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Thread started by hybrid rida at 02.7.09 - 12:32 am
I'm just curious how everyone here describes midnight ridazz and various social rides to non-rider friends. Just want to see various thoughts on this. I've been wanting to bring various friends of mine into the bike scene so I am always searching for the best way to describe it.
I just carry my camera and show off videos and pictures.
I also use this line;
"MR is like a night-club in the sense that we drink, dance and party.
What sets us aside from a typical night-club is that we're on bicycles, we don't have a 2mile line, and we do not shut down at 2AM!!!"
That statement alone usually sparks an interest.
Some of the other reasons it's struck down where I live is due to the typical people with no one to babysit their kids.
Then the high-schoolers and students at the local college who abandoned bicycles a little while ago, and are now victims of the ricer/raised craze.
I just have a tendency to grimace whenever somebody says, "it's all about drinking and...", because it's not. It's about riding and having fun. Anything else about it that needs to be advertised is just someone trying to impress some image about what it is upon another that it was never given to explain it.
Sure, I drink, a lot of us drink. Duh! So what? The point is we are adults and we have the sense not point out something that is already obvious when it doesn't fucking matter, except to people who don't approve or want to judge us by it. If we keep trying the definition of ridazz to drinking, then we are just forcing it to become just that definition alone.
And yeah, call me a hypocrite because Tren Way likes to say we are a drinking gang with a biking problem. But that's just a joke. .. Seriously were.. just joking.. i .. i...
my maturity is younger then chynna's :D
sadly most rides i've been with its always lots of drinking and smokin.
but defenitelly.
my first ride PF2 was very chill.
it was couple of weeks after I learned how to ride a bicycle, after I read the traffic laws, after I began to ride in the city streets a long cars
i loved the feeling of community i experienced, individuals by day assaulted by conditions experienced on the rode, but by night we are a mass celebrating our right to take the road.
I tell them I ride a bike with a bunch of, what was at the time, strangers, through the city in the middle of the nights. We go for 20-30-40 miles all over.
They call me crazy, especially when I invite them to come along.
Although I did convert like 3 or 4 of them for crank mob.
Then they ask me why I ride
And I tell'em all, "where else in LA are you going to find a group of people who go out just to have a good time with one another. They're on their bikes so the exercise automatically puts them in a good mood to begin with, add beer and other stuff and voila"
Then my friends have no reply to that, because we've done the clubs, the lounges, the hot spots, they got boring, the people suck.
I just have a tendency to grimace whenever somebody says, "it's all about drinking and...", because it's not. It's about riding and having fun. Anything else about it that needs to be advertised is just someone trying to impress some image about what it is upon another that it was never given to explain it.
Sure, I drink, a lot of us drink. Duh! So what? The point is we are adults and we have the sense not point out something that is already obvious when it doesn't fucking matter, except to people who don't approve or want to judge us by it. If we keep trying the definition of ridazz to drinking, then we are just forcing it to become just that definition alone.
True, but we've (almost) all been guilty of emphasizing that aspect of it to make it sound more exciting to outsiders. And then we wonder why people are showing up thinking it's an excuse to be a drunk fuckhead, and why more and more rides are degenerating into parking lot sessions.
The solution, then, is to start telling people the truth about what these rides are about, namely: riding around in circles while discussing the effects of bad securitized debt instruments on the economy.
I haven't been to a club since Sept '07, I was going to a bar in Hollywood a lot cause my friend was into this waitress there, he needed a wingman. I liked people watching and dancing, but the people aren't really that open or friendly. The music wasn't that bad, but the girls didn't come to dance?!?
The rides I go on, I've met more people, had more fun with people outside my social group than all the people I've met going out clubbing in LA.
I'm old enough to say M.R. is like a love-in.
Bunch of hippies (social odd balls and out casts as well as straights) gathering for a social fun time, only on bicycles.
The punk rock scene used to fill exactly the same need.
Like others have said, meeting others from outside my circle, dropping my day-to-day baggage and feeling like a kid again.
And drinking a few beers. That too.
30 years from now, it may not be centered around bikes, but there will be some "outsider" activity to fill this human need.
Nice. I loved all the replies here. I do agree with not overemphasizing the drinking aspect..it just makes sense (but I've done it too)
"The solution, then, is to start telling people the truth about what these rides are about, namely: riding around in circles while discussing the effects of bad securitized debt instruments on the economy."
That was some funny shit, PC
Anyways my next step is having a second bicycle so I can have something for people to ride, gonna try the bike oven today
"Come on a bike ride... with anywhere between 30-300 people. We have fun, we ride, we stop and hang out, have a good time. Just come, check it out."
Then whether they come or not, they all end up referring to MR as my "bike gang." I just reply with, "So when are you going to come out? There's a ride tomorrow night...."
these are my exact words to the last friend i brought on a ride:
"come see the city like you've never seen it before. before you know it the ride will be over and i promise you you wont want it to be over. oh, and be prepared for your gouch to hurt."
Why did I feel that, that music video has subliminal messages....must get clean. must scrub off shame.
Imagine yourself making a wish and of course you are perfectly surprised, a smothered kiss and tangles of hair. Its the bicycling community getting together, talking amongst ourselves. Celebrating our life. Our youth. Our health. Ourselves. Dancing with complete strangers that you'll greet your next time around. Feeling that sense of pride that the street is ours and its for us. You can feel the energy, the vibrant joy. People who care about you because we share the same daily commute or the same hobbie and the risks it comes with. Riding in unity is all love. We socialize, we ride, we stop, we dance. We live life and we love it.
friendz-wassup mike u want to go to an exspensive club and hang out with arrogant, superficial but beautiful men/women?
u.g.l.i-im gonna go for a ride around l.a. You kats want to join?
friendz-you mean motorcycle right....?
u.g.l.i-nah man i mean 2 wheels, pedal with 2 legs type shit.
friendz-..........
Emphasize the good if you want to see more of it.... on the other hand if you tell people its a bunch of drunks on bikes then a bunch of drunks will show up with bikes to fullfill the prophecy.
"Then whether they come or not, they all end up referring to MR as my "bike gang.""
Yupp, that's about how it goes with me too. The only difference is I haven't managed to get any of my friends to come out to a ride.
I try to tell everyone that it's like a party on wheels. I also add that there's rides of every type now. You could anything from a bar crawl, to doing a serious 100 miler. And even some rides that go for more than a 100 miles.
i always tell people i think i have more fun on mr than i used to have as a kid. and i am almost never angry...
That would be another perfect way to put it.
Another rant on "solo-in-my-town" riding vs. large-scale, MR's is that I feel tons more positive than I do when I'm riding alone down Bear Valley.
I dunno, when I ride by myself, I feel like a lone dog trapped in a stampede of raging bulls(desert drivers and their cars).
Oh no. Just being on my bike makes me happy, whether it's alone, with a friend, or 300 ridazz. I like experiencing the world and the sensations of the road, the weather, the smells of the city, all of it. The other day I rode thru an area that smelled like FUNNEL CAKE. I couldn't figure out why (no stores or bakeries), but it was so damn good.
Well, as I mentioned earlier, solo-riding is only entertaining for me if it's in an area aside from where I live.
I really need to get that ride for up here underway to show all of you how desolately boring and useless this town is.
At least people in the Inland Empire have Foothill Blvd, Arrow Hwy, and the Metrolinks running from Berdo and Riverside to ferry them out to the LA Basin at little cost.
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Ridazz Roulette!
It cant be explained. Tell them you just have to go experience the ride to understand. Friday the 13th. Aim for the head.