lamontagne
Adventurer
I know, not exactly expo, but an interesting experience none the less. I'm been riding for...well...ever, but I've usually been solo or small groups. So last Fri, I was surfing facebook and saw that the Phoenix Critical Mass was that night, and thought "that sounds like it could be fun". I asked the boss (the pregnant wifey) for the night off and headed out.
I was greeted by a group of about 40 folks in the staging area. They were a fairly diverse group. A few in full spandex on carbon road bikes, several hipsters on fixies, a few BMX bikes and several cruisers. I believe I was the only one on a 29er MTB.
After a quick safety meeting, we were on our way of an 11 mile tour. The pace was very casual. It was a very different experience riding enmass in a travel lane with traffic. I suspect more than a few drivers were less than pleased, but we got quite few compliments too. The route was more or less a figure 8 through downtown with one left turn on a major road. This was the one critique I would make about this ride. To the 3 folks on bikes who tried to stop traffic while a group of bikes makes a left turn, are you crazy? I know the purpose of critical mass and what it stands for, but that was stupid, not mention the confusion created when the cars started doing things you dont expect them to, like driving around you.:smiley_drive: The rest of the ride was fun and terminated at a park in downtown. Afterward, backtracked to a bike-pub crawl that was happening in the area and made some new friends there, but that is a another story altogether.
So a few lessons learned here;
1..clipped in is not best here. Too much stop and go.
2..bring a better headlamp.
3..bring or arrange a designated driver. The one beer I was allowed was woefully inadequet.
This ride is the last Fri of every month, maybe some expo folks could me next time?
I was greeted by a group of about 40 folks in the staging area. They were a fairly diverse group. A few in full spandex on carbon road bikes, several hipsters on fixies, a few BMX bikes and several cruisers. I believe I was the only one on a 29er MTB.
After a quick safety meeting, we were on our way of an 11 mile tour. The pace was very casual. It was a very different experience riding enmass in a travel lane with traffic. I suspect more than a few drivers were less than pleased, but we got quite few compliments too. The route was more or less a figure 8 through downtown with one left turn on a major road. This was the one critique I would make about this ride. To the 3 folks on bikes who tried to stop traffic while a group of bikes makes a left turn, are you crazy? I know the purpose of critical mass and what it stands for, but that was stupid, not mention the confusion created when the cars started doing things you dont expect them to, like driving around you.:smiley_drive: The rest of the ride was fun and terminated at a park in downtown. Afterward, backtracked to a bike-pub crawl that was happening in the area and made some new friends there, but that is a another story altogether.
So a few lessons learned here;
1..clipped in is not best here. Too much stop and go.
2..bring a better headlamp.
3..bring or arrange a designated driver. The one beer I was allowed was woefully inadequet.
This ride is the last Fri of every month, maybe some expo folks could me next time?