CM

I found out one of the guys involved in the taxi incident was a friend
I met before the GVBR.

I made tonight's CM my first, and I took part in a couple of corkages
myself. There was one taxi that decided to "nudge forward" (sound
familiar?) just as a motorcycle cop was next to his door. He would
have hit my wheel had I not moved it quickly out of the way (still
corking him though). I had made a note of his number plate, then after
the cop yelled at him, he came around the front, also looked at the
number plate, at said to both of us to remember xxxx. The guy next to
me took a couple of seconds to figure it out, before exclaiming to me
"he was a nice cop!" Anyway, he didn't cause any more problems, so
I've promptly forgotten it.

The motorcycle cops had a pretty bad burning stench following
them. Seems their bikes can't physically go that slow without burning
the clutch.

A couple of times during the night, it seemed we wanted to head onto
the westgate or similar, and everytime we turned a corner, the cops
were blocking the appropriate road. In the end, we just sat in the
middle of an intersection, as we could see the road around the corner
was blocking the path forward very much. The truck driver was a little
surprised

So we sat, as one of the guys proclaimed that we were stopping,
because on Feb 1, a cyclist was hit and killed by a negligent
driver. We gave him a minute's silence, and then whinged about how the
perp would never even be charged with manslaughter. There was a TV
camera there, with the person behind it wanting us to raise our bikes
(probably would have put caption of "rogue cyclists stopped from
holding our bridge to ransom"), so we refused.

Unfortunately, most of the night was directed by the cops who didn't
let us ride the chosen route, and wouldn't let us on busy roads. There
was bugger all traffic around. Only a couple of cagers beeping, who
were responded with party blowers.

Went along to the pier, and the cops stopped us from boarding the
Spirit of Tassie

A guy with two very large speakers in a trailer, powered off a 12V car
battery joined us as we were circling a roundabout. Unfortunately, he
mostly played rap.

Went and rode through a Maccas and KFC, just as a song about "we don't
need this ****" or similar came on. We all cheered Rode then to
Crown Casino, and held up the bikes. You know, a bike with panniers
wouldn't be a bad weight lifting excercise. Only just got it up and
held it up. Forgot to latch the panniers in correctly, so it flopped
around a bit

Didn't go to Andrew Bolt's office, unfortunately

Finished at Fed Square.

Hopefully, next month, we will get back onto main roads.

--
TimC -- http://astronomy.swin.edu.au/staff/tconnors/
} Is "wrongest" an actual word?
} It's a perfectly cromulent word.
Which, when used, embiggens us all.
-- Jeff Ramsey, Steed and D. Joseph Creighton @ ASR

Had other business pending, so we left just after the ride left the CBD
I've never seen so many police on one ride, count, 8 motorcyclists,
velos, about a dozen or so on foot patrolling around, at least thre
cars at the beginning, and a brawler van discreetly tucked away on L
Trobe.

Apparently there were seven police cars, full of police waiting o
Lorimer as well. Take into consideration the amount of traffi
incidents paralyzing Melbournes roads this week, ie: unsecured load
falling off on the Bolte (stray bobcat & builders rubble), explodin
petrol tankers on a Westgate onramp, and seven road deaths on Thursday


Surely someone responsible in the Victorian Police needs a swift kic
up the arse for taking the decision to waste these resources
personnel on a BICYCLE ride. 112 rides since 1995 - has any BICYCL
ride ever resulted in anything of the same disruptive magnitude as
****ing exploding tanker on a major highway? (Ok, leave out th
Brazilian death squads for now, shall we? )

As for negative attitudes, pre-ride, a women walked up to a friend an
gave him some stick. She self-moralised about how (apparently) Critica
Mass made it difficult for cyclists riding down on Beach Road. Crikey
now there's a contridiction, haven't some roadies down there ha
brought THAT upon themselves?

Intelligent, bicycle, argument

Pick any two :rolleyes

--
cfsmtb

TimC Wrote:
I found out one of the guys involved in the taxi incident was a friend
I met before the GVBR.

I made tonight's CM my first, ...

snip, etc



seems a that wierd that the police were dictating which way the rid
went!?
Would seem their enthusiasm to respond to a possible Bolte bridge o
Tunnel ride is just making them look silly. shame. Mr Bolt-head i
gonna no doubt make em look like the perp's now...
Perhaps they might twig on to the fact that every lead up CM gossip i
naming Bolte or the Tunnel just for a laugh so we can all sit back an
watch them panic over nothing!!
Or perhaps we should attach petrol-soaked rags to our helmets nex
month so that we can get away with as much inconvenience as we like
bcos somehow a pretty image for the cameras makes it all ok? :rolleyes

--
flyingdutch

TimC wrote:

The motorcycle cops had a pretty bad burning stench following
them. Seems their bikes can't physically go that slow without burning
the clutch.


Yes I dare say they have the same problem as my FJ1200 on a hot day in
slow moving traffic. Air cooled engines on big bikes don't cope very
well when you are barely moving. I've had car drivers tell me my bike's
on fire when it is just the oil on the engine burning from the heat, not
too pleasant on the legs either. I remember a mate in the police sayign
years ago they hated riding at the head of televised parades because of
the high chance of stalling on TV and not getting started again.

DaveB

DaveB wrote:
TimC wrote:


The motorcycle cops had a pretty bad burning stench following
them. Seems their bikes can't physically go that slow without burning
the clutch.


Yes I dare say they have the same problem as my FJ1200 on a hot day in
slow moving traffic. Air cooled engines on big bikes don't cope very
well when you are barely moving. I've had car drivers tell me my bike's
on fire when it is just the oil on the engine burning from the heat, not
too pleasant on the legs either. I remember a mate in the police sayign
years ago they hated riding at the head of televised parades because of
the high chance of stalling on TV and not getting started again.

DaveB

Even my watercooled motorbike doesn't like being in slow traffic.

Have you ever seen a police motorcade with 'outrider' bikes?

The bikes stop in the intersections to the side, to stop traffic while
the motorcade passes. Then 2 other bikes come up to take the first bikes
place, who then rejoin the motorcade.

When the bikes stop at the intersections they're virtually stationary.

If you've ridden a motorbike, it's an impressive thing to see.

--
Nick

"cfsmtb" == cfsmtb writes:

cfsmtb As for negative attitudes, pre-ride, a women walked up to a
cfsmtb friend and gave him some stick. She self-moralised about how
cfsmtb (apparently) Critical Mass made it difficult for cyclists
cfsmtb riding down on Beach Road.

My opinion, CM attracts nothing but bad publicity for cyclists. When
was the last time you read positive press regarding CM?

I'm not bagging CM as such, I've never been on one so to do so would be
arrogant (not to mention stupid). It may well be great fun (from what
I've read it is), it may well be that all cyclists on CM ride within the
law at all times (unlike some bunches I've seen on Beach Road and
Nepean) and it may well be that the press mis-represent CM at every
opportunity. Fact is that CM has a high profile but it's a negative
one.

I don't know what rumors made it to the police about what could happen
on Friday, all I know is that I was told that if I wasn't out the VPC by
15:30 there was a possibility that I'd not be able to leave for some
time. Something spooked them, no idea what.
--
Cheers
Euan

"TimC" wrote in message
news:slrn-0.9.7.4-13079-8921-
Snip
A couple of times during the night, it seemed we wanted to head onto
the westgate or similar, and everytime we turned a corner, the cops
were blocking the appropriate road. In the end, we just sat in the
middle of an intersection, as we could see the road around the corner
was blocking the path forward very much. The truck driver was a little
surprised

Damn, that kinda makes our plans of forming 'critical anti-mass' redundant.
Me and a bunch of riders were toying with the idea of forming a group of
bikes to cork critical mass. A lot of cyclists I know consider CM to be
pretty bad for cyclists so we just wanted to make a little protest.
Would mainly be for fun and to test CMs sense of humour. :-)

Duncan Wrote:


snip



but what would we call you?
how about 'car'?

BTW have you euan actually done a CM?
If not give it a go. it might surprise you. Dont get sucked in b
biased crap coming from people with agendas or preconcieved need fo
some drama to fill page-inches
I used to hold a similar opinion of CM till i started doing some an
altho some elements/people involved arent my bag the thing that struc
me was the huge gap between how its represented in the press and ho
the public respond on the actual rides!
Sure there are the odd mug whom kicks up a fuss but they represent th
same percentage as in everyday traffic car-v-bike argy-bargy.

CM is just an element. People arent going to run form their cars an
take up commuting just cos they see a CM, as such. But its just on
step or influence/exposure to it that could change a driver fro
car-occupier to possibly considering it, or from considering-it t
trying-it, and then trying-it to doing it regularly.
Friday nights are the perfect time for CM cos the ones i have been o
just illustrate (even minus corking, etc) just how easy/faster/flexibl
cycling is in inner Melbourne.
My dutch cuzz went on Amsterdam protest rides/marches to get th
traffic scenario sorted in his town, and about 10 years later the
ended up with a nationwide network of dreamlike facilities.

Like someone's (excellent) sig says, It takes just one ruen of a cran
to start a revolution. t aint gonna happen overnight, but we can drea
that it can happen..

--
flyingdutch

On Sat, 26 Feb 2005 at 10:03 GMT, flyingdutch (aka Bruce)
was almost, but not quite, entirely unlike tea:
Friday nights are the perfect time for CM cos the ones i have been on
just illustrate (even minus corking, etc) just how easy/faster/flexible
cycling is in inner Melbourne.

Riding up Warrigal road today, there was an accident that had
obviously only just happended, because the traffic was only just
starting to bank up. A guy in a flash car obviously was speeding,
judging by the rather crooked power pole he had crashed into (how deep
are they buried?). I rode up, and the traffic was banking up about as
fast as I was riding, so the cars were stopping 5km up the road just
as I had travelled those 5km. I do admit that I laughed a few times,
and asked them how their car park was.

--
TimC -- http://astronomy.swin.edu.au/staff/tconnors/
"It took people a long time to figure out which machine was [mooing],
and even longer to figure out how. But for some reason it didn't take
them any time at all to figure that I'd done it." -- Paul Tomblin on ASR

wrote:

My opinion, CM attracts nothing but bad publicity for cyclists. When
was the last time you read positive press regarding CM?

Well, if the car driving ******s that run the newspapers, shock jock
radio stations and ****** TV stations didn't have CM to pick on, then
they would pick on some other bicyclist. Probably start a campaing to
get all shared ped/bike routes turned over to Peds as some bike riders
ran over their granny.