You are hereMore and more great press for the Thursday Social Rides!
More and more great press for the Thursday Social Rides!
This was written (and posted online) a few days back, but if you wanted to read more good press on the Thursday Night Social Ride, look no further than Pamela LeBlanc's article in Today's Statesman. They pretty well summarize the ride, as well as talk to a few of its' participants about why they take part in a weekly event that now boasts over 250 cyclists on any given night. Great stuff Pam, and good to have you on a ride.
Recently it was asked why all the big group rides end in "illegal mob activities". I'd venture to say that if you want a completely legal ride you should probably talk to these folks (though even this isn't always the case), but if you can stomach a little public consumption and occasionally the lingering odor of marijuana, these Social Rides are as civil and friendly as 2-300 cyclists from all walks of life can possibly be.
As usual the comments section of the article questions the illegality of local cyclists actions so feel free to weigh in with your opinion, but if you do please keep it civil. No need to play to an overused and abused stereotype.
i finally made it out to another Thursday social ride. I haven't been to one since one of the first ones earlier this year, where we barely cleared 75 people I think.
This ride (although I didn't make it to the whole thing) was freakin' awesome. everyone stopped for lights, stayed in the right lane, stuck together, made sure everyone was okay. it was the most civil ride I have been on in forever, perhaps moreso than some of the 'roadie/tri' rides that occur at ungodly AM hours on the weekends...and definitely more fun.
nothing illegal of the sort in my view...and we even got a compliment from a family in a car next to us, telling us to 'keep it up and enjoy the night!'
i'm sad these rides are getting some negative press, but i guess it's hard to tell everyone what they can and can't do while on these rides.
-Jessica
bike nerd fo' life, yo
You liken drinking a beer or smoking a joint to destroying gardens, vandalizing pools, and stealing and smashing watermelons at a supermarket? Did you punch the melonthieves like you punched the boobygrabber?
I believe I know all these incidents you're referring to, having actually been there. From the way you've exaggerated things, I'm guessing that you were not.
The `destroyed garden' was a planter that was knocked over. It was in the walkway, so it's probably knocked over a lot. Offers to fix it were made but denied.
The pool was not vandalized. Trespassed upon, probably (depends on if there was an invitation or not, I do not know, but I'll assume not), the peace disturbed, yes, but there was no vandalism that I'm aware of.
The melons were actually for sale, but there was nobody to accept money for them. They were smashed open because that's how you open one without a knife. I don't recall seeing any smashed just to smash them, but perhaps I missed it (but I doubt it.) I did see people cleaning up the mess before we left, though I don't know how thorough they were. Theft, yes, though it wouldn't be morally wrong if everybody who borrowed a melon made sure it was paid for the next day. (Legally, still could be considered theft, though I doubt HEB would press charges if all melons were paid for.) I do not know if people paid for the melons or not -- I had none, so I've not paid.
The melon(boobie)-grabber was punched by the melon-grabee, not by Jason. I didn't see the groping, but if it was as said, the guy totally deserved it. (I did see things after the groping, including the final alteraction, however. It was more chest-beating than actually violent.)
In another comment, you also complained about `trespassing, theft, assault, sexual assault, property damage'. Well, let's see ...
... Trespassing, OK, I'll assume there was no invitation for the ride to stop at that pool, not even an informal `hey, bring the ride by tonight, we've got a nice pool!' from a resident (that's really all it would take to stop it from being legally trespassing, at least until people were ordered to leave by the management.)
... Theft, yes, melons were taken. I'm hoping that they've all been paid for by now, but I've no way of verifying this.
... Assault? I'm not aware of any assault. There was some yelling (on both sides) during the pool incident, but yelling isn't assault. If you're referring to the groping incident, she has the legal right to defend herself -- and the guy would not leave her alone.
... Sexual assault? If you're referring to the grabber, he's not a regular -- he grabbed a regular. If he's smart, he won't come back.
... Property damage? You mean the planter that was bumped? I don't know who did that -- but offers were made to make it right. The offers were refused. This incident has every indication of being an accident, and a minor one at that.
Also, you should consider your `illegal mob rules activities' idea more carefully. There were a lot of people at all of these events, all doing different things. I imagine one person bumped the planter. The boobie-grabber was one person (and he's not welcome back.) Several people took melons, but not hundreds. A dozen or two people were in the pool, but that's only a small fraction of the total ride -- and I imagine it was fewer people than that that were making a lot of noise. The rest of the people were generally not participating in things they didn't approve of, or actively working on getting people to behave better.
Guilt by association went out quite some time ago. As far as mobs (and their mob rules) go, these mobs are pretty ... ruly.
You mentioned drinking a beer and smoking a joint. Well, you are aware that possession of even a small amount of marijuana is a class B misdemeanor, right? That's more serious in the eyes of the law than most of the things you've complained about above. Hopefully nobody would ever break that law!
You've also brought up several months worth of events, and the incidents mentioned here are the ones that people (members of that mob you referred to) disapproved of (that's why they brought it up here, probably in the hopes of preventing it in the future.) There's been many more rides in that same period with no such incidents -- these are the exceptions rather than the rule.
Are you at ANY of these things, or are you some troll stirring shit? What is your problem? Saw yer spew on another topic, and I'm not likin' the cut of your jib. I read no likening anything to anything. Shit stirrer.
No, I was saying that if someone wanted to go to a fully legal ride, they should talk to the ACA. The Thursday rides get about as close to "street legal" as they can while still allowing a bit of adult fun. They clean up after themselves, self-police for assholes, and stop for red lights.
In the case of the other evening, the melons in question weren't attached to a rider. If they were I'd have had more of an issue with it as well. As far as the groper was concerned, I haven't had to punch someone in years. The fellow had poor balance probably brought on by intoxication, and when I got in his face over what he did he fell backwards. The punch itself came from the owner of the melons, and I think she was completely justified. He had PLENTY of warning it was coming.
Wow, were you at all these horrible events? If so why didn't you speak up? It didn't seem so bad from what I witnessed. When we left the pool it wasn't "vandalized", unless you consider splashed water vandalism. The "destroyed" garden was a spilled planter that looked rather rough and dilapidated to begin with, and several people there offered to replace it and then some. Stolen/smashed melons, I'll give you that. I've seen it happen before (at least the last two years) but not on that level. While I assume HEB accounts for loss when they leave the melons outside, it wasn't the best of form to do what happened. Nonetheless, I still enjoyed a tasty slice of the melon.
... is that it IS different from the other group rides and that if you wanted to avoid some of the stuff that goes down on some of the group rides, the Thursday Social Ride would be the ride for you. We're not a group of stiffs, we like to have our fun. But so far, no broken watermelons.
I am pretty sure that was what he was saying.