December 31, 2004

This one fell on New Years Eve! This was my first CM ride ever and pretty much the first time in almost 15 years that I had ridden a bike. I got my old rusting Schwinn 2-speed coaster brake fixed up just in time. My friends (and neighbors) Brooke and Aspen had recently showed me the documentary We Are Traffic, all about the history of Critical Mass in San Francisco, and I was really excited about it. I convinced a friend to go and we showed up at Buchanan Bicycles with B and A at 6:00. It looked like it was just us four, but it turned out that J was in the shop with some other guys that were there for the ride. A couple more guys showed up and we had eleven. I had been hoping for and expecting a lot more, but eleven was enough to make it worthwhile and fun.

We rode up University to Gray, west to Flood, down a block to Main and west on Main to Melrose. Through some neighborhoods to Brooks, west to 24th, and south on 24th to Lindsey. We rode east on Lindsey to Berry, where someone wanted to stop to get Starbursts for everyone. Then we took the secret bike path over the creek just south of Lindsey through some neighborhoods and then back up to Lindsey. We had already lost one and then a few more guys took off for home as we passed the campus. We continued east on Lindsey to Classen, then up Classen to Boyd, west to Campus Corner and back to the shop.

The entire ride was after dark, the weather was great and there was not a lot of traffic. A few people honked at us to get out of the way on Lindsey, otherwise didn't seem to be any hostility from drivers.

This was about the most fun I can remember having outside. Though I had not ridden bikes for awhile, I rode bikes for transportation in Norman for five years long ago. There is a very special feeling when riding in a group. Part of the CM deal is to provide this element of safety, which is automatic and something that you can feel. It is a magic thing. Another aspect of CM is that there are no rules and no leaders. So you never know who will show up, where the ride will go or what will happen. I think the ride is a good opportunity to learn and demonstrate bicycle safety. Four of the eleven riders, including me, had the blinking red LED lights on our bikes, which I think is essential for riding at night. (the law is that you must have a white light on the front and a red relector on the back). I had been concerned that I would not be in shape for a long ride on a one-speed bike, but it was no big deal. The pace is casual and the group sticks together, not leaving anyone behind.

I hope to go on these rides from now one, and I hope to see over a hundred riders soon. I'll be telling everyone about it. I think the CM ride has kind of come and gone a few times over the years in Norman, but I think it is time to build it up to a significant event.

January 28, 2005

Well, this was quite the opposite of the fun time I had last month. I was the only one who showed up, so I was very disappointed. I thought I had convinced a couple of dozen people to show up for this. Probably can't really blame anyone, as the weather had been bad all day. It was supposed to be raining on and off so I was just hoping it wouldn't be raining at 6. But when I got up in the morning, it was snowing! Coming down pretty good, too, so I just figured that the ride would be off, and I'm sure everyone else figured the same. But the temperature stayed above freezing and the snow stopped, so by 5 or so there was no snow or ice on any roads or sidewalks anywhere in town. I rode my bike to the Earth to eat at 5 and then went to the bike shop and found no one there for the ride. I later rode to a friend's house and then back home and later rode to an art opening and back. And actually, you could not have asked for a nicer night for a bike ride, considering that it is the middle of winter. There was no wind and the temp stayed above freezing well into the night, so ice was not an issue. Well, we'll see about next time....

February 25, 2005

Five including me this time. Not much point in really doing a ride so we just rode around for 20 or 30 minutes. Weather was great. I was super-disappointed and vowwed not to let this happen again.

March 25, 2005

I was too busy to make flyers, but I actually did make some by hand on Friday morning and stick them up in a few special places (counter at the Earth, front door of Pepe's, front of OU Library). May have snagged at least one person (who already knew about it but may have forgotten). So we still need to get the word out. And soon the weather will be nicer and the sun will be up later. Twelve people showed up for the ride, so I guess we're going in the right direction. K had a map of proposed new bike paths and suggested we follow some of those. Also her sister was playing at Borders at 8 so she suggested we wind up there. It can be interesting to have a destination, but then it also makes sense to wind up where we started. Of course it all works out. We rode north up University to Main, east to Jones, took the sidewalk path up to Duffy (stopping to look at the miniature model of old Norman - and some discussion about suggesting to the city that they make some "holes" in the cable fence so cyclists and pedestrians can access the path), over to Monnet, south to Boyd, over to Jenkins and south on Jenkins all the way up to Imhoff. West on Imhoff to Pickard, north on Pickard to Lindsey, and then west on Lindsey all the way over the I-35 bridge to the Ed Noble Parkway. We got off that dangerous road and rode through the parking lots starting at Home Depot. Someone had told me that there was a secret gravel rode that ran from behind Just for Feet to Borders, so we found that. A great short cut, partly gravel, partly dirt. We had lost two on the way and five more decided to stay at Borders for the music (one guy was too worn out to continue - "I don't get much cardio"), which left five of us to ride back. Two guys wanted to go eat on Lindsey, so we went back the way we came and lost them at Taco Bueno. The remaining trio came back on McGee and Boyd. Very fun as always. I have been hoping to have families with kids on the rides and telling people that anyone can do this, but I may be rethinking that. There was no hostility from drivers, though we did block a bit of traffic on Jenkins and a couple of other spots. I did not see any police cars and not sure any police saw us at all. Everyone was well-behaved, observing traffic and safety rules. (Except for lights - only about 4 bikes with lights, at least those serve as examples - need lights at night!) And the group stayed pretty much together. But this was a really intense ride. Enough to really wear people out. Which is good, but maybe not everyone would be able to handle it. J was riding a track bike, lots of one-speeds and old clunkers. One one hand, its no big deal and anyone should be able to do it, on the other hand - this can be a really hard-core experience - especially on a single-speed bike. Roughly estimating with a map, maybe 6 miles to Borders and 3 miles to get back. We got started at probably 6:15 and I got home at 8:00. We took a break for 10-15 minutes at Borders. So maybe an hour and a half of riding. Super-duper fun!

April 28, 2005

It was a very chilly day and I was scared that no one was going to show up, so I was very surprised to find 8 of us for the ride. Not the big crowd we need, but eight was fun enough. All kinds of bikes including a really cool chopper and 2 track bikes. I'll try to remember and fill in here later where all we rode, but we wound up riding east on Main Street from the bus station all the way downtown to the Mainsite Art Gallery where we stopped in for the openning. I thought we were done, but it turned out we were just taking a 30-minute cheese/art/wine break. We lost a rider there but picked another one up before we left. We then rode east on Main to Classen, south to Boyd and back to Buchanan on Boyd. A very fun ride. A bit more hostility from drivers than on past rides. We were blocking traffic on Berry for a while, but otherwise no reason for people to be upset. Taking a lane on Main street left 2 other lanes for cars and the traffic was light, so hard to understand why people would be upset when they can just go around. Anyway, it was an extra-fun ride.

May 27, 2005

Funnest ride so far! Every time its even more fun. How can that be? Only 8 riders this time - where is everyone? It would be way more fun with more people. But then sometimes maybe its gets a little more adventurous with a smaller group. This time we went down to the river - and took a long way to get there. Up University, past Andrews park and over to the new sidewalk trail by the train tracks. It has been extended all the way up to Robinson, so we rode up to Robinson and then took the sidewalk on the north side of Robinson all the way to the I-35 bridge and then took Robinson to 36th street, where we turned south and rode all the way down past Main street and around the big bend to Lindsey. Then we turned off on the road that goes into the trailer park and got onto some winding dirt roads that went all the way down to the river. At that point things got a little confused and the group broke into two groups of four. Someone knew a secret way out the other side but some thought we were going too far and turned back to go out the way we came in. We almost got back together at Lindsey and 24th, but didn't quite get the group back until we had travelled all the way down Lindsey to Pickard and up north to Brooks. We took Pickard to Boyd and rode back to Campus Corner on Boyd. Seemed like a pretty long ride, but probably took between 60 and 90 minutes and probably was a bit over 10 miles, which is probably about average and probably what we are aiming for. Probably we wouldn't have gone down to the river with a larger group, but it was very fun to explore the paths down there.

June 24, 2005

Well I finally made flyers and someone else made flyers too, so we are starting to get the word out. Lots of new people today and we had 17 to start with. Was certainly hoping for lots more. We took University north to Main. Lost 2 riders about 3 blocks into it - they heard we might be crossing I-35 and they were hoping for more of a scenic ride. Main to Mercedes, then north into some neighborhood streets over to 24th. Across 24th over to Wal-Mart, where someone thought it would be cool to ride into the store (not cool). One rider followed in and everyone else stopped outside and waited for them to come out. Then up north to Robinson just behind Albertson's. Lost 3 more there - too tired to make the hill over the bridge. So we had 12 for the rest of the ride. We took Robinson over to Brookhaven and checked out Jazz in June, which had not quite started yet. Someone wondered why they would put this event in an asphalt parking lot when Norman has plenty of parks. We didn't hang around there long until we headed south to Main and then took Main street all the way to Flood, where we ended up at the Earth.

July 29, 2005

A pretty good core group showed up, with 17 riders total. At least I think it was 17. It seemed like we picked one up later and it also seemed like maybe we just had 16 later, so maybe I wasn't counting so good, but we'll say 17. Two new people both said they had seen flyers, so I guess that's doing some good. Someone pointed out that maybe it would be good to figure in the sun and ride one way earlier and the other way later so we wouldn't be riding into the sun. So then we started out heading east with the sun on our backs. But then it was realized that maybe it would be better to start out heading west and then come back with the sun on our backs, so we turned around and headed west. I maybe don't remember the rest of it so well, but it was a long one. At some point we were going around the big curve at the west end of Lindsey and then we stopped to rest a bit at the bank by Sam's Club. Then up north to Robinson, over the bridge at I-35 and east all the way to Peters. I split off by the jail to go on home, since I was late for a wedding reception and the ride was almost done. This one was probably almost an hour and a half. Very fun as always, and everyone was very well behaved.

August 26, 2005

All right - slowly building, looks like 19 this time, including lots of new people. Managed to get a bunch more flyers up in the last few days. (and we passed out a bunch on the ride). I had worked outside most of the day in the over-95-degree heat and high humidity and expected the ride to be grueling and figured no one would even show up. But it was not really that bad. Somehow these long rides always seem really easy. An assortment of bikes including a track bike and a homemade 3-wheeler. And a couple of boom boxes providing music, though not much volume. Headed north on Buchanan, over to University, up north to I think Symmes and then back down Webster/Asp through Campus Corner into the OU campus. Rode by the Student Union where Hosty Duo was setting up to play a free concert. On through the south oval to Lindsey street, then east on Lindsey over to 12th street. North on 12th to Alameda, then headed west on Alameda. We turned into a church parking lot a couple of blocks before Classen and stopped in the shade for a break. Someone had a flat tire and A took off to get a spare wheel from his house. So it was kind of a long break, but the bike was fixed. Then we took the secret path through the woods to Stewart and then over to Classen and up to Gray. Someone else had a flat tire and B and A actually gave him a ride home (not far) on the back of one of their bikes and they later rejoined the ride a few blocks down Gray. Turned on University, over to Main, then west to Flood street. We sat in the left turn lane through a whole sequence of light changes and then realized that the light did not turn for us since we did not trigger the metal detector under the road. So we waited for a chance and went ahead on through on red. I thought we might make a stop at the Earth on our way by, but that didn't happen. East on Symmes to Webster, then back south to Campus Corner. Since Hosty was playing in front of the Student Union with free food and drinks, we just crusied on across Boyd street and ended up there. Another very fun ride.

September 30, 2005

Thirteen riders. (We need more! Budapest, Hungary just had a Critical Mass ride with 30,000 riders!) The usual assortment of bikes. More girls than guys this time. I'm writing this a couple of weeks later, so might be forgetting some of the route. Headed up University, over to Berry at some point. Up North on Berry to Robinson. Across Robinson into North Base area. Realizing that there was not a good way out of there we just turned around by the airport and went back to Robinson. Took the bikepath/sidewalk west on Robinson across I-35. Group got a bit spread out and separated at traffic light, then a chain came off a bike. Three of us kind of got left behind getting the chain back on. (we need to work on keeping the group together) Then we raced over the bridge and caught up with the group at the gas station around the corner on 36th. For some reason many people needed to air up tires. Then rode south on 36th all the way past Main Street and down to the big curve around to Lindsey. Lindsey to 24th, then North to Boyd, and east on Boyd back to Campus Corner. Another fun ride!

October 28, 2005

34 people showed up! Alright, now we're getting somewhere! Of course, this one was the funnest yet. A few people were wearing costumes for Halloween and there was a bicycle-built-for-two. I had actually been dreading this one for months, since I knew it would fall on the same day as the Norman Library Book Sale, which I can't miss (and which also starts at 6:00pm). I figured I would show up for the ride and maybe just go a little ways and then head over to the library, but I was not able to pull myself away from the ride, and there was plenty of time to hit the sale before it closed at 9:00 anyway so everything worked out great. I was such a thrill to see more and more people showing up until we had the biggest group yet (in the last year, anyway - I think there have been some larger turnouts once or twice in past years). We started out heading north on Buchanan, across White to Webster and north across Gray past the Library, past Andrews park, then over to Berry and north to Robinson. We turned left and rode in the right-hand lane on Robinson over to 24th, turning left to head south on 24th, down to Main Street, then west over the bridge and south in front of the mall onto the Ed Noble Parkway. We took the secret back way behind Borders and Just for Feet, then through the parking lots back to the Parkway and on up to Lindsey. All these decisions were made on the fly by whoever was in front. A few of us thought maybe we should turn left on 24th and avoid Lindsey, but there seemed to be some enthusiasm for riding on Lindsey so we took Lindsey all the way past Elm and then rode through the OU campus back to Campus Corner ending up back at the bike shop probably about 7:15. Josh went up on the roof and took a picture of the group and then I raced off for the book sale. We seemed to do a lot better this time at keeping the group together. A couple of times we got split up at traffic lights and the front group stopped and waited for everyone else. No hostility from drivers that I was aware of, though we probably had traffic backed up just a bit on Lindsey. There's a limit to how much of a problem that can be, since there are so many traffic lights. Lots of friendly honks and waves. Still no problems with police and no problems with anyone's bikes on this one. Can it really keep getting more fun each time? Apparently so.

November 25, 2005

Maybe it was the Thanksgiving holiday, but only 3 of us showed up for this one, so we just rode around a bit. Come on people!

December 30, 2005

And once again, only 3 showed up, including a visitor from Portland. We went to my house and played some rock and roll. So at least that was fun.

January 27, 2006

I think we had 11 riders for this one (but it might have been more, I forgot to write this one up until much later so I don't remember the details). This was not a really long one. We wound up on Gray Street behind Hobby Lobby and went down Flood to Main Street. West on Main to 24th, south to Brooks, back east and then down to Boyd around Flood and back to Campus Corner on Boyd. Fun as always and I remember I was very excited since Hosty was playing at the Deli that night. Nothing like a big fun bike ride to start off a fun weekend.

February 24, 2006

Alright, now we're getting it back. 26 people showed up! And 2 bikes had trailers attached. One of the riders was a reporter from the Gazzette who will be writing a story about the Critical Mass rides. We headed out of Campus Corner to the north, across White Street to Asp and up Asp/Webster to Main Street. We took Main east to Porter/Classen and then went north to Robinson. We headed east to Findley to stop and pick up a very young passenger for one of the trailers. (Bicycle trailers can carry people, work tools, luggage, shopping bags, all kinds of stuff). South on Findley to Gray, west to Porter/Classen, then south all the way to Lindsey. I had to take off around Alameda so I could get to the big library booksale in OKC. Turning west on Lindsey, the ride then went to the south oval and up north through the campus. Probably things kind of broke up a bit at that point, with some ending and some continuing on to Mainsite for an art openning. Super fun as always. I will post a link to the Gazzette article when that is available. (Actually - the Gazette is way too lame to post their content online - the article, which was excellent, was in the April 12, 2006 issue).

March 24, 2006

I don't remember the exact number, but I think it was around 35. The Gazette sent a photographer and we started by riding around Campus Corner a couple of times so she could get some pictures. We went to the Medieval Fair (just rode through briefly). This was kind of a longer ride and we lost about 10 riders after an hour or so. Fun as always.

April 28, 2006

Pouring down rain all day - I figured no one would show up for this one. Eleven people showed up in the rain! We rode over to Santa Fe street to pick up a couple more riders and then up to Robinson, west to 24th, south to Main, back east to drop off a rider near the highschool, and finished up at the Earth. Some pictures from this one can be seen here: www.maka.net/brooke

May 26, 2006

26 people showed up - a pretty good turnout. In my opinion, though, this ride had some problems. I like to think of the ride as being about an hour, but sometimes we go a little longer and we usually don't get started until 10 or 15 minutes after 6:00. This ride was 2 and a half hours long! With over an hour of breaktime! The first break was ten minutes into the ride (Robinson and Findley) and lasted 15-20 minutes. This was to pick someone up. Of course they should have been there ready to ride at 6:00. Why did this take so long? Who knows. Some people left at this point. I don't remember where all we rode (I'm writing this month later) but at some point we wound up riding to the top of the OU parking garage by the stadium. Now this can be very fun, especially the riding down part, but it is illegal. Plus we stayed up there for over 20 minutes. An OUPD bike cop followed us up and I talked to him awhile. He explained that bicycles are not allowed in the parking garage but that he didn't care. He was interested in seeing what group this was as he is wanting to find out more about all the bike clubs, etc. He was a good guy and way into bicycles. He also explained that if another officer caught us there, we could all have gotten tickets. Later we rode east on Brooks, then up to Lindsey and took another break at the corner of 24th and Lindsey. We had lost a lot of riders by this time. We rode north on Alameda and eventually got back to campus corner by around 8:30, with maybe 12 riders remaining. I know of one group of people who came for the first time and will not be coming back. I had such a bad feeling about this ride that I was very skeptical about the next one - but the June ride turned out to be the exact opposite - totally cool! I think things would be more consistent if we had a good crowd of people who would show up each time. And I think it helps to have a wide cross-section of the population. But it is cool that you never know what to expect, who or how many will show up, where we will go, what will happen, etc. We could shape things up a bit with rules and leaders, but one of the cool things about Critical Mass is the FREEDOM of no rules, no leaders, etc. So it can be a lesson in learning to get along, go with the flow, etc.

June 30, 2006

21 people. Good turnout, good people, good ride. An especially good no-nonsense ride. Up University to Main, west on Main all the way over the highway and past the mall. North on 36th to Robinson, east to 24th, south to Main, east on Main to the bus station, through some neighborhood streets to Boyd around Wiley, east on Boyd to Berry, and through some neighborhood streets to the Earth, where Richard treated us to Blue Sky drinks. We lost a few along the way. One was left behind early on Main street as her bike wasn't allowing her to keep up. (We go slow but not too slow). A friend of mine brought his teen-age daughter and she gave out halfway up the Robinson bridge (it was hot). I told them we would have to leave them, but the group was waiting at the bottom of the hill at Albertson's so we waited a bit longer and they came along. Then a guy had a flat tire, so one of his friends stayed behind with him. Someone brought a boom-box (that's always fun) and it kind of fell apart on 24th St. and I guess we lost a couple over that. It would be cool to have a trailer with a sound system or maybe even a drumset. Anyway this one restored my faith after last month. Super fun. Still hoping to get up to 100 riders soon.

July 28, 2006

I neglected to write up this one and the next 2, and I have forgotten what happened, but I'm thinking each of these had 15-20 riders.

August 25, 2006

September 29, 2006

October 27, 2006

12 riders showed up for this one. I took off early at the start of the ride to go to the Norman Library booksale. This is important to me, but I decided that next year I will stick with the ride and hit the sale a little late.

November 24, 2006

Two guys showed up and they wanted to ride, so the three of us rode around for while. That was fun, but where is everyone?

December 29, 2006

The weather prevented this one. I went on down just in case, but by 6:00, there was freezing rain coming down and it was very cold. So no one showed up.

January 26, 2007

A pretty good ride. Some rare nice weather during this rough winter. We had about 18 riders, plus a one-year-old in a carrier and a 2-year-old in a trailer. We rode west on Boyd to Berry and then over to Wylie on a street I don't remember. South to Lindsey, west on Lindsey to McGee, north to Brooks, west to 24th, north to Main, then east on Main back to maybe Webster and back to Campus Corner, ending up at the OU art museum where there was an opening, which I thought some people were wanting to attend, but we kind of wound up ening the ride there, though a few people continued on later.

February 23, 2007

Eleven riders, which is enough to make it fun. A couple of new people, as usual. Where is everyone else? We took Boyd to maybe College and went south through the fraternity and sorority houses curving back up on Elm to Lindsey, over to Flood, north to Main, east to maybe Webster, up through the park, west on Acres to Lahoma, south to Main, west to 24th, north to Robinson, east to Flood, making our way to the Redbud Collective house on Eufala, where Kara invited us for tea. Nice weather to start with, but it rained on us for the second half of the ride, not too hard though. The pace was a bit faster than usual and the ride was longer than the last few (pretty much a full hour with no breaks) but the small group was suited for it. Very fun ride.

March 30, 2007

This one was rained out. I mean it was pouring down rain, I think most of the day, and definitely at 6:00. So I didn't go - but Sarah B was hardcore enough to show up anyway.

April 27, 2007

Rained a lot today, but cleared off by the afternoon. 10 riders, or let's say 10 and half, counting a one-year-old in a trailer. Several first-timers, as usual. Up University to Main, west on Main to 24th, south to Lindsey, east to McGee, south to Boyd, east to Pickard, then south heading to Sam Noble Museum, where someone said there might be some event with free food. Nothing happening there (wrong night - confused info) so we hung around for a bit checking out the native landscaping and then headed back, breaking up along the way. Excellent weather, very fun ride.

Critical Mass bicycle rides happen in cities all over the world, usually on the last Friday of the month, usually during evening rush hour. There's no organization to join, there's no one in charge, it just happens. The CM rides started in 1992 in San Francisco, where some rides have had over 5,000 riders. The purposes and flavor of the rides may vary quite a bit from city to city. Mainly the purpose is to promote awareness of bicycles (specifically that they can and should be ridden on city streets) and to have a big fun safe ride. Hopefully this will continue to be a really nice thing in Norman. I have been looking into the past history here and I think there have been rides with 30 or 40 people during the summertime in the last couple of years. There may have been CM rides here 3 or 4 years ago, which faded away and got started up again a couple of years ago. Someone told me there have been 100 people on some rides in Norman - I'm skeptical - but someday we will surpass that - by a long way! There is also a CM ride in OKC - as of 2006. See: www.jmbzine.com/wordpress/?p=128

There's tons of Critical Mass info on the web. A couple of sites to start with:

CriticalMassRides.info

TedWhiteGreenLight.com
Home of We Are Traffic documentary.

You can email me here if you want: tslade@ionet.net

This page revised 04/27/07. First Posted 01/04/05

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