Kidical Mass - Wrap Up

Wow, what a weekend! I'm only just now getting around to writing about Kidical Mass. On Saturday we went an picked up all the new bike stuff we ordered from REI including my new gloves! My hands are much happier now. On Sunday we went and picked up my 5 year old twin cousins and took them to the zoo and then had dinner with their parents (my uncle and aunt) that night.

Kidical Mass was a blast. In all there were about 45-ish people (I didn't count, but you can tell by the pictures in my last post). Lots and lots of trailers, one tow behind tandem and a few kids riding their own bikes. Everyone was super friendly and the route was nice and easy. The traffic did a good job of not giving us trouble and whoever was picking a route did a good job keeping us out of traffic.

My wife, (who refuses to ride a critical mass) had a ton of fun as well. Probably more than I did. She was almost as excited as the kids about the ice cream shop that the ride ended at (she's so cute!).

Oh and I guess I should mention The Daily Scoop where the ride ended. Fantastic little ice cream and cupcake shop in South Park. A number of unexpected flavors of ice cream (which I unfortunately cannot recall) and a small little shop with locally produced clothes and jewelry.

If I had to find one problem with the ride, it would only be that far too many of the adults chose not to wear helmets. I understand that it is not illegal and that it is their choice (even if I find it to be a poor choice), but I would hope that they could suck it up for 2 hours once a month to set a good example for the kids riding (for whom it is illegal to ride without a helmet).

All in all, however, it was a wonderful time and I can't wait until next month's ride!

-Matt the Weatherman




Direct link to REI Cycling store

Kidical Mass Photo Dump

Here are my photos from Kidical Mass in San Diego.
If you or your kid is in one of these pictures and you want a copy, email me and I'll set you up with a copy.
Alternately, if you aren't comfortable with these pictures being online email me (fitzophrenic-at-gmail.com) and I will gladly take them down.























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Kidical Mass - Correction

Thanks to Natalie who left me a note in the comments correcting me on the start location for Kidical Mass. We will be meeting across the street at Pershing and Upas. Hope to see you all there.

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KIDical Mass!

San Diego will have its first Kidical Mass this Friday night at 5:30pm. Well, actually every third Friday of the month (so you can still go to Critical Mass if you want). This event is being set up by the lovely ladies at Pedal Mamas.

The ride meets at Bird Park in North Park (at 28th and Thorn) and ends at Daily Scoop in South Park (Juniper and 30th).

Kidical Mass was started by a group of moms (similar to pedalmamas) in Portland, Oregon. You can check out their website here: www.kidicalmass.org

And yes, the wife and I will be there. You should be too!

-TheWeatherMan




Direct link to REI Cycling store

Critical Mass - San Diego

For those of you still curious about Critical Mass, especially in San Diego or why I only occasionally attend (based on what kind of mood I'm in), here is a story from the SD Union-Tribune on last month's Mass.

Once a Month, County Cyclists Claim the Streets

Sometimes, I'm in the mood to be raucous and go crazy, but more often than not lately, I've just rathered to stayed home.

On the upside there is another public group ride coming up Friday that I will post about tonight. (Or tomorrow if I'm lame.)

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Happy Anniversary!

I just want to take a short opportunity to wish my parent's a happy 25th wedding anniversary. I love you guys! Here's to another great party for your 50th!(Yes, that's me in the photo, now you can guess how old I am.)



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(Non) Post

Well. Wasn't that a silly thing to do.

Apparently, I never posted the blog entry I wrote last Friday on my way home from work. Now, I'm not going to post it because a: the info is pretty out of date and b: it was poorly written. Basically it explained how fat and tired I was after my trip and how that was making it hard to ride everyday.

Now I have a much better story about the ride that took place right after I wrote (but did not post) that embarrassment of a blog (non)posting.

I got off the train a stop early at Sorrento Valley Station. From there I got on the I-5 South onramp to take the freeway one exit (Genessee). This is one of the 5-6 places in the county where bicycling on the freeway is legal.

Not that I'm going to go ride all of them. Riding on the freeway is significantly less exciting that you might expect. Basically is it similar to riding on any of the major boulevards in a city (roads with 3-4 lanes in each direction and a speed limit at or above 45 mph). The main difference is that the shoulder is not as well maintained and just littered with debris. I found this out the hard way.

Right as I got up the hill to the freeway (the onramp starts about 250 feet of elevation below the freeway) I popped my rear tire. This meant changing my rear tube on the side of the road. Really not too much fun.

To top that off once I exited the freeway I learned that they were doing median construction and that they had removed the bike lane from that segment of road. Super. Anyway the point of this trip was to drop my bike off at the shop because it was making a squeaking noise I couldn't identify and I was concerned it might have something to do with my crankset (I knew it was related to the act of pedaling.)

Long story short, I looked like a fool because my chain had dried out (I didn't clean it before I left so it had been over 4 weeks since it had been oiled) and that was the only problem with my bike. I, of course, was expecting to have to leave my bike and had arranged a ride home from REI (and had therefore made it a point to use all of my energy getting to the shop) which I now had to pass on (can't transport my bike on the wife's car).

I ended up riding a full 30 miles that day (far more than I expected I was capable of, taking into the account the post that I failed to upload. The upshot of this was that I rediscovered my love of cycling and have spent most of this week riding almost as much as I can in my commute (skipping the trolley and bus on the way home and just riding the additional 6-8 miles).

This has meant less posts to the blog (which is why I'm only now realizing that I never posted last Friday), but has given me more ideas for things to post about. So look forward to that.

-Matt the Weatherman

(P.S. I wrote this post Thursday afternoon and didn't get around to posting it until now. I guess I still haven't learned my lesson.)




Direct link to REI Cycling store