2010-03-26 Fri - Critical Mass - The rolling LFGSS birthday party

i lost you on route, went to manor house, spent 15 minutes trying to find phone numbers from forum while drinking a beer outside the shop then rode back to town.

Sorry dude. I was trying to chase Tim.

no worries, was a nice excursion anyhow

just woke up... oh yeah!
last night was well good, hello to everyone i met but cant remember your names.
and i love jack

Sorry FRANK, what can I say, I just like chasing buses.

Thank you LFGSS for another superbe evening.

Last memory was dancing badly in SPDs to Dolly Parton 9 to 5 at aroung 4am this morning. I have no idea how I got home and my head hurts badly.

Love you all. x

fucking bummed i missed this :(

@ ft. I was worried about getting home ok. But you seemed to be going in a straight line and making some kind of sense.

(1) Have some common courtesy and keep together... we have every right to be safe on the road and hold up ccars once a month, but I'm not sure that extends to hundreds of metres of stragglers at the back - keep up!

in response - the front chose some stupid routes: going the wrong way down one way streets with oncoming cars held up meant that there was very little actual road to cycle on, hence people were restricted to squeezing through the gaps one or two at a time. this is what caused the "hundreds of metres of stragglers." if this type of route does happen, the people at the front should wait up somewhere not too far ahead to allow the whole mass to re-group. safety in numbers, innit? ;-)

i agree with the poor choice of route at times; but that was probably the largest cm i've been on and there was always going to be very heavy congestion, particularly down south near druid st etc, i ended up just walking my bike for most of that, having a beer & a chat, wasn't so bad.

quite a lot of fun near bank though, bailed out and headed back central at roman road after that, quite a fun night though, despite the relentless stopping.

once again, so many beautiful bikes too (as well as some comedy tri-spoke/disc wheel combos).

Great night out, probably just as well the pub closed when it did or I might not have made it to work this morning. The blast to the pub with jcgarcia and the polish pirates was a hoot. And the lost keys episode was hilarious, glad coat-hangar and a piece of string worked.

My two pennies on the CM, I like the basic idea of it, I enjoyed being on the ride (tho a bit faster would be nice), I just think it reinforces the them and us between drivers and cyclists. The taxi driver I was blocking in was furious (but to be fair not aggressive), his line was "I've never had a problem with bikes on the road but now I'm changing my mind". Got to wonder if he gets as pissed off when it's the regular car traffic jams that hold him up. His passenger I had no sympathy for tho, the fat cunt started whinging about who was going to pay the 2 pounds we were costing him, felt like tossing him a quid and telling him if he was that tight he should get his lardy arse onto a bus, but I can never carry off stuff like that.

thanks to everybody for making my first ever critical mass so much fun.

so nice to see so many smiley faces at the pub afterwards.

saltbeef bagels at 4am ftw :-)

I lost my cutlass on the way home, but at least I made it home. Josh; you're a nutter.

Critical Mass is not my cup of tea.

Nor mine.

I have to say that I really enjoyed last night... I was thrilled to see so many familiar faces. See you all again soon I hope.

And Happy Birthday!

I lost my cutlass on the way home

this is a shame.

(1) *Have some common courtesy and keep together... *- keep up!
.

in response - the front chose some stupid routes: going the wrong way down one way streets with oncoming cars

This. ^
Once you're at the back because of toilet breaks or what ever, it's pretty hard to get back in the swing of things. Perhaps you should have a go at Marshalling if you think you can do a better job?

There was a total route fail around the second stop, just before the one way fiasco when people dropped off to the pub. This made for some nasty interactions.

,
It's a broad mix of people that come together, and yes, there will be people you don't like,*

I'm sure with more people there, situations are going to be worse. I think the fact remains that even if one person is agressive toward a ped or a vehicle driver, then the whole point of CM has been lost.*
I tried to explain to the American guy who was going to bust a cap in someones ass, what we were all doing. He just wanted to know why we couldn't use the bus lanes. As I was explaining, some one cycled up and started abusing him which set him off again.*
Sadly I feel that CM is bad for the image of cyclists, and for that reason, i'm out.*
Case and point. My housemate asked what I was doing this weekend. When I said CM, she said, oh where cyclists get drunk and shout at cars.*
Real shame as this could have been good. Should have just gone to the pub!

Sorry for epic post. Ps. What was pistis spoke card?

thanks to everyone who I met form the forum...names I keep forgetting....
Pirate flag was awesome!

Sorry for epic post. Ps. What was pistis spoke card?

DMCzone knocked up one like don walkers one. there will be pics when he gets up

Mucho fun was had last night. Was ace catching up with some old faces and meeting some new. Happy birthday, forum!

Too many dick'ead anarchists on the ride for me - CM anyway, not LFGSS

+many to needlessly riling drivers. Making enemies seems a bit backward.

Thanks to everyone who let me skitch, I think it was at least 3 people in the end. I was so knackered last night.

thanks to everybody for making my first ever critical mass so much fun.

so nice to see so many smiley faces at the pub afterwards.

saltbeef bagels at 4am ftw :-)

Heeey! The guys I was hanging with in soho theater bar headed for bagels around that time.....

Another great night, the mass was it's usual mixture of highs and lows but was good
to see it stick together all the way to hackney.
The pirate ride back to the dover castle was great fun, followed by a few sneaky pints
back at the theatre bar.
And what night would be complete without bagels..?
Good to meet some new forumungers and to ride with friends..

Can we have a moratorium on claiming CM isn't your cup of tea? You know what to expect, if you don't like it don't go and STFU.