzbeast. The answer is yes: as a non-car owner, you may behave aggressively towards motorists, frighten pedestrians, litter, mock the afflicted, ask women how old they are, drop in on friends unannounced, re-gift, talk loudly on your cellular telephone in coffee shops, and punch kittens in the face.
exactly, why live scared...
and why drive? (my earlier post was in jest btw)
I live further away than most people who attend rides (35 mi east of union station), and I'm at more rides than many people as well, yet I don't drive. I ride or use public transit when necessary (which is what it's there for, and frankly, it will be running weather or not I'm on it, and I only use it to get to union station most of the time, the rest of my trip I ride, unless I'm intoxicated, tired, late, or all 3). It doesnt matter how you get to a ride, I think the only reason that was being brought up is that some people think it's odd for people to flip on drivers, then when the ride is done get in a car and drive off. Which does strike me as a bit odd too, but meh, the only time I have problems with cars is when they try to kill me, choke me, or make the damn roads so bad I can't ride on them... oh wait that's most of the time, I guess the only time I HATE cars is when the driver in it is being a homicidal maniac.
gee whiz, I was going to apologize about bringing up a topic which had been thrashed several times in the past already, but I guess I'll withhold my apologies.
I guess if you kick a dead horse long enough, it does come back to life reinvigorated.
now we have a bunch more people aware of the issues... next ride will be easier to "control" because more people are aware and can lend some influence. keep spreading the love.
I say that having more structure is not sustain-able... ie too much work too much planning. these rides are already a lot of work and if it gets to be too much people stop getting involved and burn out. besides we aint cattle we dont need to be herded.
the only thing I would add is to keep the atmosphere friendly... instead of yelling at people who arent obeying the "rulezz" or getting frustrated. "Join the party on the right" and being friendly to motorists. if the front pack abso fucking lootly needs to go fast fuck em. let them break off and ride on their own as the majority of us stop at the light.
cops dont want us to break up because that actually causes more traffic so throwing in a density stop to re-group would help on routes. lets plan for that more. stopping at already red lights is the perfect solution.
oh and the U-Turn was the shit! no sweat shit hppens it wasnt the first time it happend hahah ride #9 (the strip ride) i fucked up and we had to flip a bitch and it was my route. haha so no big deal. I'm sure it will happen again.
PC, it's not living scared.
Simply some of us may live in or have to cross some of the worst neighborhoods in LA. one or two my possibly be the worst in the country.
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Ridazz Roulette!
I've discovered why PC isn't going on this ride. He doesn't want his full name revealed - Perverted Clown!
My first MR ride toos
if i lived closer i would totally ride. 
You think I'm bullshiting you
He carries the burden for us. 
It's already been discussed Ratt-bones. BBD sets the pace regardless what we want to believe. You just got to have Faith my brother!
yo momma