jamesdak 

LOL, maybe we should start a thread saying why we hate or love critical mass? You may not like my statements but there have been several rides by them here that caused quite a bit of ire and yes did make the news. Everything I mentioned was from one event and yes cyclist were arrested and charged. I am not against organized rides or whatever. But the facts are that critical mass does behave badly in my area. I'm sorry your experiences have been different. Reality is our fellow cyclist are usually our worse enemies. And yes I too get my share of harrassment by drivers to include being struck from behind and knocked out. I deal with the permanent brain damage everyday now not to mention that the jerk whacked me a week before LOTOJA, a 206 mile race I have trained quite awhile for.

So, tell me by what law you have the right to block intersections for your "ride" to go through? Are you supported in your actions by the police? Here they were told to stop blocking intersections by the police and refused those orders. They then attempted to avoid being arrested for failing to follow the orders of law enforcement. How can you ever justify that?

We have plenty of cycling events here to include the Tour of Utah, U.S. Road Championships, National Collegiate Championships, etc. They make it a pain to get around sometime but they are organized, supported by law enforcement, and unintrusive as practical. Critical Mass from my viewpoint can't say that. Heck, just google something like "critical mass sucks" and you'll get more hits of people posting negatively then you can read in a week.

Anyway, sorry to the OP for hijacking the thread....

Machka 

Probably a good idea to talk about the critical masses elsewhere ... and I think there are threads about them.

(This is the most recent thread ... https://www.bikeforums.net/advocacy-s...ical-mass.html ... but if a person wanted to find more, that person could use the Advanced Search, and put 'critical' in the keywords, then select Titles Only. They are mostly located within the Advocacy & Safety forum.)


Given that the OP is looking for a festival-type atmosphere with vendors etc. ... that rules a critical mass out. I don't think those people support local businesses and the atmosphere isn't particularly festive.



Anyway ... the OP might look at Gran Fondos. I've never done one, and they might not have quite the festival/vendor thing the OP is looking for, but they do seem to attract a lot of cyclists.

Machka 

This probably sums it up well ... there are many different bicycle events and things around, not just one or two really big ones.


In my part of the world, one of the bigger bicycle events is the Evandale Village Fair and National Penny Farthing Championships.
Evandale Village Fair & National Penny Farthing Championships - 2016 Event Information

We've been twice, and it's a lot of fun. We have not participated because we don't have penny farthings, but we keep toying with the idea of getting one ... or two ...

jamesdak 

Not sure where you're located but check out the event calendar at this site for plenty of events out here in the west.

Cycling Utah - Mountain West Cycling Magazine

jgadamski

Every summer we have 10k + show up for our annual Worlds Naked Bike Ride in Portland. See you there?

Black wallnut 

[QUOTE=jamesdak;18362090]LOL, I'm sorry your experiences have been different.

Wow do you have anything positive to add here? You are sorry that he had a good time and was not exposed to the bad parts you think are so prevalent. I'm hoping this is not really what you meant but I sure can't see what you could have wanted to say.

For the OP nearly all the supported rides I've been a part of plus some of the races have had anywhere from several to many vendors offering products everywhere from free to try to sell. Maybe move away from the Black Lodge and out into the light where the rest live and have these events.

indyfabz

I can't believe this thread has left me thinking ****, but it has.

SloButWide 

Many Quaker Steak and Lube restaurants do a weekly or biweekly cruise-in for motorcyclists during the summer. It would be cool if someone sponsored something like that for bicyclists, even if only once a summer.

Wilfred Laurier

Are you joking? If you can't find a regular friendly group ride in your area, you probably aren't looking hard enough. A bike shop in the next town over 'hosts' (actually a couple of them just wait outside the back of the shop on Wednesdays for anyone who wants to participate) a ride where there are three or four groups - ranging from carbon fibre and race kitted hammerheads to less avid cyclists on hybrids. My own smaller town has a regular twice weekly mountain bike ride led by retirees who have built and improved a trail system on the edge of town. There are at least two other well-attended regular group rides in the area, and we are in a rural area where people pay more money for their snowmobiles than their cars. The 'events' exist, it's just that bicycle rides generally don't require complex logistics and promotion. If no one is organizing these rides in your area, put up a poster in the LBS and start your own.

Agent Cooper

Great responses, I certainly do stand corrected. Turns out there are quite a few things going on that I hadn't heard of before. I'm glad these things are out there and someday I hope to make it one. Thanks folks!

I guess the sticking point for me, and partly why I brought up the topic, is that there isn't really any nationally recognized signature event for us Cyclists.

Take Sturgis. I know, I keep picking on that one. But that's because nearly everybody in the US knows about it. People who have never rode a motorcycle in their lives know what Sturgis is, or have heard of it. It's famous. (Maybe not for the best reasons, but that's another debate.)

Cycling doesn't seem to have anything with that kind of household recognition with the muggles.

If you stand by the water cooler in your office and say "I'm going to Sturgis this year" most of your co-workers will probably know what you mean. "Oh, you ride a motorcycle?"

If you said "I'm doing to RAGBRAI this year" or "I'm going to try and get to Interbike next month" I bet you'd get blank stares.

fietsbob

TV loves spectacle Harley guys make good TV, particularly if drunk & they start fights and the Police are Called..

Naked Bike rides are too hard to digitally obscure everyones Genitalia to show on US local TV.. Violence . Thats OK.

ColaJacket

But if you said that you wanted to go to the TdF, they probably would know what you mean.

GH

kickstart

Because it's a loooog boring ride to get there. Never did it on a motorcycle, but did many times driving a semi, yawn.

superdex

And maybe that's a good thing

Machka 

Mention that you're going to spend a couple weeks in France at the TDF ... and you might get some glimmers of recognition. Actually, you'll probably have one or two thinking you're planning to ride it.

Machka 

Just for reference ... this is the Links page on my website:

Charlene (Machka) - Links

I'm not going to guarantee that all the links are working because I haven't checked them in the last several months, but nevertheless, most should be. My focus there are long distance events and touring organisations, but some have more lists of events.


@SloButWide ... you might start browsing through some of those websites to see if there are events on in your area. There are cycling events everywhere!

jamesdak 

[QUOTE=Black wallnut;18362313]LOL, not at all what I meant, just a symptom of my constant inability to keep focused on what I'm doing since the last wreck and head injury. My mind wanders all the time. What I meant was more along the lines of sorry we don't agree.

veganbikes

Were you at these rides? If not it would be hard to comment on what really happened without being there because the media frequently will distort the story especially when it helps the status quo and hurts an outside element.

In my area if you are over a certain amount of people you have legal right to take the streets. However when riding as a group it is important to keep that group together, if we split apart and people kept riding it was a pain to keep them together. I think corking made things much safer as we all kept together as a group which is part of the point. The police didn't ever bother us, except once when a cyclist was hit in which case they just kind of bugged us and didn't help the victim at all (they made a big fuss but couldn't do some simple first responder stuff)

I can read anything on the internet especially if I write it sucks. Comments on the internet usually aren't to be listened to. Plus you can get people to hate what you hate easily without much knowledge. I could easily bet that many of the people who hate on critical mass haven't been to one and haven't experienced it first hand and are just mad a cyclists or mad at people having fun.

Road races are not the same as a group ride for fun comparing the two is utterly ridiculous. Of course if you get permits police are going to help out and of course they are going to be organized they are races, and probably sanctioned at that.

SloButWide 

Thanks.

In the USA, there's also Gran Fondo (as the Gran Fondo Guide has ceased operation) and the Active.com Century List.
In Mid-Ohio, Columbus Outdoor Pursuits is a non-profit that hosts many cycling events and tours, including Great Ohio Bicycle Adventrue and Tour of the Scioto Valley.

Agent Cooper

...and on further reflection, I think you're probably right.

Agent Cooper

Heh.

Yup. I'll tell them that when we get to the mountains, I'm going to get up early and climb a trivial little hill called Alp D'huez a couple of times before the actual race. Just to get a good feel for the course.

"Hors Categorie" means "Super Easy" in French.

jamesdak 

That'll get them, LOL!!

I remember the only time I was lucky enough to see the Tour De France back in the 80s. Wow, what a great feeling to experience. That was back when I lived in Germany and me and the old Peugeot bike were all over Bavaria. I really respect the bike culture over there and all the great wonderful trials for cyclist. You could spend a whole day riding town to town and never have to deal with cars and traffic. What a joy!

Good luck with finding the kinds of events you want. I'll be trying to hit at least one event a month myself come spring again.

kickstart

I've never met anyone who participated in, or was a victim of a critical mass who viewed it in a positive light, but it died out rather quickly in Seattle as we have productive legitimate advocacy.

veganbikes

I guess it must be much different in other cities I haven't been too or people just really hate the idea of critical mass. We had decent numbers of regular participants up until I left due to a bunch of fast couriers taking over and also just being a little tired of it after years of participating.

09box

That Adventure fest thing looks really cool. I'd like to try attending/riding that one year.