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Yes that would be why. My first attempt at posting the ride took too long and I was logged out, when I reposted it I was frustrated and typed it wrong.
How 'bout I just dress up as Marcellus Wallace and, "You hear me talking Hill-billy boy, I ain't through with you by a damned sight!!!
I'm gonna get Medieval on your ass!!!"
Or, I'll just get a Druidic robe put together and wear it over my usual get-up.
I mean, there were some off-world missions that involved societies at a Medieval-level age of technology.
You must follow the Prime-Directive, yada-yada-yada.
Dollar Tree in Panorama City has kids stuff... armor chest plate, sword that has action sounds, armor gloves, and a shield. Check your local Dollar Trees today.
Brian... i'ma be heading down there. not sure if i'mma take my moms mini van but if i do you're more than welcome to come along. if i do decide to take the metro we can ride together if you'd like.. there's a couple other heads from the valley heading down there.
and thanks Al for the dollar store suggestion... I think that's where I'll be going.
Ktowners will be rolling to ReForm School at Hyperion and Sunset to check out an opening and collect misc riders. We will then head to the Medieval ride.
MEET: Wilshire & Vermont metro station.
WHEN: Meet at 7:30. Leave at 8:00 sharp.
ROUTE: Virgil > Silverlake > Hoover > Hyperion
come by any time from 6-9pm. I'll be there around 6pm helping out....then riding with the ktowners around 9 or so. Westsiders may have a hard time finding it since it's not on the westside.
RBI - Imma have my music system tonight too, can you send me the playlist (or part of it) if it's not too big? See if we can't test a little consistency here.
@ SpeedyBrian: yeah, large is ok. Thanks man. I guess I'll see you down there. anyone want to make a ride to the Medieval Ride starting at the NOHO redline station???
Don't worry about being lazy, the last train to the valley is at 12:17am from Union Station. It won't start running late until next Friday, Nov 21st. So you valley people will be pedaling over the hill tonight to go home.
oh yeah, when i took the redline to union last night, they had a disclaimer on the tv screen things on the platform that it would start running till 3am until some time in december and it didnt say when it would begin again in 2009.
this is the main reason why LA/Echo Park area rides are so epic - you're forced to drink until the wee hours of the morning when the red line starts up again. or as someone pointed out just pedal your sweet ass home on the 2 routes available (that i know of anyways)
Ok, I'm gonna post tonight's route, it's here:
http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=2389998
there's really only one real hill, and yes, its at the beginning, it's short and you can walk it if you so desire as we will have a stop at the top.
There is one other issue however. The Jousting Poles are on the west side, and we need someone to bring them east.
If someone who is driving would be willing to help us out, please call me:
(941) seven two six 0036
This route ended up being different from the original because of the stupid DWP Festival of Lights crap. we were originally going to ride through Giffith Park on Crystal Springs Dr. However, the frequent presence of work crews installing that BS required a change of plans.
it's not about crashing anything, it's about people not crashing, when we went through there were large metal sculptures and work crews all over the place, the ride is NOT going through there.
We have a new route... so let's just all collectively say FUCK YOU to the DWP and their non bike friendly event thing, and we'll use that route at some later point... I has ideas...
the DWP event is not finished, it doesnt open until next week, so basically crashing it would mean crashing a construction site... which means people crashing... not happening.
we'll crash the DWP thing when it's open and full of carz.
From evening to morning
And morning and evening
I wanna drink
Something stronger than a man
From evening to morning
And morning and evening
I wanna drink
'cause that's what I am
Beer, beer
I want beer
From beer I get really drunk
Beer, beer
I need more beer
So much I pass out
For beer I'm working
For beer I'm fighting
For beer I'll do
Whatever I have to
When drunk I'm talking
When drunk I'm joking
When drunk I can be as I've
Always wanted to be
eric has the same playlist as i, but with a few different songs. so theres a chance that you might be listening to the same songs whether youre in the front of the pack or in the back. in stereo.
totally forgot about them! and gamma ray. and luca turilli (even if he is in rhapsody), and hammerfall.
dak might have something for us tonight as well. he is the resident power metal expert.
liquid swords... GZA and the RZA!! Man... you just bring up some nice stuff rbi. Well.. I'm gonna bring the music box and unfortunately don't have the music for this medieval stuff. Hope it's cool... I'll bow down to the other music boxes though... much respect...
not sure. fuzz asked me to make a playlist, but neither of us have soundsystems. eric hair is bringing his own playlist and system. i dont think bbds is ready yet. if spiraldemon brings his, ill probably throw my ipod into his system. but i could always throw mine on yours. i wont know until we get to the start.
where was my tocayo, n a few others. some regulars were missing. including some all of a sudden new regulars. TWBG, the OG n ligits were there. except for daniel and esther. where you guys? where was FUNDERSTORM? WE definately misse you guys.
fun ride FUZZ.
this one is up for best ride of the year along with the halloween fiasco... amazin fucking ride. can't believe we were that strong all the way to the very end.
whata ride. My first ride. Bloody brilliant. Lost the pack right toward the end because of misdirection but no big, ran into a trio of peeps helping an injured rida to emergency help (hope you doing good man and big ups to Lewis and Nick for helping). The lonely last section of ride home allows one to savor the beautiful parts earlier with new friends even more; and i made a lot of new friends. The view from the top of the hill above Dodger stadium was awesome. I am gonna be one sore rida tmorra.
Nice hills, nice route, nice people, no negativity to be felt anywhere.
Hell, even that drunk dude who was riding behind myself and richie after the end-trip had a nice fall.
And I came two inches from tapping his head with my front wheel.
Aside from that, I loved it and now I've got to see if I could get some of my shit delivered early, so I could get some of my Robotz commitment put in.
badass ride. the route was the shit and i met a lot of new people (including candy cane... hi candy cane). all in all is was a super fun night but damn i wonder how that one drunk kid whose skewer broke at the end got home...
the only thing i didnt like about this ride was that the first stop at that "castle" in elysian park seemed WAY too early. that should have been where the ride ended, because then everyone got split up right when we were leaving.
also, i hope tallcans made it home safe. that guy was fucked up and couldnt walk straight. yet, for some reason, he could trackstand my bike one foot-no hands no problem.
There sure was a lot of DRUNK IDIOTS on this ride though, come stupid babies learn how to handle your booze before you hurt yourself and the people around you, unless you already did.
And at the very, beginning of the ride to fucking boot!!!
Aside from after the ride ended where I nearly decapitated the drunk that fell in front of me, there was that fucktard, soon after the start-point at the big hill.
meow was holding a straight line and some bozo swerves into her.
Fortunately, she kept going and he face-planted into the drivers side window of a parked van as a reward for his show-boating!!!
Fuzz- Thank you thank you thank you for one of the more memorable nights I've had in a long while! Holy fuckin' shit man! As others have said many times already in this thread- that was fucking brilliant! It was also great having your company on our journey back to the beach :)
Thanks for putting this ride together Fuzz. Nice job and the route and some of the stops. One of the stops that had me scratching my head was the stop at the closed gas station on San Fernando Rd. Why not roll a little further and just stop at the liquor store like we did? The response is more than likely be that we regrouped there, but what's the sense of regrouping on a road when when we're going to stop a mile ahead on this said road?
I talked to a few peeps on this ride and their experience was somewhat like mine. That was that there were alot of unnecessary close calls. I had one guy in front of me drift from my right to my left going up a hill. Just missed him by less than a foot. Then another dumbfuck u-turn around cause his bro pulled over. Just missed him by about 5 feet going 15-20 mph.
All and all a nice ride, just wish these newbies layoff the booze till they get the hang of it. Also feel sorry for anyone on a cruiser that night.
music is better than no music, but that being said... sometimes i find myself hustling as fast as possible/as far as possible from a playlist that is giving me a headache. just sayin'.
Me - I for one think that the peeps can play whatever they like. After all, they're the ones dragging the music. If anyone doesn't like the music, they can bring their own. Or move away from it. I don't really think they should be complaining about it. Then again, maybe I'm old fashion?
i mean, i know not everyone is gonna like whatever i would put on a playlist. but at the same time, i know not to put on techno remixes of korn songs or whatever at the same time. i mean, come on. seriously?
if there was a playlist of johnny cash (minus those nin covers), some loretta lynn, hank williams, etc etc, then that would be great. however, nu country can rot in hell.
i told all the hipsters that couldnt ride up that hill in elysian park that there was a 7-11 at the top as i was passing them all. they didnt find the humor in it like i did.
And, user 1, yes that was a regroup, it's one of the few large parking lots in that area, we needed something to hold us all, we were so spread out it took nearly 10 minutes for everyone to catch up, and I didnt want people missing the not so obvious turn onto eagle rock. There were enough people who got lost that night (mostly due to the front hauling ass) also that gas station (which we have stopped at before) is supposed to be open until midnight (we rolled up at 11:45), and they must have closed early, anyway, yes it was a regroup, we were trying to find another store that was open. So sorry you had to stop and talk to people for 5 minutes... oh noes...!
I'm glad everyone had a good time. I have really only one complaint.
If you're in the front, SLOW THE FUCK DOWN! There's a reason people are telling you to go slow. Not only are the people behind you having to deal with a ton of traffic, they have to deal with more inexperienced riders, swerving drunks and other calamities. It's great that you can ride quickly and all, but remember IT"S NOT A HUSTLE.
Also, if you don't know the route, going a bit slower will help make sure you don't end up off route. This is part of the reason for all the confusion coming down from Elysian Park. People were running willy-nilly, hauling ass off the front and taking all kinds of random turns through the neighborhoods. The route wound through, but in a general straight line, everyone trying to take other routes every time a light was encountered and such caused that plague of lost-ness. There are some gnarly downhills in that area, such as Alpine, the one Stilline managed to keep the front group off of, as we turned 100 yards behind them. Alpine isnt only steep, it's narrow, with no real runoff at the bottom, something anyone making a route would probably avoid.
So if you're off the front of a ride, and something about the road ahead presents itself as something that could seem dangerous to a lot of people, it probably is, and probably isnt part of the route.
it's a new jazzy and people need to quit bitching. straight up.
i will not call out names... but certain folks on this fucking forum talk way to much shit for me to call out.
just enjoy the ride for what it is... if not then get the fuck out.
and if you dont like a fucking playlist then fucking get the fuck away from the vicinity. shit... what the fuck do you think your (not you're...idiots) two legs are for?
got there late... put 7 bikes and 7 bodies in my moms mini van that morning and made it happen. got them back to the valley somehow. i loved that ride!!! wished i didnt have to drive down there... but the looks on everyones faces once i got them to the valley made me a happy camper.
I missed most of this ride.
I was up at angels point and I didn't see anybody I knew and nobody seemed to know what was going on. Since the group up there was maybe 1/5 the original group and even fewer at the bottom i decided to climb up higher to look around for more peeps. When I came back everybody was gone. No route slip = Ride over.
Riding down from there, even with a bright ass light, was fucking fun but hairy. I'm glad no noobs crashed on that thing.
I saw a bunch of chicks on beach cruisers just suffering during the first 5 minutes of the ride. I think a lot of them didn't even make it to the first stop.
As far as bike speed.
It gets brought up every time and its usually the same story.
So although I missed 80% or 90% of the ride here are my thoughts:
Fixies have a different pace than MTBs and Cruisers, people on fixies climb much faster and are less inclined to be braking on the way down unless the hill is dangerously steep.
Being a veteran of the back (i ride in the back about 75% of the time). I think one of the problems in keeping the group together is lack of stopping. Some people want to burn every light, which is great if you are up front with 100 bikes and the traffic sees and yields for you, if you are way in the back with 10 or 15 people, cars are usually tired of waiting and you tend to have to stop at every light.
Some bikes just want to travel at different speeds than others and it takes a conscious effort to slow people down who are rolling on 700cs because even what they consider top be a slow pace is a big workout for somebody on a cruiser.
I don't know how many people got dumped that night but I'd be interested to know how many of that gigantic group in the beginning made it for most the ride.
Producing a ride is a lot of work and pressure. So of course mega-props for stepping up to the plate Fuzz.
From what i got to experience the ride was a 10 for fun, adventure, and good vibes ... and maybe a 3 for planning and communication.
Hey Fuzz - I had a really good time. It was tough keeping the group together because of the speed, and people got separated, yes - but ultimately, it was a really fun ride with a really good vibe (other than the 12 year olds who couldn't walk, much less ride, at the end...oh, and that one dude who always creeps me out). Ending at the park on Figueroa was a piece of genius - and thanks to Richie for grabbing his crazy sound system so we could all tear it up! And thanks for the little tour of TREN WAY TERRITORY. Yazza.
im glad you didnt get lost on the eastside, sheli. you kept screaming "i dont know where we are im lost whats going on!" and then we got to the lake and youre like "oh, theres everyone, thanks!". sorry there were a few hills on that route back.
july - music has the power to bring people together as much as it does to alienate. if we want as many people on bikes riding i think there should be a common ground.
TRUER THAN ALL THE OTHERS 2ND FRIDAY MR IS STILL THE BIGGEST AND THE BADDEST!!!
FIRST STOP WUZ SUER EPIC x 1,000
FUZZBEAST DEFINED HOW MUCH ONE MAN ALONE CAN DO, WHEN DEALING WITH HUNDREDS OF RIDAZZ!!!
Thanx for kicking off my SUPER BIKE WEEKEND the best way possible, and thanx for everyone's concrn about my welfare, I know was pretty tossed that night but I made it home ok.
RBI and USER 1, please quit yer bitching and moaning!! I luv you guys, but until either of you actually step up and lead a big ride as opposed to just following the crowd and complaining, chill on the Siskel and Ebert routine. You guys are spoiled rotten with what has been granted you for living in So-Cal. There will always be drunken idiots on rides and music not everyone loves. Deal with it or go home!!!
At one point the music and atmosphere got me so pumped that I sped all the way to the front. When I came to, I realized that I was like 15ft ahead of the frontline. I was like "Holy shit I went too far!!". That's when the people up front started talking their shit. Calling me names... I thought that there were more people ahead of them. So anyway, my bad for going too far up ahead. .... some people were complete pricks about it.
Alex, read above again. I was the advocating that whoever brings the music be able to play what they want. The criticism regarding the ride is constructive criticism. Maybe, just maybe some will lay off the booze and avoid some accident in the future.
I have not been on a group ride since I got my new bike months ago. It was a great ride. My bike started, "ghost shifting" on the hills so I ended up ahving to get off and run up to catch up. I thought the hills were pretty friendly though and since they were mostly as tthe beginning, I felt I could relax for a while.
Here is my only complaint, I do not know if there was a spoke card for this but I did not get one. When we stopped at the beginning a few times, I never knew when it was a stop or a "regroup".
When we stopped at the gas station, I helped my girlfriend find a safe place to pee and when we got back everyone was leaving.
I know it was not a real stop but I think there probably should have been a stop around that time. People need to piss.
That is just my two cents and not meant to be shit talking at all.
Everyone I came with had the time of our lives.
oh and pick up your trash!!!!! my girlfriend and i picked up tons of cans and bottles for other people at that liquor store.
Eddie, what's that dudes name? Hes at 13:30 of your video. Anyone know how to get a hold of him?
http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=1060235340584
I'm not pointing fingers but certain people who ride Tall Bikes have a tendency to need to ride in the front of the pack and tend not to stop at intersections because of the situation of being up in the air.
People are following the Tall Bike(s) when they shouldn't be, and go through intersections and block traffic and lose the rest of the group behind them.
This is not the only reason why things got split up. the other reason is people on fixed gear bikes also like to ride the front and tend to ride at a faster pace than the rest. When hills are presented, fixies have to take the front in order to keep a momentum to get over the hill. This sets a problem for the slower paced people to keep up and not lose them.
It's a problem we deal with all the time and we need to just develop an awareness of it so that we can adjust the rides accordingly. It is impossible to get EVERYONE at the same pace when riding with such large numbers. Just try your best and be thoughtful of the group as a whole. dot com.
Good thing I had my cel phone so the wayward followers of this Tallbike were able to rejoin everyone else on that bridge and keep the ride together after that super fast downhill sprint out of Elysian Park!
As for Borfo's words, I completely agree. It's impossible. But maybe if some fixed gear riders could possibly slow down at the top of the hill and wait for a few more riders that would help a little? Dunno. I don't mind fast people, they're awesome, but one thing that bothers me is the people who like to ride ahead of the ride leaders.
Aye, I tried my best to get the front to hold at the top of a couple bigger hills, the only problem comes when there's such a massive group that the group bunches up too dense at the top and just sort of forces itself to move. this happened on both climbs in and out of Elysian Park (the two steep hills near bracketing the one we stopped at).
Most of the confusion happened AFTER that anyway. It seems the left turn onto Bellevue at the south side of Echo Park was where the splitting happened, possibly because of the freeway ramp? I'm not sure, anyway, that's what most of the calls trying to find the group seemed to be centered on, "we got to the end of echo park now we can't find the ride" kind of things.
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Ridazz Roulette!
LOL no kidding! Yeah I smelt the burning rubber too!
SICKK RIDE!!
YES, I REMEMBER YOU OPENED IT FOR ME, I ALSO REMEMBER YOU HOLLERING AT ME TO HOLD MY LINE, FUNNY ASS SHIT. COOL.
TC4TB was WASTED FRIDAY!!!!
thats so fucking cute i just died.
I LIKE THE BOTTLE.