You are hereCritical Mass, and the cops making good on their warnings.
Critical Mass, and the cops making good on their warnings.
Jose Lozano made it out to the ride for the first time in a while with his camera and badass photography skills in tow. Check out his flickr stream for a bunch of pictures of the ride, including the following gems:
Two of the most loved and hated (respectively) bikers in Austin, Rachael Love and Jason Mistric. Jason joined the ride through the downtown area, warning everybody to obey the law and making sure we recognized him. Results of the cops involvement: 1 ticket, 1 2 arrests (video by Derek).
One of SEVERAL boomboxes and music setups in attendance at this ride. I really want to see more of this, the uniquely individual music selections and styles of boombox/bike stereo were refreshing.
Dan and Kyle are AWESOME! I expect this kid to be a badass when he grows up. Not that he isn't already, but with a start like this I looking forward to seeing big things from this kid.
I always love these big pictures, that truly show the scope of the local rides. This was on MLK as we made our way down for a 6th Street ride.
Jose wasn't the only photographer on the scene. Doug was out with his camera taking a truly staggering number of photos, which are featured in his gallery. Doug is a trooper, and always captures a large portion of the ride through his near-constant snapping of pictures. I love going through them after the fact and piecing together my recollection of the evenings' festivities. Here are a few of my faves, though really with that many pictures (414 to be exact), it's hard to pick out the best ones:
I FINALLY got my 20" back together and working well. Had to replace all the bearings and the chain, and then clean and re-grease EVERYTHING. I love the fact that this ride can be done on a short bike, tall bike, fixed gear, mountain bike, hybrid, freak bike or anything else for that matter.
The water stop this time around was the Barton Springs spillway. I took the chilly dip in my skivvies and felt a lot better afterward. The ride thinned out noticeably following this stop, which just made the 2 kegs at the end last that much longer. Sorry you missed it rest of y'all. Hope you had fun without us!
Unfortunately not everything that happened on this ride was completely awesome. One gentleman was arrested while allegedly corking an intersection. The official charge was "blocking a public thoroughfare", which is a Class B misdemeanor. Officer Mistric was on the scene again and made it clear that even running a red light is an arrestable offense, and if it continued to be a problem that they'd do so. Be careful, y'all. As an aside the Sergeant in the photo said he was feeling very intimidated and uncomfortable being surrounded by so many bikers, and wanted to go back to his standard Riverside duty once the big downtown initiative was over.
The party afterwards was badass. We stopped at a super chill north campus location that was back in a really dope yard away from any streets, with a keg awaiting us. Talk about badass. A collection was taken up and a second keg was delivered, just in time for round two. Several of our injured cyclist friends even made it out for the occasion, good to see you Andy and Spyer!
The ride was a blast, there were a lot of new faces as well as old, and besides the arrest and ticket, I don't think any major mishaps went down. Big thanks go out to Tate for organizing the afterparty and springing for the first keg, as well as graciously hosting about 80 stinky, sweaty bikers. Remember this folks, and buy him a beer if he's ever in need. Also, if anyone else has any photos from the ride, let me know and I'll post about it too.
Be careful when the cops are around, and always have your wits about you. They've made it clear that they're not playing games, and are more than willing to arrest us to make a point. It hasn't reached the levels of the 90s Critical Masses, but if we ride through the downtown area and the cops are out, watch your asses! Be real careful when you come up to a light and DON'T CORK when there's 5-0 around, it's really not worth a night in jail.
just like an officer can cross over or park in the median on the interstate (running radar and stuff) and you can't, they can also ride bikes on the sidewalk or places you can't unless the state classifies your bike an emergency vehicle. hence the word 'police'. As an emergency vehicle they can disregard traffic laws to enforce them. you, your parents and granparents, and great grand parents, and... well, have all given them that authority. How do you expect a police car to catch a speeder? At the speed limit? How do you expect them to catch up to someone going up a one way? By going with the flow of traffic - opposite the violator? If a cop tells you to stop, you think he is going to tell you "why" as you peddle your frankenbike down congress? Stop.
Sadly, as much as you hate cops, they still protect those who they know hate them. and as much as they put up with you can't draw a line between yourself and them? dude, do you ever think you could reach a high enough standard to be employed in any police department? if you could, great. go sign up.
Officer Dipshit appears to be riding on the sidewalk in one of the few areas where that is prohibited. Was he on duty? Cause getting paid to ride in Critical Mass is pretty cool even if everyone hates you...