Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Davo on August 25, 2010 at 4:38am

I like that not a lot is being said. This might be the first time in a while where I have no Idea where mass is going.

Permalink Reply by Bob Kastigar on August 26, 2010 at 8:53am

A suggestion: let's end up at Navy Pier, where the "Tall Ships" are anchored.

Permalink Reply by Ricardo Cervantes on August 27, 2010 at 4:10am

Navy Pier tall ships.......sounds nice!

Permalink Reply by Davo on August 27, 2010 at 4:38am

You should of said MAST the drive.

H3N3 said:

Cool-- we'll just refer to the ride as "Bob Kastigar's Mass the Drive" :-)

Bob Kastigar said:

A suggestion: let's end up at Navy Pier, where the "Tall Ships" are anchored.

Permalink Reply by Finch on August 27, 2010 at 2:35pm

So we're on our way back from dinner tonight and we got caught up in the remains of CM, heading for the LSP. No problem, we don't mind waiting, all's well. There's a cop herding bikers onto the path and keeping them from riding out onto the drive (this was at Belmont). So it's finally our turn and we get through onto Lake Shore Drive and are heading home when the car in front of us slams on its brakes; it's a close call. The car in front of us then veers around something in front of it - oh look!

Half-a-dozen jackasses vying for a Darwin Award, taking the whole right lane of the Drive. Hooting and hollering and having a grand old time.

*sigh*

Permalink Reply by Mike Zumwalt on August 27, 2010 at 4:29pm

Yeah LSD is bad for you!

I've been mostly pro cop until tonight and it's not that bad but he kept telling us when we were on North Ave. ALL the way to Clark "that's it keep it moving that's it it's over" "get on the sidewalk" ?
I said something like "I'm in the bike lane you can't ride on the sidewalk" " you're not riding you're standing in the bike lane" he said "I'm in traffic" I said
I mean do they go out on any street in Chicago and tell the cars to get moving you're blocking bikes! of course not and telling us to keep to the right and ride single file will be so much efficient in us getting anywhere without disrupting the precious gridlock in Lincoln Park.

Now go to the cities bike stations and rent a bike for the day, have fun! explore Chicago! lol.

Permalink Reply by Megan S. on August 27, 2010 at 5:52pm

The good: The triple bridge route was amazing! Kudos to the planners for that spectacular view of bikes filling 3 bridges! It filled my heart with joy :). I also loved all the riders with vuvuzelas and other noise makers. And those who barked back at dogs. Hilarious!

The bad: Lincoln Park was not my favorite area to repeatedly ride through. It seemed very crowded and there were several "very inconvenienced" drivers. One car darted into the group (from a sidestreet) onto Clark. I was riding to their left; the man driving was texting (!!!) and the woman in the passenger seat yelled to me, "We're liberal too! Why do you guys have to do this?" etc. I'm not quick, so I didn't know what to say to them - I just yelled "CAR BACK" RAGBRAI-style to the bike group ahead because I did not know what the driver was going to do. Thankfully the guy finally took a side street.

The ugly: Another instance (not sure the street or neighborhood, it was nightfall already), a jeep came up on a family in a tandem bike with a BABY on the back. They were inches away from the baby! I couldn't believe this guy. Is it that bad to be inconvenienced that you have to risk the lives of riders, including such young ones? This was only my second critical mass, and I'm wondering what you guys have done in the past to deal with the road rage out there. What should I do in a situation like the first one, where I want to watch out for the safety of my fellow cyclists and encourage more compassionate/aware driving? Thanks, fellow CMers :)

Permalink Reply by Tim S on August 28, 2010 at 2:43am

My first CM after years of being curious but never availing myself to it. What a fantastic ride last night.

Permalink Reply by Don Sorsa on August 28, 2010 at 8:46am

My pics are here. Sorry for posting in so many places but you'll like it if your mug is there...

I thought it was a great ride.

Permalink Reply by Jason W on August 28, 2010 at 8:58am

We were up near the front. We had 9 in our crew, including 4 first timers. The triple bridge thing was awesome! Everyone loved that. I thought the mass was pretty uneventful, but it's often like that near the front. The drivers don't get that pissed until they have been waiting a while. I will say this mass was way too fast. Our newbies, and even me were getting tired (I commute on bike too, so I'm in shape). And because it was fast we had significant amounts of cars driving with the mass, which was not good.

We were somewhere in Lincoln Park, I think near halsted and wrightwood ave when I saw the tail end of the only significant incident I saw. Basically there is some douchebag in a white BMW SUV backing away from the mass. As we get there two bike cops jumped off their bikes and another is yelling at the douche really good. I thought the one cop was going to drag his ass out of his SUV. The driver looked like some yuppie guy. We just kept rolling. I don't know what happened after that, but I suspect the mass got split up. We went NW on lincoln from halsted. My group pulled off for a minute to prepare refreshments. all of a sudden the mass was gone. I suspect there should have been 1-2 miles of mass behind us, but it did not make it. Perhaps people just split it up, or perhaps people were gawking at the cops and that bmw and it got split.

Anyway, that was the end of our mass. We saw probably a couple hundred at a 7 eleven up lincoln a bit. We never made it to the beach or anything. Kind of short, but a good one.

Permalink Reply by Spencer "Thunderball" Thayer! on August 29, 2010 at 5:38am

Who map the map?

Permalink Reply by Davo on August 30, 2010 at 5:17am

Also I have heard that the police were not letting people cork while we were on clark. By that time mass was prettiy strung up though. I thought it was a pretty good ride though.

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