Midnight Ride (with lasers)

What better way to spend the few fleeting hours of darkness of the shortest night of the year, than to ride the night away with a big group of fellow cyclists, with a portable sound system and laser light show.

It’s like a bicycle disco.

Before the ride, participants pimped out their steeds with all sorts of lights.

Rollin’ down the Ave.

Smiles all around.

Phantom wheels in the late night twilight.

Riding on, into the night.

Taking the streets, groovin’ to the tunes.

It’s actually quite hard to get a photo of this big a group at night.

Retro futurism (with bikes and rowdy riders).

Zoomin’ through the ‘hoods.

Instructions: 1) Weave sparkler through spokes. 2) Light with torch or other sparkler. 3) Ride away before you set something on fire.

Future-bike disco.

Invade a parkade.

Lovers in auto-centric times.

Photos with friends.

It’s a DIY disco!

Riding With the Boy

When bicycle advocates are espousing all the reasons you should ride a bike, there’s something often forgotten. Fun, play, romance.

Here’s to late night rides with loved ones.

A quick turnaround.

When he wants to fly, he goes so much faster than me. In fact, he rides faster than anyone I’ve ever met.

Flying down empty streets on the fixies.

Skinny tires seek out fresh pavement.

Faster, into the night.

Exploring twisty corridors.

This ride brought to you by… these two bike geeks.

Here’s to looking forward to a summer of passionate nights.

Midnight Magic

The ingredients:

• A hot summer night, preferably one where the majority of people are at home sleeping because they have to work the next day.
• Friends.
• Bicycles.
• A mobile sound system hooked up to an amazing disco bike.
• A sense of adventure.

Chris brings the party with his bike.

Add a splash at the legislature grounds.

Too bad this is last year for the leg (pronounced ledge) reflecting pool.

And a chance encounter with some more free spirits (people, not bicycles), and suddenly we’re supplying the soundtrack for a fire jam.

Fire spinning!

Making art with kerosene…

…while the city sleeps…

Just don’t drop the flaming staff.

When we pulled up to the fire jam, the folks were stressing about the lack of tunes. When they saw/heard us, several of them ran up and spread hugs all around. Later, we showed them that cyclists could spin fire too, by weaving sparklers through our spokes, lighting them & riding into the darkness.

The night ended with the cyclists riding up the hill to the soundtrack of Hot Butter. I don’t care how tough the hill is, with that you can’t help but giggle & smile.

Anyone who tells you E-Ville is dead on a Sunday night isn’t looking in the right place. Sunday night belongs to the cyclists.

Six Pack Ride

Here are the rules:

Cyclists gather on a Friday evening, each carrying a six pack of refreshing beverages. Everybody gets two slips of paper, and on each they write a location in the city. All the pieces of paper are collected in a hat, and one is drawn. Everybody then rides to that location, consumes a tasty beverage, and then another location is randomly selected to have the next drink. Repeat until everyone’s finished their six pack.

Riding into the night.

First stop: "Ewok Forest" (I've heard of two spots called Ewok Forest in E-town, this isn't either of them). Also, huge thanks to Alex and Oliver for portaging Marjory through that crazy Mill Creek trail.

Taking it downtown.

My beverage of choice (mock me if you may, but a gingered up me is much more fun than a puking drunk me).

Taking in the view after riding 10 stories up. Things are getting blurry.

See those two blurs between the black arrows? Gravity assisted cyclists rollin' down the other side of the double helix.

The Midnight Mystery Ride Returns

Friends, the time has come to beat the heat and take to the street for a ferocious nighttime two-wheeled feat!

Announcing the triumphant return of the the Midnight Mystery Ride to E-Ville’s unsuspecting boulevards. What is a Midnight Mystery Ride? It’s a cool ride on a hot night, it’s going somewhere you’ve never been before with a group of debaucherous cyclists intent on fun, it’s out of bounds, it’s the fast lane on a sidewalk budget, it’s pushing the limits of what you think is possible, it’s a blast, and it’s totally at your own risk.

So if you dare to join, meet at Tipton Park (108 St & 80 Ave), Friday July 30, at 9:30pm. Make sure you and your bike are prepared for anything. Food, beverages, lights & patch kits are all good ideas. Leave behind your inhibitions and any overdeveloped sense of propriety but don’t forget your good sense! If the riding’s right, it could go all night.

Warning: this blog post is about to get extremely nerdy.

Light on the valve stem of my front wheel. You can also sort of see the shadow of my fork & V-brake.

I took this picture while riding downhill, leaned out funny to capture the wheel with my camera, on the verge of being out of control, in the dark. Because I am a nerd who thinks math is fun, I used this picture to calculate how fast I was going at the time. My fat 700C tires have a circumference of 2.26m, and over the half second exposure the wheel rotated approximately 355 degrees… Multiply it out and I find that I was traveling at 16km/hr. Wheeeeee!