Believe it or not I participated in my first Critical Mass ride last month on April 30th. I’ve been wanting to take part of this phenomenon every last Friday of the month. So at the end of last month, I was hell bent on making sure it was going to happen.
Initially my sister’s fiancé was going to join but he could not make it. I convinced another co-worker of mine to join. He hasn’t been on a bike for 3 years. I even offered to take his bike in for repairs since I couldn’t figure out how to mount his rear wheels with disc brakes. Here’s a photo of my rig hauling in his.
Luckily he was able to get his ride back on Friday to join me. I was planning on going with or without him. We hopped on the Red line down to Vermont & Wilshire station. From there we got on our bikes and pedaled towards Wilshire & Western. I had a few friends who was meeting for drinks before the ride. Funny thing is the only way these “friends” correspond with me is only through Twitter. I wasn’t able to get an address or even their real phone numbers for that matter. So my co-worker and I made our way to Wilshire / Western where a huge crowd was gathering.
We waited for about 15 minutes at the location while countless numbers of cyclists kept on piling into the northeast corner of the intersection. You can feel the electricity of the crowd who grew more anxious as the minutes ticked down to the 7:30PM departure time. Like clockwork, 7:30 came and the crowd of hundreds of cyclists overtook the intersection and started down the South on Western. That was the last point of reference that I could remember on the ride until we reached about Chinatown later in the evening. I was completely overwhelmed by the amount of bicycles that was on the streets. It kept me from thinking or wondering where the heck I was. I knew in order not to get lost, I had to keep up with the “pack”. I also kept on thinking how drivers were perceiving us. We got lots of supporting honks and woohoo early on the ride but towards the end, I thought there were honks of disdain (it could just be me worrying about what others perceived). I also kept a conscious effort of not being at the end of the pack or at the side. I made sure my buddy knew the same rules of survival.
The route that was taken took us through parts of Los Angeles neighborhoods that I definitely would never find myself riding at that time of night by myself. We were flying through the infamous Skid Row where transients were hooting and hollering at us. We eventually made it through one of those iconic bridges that you see in such films like “Training Day”. Amazingly enough, I bumped into @danceralamode right before the bridge. We chatted while we climbed pass the fixie kids who were struggling up the bridge. We even saw a wedding photo shoot in progress on the bridge. Of all the nights and all the bridges, their photo shoot was interrupted by a Critical Mass ride. The descend down the bridge was brisk and we found ourselves in the city of Boyle Heights. That’s where the events of the night took a negative turn.
Let’s just say a motorist and some cyclists got acquainted. I didn’t get any details of what happened but I made sure I was not anywhere near. Around that time, I run into @jeremy310 and lost @danceralamode in the shuffle. We reconnected just in time before the mass made their way down the street and in a park. From there I lost all my twitter pals and my co-worker. After a few calls I reconnected with my co-worker. We held our position at the park for about 30 minutes before the ride started up again. And just like that, the events from about an hour ago was a thing of the past. The swarm made their way through USC medical center and eventually through Union Station and into Chinatown like I mentioned earlier.
You could tell that some folks were getting tired. The crowd started to thin out as I presumed some people dropped out to rest or go on their own merry way home. We darted through Chinatown into downtown LA. Eventually we made it into Echo Park onto Sunset. On Sunset, we encountered furious head-wind and a tedious uphill climb into Hollywood. From there the group was thinning out. Only the few fixie riders kept up while others slowly paced themselves through the street. Even though I was starved, I kept my pace with the head of the pack. We finally reached Sunset and Western where the ride ended. From there I reconnected with @danceralamode. I waited for my co-worker but got a call from him that he was about 2-3 miles behind and was going to jump on the train home. I completely understood. Being on his first ride in years and have him ride 20+ miles in a night is too much to ask for. We bid farewell.
After a few back-and-forth cellphone conversations, @danceralamode got a hold of her friend. As it turns out, it was @GraphikDeziner who I’ve been following on Twitter but finally got to finally meet her in person for the first time that night. She had a friend join her and the 4 of us made our way to Dennys for some after-ride-grubbing while the remaining massers started on the People’s Ride. I enjoyed the company and meal while I kept an eye on the time to make sure I don’t miss the last train home. We eventually went our separate ways. I was lucky to catch the last Gold Line train home and strolled home with 39 miles of riding that day. I forgot to mentioned I had to rode back from Montrose into work that morning after a doctor’s appointment so I was beat!
It is so refreshing to have these adventures in my life. I wouldn’t want to trade this for anything.
On December 6th, I set out to help the LA Greensters on a toy ride for the St. Anne’s Women & Children Social Services Organization. The organization has been around for 100 years and are helping young mothers become self sufficient single parent. Our ride started out at the Vermont and Santa Monica Redline Metro station. Jeremy, our ride coordinator, graciously provided participants (and some passersby) homemade tomato and cheese pizza on the back of his Xtracycle. I got there early to talk to Jeremy about our bike camping trip after Christmas. This event attracted a few fixed gear riders who just happened to be in the neighborhood and wanted to join in on the action.
Jeremy already brought along 2 huge B.O.B. bags worth of toys and dental hygiene packages. His load was definitely something to be amazed about. I believe he said that the load was about 80lbs. He rode with the load like a pro and at times cutting it really close to parked cars as we casually meandered down Santa Monica Blvd. There were about 15 riders, 3 of which were Xtracycles. I was hauling my Timbuk2 bag, my 2 wooden dinosaur toy, and some beverages in my Xtracycle. We rode out to the 99 cent store to pick up some more toys for the kids.
At the store all of us cyclists easily found spots to park our bikes. Some of us went in to shop while others opted to stand guard our bikes while we were away. I picked up a few more gifts, notably hula hoops and a huge pen. While we were waiting outside of the parking lot, we were witnessing mayhem in the 99 cent store parking lot. People were honking. They were angry and frustrated while we watched on. It just didn’t make sense why they were in such a bad mood for a quick trip to the store. Come on, get on your bikes and you can leave all this BS behind. The still don’t get it.
Eventually, we regrouped and rode East toward St. Anne’s. 
It was a mellow ride as we navigated through side streets and hills through-out Los Angeles. We finally made it our at St. Anne’s parking lot at 4:30. We were greeted by the gracious staff there who were happy to see the amount of riders come through hauling toys. We all eventually unloaded our loot on a cart / dolly. A few folks toured the facility as we talked it up about what they did at St. Anne’s. We snapped a few photos before everyone decided to head back to where we started. I followed the group until a minor incident with a harassing motorist separated us from the main group. As temper settled, we bravely joined traffic back on Vermont. We once again separated by a traffic light and I was riding with Aubrey Provost, the 8th Council District representative who had hosted the previous Crenshaw Crush ride. We soon met up with the rest of the group at the train station, said our good byes and left for home. On my way home, I was assured by 2 fellow riders, Mark & Dale that my newly purchased warning triangle is doing it’s job!
On October 8th, I had the pleasure to attend a fundraising event that was hosted by Junior Achievement of Southern California. It was held at the Sports Museum of Los Angeles. First of all, I didn’t even know we had a sports museum here. Apparently the museum is not opened to the public. As we approached the building, it was a huge building located on the corner of Washington and Main. The entrance and parking lot was gated away from the hustle and bustle of the people traveling on the Blue Line Metro train tracks. In bright red letter it read, “Sports Museum”. For a place that was closed to the public, I find it ironic to have a bright red sign telling everyone outside that this was a sports museum.
I carpooled with Ron and as soon as we parked our car at the abundant parking spaces, we were greeted by a friendly gentleman who guided us to the registration table. We were given the option to sign-in or drop off a business card. I quickly dropped off my card so I can start exploring the 32,000 sq/ft of heaven at the world’s largest private collection of sports memorabilia. We walked right into an area where there was a complete gym set with antique equipment. We then perused around all the century old bikes on display. Obviously that was my favorite area of the entire place. There were bikes there that I’ve been reading about as well as bikes that I’ve only seen as drawings. It was incredible and impressive.
We couldn’t believe that this collection was from 1 person. My impression prior to this event was thinking that this would have been something that wasn’t going to be so expansive as it was. He’s got so many different sports highlighted through-out the facility. The owner, Gary Cypress, was an avid collector who focused on the evolution of sports. You can tell by the pieces he collected. For example, he had versions of footballs through the years.
Besides the free food provided by ESPN Zone for the event, we got to see the display of where his Honus Wagner tobacco baseball card would have been. This multi-million dollar card was not available that evening. We saw uniforms from Jackie Robinson, Babe Ruth, Ted Williams, Sandy Kofax, and other famous baseball heroes. He also have an extensive version of Los Angeles Rams jersey. Not to mention my favorite sport of basketball was on display with old school basketball rims and old basketball used back in the days.
Gary explained that he is opening this for private tours and charity events and may open it next year to the public. If that happens, I’m planning to go again for a closer look and spend time at each section. I’m sure I may have glanced over a few of the 10,000 collectibles and not notice their significance. See the remaining photos by clicking on the image below.
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