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.
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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Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Far'arned Retrogrumpalunkus #63 on
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I don't know what happened at Clark & Halsted as I got a little turned around because there was so much turning there for a bit. I think maybe from there it went south to Wrightwood and then west a bit.
When the ride got to 6-way at Wrightwood, Sheffield, and Lincoln the leaders just stopped and went into the 7-11. The ride just halted and stood there for about 5 minutes as nobody wanted to take the lead.
All the bike cops with the ride up to that point converged in the 6-way intersection were starting to get VERY upset at this turn of events. They saw a couple hundred or so massers blocking traffic in the intersection and NOT moving on. It looked like they were reaching for the tazers/pepper-spray there for a moment in attempt to clear the intersection.
A couple of folks took off up Lincoln but not more than a dozen bikes followed. Eventually a bunch of folks just kept heading West on Wrightwood and most followed I think. We went West for a few blocks and then turned south on I think Southport (maybe?). We went South to Fullerton (I think) and then turned East and went all the way to LSD. The cops did their usual ramp blockage and the ride past under LSD to hit the Lakeshore path as they had the LSD ramps pretty well blocked off to anyone foolish enough to try.
A bunch of folks figured this was the end and just stopped right there and hung out. A bunch of folk turned to go either South or North as there wasn't much room there to congregate in that area, and the cops didn't look very happy (probably because this is the same precinct or whatever that the cluster-frak that happened further North. I don't think we impressed the cops in this area at all. They all looked unhappy. (are cops ever happy? -these ones looked extra un-happy to me).
I think after that it was a free-for-all and most folks just dispersed to head their own destinations, to party or just go home probably. I was home by 9PM in Logan Square
H3N3 said: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 ClarkHalsted intersection and couldn't see where the ride 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?
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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Permalink Reply by h' Zerocats on
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Thanks for the report!
When the ride got to 6-way at Wrightwood, Sheffield, and Lincoln the leaders just stopped and went into the 7-11.
This is golden :-)
By my estimate there were a good 1000+ riders in front of "my" group (the back of the mass that stopped on Clark just south of Halsted) so I suspect that your group was not the "front" group but another piece of the mass that was separated from the front by or at Clark/Halsted.
My impression upon arriving at Halsted on Clark was that riders could be seen heading both north on Halsted and back south on Halsted.
After hanging in the street and in the fast food lot for maybe 20 minutes, the back group eventually got moving with the (remarkably friendly) encouragement of two local bike cops, and seemed to head north up Halsted-- guessing it turned east on Belmont and also ended at the lakefront.
I once did the SF mass, and enjoyed the way it naturally broke into smaller groups as the night went on, likely based on the geography of the riders . . . people were absolutely happy to be in a group of 300, then 100, then 50, and then seemed pretty happy to be wherever they stopped . . . would love to see that become accepted here too (there's kind of a intense desire to always be with the "real" mass on CCM).
At its essence, a CCM ride would be successful if it brought a few thousand cyclists together at Daley Plaza for a little "happening", and then put groups of cyclists all over the city thereafter-- what happens in between can be considered icing on the cake.
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I agree.
I think that maybe people have been encouraged by too much organization to expect a "real mass" to have an ending -and people are determined to "see it through to the END" so that they want to say they "finished."
Having the mass just split off into groups of riders who are going to their "final destinations" for the evening would be pretty cool. Perhaps if the mass were to start at a certain time and then have an "end time" people could say they rode to the end. An "expiration hour" might be the way to convey to people when it was over when there isn't a map or route with a set endpoint. Just an idea. I have no idea how to make such a thing happen as I'm pretty much of the anarchist persuasion and really dig the leaderless cooperation of the group the way things are now. It would have to be part of the "mass culture" for people to generally agree that 9PM was the expiration of mass and such things start slowly if at all.
The only possible down side to having a dozen mini-masses spawning at the end is that it would make things harder for the police as any one of these could make a break for LSD or one of the other expressways.
I'm not sure if that would be a good thing or a bad thing in the eyes of other people. But I'm pretty sure the cops wouldn't like it at all ;) I do know what I think of that :-D
What a field day for the heat -a thousand people in the street...
H3N3 said:Thanks for the report!
When the ride got to 6-way at Wrightwood, Sheffield, and Lincoln the leaders just stopped and went into the 7-11.
This is golden :-)
By my estimate there were a good 1000+ riders in front of "my" group (the back of the mass that stopped on Clark just south of Halsted) so I suspect that your group was not the "front" group but another piece of the mass that was separated from the front by or at Clark/Halsted.
The back group eventually got moving with the (remarkably friendly) encouragement of two local bike cops, and seemed to head north up Halsted-- guessing it turned east on Belmont and also ended at the lakefront.
I once did the SF mass, and enjoyed the way it naturally broke into smaller groups as the night went on, likely based on the geography of the riders . . . people were absolutely happy to be in a group of 300, then 100, then 50, and then seemed pretty happy to be wherever they stopped . . . would love to see that become accepted here too (there's kind of a intense desire to always be with the "real" mass on CCM).
At its essence, a CCM ride would be successful if it brought a few thousand cyclists together at Daley Plaza for a little "happening", and then put groups of cyclists all over the city thereafter-- what happens in between can be considered icing on the cake.
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Boobies can make even cops happy!
Cricket said:"I don't think we impressed the cops in this area at all. They all looked unhappy. (are cops ever happy? -these ones looked extra un-happy to me)."
I saw several very happy cops having their photo taken with the solo woman going topless on the Lakefront Trail during the topless equality demonstration (NSFW).
Break out the pasties for September's Mass, ladies!
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Great idea!
I'll swing by Ferrara bakery on Taylor on my way to mass in September and trailer a load downtown.
Anyone want to go in on a group purchase?
Cricket said:
Break out the pasties for September's Mass, ladies!
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Permalink Reply by Spencer "Thunderball" Thayer! on
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Howard, if you're serious, yes.
To those of you who have the idea like let's establish this or that standard in the Mass you're just waisting your effort. There are only thee constants to any given Mass: 1) It's the last Friday of the Month and we meet at Daley Plaza around 5:30'ish; 2) At some point the group will take off en masse; and 3) people yell "Happy Friday." Anything after that is really going to be dependent on the per-ride variability of pre-planning. You could establish a leadership system for that ride but there is no guarantee that whoever leads (or doesn't) it next month will follow it. Sometime it's very important to plan these things out in advance to avoid problems other times not so much.
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Great!
Who else is in on the pastry order?
Spencer "Thunderball" Thayer! said:Howard, if you're serious, yes.
To those of you who have the idea like let's establish this or that standard in the Mass you're just waisting your effort. There are only thee constants to any given Mass: 1) It's the last Friday of the Month and we meet at Daley Plaza around 5:30'ish; 2) At some point the group will take off en masse; and 3) people yell "Happy Friday." Anything after that is really going to be dependent on the per-ride variability of pre-planning. You could establish a leadership system for that ride but there is no guarantee that whoever leads (or doesn't) it next month will follow it. Sometime it's very important to plan these things out in advance to avoid problems other times not so much.
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Permalink Reply by Mike Zumwalt on
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Great shot!
The only possible down side to having a dozen mini-masses spawning at the end is that it would make things harder for the police as any one of these could make a break for LSD or one of the other expressways.
I'd say that's what we had as I was with a group all the way to Clark/Belmont then headed East to the LSD bike trail, I headed back towards home then met another group at Fullerton.
No wonder drivers get mad if a group of riders stretches out that long.
After next month the group will thin due to weather so...carry on.
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