Critical mass ride for Friday, 24 November

I went down to IdealBikes before Critical Mass to pump up my tyre that had flatted out. I used the compressor, and was thinking, "hmm, this seems to be taking an awfully long time to inflate" when I heard a cracking sound followed by a huge bang a second later as the tube exploded. It appeared that someone had changed the compressor from its usual 65psi setting to somewhere in the region of 120. I flatted the next tube as it went on, taking the tyre off I found a gash in the sidewall that explained it - the tyre was simply worn out. I picked up a new Kenda Kross Plus tyre to replace it. I had a bit of fun as my Interac card was rejected, it wasn't till I got to MEC that I found out that Interac and Visa were both down - a coincidence that it was Buy Nothing day? I wonder...

Critical Mass was fairly well attended considering the weather; windy, cold, and slightly damp. There were a lot of the usual faces but also a few new ones. One guy was offering home-made beer around before the ride, I declined, agreeing with Eric's idea that "if I drink beer now, I'll be pissing all night through the ride!"

I was also interviewed (along with several others) by Whitney, a journalism student at King's College. She seemed interested in what we had to say, but I didn't see her on the ride itself, though.

The ride was a fairly long one all things considered, but very blustery, and there were a couple of downhills that required some fairly strong pedalling. Peter pegged me as leader due to all my lights, I think a few people may have been drafting off me in places! The ride ended at One World Cafe, and I headed home after that.

No pictures as it was too cold and windy to take my gloves off and balance taking photos!

Distance logged: 18.284km
Time: 73:14
Average speed: 15km/hr
Max speed: 44 km/hr
Temperature: 3C-2C, windy
Cumulative distance: 7454.608km
Cumulative cost per km: $0.39
Monthly distance: 588.371km
Monthly cost per km: $0.53