I went for the first time. Who else participated this year? Link

I did it for the first time this year and loved it. The pace was a bit slow and it took me and my friends over 4.5 hours to do the whole thing, including rest stop, & other stops (they were cruising). My behind hurt like hell afterwords since most of my previous rides are less than two hours and even the padded shorts didn't help much.

Ended up sleeping the morning off at Navy Pier waiting to be picked up.

' was there. I was with the green group.

' loved the bar scene ( some drunks cheering and giving high fives to ridders ) and the altercations between motorists and cyclists.

It was fun. I'll do it again next year.

Thanks much for posting the pics. That's great!!! Yes, it was my first time as well. And I agree the bar scenes in Greek Town was great.

Coming in a bit late on this post but I was there with friends. It was a very slow ride for me. I've road in Critical Mass which was a lot funner, friendlier and faster paced (especially not stopping for the lights). Also I felt there are a lot more people who know how to ride with Critical Mass whereas the LATE ride - everyone and their rusted up barely road-worthy bikes were there.
Plus.. at the VERY end of the ride some jerk came barreling down the trail and slammed into my friend on her side and fell on top of her. As she was laying on the ground injured he grabbed his bike and took off - not even a sorry. Needless to say that pissed us all of quite a bit. She has a fractured wrist and plenty of road rash.
I don't think I will go next year.

^ Yikes! I hope your friend is doing okay! Thats a very ****ty thing to do for that guy. The lake shore drive part was the worst as there were no lights and some idiots decided to go the other way.

I've heard good things about critical mass, I've been thinking about checking it out.

Vlad - I highly recommend Critcal Mass. As with any large bike ride - especially one as unscripted as Critical Mass - just keep your cool with the drivers and keep a watchful eye out and it is a blast!
I'd like to ride this Friday but my normal crew is not going to ride and I always like to ride with a buddy in case something does happen.
Critical Mass gets a bad wrap but after seeing the accidents and the kooks that rode on the LATE ride it makes Critcal Mass look much safer.

^ Thanks! I hope to check it out sometime soon.

My group and I ride the L.A.T.E. ride every year, this was my 5th year. We always end up getting in the first wave, right behind the VIPs and take a liesurely ride, we still end up close to the two hour mark. This year's ride was a new route & a earlier start time. The combo caused some level of confusion and I noticed a lot more upset motorists this year.

As for the lakefront path, it's always sketchy there. You really need powerful lights on that path, it helps. Luckily I've had no mishaps to date. I hope your friend heals up quickly Megarot.

Megarot that totally sucks about your friend, though I don't think Critical Mass is any better. I used to have a blast on it too until people found it more entertaining to smoke weed and drink beer on the ride and piss off drivers. Sure, there are only a hundred or so that do it, but still, that whole hipster crowd isn't my cup-o-tea anyways. The Northshore Critical Mass is a pretty good one, not as large and a bit classier group. I did Crit Mass for years in the city, to many idiots ruined it for me by not caring about cycling.

Nixternal - I'm sorry to hear that. I only happened to catch 2 guys drinking. There is a definite hipster crowd (which doesn't describe me in the slightest bit) but I was surprised to see how many other random people were there also. My first ride I almost suspected to be odd man out in the crowd of hipsters but there was a nice mix.
As it turns out, a friend and I are going to ride in Critical Mass tonight.