Northern California - Critical Mass is Tomorrow

Pete or anyone else riding? I am thinking about checking it out. What time does the ride usually depart Justin Herman Plaza? Am I safe if I get there at 6 or do I need to be there by 5:30?

I did a search once on Critical Mass, and it sounded like it causes more harm than good to bicyclists. Just a thought.

I was thinking about bringing my camera, so that would be 5:30 Embarcadero Hyatt (fountain/Plaza)

hey guys, if you happen to run red lights and hit a pedestrian, make sure to hit that person in the back of the head with your front wheel.

j/k. but yea, thanks for the heads up, I'm staying out of the downtown area today.

I'll be there on a green '69 Raleigh Superbe. Probably get there about 5:45 from the train station. The mass usually goes critical about 6:30 and starts moving then.

I'd also like to mention that there's nothing wrong with a regularly scheduled parade of bicycles in a city. We have police escort for the intersections, and the only confrontations are caused by ignorant drivers pushing into the mass. The atmosphere is generally happy, helmets are NOT required, but you really need to watch out for the cable car slot of death and stupidly aggressive riders who think it's a race.

....the only confrontations are caused by ignorant drivers...

Yeah - the only problem........ the rest CM is all cotton candy and unicorns.

I'd also like to mention that there's nothing wrong with a regularly scheduled parade of bicycles in a city. We have police escort for the intersections, and the only confrontations are caused by ignorant drivers pushing into the mass. The atmosphere is generally happy, helmets are NOT required, but you really need to watch out for the cable car slot of death and stupidly aggressive riders who think it's a race.

Well I see plenty wrong with it. If I'm trying to get home to the wife and kids on a friday afternoon and some thousands of bikes are blocking traffic, it's a problem for me. The whole purpose is to gain respect for cyclists and bring attention to the problems between drivers and riders. What CM has become now does neither of those things. I drive and ride in SF, I can tell you right now, there are a lot of idiots that deserve to be crushed by a car.

Well I see plenty wrong with it. If I'm trying to get home to the wife and kids on a friday afternoon and some thousands of bikes are blocking traffic, it's a problem for me. The whole purpose is to gain respect for cyclists and bring attention to the problems between drivers and riders. What CM has become now does neither of those things. I drive and ride in SF, I can tell you right now, there are a lot of idiots that deserve to be crushed by a car.


Amen ...
If CM really wants to get respect by non-cyclist the people running the show , SFBC or who ever, needs to make sure the riders /participants show some respect for those who are being adversely effected by the event... SFBC should fork over some cash for the CM event and have it made into a real sanctioned protest \ cycling event...

Amen ...
If CM really wants to get respect by non-cyclist the people running the show , SFBC or who ever, needs to make sure the riders /participants show some respect for those who are being adversely effected by the event... SFBC should fork over some cash for the CM event and have it made into a real sanctioned protest \ cycling event...

I could be wrong but I don't think SFBC sponsors or organizes CM.

SFBC has no affiliation with CM. No organization would want that liability. I've never done CM and don't really feel the need, but I also don't feel too bad for people in cars being stuck in traffic of some sort. Tons of normal reasons that can happen. Remember a few years ago when CM was a hot issue and somehow somebody got the medias attention because they were on their way to get medicine and CM slowed them down? Hello....Friday evening going across the city and you got delayed....go figure????

SFBC is affiliated with cm , they have promoted the SF CM on their site ,their head person promotes it when ever she can. If you are company or Org. and you promote something then that action of promoting that event squarley places you in affiliation with that event.

From their website:


While this ride is not organized nor endorsed by the SFBC, we have a keen interest in happy bicycling every day in San Francisco. To that end, we encourage all participants to ride courteously and respectfully. For more info, see the Critical Mass website.

If you guys want to ride in Critical Mass, ride in Critical Mass. It might be a good idea to avoid the nutcases that think they are taking over the city and can do anything they want, and hang with the people that just want to ride.
If you want to ride with people that follow all the rules, look for a Critical Manners ride.

Getting up in people's faces when it's not necessary is just a sign of being naughty children. Not exactly good publicity for cyclists. I've been riding lightweight bikes for more than forty years and been involved in various causes fover nearly as long a time. Have yet to see anything productive result from getting up in people's faces.

I drive and ride in SF, I can tell you right now, there are a lot of idiots that deserve to be crushed by a car.

Dude, think about what you are saying. Nobody deserves to be crushed by a car, ever. I get that you are exaggerating or something but that just ain't right.

It's unfortunate that the bike community at large has such an intollerant, xenophobic attitude toward those who choose to ride together in a parade. Tonight CM had a huge police escort, stopped at many red lights (keeping the mass together) and was free of anything noteworthy. I didn't hear an angry word or see a single altercation along the route. It immediately opened a path for a fire truck.

Please get over your hatred. You have plenty of your own costumed, helmeted "parades" within the arrogantly exclusive bike club rides all over the Bay Area. Nobody riding in CM wishes YOU were dead! THEY just want to ride together in the city, despite the wide range of attitudes present in ANY crowd that size, and despite the finger-waving admonitions from myopic drivers and meme infected bike club "aristocrats". Just my opinion.

Dude, think about what you are saying. Nobody deserves to be crushed by a car, ever. I get that you are exaggerating or something but that just ain't right.


That post is one of the ugliest I've ever seen on Bike Forums.

Troll much you think?

It's unfortunate that the bike community at large has such an intollerant, xenophobic attitude toward those who choose to ride together in a parade. Tonight CM had a huge police escort, stopped at many red lights (keeping the mass together) and was free of anything noteworthy. I didn't hear an angry word or see a single altercation along the route. It immediately opened a path for a fire truck.

Please get over your hatred. You have plenty of your own costumed, helmeted "parades" within the arrogantly exclusive bike club rides all over the Bay Area. Nobody riding in CM wishes YOU were dead! THEY just want to ride together in the city, despite the wide range of attitudes present in ANY crowd that size, and despite the finger-waving admonitions from myopic drivers and meme infected bike club "aristocrats". Just my opinion.

The posts that are negative about CM mention almost exclusively the incidents where the ride has gotten rowdy, caused unnecessary delays, disregarded laws, etc... in such a way as to raise ire towards ALL cyclists.

If everyone got together 1 Friday a month, followed the rules and increased awareness of cyclists on the streets without incident, everyone would support it. If that's what you did last night, great, good on you.

Not really bridging the gap with "meme infected bike club aristocrats" though, are we? Take note that the person who said there are some cyclists that deserve to be hit by a car has been shouted down by all sides...

Good point, but that gap is huge, real, and created by the bike clubs. Perhaps if it didn't exist, more of the foolish riding by "civilians" seen on the street and in CM would be corrected by their acceptance by, and inclusion with those groups.

Why would people dislike CM, it's not like they're doing anything to intentionally inconvenience others. If you guys stopped at red lights, what's the police escort for? An excellent use of police resources by the way.

Nope not a bike club aristocrat. But I'd rather ride with some aristocrats than CM anyday.

Please get over your hatred. You have plenty of your own costumed, helmeted "parades" within the arrogantly exclusive bike club rides all over the Bay Area. Nobody riding in CM wishes YOU were dead! THEY just want to ride together in the city, despite the wide range of attitudes present in ANY crowd that size, and despite the finger-waving admonitions from myopic drivers and meme infected bike club "aristocrats". Just my opinion.

Interesting, and wrong, I think. I don't belong to a club or team, but nearly every club ride in the Bay Area welcomes new riders on their group rides (go check some websites, or better yet, go join a ride). I've ridden with several clubs and they are all quite welcoming. Even many racing teams allow experienced riders to latch on to their rides. I have to wonder how you came to this conclusion. Maybe you're bitter about some other aspect of road cycling..??

It's foolish for a crowd of 1000 cyclists to stop at EVERY red light. The escort was to keep them safe from foolish drivers pushing through the parade, and to facilitate it's expeditious passage along the route for those wanting to use the street it's on. An excellent use of police resources indeed! That's what makes it a "critical" mass. If they stopped at every light, it would be a bike walk, not a bike ride.

It's unfortunate that the bike community at large has such an intollerant, xenophobic attitude toward those who choose to ride together in a parade. Tonight CM had a huge police escort, stopped at many red lights (keeping the mass together) and was free of anything noteworthy. I didn't hear an angry word or see a single altercation along the route. It immediately opened a path for a fire truck.

Please get over your hatred. You have plenty of your own costumed, helmeted "parades" within the arrogantly exclusive bike club rides all over the Bay Area. Nobody riding in CM wishes YOU were dead! THEY just want to ride together in the city, despite the wide range of attitudes present in ANY crowd that size, and despite the finger-waving admonitions from myopic drivers and meme infected bike club "aristocrats". Just my opinion.

:roflmao:

thanks for illustrating why CM riders are tools. :thumb:

Interesting, and wrong, I think. I don't belong to a club or team, but nearly every club ride in the Bay Area welcomes new riders on their group rides (go check some websites, or better yet, go join a ride). I've ridden with several clubs and they are all quite welcoming. Even many racing teams allow experienced riders to latch on to their rides. I have to wonder how you came to this conclusion. Maybe you're bitter about some other aspect of road cycling..??

Lidless riders are shunned by bike clubs, despite the signing of a liability waiver. Do you know of one that doesn't?

Lidless riders are shunned by bike clubs, despite the signing of a liability waiver. Do you know of one that doesn't?

Ah, now I get it. Bike clubs are aristocratic and arrogant because they want you to wear a helmet. :rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes:

They don't "want" me to wear a helmet, they demand everyone wear a helmet, always and everywhere. That created the gap, and their vehemence regarding them widened it.

This thread is about CM, not helmets. I'm just pointing out that CM offers an unrestricted group ride experience to those in the city that don't want to "gear up" to do it. Are there "tools" riding amongst the vast majority of good, fun-loving casual cyclists that define CM? Yes. Do they ruin it for the crowd and its purpose now? Yes. Are there aristocratic and arrogant "tools" riding with bike clubs? Yes, plenty.

They don't "want" me to wear a helmet, they demand everyone wear a helmet, always and everywhere. That created the gap, and their vehemence regarding them widened it.

This thread is about CM, not helmets. I'm just pointing out that CM offers an unrestricted group ride experience to those in the city that don't want to "gear up" to do it. Are there "tools" riding amongst the vast majority of good, fun-loving casual cyclists that define CM? Yes. Do they ruin it for the crowd and its purpose now? Yes. Are there aristocratic and arrogant "tools" riding with bike clubs? Yes, plenty.

Given that in the single year I've been riding I've personally known like 4 people who have crashed and destroyed helmets (thereby preventing damage to their heads) I think you're going to find that you just made this thread about helmets. :roflmao2:

But anyway, to speculate, I bet bike clubs don't want the liability of having someone on their organized group ride without a helmet either for insurance reasons, or for perception that someone who doesn't wear a helmet doesn't value their brain.

I don't wear a helmet when I ride on campus (I should), but I barely ever break 14mph. Too many pedestrians, curbs and other riders around. So when I'm on campus, lidless riders don't bother me at all. But if I'm descending some road at 30+mph and I see a guy wearing just a dew rag, it makes me wonder if he doesn't value his life, is he more likely to do something silly and endanger mine?

One of my work friends didn't wear a helmet for our first rides. After our 3rd plowed into the side of a van which turned in front of him at the Canada intersection and only avoided serious brain injury by crushing like an inch of foam in his helmet, the first guy started wearing one. Didn't feel like a coincidence.

Lidless riders are shunned by bike clubs, despite the signing of a liability waiver. Do you know of one that doesn't?
Grizzly Peak leaves it up to each ride leader to specify in the ride description - seems to be about an even split.

Thank you very much, Prathmann! I'll certainly look them up.

Ygduf, I'm going to leave it right there out of respect for the thread, despite having just as many examples, statistics and anecdotal stories from my 40 years on a bike to balance yours. Anyhow, my beef is certainly NOT with helmets, it's with the vehement attitude regarding them from very many of those who wear them toward those who don't. And my point was that that vehemence helps fuel the "finger-in-your-face" attitude of some (not the best, and a small but obvious minority) in the CM crowd. Ride On!!!

Dude, think about what you are saying. Nobody deserves to be crushed by a car, ever. I get that you are exaggerating or something but that just ain't right.

I don't think I'm exaggerating at all. Think about these tools riding brake less in the opposite direction down on a one way street running reds then have the nerve to cuss or give the bird to angry motorist who barely avoids hitting them or hitting someone else because of the said tools. I wonder how you would feel if a car hit you because they were trying to avoid some dude running a stop sign/red light.

When your actions can possibly cause others harm, I have no problems with you getting "crushed" by a car.
You wanna blow through a red light going 20 mph, you deserve what ever comes at you. It's your own doing.

I certainly would not and do not wish you harm if all you intent was to block traffic and delay me from going home. But it is still stupid and does nothing to mend the fragile relationship between drivers and riders. When you piss off a driver, they'll take it out on the entire cycling community.

I for one certainly hope I don't get what I "deserve."

When your actions can possibly cause others harm, I have no problems with you getting "crushed" by a car.
You wanna blow through a red light going 20 mph, you deserve what ever comes at you. It's your own doing.

I certainly would not and do not wish you harm if all you intent was to block traffic and delay me from going home. But it is still stupid and does nothing to mend the fragile relationship between drivers and riders. When you piss off a driver, they'll take it out on the entire cycling community.


Consider the driver stuck behind a few club riders out on a twisting hilly road that won't move over and ride single file to let them pass. That driver, perhaps a hot-head, is going to be just as pissed off at those "dumb cyclists" as the city drivers you mentioned. Drivers don't differentiate between experienced riders and malicious dopes on a bike, carbon fiber and steel. All they know is "bicycle", "in MY way". That driver on a hill is gonna' blast around those cyclists, quite possibly in a very unsafe way, putting any oncomming driver AND the cyclists at big risk of harm. Do THEY to deserve to be "crushed by a car"?

I see THAT behavious all the time. I've seen it plenty in the hills between here and Santa Cruz. I've read about that problem all over Marin county. I was just hearing about it from a non-biking friend in Sebastopol, saying such cyclists shouldn't be riding on those kinds of roads because there are drivers like HIM on the road. What's the difference? How do you think drivers feel when trapped behind a group of bike clubbers out for a training ride, on a hilly winding road?

Grizzly Peak leaves it up to each ride leader to specify in the ride description - seems to be about an even split.

I wonder if they have a different insurance company than the other local clubs?

I wonder if they have a different insurance company than the other local clubs?
I doubt it. The insurance company recommended by LAB does not require the clubs they insure to have any specific helmet policy, nor does their recommended waiver form (available at the LAB site) mention helmets. AFAIK, they are the most used insurer for local bike clubs.

As another example, Cherry City just changed their policy this year to require helmets - it was not requested by their insurer nor did it have any impact on their premiums.

Thank you Prathman for that very interesting information! My jaw is literally hitting the table. I don't know what to say about that and I'm certainly not going to say all 20 paragraphs of it in this thread here. Wow. ............Wow.

Dude, think about what you are saying. Nobody deserves to be crushed by a car, ever. I get that you are exaggerating or something but that just ain't right.

When you do something stupid and get hit by a car, I don't feel sorry for that person. Especially if you ride like you don't give a ****. When you ride with no regard to your own or anyone else's safety. If that person gets "crushed" by a car, he/she deserved it. You do not need to be on the street.


That post is one of the ugliest I've ever seen on Bike Forums.

Troll much you think?

no, not trolling at all. I feel very strongly about idiots on the street. They endanger themselves and they endanger everyone else.


Consider the driver stuck behind a few club riders out on a twisting hilly road that won't move over and ride single file to let them pass. That driver, perhaps a hot-head, is going to be just as pissed off at those "dumb cyclists" as the city drivers you mentioned. Drivers don't differentiate between experienced riders and malicious dopes on a bike, carbon fiber and steel. All they know is "bicycle", "in MY way". That driver on a hill is gonna' blast around those cyclists, quite possibly in a very unsafe way, putting any oncomming driver AND the cyclists at big risk of harm. Do THEY to deserve to be "crushed by a car"?

I see THAT behavious all the time. I've seen it plenty in the hills between here and Santa Cruz. I've read about that problem all over Marin county. I was just hearing about it from a non-biking friend in Sebastopol, saying such cyclists shouldn't be riding on those kinds of roads because there are drivers like HIM on the road. What's the difference? How do you think drivers feel when trapped behind a group of bike clubbers out for a training ride, on a hilly winding road?

You're argument sounds like it makes a little sense but let's take a look. You are comparing a few, let's just say 10 +/- 5 riders on a country road to a few hundreds of rides in busy downtown san francisco. You are comparing a few drivers out on a scenic road where they expect to see cyclists and might have to wait a couple mins if not second to make a pass to hundreds of drivers trying to get home stuck for many mins with no possibility of pass through. You are comparing a few cyclists going as fast as they can to hundreds of bikers moving slowly with the intention of distrubing traffic. what else can i say, a few cyclists taking the entire lane for their safety to a bunch of riders taking the entire street, just because they can, and have the numbers. Are you really comparing a dumb driver making a stupid move putting others in jeopardy to a driver being forced to into hitting others due to a jackass running a red light. really?!

Really guy? are we really talking about the same thing here. Would you like to dig up some news articles or footage of club riders starting arguments with old couples in minivans? Have you seen club riders gulping down a 40s before a nice training ride in the hills? You seem to have some issues with guys that takes their cycling too seriously, I'm no club rider, I find most of them to be too "elite" to ride with the likes of me. And you seem to be stuck in the phrase" get crushed by a car". I don't believe I said anything about CM riders deserves to be hit by cars, unless you think all CM riders are idiots that do stupid ****. I have friends that ride in CM. I don't support it and I don't wish them harm. My friends don't ride like the people I think "deserves" what they get, do you?


I for one certainly hope I don't get what I "deserve."

Well, I don't know. Are you trying to be a smart-ass making a comment or are you offended because you are one of these guys I'm talking about. Running busy downtown intersections at full speed. Hitting pedestrians crossing the street. Confront drivers and pedestrians fully knowing it was your fault. How often do you cut off Muni buses on mission street? How often do you run a red forcing cars to make emergency stops. If you're simply offended because I don't value the life of a person I just described, I have no reply for you. That's just how I feel on the topic, if you think less of me, I'm ok with that.

I think it may officially be time to conclude :trainwreck: