Critical Mass

Last night I went on the Critical Mass bike ride, it started very near CoCe, and ended near home, so really there was no excuse. It was surprisingly good fun - there were a lot of people despite the fact that it was pretty windy, and not very warm - some said there were 175 bikes - I don't know how they counted them, but it looked vaguely correct. There were people on lightweight racers, and tandems, and what they call 'beach cruisers' here (they're very common - designed for comfort, not speed or hills) - here's a Wikipedia link , and a couple of people had children in trailers. Two people had trailers, which carried amplifiers powered by car batteries, which played music and added to the generally party-ish atmosphere. It was very empowering, to be surrounded by bikes, because one felt very protected and safe -there's no way a car wasn't going to see you.

We rode a pre-planned route, which included a roundabout - there's only one roundabout for miles around, at the route usually takes it in. When 175 bikes go around a roundabout the front and back join together and so it goes around about 4 times before peeling off - makes a good picture.

I guess we covered about 12 miles, in almost 2 hours, it was pretty slow - so slow that I wasn't wearing enough to keep warm. We stopped a few times, to regroup, and people handed out biscuits and fruit that they had brought. I chatted to a few people - mostly to a chap called Dave, who was doing a PhD in pure maths (something about differential geometry), but wasn't actually dull; a bloke called Ted, who was a substitute teacher and never wore long trousers, and a woman whose name I forget, and I wouldn't recognise anyway because I was looking forwards.

At the end, there was a brief gathering where people hung around and then they split off into vaguely organised groups. People who were going home in similar directions went together, some went to a bar where a band was playing that someone knew, and the largest contingent (with me in it) went to a bar nearby which sold burgers (which we all needed after riding in the cold). If they were surprised that 50 cyclists turned up wearing fluorescent jackets, trying to find somewhere to lock their bikes, and wanting burgers and fries and onion rings and beer they didn't show it.

It was karaoke night, and the quality was surprisingly high (Bicycle Race, by Queen, was the second song - this was kind of obligatory). The high quality isn't unusual for this area, what with showbiz being the thing it is. We were pretty off the beaten track, so it wasn't too bad, but Dave told me he went to a bar downtown (like we say here) and someone who sounded exactly like Stevie Wonder sand a Stevie Wonder song, and then, at the appropriate moment, whipped out a trumpet for the solo.