The Chainlink

Suggestion for CCM in the future

Anybody still have some old Nextels or short range walkie talkies? All we'd need is 4 or so.

My suggestion is that have the leaders in front (obviously) then have a tail and if it seems like the group is getting to spread out communicate it to the front and have a slow down or stoppage to "mass up" ?

Rumor has it that an ambulance broke up the mass in Wicker so I don't know if that had anything to do with being so spread out. As well as the incidents along the way. but a little communication goes a long way.

The point is to ride together as a mass.

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Permalink Reply by Vilda on August 27, 2010 at 11:35pm
Mike, I'm gonna guess you are new so I'm just gonna say join the Critical Mass Discussion Group.
Permalink Reply by h' Zerocats on August 28, 2010 at 12:55am
Mike,
There are reasons we might not want the feel of people communicating via walkie-talkies "running" the ride, but to address the mechanics of your suggestion, who would the people at the front have been?
2 people largely "led" about the first 3 miles or so, and then the cowboys couldn't be held back and the ride sped up with mostly newbies and very infrequent participants (and some guy yelling something about a Pony) racing away at the front.
You would have had nobody communicating to nobody.
At some point I don't think you're going to be able to keep things from getting strung out, unless you can consistently put a team of 6-8 people who are committed to staying at the front and leading in an authoritative manner for the entire ride . . . I was satisfied that we were together until we cleared the loop, at least.
It takes much more than one ambulance to cause the ride to spread out.
Were you at the front at all on this ride? I think you're making some assumptions about what happens up there.

Was there anything good about the ride?

Permalink Reply by cutifly on August 28, 2010 at 9:38am
I want a Pony !!!
Permalink Reply by Kohaku on August 28, 2010 at 10:18am
I has Pony.
Permalink Reply by Far'arned Retrogrumpalunkus #63 on August 28, 2010 at 10:26am
Nice picture Howard. I really hope that someone got a shot of that from another block south or from one of the buildings that shows all 3 roads bedecked with bicycles running back and forth.

It was a beautiful sight to behold -and would make a good publicity picture if a skilled photographer caught it from a good angle. Such a picture should be on the front page of both of the papers this morning.



H3N3 said:
Mike,
There are reasons we might not want the feel of people communicating via walkie-talkies "running" the ride, but to address the mechanics of your suggestion, who would the people at the front have been?
2 people largely "led" about the first 3 miles or so, and then the cowboys couldn't be held back and the ride sped up with mostly newbies and very infrequent participants (and some guy yelling something about a Pony) racing away at the front.
You would have had nobody communicating to nobody.
At some point I don't think you're going to be able to keep things from getting strung out, unless you can consistently put a team of 6-8 people who are committed to staying at the front and leading in an authoritative manner for the entire ride . . . I was satisfied that we were together until we cleared the loop, at least.
It takes much more than one ambulance to cause the ride to spread out.
Were you at the front at all on this ride? I think you're making some assumptions about what happens up there.

Was there anything good about the ride?

Permalink Reply by h' Zerocats on August 28, 2010 at 2:32pm
Thanks. Credit to boring/jjj3/Pierogi John for the pics. Been wanting to do that for a while; we tried it once before but kept trapping cars and creating bottlenecks at the switchbacks and it ended up being kind of stressful. Widespread mellowness due to the beautiful weather worked in our favor last night. Would be great to have a shot of all three bridges but it's probably a longshot (so to speak.)
One of these days we need to pass a hat and buy a CCM satellite.
Permalink Reply by Don Sorsa on August 28, 2010 at 2:42pm
I thought it was a great ride. Nice job with the back and forth, Howard. My pics are here, FWIW
Permalink Reply by Angel Almodovar on August 28, 2010 at 4:12pm
Just show up for the mass!!!
Permalink Reply by Jason W on August 28, 2010 at 5:06pm
I wish I knew the mass was going by Jackson and clark (or lasalle). My office is there, and would love to tape the whole mass going by from above. I would have done it had we had a map, but oh well.

H3N3 said:
Widespread mellowness due to the beautiful weather worked in our favor last night.

I was thinking that too. It's almost like all this extended period of hot weather has taken some of the fight out of the city lol... It was pretty mellow for a summer CCM. At least my experience was.
Permalink Reply by Jason W on August 28, 2010 at 5:17pm
I was just thinking... You guys do try and lead the mass (thanks for everyone's effort btw). I don't think anyone expects the mass to be totally controlled. It seems like this could only help the effort. FRS/GMRS radios are cheap and should do the job. I have two. anyway... just saying...

H3N3 said:
Mike,
There are reasons we might not want the feel of people communicating via walkie-talkies "running" the ride, but to address the mechanics of your suggestion, who would the people at the front have been?
2 people largely "led" about the first 3 miles or so, and then the cowboys couldn't be held back and the ride sped up with mostly newbies and very infrequent participants (and some guy yelling something about a Pony) racing away at the front.
You would have had nobody communicating to nobody.
At some point I don't think you're going to be able to keep things from getting strung out, unless you can consistently put a team of 6-8 people who are committed to staying at the front and leading in an authoritative manner for the entire ride . . . I was satisfied that we were together until we cleared the loop, at least.
It takes much more than one ambulance to cause the ride to spread out.
Were you at the front at all on this ride? I think you're making some assumptions about what happens up there.

Permalink Reply by Mike Zumwalt on August 28, 2010 at 9:09pm
Well I'm not new to critical mass, been riding since 200ish in Detroit and NYC but a noob to the chainlink and not really a frequent poster and already joined the CCM group.

And dug needs to buy some land in Kankakee and get a Shetland Pony farm.

Just a suggestion, no assumptions so if it works for you guys then carry on as "planned"
Permalink Reply by h' Zerocats on August 28, 2010 at 9:35pm
We have to walk a fine line between being spontaneous, leaderless, anarchistic (meaning non-heirarchical, not chaotic) and having the mass turn into something that is dangerous for more vulnerable participants and/or becomes something that won't be tolerated by law enforcement (make no mistake, CCM could be shut down any month the CPD decided to do so.).
To me, having leadership is acceptable so long as it doesn't happen in a way that limits anyone who wants to flow into a leadership role for however long. Friday's mass was a good example of leadership shifting to various individuals who were at the front at different times.
Would be interested to hear specifics on when and where the mass seemed to be too spread out.
Also, there have been few reports of what happened on the ride; I was about 1/2 way back, or maybe more, when we came upon the Clark/Halsted intersection and couldn't see where the mass had went-- we stopped and stood there, and soon about maybe 300 others did the same until it became sort of a street party. So the bulk of the mass continued on in some direction from that point before we got here-- anyone know where it went?
I think overall it was one of our better rides, although August rides tend to go on for at least two hours and sometimes 3 because of the evening cool, and this one only had about 90 minutes before splintering.
Jason W said:
I was just thinking... You guys do try and lead the mass (thanks for everyone's effort btw). I don't think anyone expects the mass to be totally controlled. It seems like this could only help the effort. FRS/GMRS radios are cheap and should do the job. I have two. anyway... just saying...
H3N3 said:
Mike,
There are reasons we might not want the feel of people communicating via walkie-talkies "running" the ride, but to address the mechanics of your suggestion, who would the people at the front have been?
2 people largely "led" about the first 3 miles or so, and then the cowboys couldn't be held back and the ride sped up with mostly newbies and very infrequent participants (and some guy yelling something about a Pony) racing away at the front. You would have had nobody communicating to nobody. At some point I don't think you're going to be able to keep things from getting strung out, unless you can consistently put a team of 6-8 people who are committed to staying at the front and leading in an authoritative manner for the entire ride . . . I was satisfied that we were together until we cleared the loop, at least. It takes much more than one ambulance to cause the ride to spread out. Were you at the front at all on this ride? I think you're making some assumptions about what happens up there.

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