On Friday night I went on the Midnight Ridazz Critical Mass ride with Dave and our friend Jonathan. Every last Friday of the month they hold a massive bike ride somehwere around LA. For this ride we started at Wilshire and Western in downtown.
We had to take the metro from Pasadena to downtown with our bikes. We arrived right in the middle of it. There were maybe 100 riders there and tons of cops. Cops on bikes. Cops on motorcycles. Cops in cars. I guess they feel the need to escort the riders since we take up so much of the road.
Our ride started at 7:30. It was crazy! I've never seen so many bike riders in one place!
Here's a bunch of the police escorts.
When we rode we would take over the whole road. The cops would ride/drive ahead and get the traffic to move over for us and block intersections so we could go through red lights. If you were a car at one of the lights, you had to wait a long time.
We probably took up a good 6 blocks or so when we ride around. I bet there about 500 people or more that night.
We rode for I'd say a good 15 miles and then took our first stop. We had pretty much gone to Venice Beach. We continued on and started heading back to downtown, but the cops kept weaving us through random side streets and going on annoying detours than bringing us back to our starting spot. Which by the way, was the nearest Metro stop, so we had to get back there eventually to get home.
When they pulled over for a second break, the three of us decided to split for the main group and head straight back. The last 10 miles were horrible. I was riding my classic Schwinn one speed bike which made hills incredibly miserable. But we finially made it back. I went home with a sore back, sore legs and sore butt. It may be a long time until I do another one of those rides.
We had to take the metro from Pasadena to downtown with our bikes. We arrived right in the middle of it. There were maybe 100 riders there and tons of cops. Cops on bikes. Cops on motorcycles. Cops in cars. I guess they feel the need to escort the riders since we take up so much of the road.
Our ride started at 7:30. It was crazy! I've never seen so many bike riders in one place!
Here's a bunch of the police escorts.
When we rode we would take over the whole road. The cops would ride/drive ahead and get the traffic to move over for us and block intersections so we could go through red lights. If you were a car at one of the lights, you had to wait a long time.
We probably took up a good 6 blocks or so when we ride around. I bet there about 500 people or more that night.
We rode for I'd say a good 15 miles and then took our first stop. We had pretty much gone to Venice Beach. We continued on and started heading back to downtown, but the cops kept weaving us through random side streets and going on annoying detours than bringing us back to our starting spot. Which by the way, was the nearest Metro stop, so we had to get back there eventually to get home.
When they pulled over for a second break, the three of us decided to split for the main group and head straight back. The last 10 miles were horrible. I was riding my classic Schwinn one speed bike which made hills incredibly miserable. But we finially made it back. I went home with a sore back, sore legs and sore butt. It may be a long time until I do another one of those rides.
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