Critical Mass - March '09

Critical Mass this Friday

Meet outside the National Film Theatre 6.30 onwards

Pre beers ?

ive never been on critical mass, is it good?

Friday is the 27th of March. Today is the 26th.

I've seen it before, passing by.....at about 3mph, its alright I guess if you like that kinda thing, I reckon you would get the shakes from riding that slowly though Karl, anything under 10mph and you start to fall asleep eh!

@nosferatu CM=great trackstanding practice. Some people love it, some hate the dawdle and the antagonism. I recommend you have a little roll with it and decide for yourself. I feel it works as a social event ... chat to some random people. Often good bike sound systems which are worth tagging along near for good vibes in the area!

theres a time for dawdling and theres a time for racing
this friday the 27th ( pm already sent to dave to correct ) i'll be dawdling
it's like glastonbury on wheels with maybe 150,000 less people and 500 more bikes

If you are riding CM for the first time, it may be better to wait for the longer warmer drier days of summer, which bring out a larger crowd and which therefore work better.

CM is a nice way of riding along gently chatting to chums after a week at work. I've also met some decent people on CM like the great Oliver S and Cake.

I enjoy it but cannot make it this week nor next month.

CM is one of the great bike experiences. It happens in cities all over the world on the last friday of the month. You get to see what it will be like when there are no more cars and everyone rides a bike. It can be very slow, but sociable. Great for practising your track stands. It usually ends in beers.

I've never managed to get on CM, because of other commitments on Fridays - particularly last Friday of the month. But I know a few people who go - including the guy who provides the trike-drawn sound systems. So I do want to do it.

Tomorrow I got early shift, so I'll be a tiny bit pooped. Plus I have had a reaction to some meds that made Waterloo up to Great Portland Street feel like climbing the Matterhorn last night. Meds have been ditched as of this morning. Reckon I can make May's CM though, by which time the evenings should be pretty long and the nights much warmer.

I've got a question that just popped into my head though...

My little ones are 6 and 9. They both cycle ok and have done three mile rides with me. Would it be safe to tag a couple of little kids along with CM do you think? I'm guessing we'd have to bale early and hop on the tube to get home but I think it'd be an experience for them. We have up to 4 adults to surround them to keep them out of other people's wheels. Do any other people take kids on CM, or is it mostly for dawdly adults?

I think most kids would love it. You see a few families on CM always. Join them!

Only thing: most tubes don't allow bikes. Overland ftw.

Only thing: most tubes don't allow bikes. Overland ftw.

Bromptons FTW!

I think most kids would love it. You see a few families on CM always. Join them!

Only thing: most tubes don't allow bikes. Overland ftw.

http://www.tfl.gov.uk/assets/downloads/tube-map-bicycles1b.pdf

Prof Tim

I took my elder daughter on the Dec CM. She loved it, particularly going to the pub with Cake, NurseHalliday, HillBilly and Dancing James.

Mind you, she is 18.

I think most kids would love it. You see a few families on CM always. Join them!

Only thing: most tubes don't allow bikes. Overland ftw.

Oh, I am such a tube geek, I'm sorry...

You can take bikes on any SSL tubes (sub-surface layer). They're the proper ones, that stand up straight like a real train does - Hammersmith and City, District, Circle, Metropolitan and East London. Also, you can take them on any deep-line tubes (Bakerloo, Central, Victoria, Jubilee, Northern, Piccadilly, Waterloo and City), so long as you're on the above-ground sections - so Jubilee Line would be ok from Stanmore all the way to Finchley Road, for example. The DLT won't take anything but folding. And technically, only in a bike-bag too, but they never enforce that.

You have to travel after 7pm though, or at weekends. So depending on where we go with CM, we can cut to a circle line station without toooooo much ado I expect and tube round to Embankment or Monument, where we can walk to Ch X or London Br to get an overland home.

Little monkeys gonna sleep goooood that night! LOL

Prof Tim

I took my elder daughter on the Dec CM. She loved it, particularly going to the pub with Cake, NurseHalliday, HillBilly and Dancing James.

Mind you, she is 18.

You introduced you 18yo daughter to Hillbilly?
Has she been the same since?
Does she now have the aroma of Cider?

She was more perplexed by Dancing James. HillyBilly, she said, was a charming gentleman, as he is.

http://www.tfl.gov.uk/assets/downloads/tube-map-bicycles1b.pdf

thank you from the bottom of my heart! this has been a struggle for us since we came from NYC & can take our bikes anywhere on the subway we want.

She was more perplexed by Dancing James. HillyBilly, she said, was a charming gentleman, as he is.

LOL! I was going to ask about that!!

thank you from the bottom of my heart! this has been a struggle for us since we came from NYC & can take our bikes anywhere on the subway we want.

Don't forget the Overground Network too, which has recently been brought into the control of TfL and you can take your bikes on. So all the way from Richmond around to Stratford, plus Willesden Junction down to Clapham Junction too. Depending on where you live, that line can be pretty useful.

http://www.tfl.gov.uk/assets/downloads/tube-map-bicycles1b.pdf

Thanks. Good to know.

Oh, I am such a tube geek, I'm sorry...

You can take bikes on any SSL tubes (sub-surface layer). They're the proper ones, that stand up straight like a real train does - Hammersmith and City, District, Circle, Metropolitan and East London. Also, you can take them on any deep-line tubes (Bakerloo, Central, Victoria, Jubilee, Northern, Piccadilly, Waterloo and City), so long as you're on the above-ground sections - so Jubilee Line would be ok from Stanmore all the way to Finchley Road, for example. The DLT won't take anything but folding. And technically, only in a bike-bag too, but they never enforce that.

You have to travel after 7pm though, or at weekends. So depending on where we go with CM, we can cut to a circle line station without toooooo much ado I expect and tube round to Embankment or Monument, where we can walk to Ch X or London Br to get an overland home.

Little monkeys gonna sleep goooood that night! LOL

Not if you let your children go to the pub after ;)

Thanks for the detail TubeGeek.

The DLR rule is stupid. The carriages are bigger than some of the tube lines. Fair enough no peak time travel but no off peak is ridiculous.

The DLR rule is stupid. The carriages are bigger than some of the tube lines. Fair enough no peak time travel but no off peak is ridiculous.

I queried it with them. They started off life as a separate organisation to London Underground and got brought into Transport for London much later (that's why you used to have to blip into and out of the DLR to continue your tube journeys). The problem is not because of technical difficulties or health and safety issues. Apparently it is an insurance issue - they are not insured to carry bikes. Which is an arse when you are north of the river and your girlfriend lives in Greenwich and it's after 7pm at night and you have to walk through the Greenwich foot tunnel with your bike, including the down AND the up set of stairs. Caryying my bike up, well, both bikes in fact, because hers was a heavy mountain bike, so I carried it for her, up all 300-odd steps was unwanted effort after having cycled for miles. I definitely needed energy gels after that one. And lycra was a must.

BUT...

It looks like we could slap up the office of Mr Boris and nag them nicely to change their insurance criteria for the DLR, or however this is doen in a legalistic sense. One for the LCC, I suspect. But I think this one is definitely solveable with people-power.

So do we know who's turnung up today?

1. Pigfarmer (most likely)
   

BTW gonna be drinking at Big Chill Shoreditch beforehand...

On your own? The first step into alcoholism.