Sunday, April 01, 2007

Critical mass ride for Friday, 30 March

Left work early after being paged early (and the text on the monitor screen was starting to go fuzzy) and took some pictures for IdealBikes. Saw Peter on the way round, he gave me some more stickers, and when I got back to the shop Mike gave me a challenge of "disposing" of a rusted out bike shaped object which wouldn't even hold air in the tyres - not to mention the chain had fallen off and rusted in place. I stickered it with Critical Mass stickers and left it outside the shop as an advert; it was still there when I left at 6, but apparently it disappeared shortly afterwards.

Critical Mass was fairly well attended with around 25 people there, although I was expecting more - quite a few people who sad they would come didn't turn up for one reason or another. The purpose of the ride was to show where the new bike again project is, and Scott handed out leaflets for it with the following text:

"Are you interested in fixing your bike but haven't got the right tools? Do you have an old bike that needs a new home? Do you love bicycling? If so come visit us at the Bike Again Community Project.

We are a locally run, all volunteer community bike shop. We recycle bikes, teach bike mechanics and promote safe urban cycling.

We are always looking for volunteers with differing skill levels.

Bloomfield Centre
2786 Agricola Street, Halifax
Wednesday 5:30-9:00pm
Sunday 1:00pm-7:00pm
E-mail: bikeagain (at) hotmail.com"

The ride finished up at the Bloomfield Centre where Scott showed the entrance, a grey door off to the side. He also mentioned a movie night, but (since I was at the back with a headband covering my ears) I didn't hear the time and date, but I did get to hear the tale of woe of the last one, involving duff projectors, duff displays, duff laptops and culminating and a scratched DVD - hopefully the next one will come off better!

After that there was an unofficial ride around Citadel Hill then back to Victoria Park. A bunch of us headed out home towards Vernon Street, with bikes peeling off one by one. Finally, by Quinpool, there was just Godwin and I, and we were able to pick up the pace a bit - up till I had a moment of cognitive dissonance trying to figure out the fastest way to Mumford, as the route we were going was the opposite of the way I ride in and doesn't work "the other way round"; we ended up going down Chebucto onto Mumford after I had a few seconds' thought.

Pictures from the ride here; not too many as it was tricky getting the camera out of the bag and taking pictures with two sets of full-finger gloves on!

Distance logged: 20.926km
Time: 82:45
Average speed: 15.2km/hr
Max speed: 39.4 km/hr
Temperature: 5C to 4C, cloudy
Cumulative distance: 2054.548km
Cumulative cost per km: $0.16
Monthly distance: 20.926km
Monthly cost per km: $0

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