This morning, I managed to stop by Breakfast on the Bridges, a monthly event run by SHIFT! to Bikes. Shift is an awesome organization - a loose, informal group of people who just want to share the joy of cycling and encourage people to do it more. BotB on the Hawthorne Bridge had the beautiful and personable Kirsty Hall present, along with the ever-present coffee and pastries. I've managed to stop for 5 or 6 BotB events this year, and met some wonderful people. BotB is on the last Friday of every month, from about 7am to about 9am. If you get a chance, try it out!
Ride Details
11.15 miles
Top Speed: 34.8 mph (Oatfield downhill)
12.6 mph average speed
Cumulative 2006
2,272 miles at an average 11.6 mph
195 hours, 35 minutes in the saddle
Tonight I'm going to the Critical Mass ride - my first. It's the anniversary of Katrina, which was a wake-up call for a lot of people. Oil is on the way out, and fossil fuels help cause global warming. Tonight's CM ride will focus in part on that.
As a side note, sometime next week Tropical Depression Five should become Hurricane Ernesto (it should reach TS strength tonight). A lot of projections show it skirting the south end of Cuba and heading into the Gulf, so it'll be interesting to see where it goes. Katrina & Rita shut down nearly 20% of Gulf oil & gas production last year, and with half of Alaskan oil unavailable, a similar disruption this year could cause a massive increase in the price of gasoline. Makes me glad I ride a bike.
2 comments:
how was the Mass, I have always wanted to go, but havnt yet?
The Mass was good - it was my first, so I have nothing directly to compare it to. The cops were extremely well-behaved, and handed out flyers before the event saying how many of them there were, why they were there, and the need to obey traffic signs, lights, and to signal when turning. I saw them issue a few warnings, but witnessed no tickets, not even to the 2 or 3 fixies I saw with us on the ride.
I was concerned about the activist group that sort of co-opted the ride, I don't entirely agree with their message (I agree with the need to fight global warning, but not with the way they present it) - but their signs were informative and non-offensive, and I strapped one of them on the back of my bike. There were about 50 riders, and at some point the Mass split into 2 groups. I was with the larger group, which after making a few runs through downtown headed east. After about 12th ave, the cops peeled off, and we kept riding until Col. Summers Park, where the ride broke up. A bunch of people went from there to North Portland to watch the movie on Katrina, I opted to head home.
It was a good ride, and since we were in a large group with about 10 cops riding along, there were no "road rage" incidents or belligerent behavior from drivers - at least not that I witnessed. I'll definitely be doing the ride again next month, to see what a "normal" ride looks like. If that goes well, I'll probably stick with it through the sparse winter months, since cold and wet just doesn't bother me all that much.
Post a Comment