March 2008 Critical Mass - Might Makes Right For A Night

I went to Mass tonight, something I haven't done in way too long. Turnout was less than I was expecting, but was still 60+ people, not bad for friggin' cold outside!

It's been a while since I've ridden slowly though the city with a few hundred other cyclists.. and I figured why not go down and take some pictures and enjoy some good old American civil disobedience?!

Here was the scene in Westlake Center - sorry this is so short, but you get the idea:



The riders getting read to terrorize unsuspecting drivers! Look out Seattle, here we come... and yes that's a tricycle there on the right!

Rolling up Pine Street towards the Sound at a nice 10 km/h - sorry for the shaking, it's a bumpy road!



Rolling up the hill on 4th Ave (I think) - check out that stylin' motorcycle helmet! Guess he's ready for an aggressive driver:

The peloton going up 12th Ave E. towards Capitol Hill: When we turned off of 12th Ave onto Pine Street (in front of the Seattle PD's East Precinct no less), we were doing the usual corking & blowing a red light, and two cruisers were waiting to turn. One turned, but the other lit up his lights and gave us a good "whoop whoop," with his siren and then split up the pack. And as soon as he started this display of lights & sounds, he stopped it and continued down 12th! Guess he decided it wasn't worth the trouble; chances are there's a real crime happening within a mile anyway!

Soon after this a rider said "that guy just spit on me!" - referring to a grizzly dude sitting in a big white van sitting in traffic. She said that it wasn't a good job of spitting luckily. What's weird is that I don't think we were even blocking him, so he must've been jealous we were having so much fun. Screw you, guy in the van.

On Broadway turning left onto Denny - I broke off from the pack and went home here:
I met Dave who does the 327 words blog, I recognized him from the wool helmet cover. He invited me to his Taco Truck Time Trial tomorrow, seems like it could be cool, although it is supposed to be raining tomorrow. And if I do ride, I'd rather do distance over short-but-intense rides.. But I've been meaning to check out some Taco Trucks around here, and what better way than to race to a few and wolf down a few burritos?!

Interestingly this "Time Trial" is similar to a brevet in that you get a little card stamped/signed at checkpoints. And it's not a mass-start race, which I like for some reason. Actually it's kind of ironic since our 300k brevet tomorrow got cancelled due to snow/ice!

My commute/brevet/critical mass machine:

Total Distance: 12km

Total Time: 1 hour

Fun had: lots!

If you ride a bicycle, I highly suggest going to Critical Mass some time to see what it's like. Some say that it's "not helping anyone" or "breaks laws," but you've got to at least try it before you dis it! You'll see that it's both a parade and a protest, and that the response from onlookers is mostly positive!