7.14.2008

Critical Mass 6.27.08

Surprise, surpise, more bike pictures. Well, bikes rule, so deal with it.

Critical Mass can be lame sometimes, but sometimes it can be unbelievably excellent. This ride was an awesome one. The weather was perfect and the route was new to me. This map is fairly true to our path.



Lots of the ride was through industrial areas and nearly all of the ride was on the south side.


People are usually excited to see a group of hundreds of bikers come out of nowhere, but we had a particularly great response from the southsiders on this ride.




Shortly before we passed this building I'd reached the "where the hell are we" point. After we passed this I fell right back into it for another hour or so.



Bridgeport kids...



Kids and old people seem to be our biggest fans. Remember how much fun vans used to be when you were little? These kids agree.




This is Chopper Carl with the trailer of speakers. I've mentioned him before, but I don't know much except that he's a fixture in the Chicago bike scene. I took a class at West Town Bikes last week (Bike Basics with Mike - it was highly informative) and Chopper Carl was hanging out in the back patio with the guy who runs West Town. I showed up to the class with the more beat-up of my two bikes and they complimented it saying it was a hard working steel frame fit for Chicago commuting. I was proud even though I don't love the Fuji, aka Lauren Hill, as much as I used to. Now I know how to take better care of it. Anyway, he blasted great tunes for the whole ride as usual. This video kind of sums up the ride I'd say.




Seriously, where the hell?


This was the end of the ride, 31st St Beach. Check out how far south of Sears Tower we are.


I highly recommend you try a Critical Mass with me sometime. You don't need to be some bike nut, just capable of a long slow ride. All skill levels welcome. Last Friday of every month leaving Daley Plaza around 6.

This photographer has a huge load of awesome pictures from this and many other rides.

1 comments:

Joe Laser said...

Im glad CM brought its joy to the Southside. Please don't ever speak of the 31st ST beach again, it's like my own private beach. (J/K)