Critical mass ride for Friday, 27 June

It looked like it was going to rain but then at about 10 minutes to 6 the sun suddenly came out and it was a warm sunny day. There was a big turnout again this month, with an initial count of 260 and a count at the end of the ride of 290 riders. It was a nice relaxed ride, and although I heard of one person getting assaulted by a motorist I know the guy in question and I rather suspect he wound up the motorist to get them to come after him. Other than that the ride was peaceful, albeit with a relatively heavy police presence since there was an after-party at Chebucto Road to protest the widening (and expropriation of peoples' front yards). The bike police attended and did a sterling job of corking at traffic lights. I overheard a piece of comedy gold from one cyclist who was corking at an intersection after a driver waited asked him what it was all about: "it's a monthly ride for cyclists in Halifax to come together as a community to have a safe ride together. Also it's just a fucking sweet time." The ride ended at the church on Chebucto with most of the riders going on to the after-party which went on for several hours, although I had to leave to see a friend.

The local paper had an article on it which had some laughably inane statements, calling it a "mini Tour de France" (if the Tour de France had an average speed of 8km/hr), and that traffic was backed up for "nearly a kilometre" - which was odd, as I was at the back of the ride several times and I didn't see much traffic behind. The comments underneath from some of the readers were also somewhat shortsighted in places...

I took quite a few pictures, some of note were:

HCC co-chair looking particularly debonair
Someone brought their dog and flowers (!) for a ride
Neskie came with his new bike design, a frameless bike
Jamieson with the most chopped bars I've ever seen (and possibly looking where he shouldn't have been)
Dave and Mike Plow enjoying the ride
Nova Scotia flag on the helmet
Father and son enjoying the ride
Youngest rider with a very snappily dressed mother
Dave towing a couple of passengers (I think he had a total of 8 different passengers on there through the ride)
Xtracycle!
Bike police corking for us
HCC's new Director of Education and Advocacy gathering material
Dave pulling a passenger wearing his bike
Police presence on Chebucto
Expect Delays
Bike lift

Distance logged: 21.862km
Time: 101:48
Average speed: 12.9km/hr
Max speed: 42.5 km/hr
Temperature: 19C, sunny
Cumulative distance: 3646.644km
Cumulative cost per km: $0.13
Monthly distance: 679.322km
Monthly cost per km: $0.26