First ever St Petersburg Critical Mass

[ericspin]

I attended the St. Pete version of Critical mass last night....what a hoot. This was the first time this event actually _happened_ as I guess they have tried before but nobody showed. I think I was the token old man (well actually there were three of us old farts) and was received well by the _fixie kids_. I don't have an ungeared ride as of yet but I rode my IF planet X with 35 Pasela's. At one point some kid rode up next to me and exclaimed "how much did you pay for that thing, like a million dollars", he was rididng a BMX bike. There were over 40 of us at the start which for a community like St. Pete was great. We picked up stray riders along the way and at one point passed a bike shop and several riders grabbed bikes and joined us.

We organized a route amongst ourselves and off we went _taking the lanes_ of major streets with no shoulders or bike lanes. I felt that we truly made a statement, no one was over the top disrespectful, no one was hurt and I am glad that I went. The energy of the whole gig was exhilirating and the bikes were beyond cool. We rode for about and hour and a half and I don't believe we ever broke 9 mph. I would love to attend a large organized Mass sometime.

I have been jonesin' to convert my Serotta Concours CS and fell asleep last night envisioning a bunch of White Ind. Eno stuff on the Concours and me doing this ride again. We are definitely doing it again the last Friday of January if any of you Central Floridians have it in you.

Eric

[Bruce K]

Eric;

I recently converted my older Concours to a single speed using a Surly Singulator.

If you make the conversion you'll have a blast and with a CS it will be one of the coolest single/fixed bikes around.

BK

[Blue Jays]

Did the event cause motor vehicle traffic? What was their response to the CM riders? How did motorists behave towards non-CM riders in the vicinity?

[TimD]

See my Soulcraft Convert ad in the classifieds. We can talk about the spacer kit... :)

[Fixed]

good bro alley cat coming up in jan bro the cat 66 fixed will fix you up do the fix thing if you are doin it imho
cheers

[Fixed]

eric bro ever notice st pete is hipper than tampa why is that ?
cheers
besides the mayor rides a bike

[djg]

I've only seen critical mass up here in DC a couple of times -- looked like a cluster f... and I wouldn't want to be associated with it, but it sounds as if yours was smaller and lower key.

The ENO hub works fine for an easy conversion, if you have a road bike you really like that just isn't getting ridden anymore.

[Fixed]

eric do you ever ride on hanna i saw a cat on a i.f. riding there one time
cheers

[ericspin]

eric bro ever notice st pete is hipper than tampa why is that ?
cheers
besides the mayor rides a bike

St. Pete (town of the newlywed and nearly dead) is much hipper. I pretty much grew up over there and actually my wife and I are planning to relocate across the bridge if property values ever return so that we can sell. Cool vibe. Noticed a couple of cool neighborhood type diner/restaurants that were very clean and looked real inviting and had several folks inside dining. That is not a scene I ever see in my Temple Terrace neighborhoods.

Much more _community_ and just a slower scene in St. Pete.

Join us next time.

[ericspin]

eric do you ever ride on hanna i saw a cat on a i.f. riding there one time
cheers

No, most of my riding is out toward Thonotosassa and up toward San Antonio area. Don't do much town riding but that may change when I get an ungeared (being careful not to commit my 50 year old knees to fixed yet) rig going.

[SoCalSteve]

I attended the St. Pete version of Critical mass last night....what a hoot. This was the first time this event actually _happened_ as I guess they have tried before but nobody showed. I think I was the token old man (well actually there were three of us old farts) and was received well by the _fixie kids_. I don't have an ungeared ride as of yet but I rode my IF planet X with 35 Pasela's. At one point some kid rode up next to me and exclaimed "how much did you pay for that thing, like a million dollars", he was rididng a BMX bike. There were over 40 of us at the start which for a community like St. Pete was great. We picked up stray riders along the way and at one point passed a bike shop and several riders grabbed bikes and joined us.

We organized a route amongst ourselves and off we went _taking the lanes_ of major streets with no shoulders or bike lanes. I felt that we truly made a statement, no one was over the top disrespectful, no one was hurt and I am glad that I went. The energy of the whole gig was exhilirating and the bikes were beyond cool. We rode for about and hour and a half and I don't believe we ever broke 9 mph. I would love to attend a large organized Mass sometime.

I have been jonesin' to convert my Serotta Concours CS and fell asleep last night envisioning a bunch of White Ind. Eno stuff on the Concours and me doing this ride again. We are definitely doing it again the last Friday of January if any of you Central Floridians have it in you.

Eric

For awhile, I had my CSI as a fixed gear bike with ENO rear hub. Worked great!

I just happen to like the geometry of my Marcello better for fixed.

You will love it!

Steve