Bike Month 2009 Critical Mass - BRING A FRIEND!

I just looked at the calendar and noticed that we're 2/3 of the way through the month, which means that the big ride of rides is coming up: CRITICAL MASS! Here's what I spewed about the occasion for the tourists that read the bike month calendar:

One of the first Critical Mass rides in the U.S., Austin's monthly human-powered celebration of all things biking is now in its' 12th year, bigger and better than ever. The mass meets at 5pm on the last Friday of the month (May 29th) on the West Mall near 23rd and Guadalupe. In recent years, Critical Mass has grown in size and scope to include hundreds of cyclists of all kinds, from commuter cyclists, to racers, mountain bikers, fixed gear free-stylers, freak bike builders, BMX bandits, and everyone in-between. The rides are leaderless and directionless by design, so show up to be a part of this organized coincidence. Costumes and artbikes are always more than welcome, but we try to keep it friendly, so please save the aggression for another time and place.

Now the real deal: You know what this ride is about. A lot of y'all have been participating for a lot longer than I have and have seen the ride ebb and flow, grow and shrink, change purpose, direction, riders, pretty much everything but its' core principle: an organized coincidence of cyclists meeting once a month to ride together. Critical Mass is strictly what YOU and the cycling community at large make it. Want it to be chiller? Invite all your chill friends! Want more BMX bikes? Hit up 9th street and bring the whole lot of 'em! Like costumes? Make a flyer advocating them and sent it to me, I'll post the hell out of it. The old term for how all this worked was Xerocracy, but these days it seems like blogs, myspace, twitter, and "social network" has taken the role. Make the best of it! Shape this ride into what you want it to be. Invite everyone you know. Bring a bike stereo and play your music. Seriously, seeing all the crazy shit everyone comes up with is half the reason I come to this ride, so lets see something impressive!

5:00pm on the UT West Mall, Friday the 29th. Be there.