Critical Mass

Well I went on a Critical Mass ride. There were up to 30 people at one stage. I got there early rather than hand around at work. After a bit of debate we headed up around the Domain and then back up George Street, City Road, King Street and Enmore Road. We went to a really good vegetarian place for dinner. I relented and agreed to have the $25 banquet. Sometimes it not worth arguing and the banquet was very good. And I took a short video.

The ride through the domain was a bit fast. Karyn was in the lead and she rides this way to work. For the rest of us, it was quite dark, and hence a bit of caution was required. I managed to lift a wheel off the ground for the first time. I had tried to ride up a grassy slope, but fond that the grass was too slippery given how steep the slope was. So I then went to go along the slope. The up-hill wheel came off the ground and I had to put my hand on the ground to stop flipping onto the side.

We headed into town. The purpose of critical mass it to have a bunch of riders ride through town and raise the profile of bike riders. As the group was large we would stretch across the intersections and take up whole lanes. It was all a bit chaotic. There is a system where they have riders stop in the intersection until the last rider passes to allow the group though the intersection even after the lights have changed. Apparently the police tolerate this. So we did this a few times through the city and into Newtown.

In the city the car drivers were generally hostile. Though Michael said this was unusual. In Newtown we were welcomed and cars would toot and wave. Also the traffic on King Street is so slow that often the cars were holding us up.

On the food side, they wanted to eat the banquet. Australian’s are like this and I accept that. But as a Chinese person, I would suggest that this is a very bad move. This is because what is sounds like you are saying, we don’t understand the food, so we will take the cowards way out and order the banquet. Unfortunately this is also a dead end street. You will never learn the food, you will always sound like you are not interested in food and hence the culture which is a part of me.