My first SF critical mass
 

Hello, just curious if anyone else rode in the SF critical mass today? This was my first time, and I was just curious if that path we took was about norm? Seemed like for a good part of it we were out in the boonies, and then the hill... I made it up (although I can feel it in my knees now), but had to walk down the other side. I took off once we got to church and 16th, seemed to be falling apart by then anyway. I had a fun time, I tried to stay close to the music, I think i'll be joining in again in the future.

Sounds like the NYC mass is a little different then ours.

We were there handing out flyers. I didn't stay for the ride though. What were you riding?

I was riding a yellow '03 KHS flight 100

They have some serious hills in SF! As I got to know, because I drove my car up there and had to park a mile or so, and several hills, from where I was going.

Having a car in the City is like tying a barbell around your neck and taking a swim in the bay.....

I was the fella on a red conversion with rando drops. If you have short black bullhorns I saw you (didn't think there was another flight 100), maybe when we all stopped at the base of the second hill. Which I walked, since I could restart. That was one helluva downhill.

That was a very different route, it seems that the mass stays primarily downtown, and usually starts up Market. I really liked the ride, the route was different and fun, everyone seemed more friendly than ever, and the cops were especially nice - making conversation with riders, etc.

Did you stay for the end? I stopped to help a girl with a broken chain, but the mass didn't get very far. One of the riders got hurt after being thrown from the hood of a car. If you didn't hear about it or others do, I'll write up a more detailed description soas to not spread any inaccuracies (A friend of mine gave me a detailed first-hand account). In short, the CM rider was an idiot.

i was there.. anyone see that girl crash her sick fixie with hot pink deep v's on the downside of that huge hill?

i don't like cm anymore, but unaesthetic please explain that story of the girl, and what did she look like?

was she riding a dave gray steamer?

Yeah I saw that bike when I was handing out flyers. She was with a large group of Asian fixed gear riders.
I didn't get a chance to talk to them much though. Was the bike hurt? Was she hurt?

I hate to spread rumors (and this one is really more like fourth-hand knowledge) but I heard the chick whos bike got stolen (bob jackson) last month replaced her wheelset with pink rims and black phil hubs. Could it be the same i wonder....

Im kinda in the same boat, it seems to go against the very thing it stands for.

there are plenty of cliche sayings that could describe it, effing for virginity, war for peace, or CM for illustrating that drivers should share the road with "friendly cyclists." Dont get me wrong, i think its great fun, but i dont think the message to drivers is positive.

Yeah, cm is now kind of a joke in my opinion. While I don't see it standing for much of anything (whatever it did stand for, like bike awereness), it is now just a group of people that ride poorly together, and go to the most ridiculous lame places. I have been on too many rides where it seems to be led to some wierd place for some stupid reason that has nothing to do with riding. Last time I went, I just couldn't handle the people riding like idiots. My opinion.

But, I ask about the girl who fell, because I was thinking it was Caroline the girl who fell. She is riding a Vivalo frame now, and I think got new wheels. Not sure. Someone give out details.

I was a little annoyed with some of the riders, zig zagging at high speed through the crowd (seems like it was mostly the guys on the downhill style mtn. bikes doing that). Seems like there are just as many bad bicyclists as there are drivers. Also I didn't like the idea of taking over both directions of traffic, I know we are there to show drivers that we too are traffic, but we can do that without taking over the whole road.

Yeah I was the one with the short bullhorns, I didn't see any other flite 100s either, although I did see a lot of very nice track bikes. I was envious of many of them.

On a side note, saw something funny, some guy right next to me was explaining to a pedestrian what was going on, taking his eyes off where he was going, and ran right into one of the parked motorcycle cops. He wasn't going fast so no damage, but definitely funny.