midnight mass

Still we ride!

2008-11-27T12:51:00.000-08:00

Yes, yes, its true - we rarely update this blog any more. But we're still out there hitting the streets twice a month, regular as clockwork. If its your first time here, take some time to browse back through Midnight Mass' history (we're three years old this month!) We'll be leaving this blog standing as a record of good times we've had.

But if you want to ride with us, the real action has gone off the nets and on the streets. We still meet twice monthly, on the second and fourth Thursday of the month at Grandview Park (Commercial drive between William and Charles st.) Meet at 11:45, roll at midnight. Bring your lights, your friends, your exploratory attitude and something warm to drink... see you there!

(Credit - thanks to Morgan Taylor of Project B for the wicked photos!)

Velomutation 2008!

2008-09-11T13:36:00.000-07:00

Vancouver's biggest and best annual bike party is coming up, next saturday, september 20th. Velomutation 2008! Featuring bands, djs, dancing, performances from your favorite bicycle dance crews, and much bike mayhem!

check out Velomutation.com for more details!

Get the tax man off your bike!

2008-06-22T18:01:00.001-07:00

Liberal MP Shawn Murphy of Charlottetown has recently introduced a private member's bill to Parliament to eliminate GST from the sale of bicycles.

Opinions on the Liberal party, parliamentary democracy, and the effectiveness of private members' bills aside, take a moment to email (or write - they still take letters more seriously) your MP and express support for this initiative. Not only will it help to promote cycling as a viable from of transportation, but it might just save YOU some money!

The VACC has a great press release here:http://www.vacc.bc.ca/documents/2008billtoremoveGSTfrombikes.pdf

So get typing, and get the tax man off your bike!

Oh yeah, PS, Midnight Mass this thursday - I won't be there (gotta work) but you should be!

BIKE BIKE BIKE!

2008-05-06T15:42:00.000-07:00

Spring has sprung - and for Vancouver bikelovers, that means its once again time for the BIKE BIKE BIKE party!

Lots of goodies on throughout the day, including polo tourney, minibike mayhem, and bbq action at strathcona park, and the main event - a funky sweaty dance party - at the Chair Factory (hastings/commercial area). Check out www.velomutation.com for full details!

In other news, we ride this week! Come meet up at Grandview Park at 11:45 this thursday, may 8th for midnight adventure!

Silent Times

2008-03-26T18:37:00.000-07:00

Yes - we're still riding!

There has been a dearth of posts here on the MM website of late, but don't let that fool you - we're still rolling on two wheels and in the dark every SECOND and FOURTH thursday of the month.

Last ride, we took a small posse out to the top-secret east van tree fort, and finished for late night wonton soup. Where will we ride this week? Its up to you! Come ride with us Tomorrow - Thursday, March 27th - meet at Grandview Park, ride at Midnight.

COMMING UP:

Thursday April 24th - the Midnight Mass Cherry Blossom Ride!

Vancouver is currently in the middle of it's annual Cherry Blossom Festival. While we've got nothing official to do with the festival, like most Vancouverites, we love the blossoms! Come out and ride with us for a midnight promenade to some of the city's best blossom sites. Better yet, come join up and lead us to YOUR favorite spot to take in Vancouver's character defining flora. Tell your friends, and come roll with us!

Winter Blues

2008-01-18T18:10:00.000-08:00

Well, the daytime downpour last thursday put a damper on attendance last week and it was one of the smaller groups we've seen in a little while at Mass - a group of 10 or so harcores came out to brave the night.

Fortunately, the rain cleared up at about 11:30 and we all turned out to be a little OVER dressed!

A few new faces out to share hot scotch and camraderie on a cold night.

The next ride is slated for next thursday, January 24th, the day before Critical Mass. See y'all there!

Midnight Mass THIS WEEK

2007-11-05T12:06:00.001-08:00

All right you sexy bike boys and girls.

Fall has fallen, and it's unmistakably crisp out there - but that ain't no reason to put the wheels away. Infact, it's all the MORE reason to find a pack and get out there for a midnight social!

So why not get on your steed and come warm yourself up with us? Grandview Park, 11:45, this THURSDAY NOVEMBER 8TH!

Bring - lights, gloves, ideas on where YOU would like to ride, friends, and an appetite for fun, and maybe something tasty & warm to drink (I know I will).

Find out more at http://midnight-mass.blogspot.com

AND - the NEXT mass, (THURSDAY NOV. 22) will be the two year anniversary of Midnight Mass. A small army of organ grinding monkeys is in conference RIGHT NOW planning for that one - so be ready!

Yo Kids

2007-08-30T14:25:00.000-07:00

Hey cats, shoutin to you all the way over here from Marseille!

Came across this as I was uploading videos to youtube and was reminded of just how rad Vancouver is - mostly because of all of you!

Thinkin' of you wonderful jerks every second kilometer or so!

It's Official

2007-08-01T10:42:00.000-07:00

Summer is here. Lots of people out riding their bikes and, I would hope, spending less time indoors. Midnight is officially the best time to be riding these days, as evidenced by the number of bikers at Grandview Park. I'd estimate 35-40 - a good mix of new and old faces - just the way we like it!

We decided first to hit up one of the classic Midnight Mass spots: the graveyard on Fraser. From there it was up to the top of Vancouver at Queen Elizabeth Park and, after a dark and fast exit, to Duffin's on Knight for donuts. Looking forward to the next ride; hope to see you at Grandview on August 9th!

ROUGE ET NOIR, a Bicycle Cabaret

2007-07-04T13:06:00.001-07:00

Our friends the B:C:Clettes are putting on a fundraiser next weekend for their upcoming West Coast tour. These girls work hard to entertain us, so get out there and support your crew!

Imagine a dark, hidden, back room glowing with the light of candles, filled with beautiful people talking philosophy and flirting shamelessly... imagine a show that combines comedy, song, dance, poetry, theatre, irresistable ladies, handsome gentlemen, and others uncategorized... imagine hundreds of bikes parked outside.

The B:C:Clettes present an elaborate Cabaret to meet your posh appetites:
*ROUGE ET NOIR, a Bicycle Cabaret
* A fundraiser for their August 2007 west coast tour, bringing Vancouver's
bike love all the way to L.A. and back!

July 12, 13 and 14th
@ The Western Front (303 East 8th Avenue @ Scotia)
Dress to impress in your most respledent attire.
Doors at 7pm, Show at 8pm.

The Cabaret will feature local acts, divas, opera singers, bicycles and those lovely ladies in black and red: The B:C:Clettes.

+++*Sidria: *sultry torch singer who will leave you breathless
+++*BYO Cabaret:* pushing your buttons and then unbuttoning them
+++*the Creaking Planks:* the iPod of 1906 plays demented nautical circus orchestration
+++*Fossilosopher:* elder bikepunk spinning wheel words of wisdom
+++*the fabulous B:C:Clettes*: bicycle showgirls, old favorites plus three new numbers.
+++*YOU!*

Tickets: Thursday $8, Friday and Saturday $15
Advance Tickets Available at:
Spartacus (319 West Hastings @ Cambie)
Our Community Bikes (3283 Main Street @ 17th Avenue)
People's Co-op Books (1391 Commercial Drive, between Charles and Kitchener)

More info: bcclettes@gmail.com or myspace.com/bcclettes

*If you would like to volunteer, please contact the clettes at bcclettes@gmail.com

Summer Time!

2007-06-17T19:48:00.000-07:00

Well, last Thursday's Midnight Mass proved that yes, it is summer time in Vancouver. About forty strong (just a guess, anyone know exactly?), we rode east into the darkness. We had what I believe is 2007's first skinny dipping Mass. Unfortunately, I only snapped a few pictures of the meet up at Grandveiw park, and not the skinny dipping. You have to come to see that! A whole host of beautiful riders and thier speedsters made Vancouver's best midnight rolling party HAATTT!

my bike! tall bike!

<3<3<3
ktj.

BiKarnival - this Friday

2007-06-05T00:16:00.001-07:00

There is no Midnight Mass this week, as it's just the first Thursday of the month. However, there is still an awesome ride happening: BiKarnival on Friday. Sure to be a blast!

Sprung Out

2007-05-24T00:53:00.001-07:00

The weather's getting warmer; all the pretty people on the roads and sidewalks are distracting our "spring has sprung" thoughts. If you are one of those distracting types, come out for a ride. What better way to hone your bike handling skills and practice your Blue Steel looks than by coming out for a Midnight ride? Everybody likes riding at Midnight - guaranteed fun, in the sunless skies and empty streets.

Here's a copy of the online flyer. Feel free to blog it or send it on via other means.

Midnight Mass Florida!

2007-05-21T00:18:00.001-07:00

Tallahassee I believe!

KBBBQ

2007-05-17T22:36:00.000-07:00

Allright y'all kickball BBQ is on for tomorrow! 6:30 at Trout Lake! Here's da map:

At 6:30 the B King and BBQing shall begin - see you there!

Thursday Finery

2007-05-15T01:25:00.000-07:00

So last thursday two dozen or so derange kids gathered in grandview park to brave the midnight air in nothing but their finery. Midnight Mass' second ever themed right went off with a curtsy and a flash or two of bare legs - rawr!

Here we are meeting up at Grandview Park...

Oh you kids. I'm going to miss you all alot.

From the park we hit the road and cruised southward, enjoying the frigid breeze on your legs. Our destination, Queen Elizabeth Park.

There was more chilllery here, as new and oldschool riders met and chatted.
Eventually, folk peeled off into the night, and a small dedicated crew rocked it way over westward to the Naam.
Our server (same old dude), informed us that we'd come up short last time we visited... BAAAAAAD, KIDS. We love the Naam - they treat us well and put up with us showing up un announced in the middle of the night and in large numbers. Its up to us to make sure that they are well compensated for their effort - that means not just ensuring our bill is paid in full, but leaving a decent tip for their hard work!
We patched things over with Naam man, and hopefully look forward to much midnight goodness in midnights to come.

Thats pretty much it for the dress ride. It was silly good times, and a great last ride for me. I hope y'all come up with a couple of other nutty things do do in my absence.

I've had a few people ask me recently 'who's taking over the mass with you gone?' I'd like to think that nobody is taking it over.. While I certainly feel very attached to MM, having been there since the beginning and showing my ugly mug at virtually every ride, I don't believe MM is mine to hand off to anyone. The mass, as I have said before is a name and an idea, but most importantly it is YOU; Midnight Mass is the group of riders who show up on any given thursday to mash their pedals in the dark. Some of you are new to it and some of you have been coming for over a year - as long as y'all keep showing up and having fun then Midnight Mass hasn't changed a bit. I've tapped a few people with long time riding experince to take over basic web administration, but as far as the ride goes it belongs to those of you who show up, as I hope it always has.

Have a fun summer kids, I'm jealous.

(for more dressed for success recap, check out chris the biking penguin's bizznass: www.picasaweb.google.com/bikingpenguin // www.bikingpenguin.blogspot.com )

Fixed Vancouver

2007-05-14T13:21:00.000-07:00

Looks like the fixed vancouver message board is back in action. THANKS JOE.

Stay tuned for photos from DRESSED FOR SUCCESS. (My camera bateries are still charging)

Oh yeah - I'm off in a week. Come out and drink beer and play california kickball and BBQ with me this friday! Deets at http://midnightmiles.blogspot.com

Free Stuff!

2007-05-10T21:09:00.000-07:00

Hey! I'm leaving! I need to get rid of a bunch of stuff!

See what's avaiable at http://www.midnightmiles.blogspot.com

Dress for Success!

2007-05-02T18:22:00.000-07:00

Ok kids, after last weekend's rowdy and glamorous BIKE PROM in victoria I'm still stoked on getting either fancy or rediculous. As such, I declare the next midnight mass (my last with you wonderful lunatics, until next november or so) to be another THEMED RIDE!

What's the theme? DRESSES.

Thats right boys and girls, beg borrow or steal your fanciest, tartiest, mostest crinkly, weddingest, brightest, shortest, most flowingest, most absolutely hideous .... or really, any kind of dress and throw that sucker on!

As usual we'll be meeting at Grandview Park at quarter to twelve (to show off our finery), and rolling at midnight for parts unknown.

Come send me off to europe in silliness & style!

Do you speak Finnish?

2007-05-01T12:38:00.000-07:00

'Cause we're getting a hell of a lot of traffic from this Finnish bike messenger forum, and I'd love to know why! (Hey Finland, how's it going?)

Its actually pretty rad that Helsinki has its own bike messengers' association.

Pier to Pier

2007-04-19T22:53:00.000-07:00

Last week's ride was one of the warmest and nicest of 2007! A decent crowd of 25 to 30 bikelovers turned up at Grandview Park to ride, and after a short discussion, we concluded that the balmy weather should be celebrated with a visit to the sea.

Our first destination (a place I only discovered a couple of weeks ago on the MC3 ride, despite having lived in this city my whole life) was the Crab Park Pier..

We then cruised into the downtown core and over the Burrard bridge heading beachward. Somewhere along Cornwall a lone rider zipped by in the other direction. "Hey Fixie!" we called out to him... a few minutes later he caught up to us, curious about what the hell we were doing - we filled him in on the joys of midnight mass. "I'm not really here to stick around, just on my way home" - an hour and a half later, sitting down to food he was still on board.

After some debate at the Jericho parkinglot, it was decided that the night was too nice to just huddle by the jericho concession, and we soldiered a little farther west towards the Jericho Pier.

Finally we rolled back to our old haunt, the Naam for tasty midnight eats and company. As usual they were super accomodating, considering we rolled in unannounced with 20 or so people at 2 am.

All in all, a great ride with lots of oldschool riders and a few new faces (including Jesse of OCB and a girl on a cyclocross race bike!)

Our next ride is Thursday April 26th, so start thinking of where you'd like to roll to.

Also, if you don't already have plans this saturday and sunday (or if you do, break 'em, cause you dont want to miss this), East Van Bike Polo brings you Vancouver's first ever International Urban Bike Polo Tournament: Last Riders of the APoloclypse!

The fun starts at noon, and look out for DJs, BBQ, and EIGHT different teams up from the US to play, as well as east van's own out for blood & glory! The event will also be held in conjunction with the fixed gear Summer Series' second event - T.R.A.C.K., a game of trackstand horse. Prepare to be amazed by some sizzling tricks as local fixie kids pull out all the stops to try and prove they are the chosen one.

Thats it for now.. See y'all on the streets.

Midnight Miles

2007-04-16T18:43:00.000-07:00

As you may or may not know, I'll be skipping continent in just over a month. I'll miss you midnight maniacs, but I'll try to get over the greif while I'm drinking cheap yet delicious wine, descending alps at hair raising speeds, and seeing Daft Punk in France.

Anyhow, I've started a blog to chronicle my adventures, so if you are interested in what I'll be upto, you can check it out here: http://midnightmiles.blogspot.com/

Thats it really.

See y'all on the streets.

Turning point

2007-04-08T21:53:00.000-07:00

Though the second March ride coincided with the vernal equinox, the groundhog of summer seemed to have seen its shadow that day. A hardy and enthusiastic crew of 15 or so riders showed up at Grandview Park in a cold drizzle.

It was decided to head for the downtown core to stir up the Granville strip, and find something to eat while we were there. We commandeered a large portion of Numero Uno Pizza for bike parking, and got our sidewalk drink-slash-people watch on.

Since March was a five-Thursday anomaly, we've been deprived of our midnight ride for longer than usual. In recent weeks, the weather has become noticeably warmer - which will translate to less clothes and more bikes. That said, if you like bikes and bikers, Midnight Mass is the place to be! See you at Grandview Park this Thursday, April 12.

The Bike Rider's Ball!

2007-04-08T15:03:00.000-07:00

If any of you have ever been over to visit the Victorians/Recyclistas, you know this won't be an event to miss. Those cats A) know how to party, B) know how to throw down hospitality, and C) have a beautiful city with tons of great riding. Lots to see and do on this weekend, plus a fun ferry ride with a bunch of mad bikers. The ride in from the ferry is freaking gorgeous too (too bad the trip out on our side is craptastic - Translink, we're looking at you).

Bike Rider's Ball '07
Friday April 27 – Wednesday May 2

FRIDAY the 27th

History Mystery Bike Race
Riders meet at Centennial SQ between 7-8pm, race starts at 8pm. A low level competitive scavenger race through the downtown core where you'll need skill, style and strategy.
Prizes to be won!

The Bike Rider's Ball Art Show
Doors open @ 8:00pm
The Project Arts Community - 614 1/2 Fisgard Street, second floor. Sliding Scale$2-$10
Come check out some local artist work and their deep love for all that rolls on two wheels.

SATURDAY the 28th

East Van Bike Polo................In Victoria?
Come join the East Van Polo kids for an afternoon of mallets and madness. Learn how to make your own mallets, get the rules to the game, and play!
Meet at Topaz Park from 1:oo – 4:00pm
Note: don't bring your most favourite bike.

Bike Prom Ride And Party!!!!
Prom outfit required!
8:00pm Meet at Centennial SQ. Come early for a pre-prom ride to the party location.
10pm Bike Prom @ Recyclistas Community Bike Shop - 25 Crease Ave.
The greatest bike prom of '07. Bicycle dance styles from the hottest bike dancers: The Brakes, The B:C:Clettes and Victoria's Velo Vixens. Live music from Masala, a 14 piece samba style band, and the one and only DJ Ruairi Lazers.

SUNDAY the 29th

Biker Riders Brunch
Party a little too hard last night? Didn't party hard enough.? Come on back to the shop for a pancake breakfast at 11:00am
Not out of bed yet? Freshen up with a ride and a jump into Thetis lake.
Bring your trunks! Ride leaves @ 1:00pm

Go home! Sleep well! Love yer bike!
Check out Fridays art collection at The Project Arts Community.
May 1 & 2 from 5:30 – 8:30pm

Coming to party it up Victoria styles? Need a place to stay? Email bikelabsociety(at)gmail(dot)com if you do. See you at the Prom.

Parisian Nights

2007-04-02T14:09:00.000-07:00

Perhaps its that I leave for parts unknown in a month and a half, perhaps its the regular emails I've been recieving
from friends in Barcelona and Israel, or perhaps its that I just bought
my touring bike today... but I find my thoughts turning to Europe more
and more lately...

So what a wonderful surprise to find out that Paris
has become the latest city to discover that night time is the right
time and join the Midnight Bicycle League with their own incarnation of
Midnight Mass...

Mike Kushnir, former midnightmasser is living in Paris right now and apparently spearheading the formation..
thanks to inspiration from “midnight simon”, me and a bunch of the bike squat folks are starting up a parisian chapter of midnight mass, the legendary vancouver institution that sees 30+ bike kids mass at grandview park in east vancouver to go on a late-night jaunt through the streets of our fair city.

If you're on the continent, or plan to be in the near future, drop these kids a line and go explore one of Europe's greatest cities by moonlight and bikelight!

Come to think of it, if you are doing any travelling in the near future, why not see if there's a Midnight riding city on your route!

-Victoria BC Midnight Mystery Ride - 2nd Friday of the month.
-Portland Oregon Midnight Mystery Ride - (site appears to be down for now - midnight//at//riseup.net for more info)
-Tallahassee Fla. Midnight Mass(!) - (apparently) First Friday of the month.
-London, England Friday Night Ride - First Friday of the month.
-Los Angeles California Midnight Ridaaz - 2nd Friday of the month. The site also functions as a hub for creating and promoting other group rides in the LA area -- Use this site to create and promote your own rides.

Anyone can create a ride. This is how it works, you got some friends? You make a bike crew... You got a bike crew? You throw a ride. Check out our suggestions or make up your own rituals... We just want to ride. The true hope of the Midnight Ridazz everywhere is to spread bicycle culture, promote safety and to share the road with motorists in a spirit of good will (and yes, party our farking icicles off while doing it.)
-- So if you're down in the area, its a great resource.

These are the few that have come across my radar - likely, by no means an exhaustive list. So travelling massers, get out there and represent for the old hometown, and help spread some delicious vancouver bikelove around the globe. We've got a slice of culture here unlike anywhere else - and if my ambassadorial experiences in Victoria, Seattle, and Portland are any indication, bike culture is best when shared.

(hat tip to Charles for the Paris link!)

Swag still availible!!

2007-03-29T16:09:00.000-07:00

Hey Speedsters-
Need a bikelove oriented, non-corporate, DIY, Midnight Mass logo addition for your bike and favourite gear?? Kati J and Midnight Simon carry on them: One inch buttons, One-point-two-five inch buttons (made by the fabulous Plan B Chris), Patches hand made by Simon and Spokecards!!!! We ask for minimum donations to break even on the cost of production.

Rock

<3<3<3
ktj

Bike Light Hackery & Minibike Madness

2007-03-28T14:01:00.000-07:00

It might be getting darker later and later, but the night time is still always the right time for midnight massers. Tomorrow, PedalPlay will be hosting a workshop on bike light hackery - how to chop, solder, and build your own bike lights. Sounds pretty boss to me, and a great way to make your night ride that much sexier. Check out this communique from Jim of Pedal Play for more details:

Pedal Play Presents
Bike Light Hack Workshop

Take a standard white LED bicycle headlight and modify it for fun.
Change the colour of the LEDs. Attach them to your bike bag, your
helmet, a hat or to a part of your bicycle. You will learn basic
soldering skills, as well as rudimentary electronic principles. No
experience necessary, but be prepared for fine detail work with small
hand tools.

Taught by Ian Patterson

Everyone welcome!

$1O plus materials(around $6.50)

Thursday Mar 29
7 pm til 9pm
194 w3rd (alley Entrance)
604 875 8679

_____________________________________________________
Mini Bike Army at Critical Mass

URGENT COMMUNIQUE:
Mini bike troops gather at Critical Mass on Friday March 30 in vancouver. ride together. bring noise makers. be prepared for foolishness. we're not traffic, we're spectacle!

New Background

2007-03-27T01:47:00.000-07:00

By the way, you may have noticed the new background here at the MM blog - its courtesy of the photographic handywork of Wendell Challenger (aka Wease) over at www.fearlessgearless.com - a great local node for bike biz of all varieties - swing by and check it out!

The Summer Series

2007-03-26T00:52:00.000-07:00

So Saturday night I went out and checked out the first event of the Summer Series, a monthly series of fixed gear events and competitions. Hats off to Duncan and Nick Cee for throwing down and putting up a great event. This city just keeps getting better.

This is what I managed to capture

And Dirty Joe's Cuts:

(PS Joe, nice call on the RJD2)

Find out more about the summer series!
Details at www.fixedvancouver.com
and on Myspace.com

The next Summer Series event is slated for April 21st, to coincide with EastVan Bike Polo's first ever invitational tournament (tentatively titled the APoloclypse - stay tuned for more on this!) at Grandview Park. The event will be T.R.A.C.K - a game of trackstand HORSE. Come check it out.

Burnaby Lake or Bust

2007-03-19T18:18:00.001-07:00

Well, last week we went insane.
Yes, insane. Despite the rain, we had a vocal faction push push push for BURNABY MOUNTAIN. Oh yes, Burnaby Mountain. There were a some groans and moans, but the Burnaby plan won out and folks bucked up and pushed it. We rode down to Broadway and pushed it East to the Lougheed Highway aiming for SFU. Of course, this plan was far to insane to actually work, but it was just crazy enough to get us to a beautiful new destination - Burnaby Lake. In retrospect it might have been a bit too much of a push, but standing on the dock out in the middle of the lake, I felt pretty good.

Before I get on with the photo recap, I want to bring up an issue that several people have approached me with - that being the speed of MM rides, and some issues around group dynamics. There has been a very interesting discussion on the topic on the Fixed Vancouer Forum (you don't have to be a member to read it - go have a look), but it boils down to some people feeling uncomfortable with the pace of some rides and that as a whole the group is not cohering at crucial times.

I want all people to feel comfortable coming to Midnight Mass, and that means people on freak bikes and BMXs, people new to biking, people with old beaters they've just salvaged, messengers, bike nuts, fixie kids, and fast riders. Some folk have mentioned to me that they feel that the pace being set by our fastet riders is compromising the cohesion of the group as a Mass. Others have suggested to me that we just leave the sprinters to separate and push themselves ahead and let the mass cruise behind them. There is no easy solution to this issue, however I'll say that my major concern with having the sprinters just push out ahead and let everyone else just ignore them is that there are always a variety of riders at the mass, some of them new to the whole thing and some of them who just don't know the sprinters and their habits. As a result, in practice, the pace of the ride (intentional or not) tends to be bumped up as some people try and keep the sprinters in sight, and the rest try and keep up with those wh are trying to keep the sprinters in sight. At the end, the newer or weaker riders, or those on bikes less mechanically efficient (yes, many of us have switched to road bikes and fixies, but ALL bikes are welcomed and, in fact, variety is encouraged at Midnight Mass). I understand where the sprinters are coming from - it IS fun to ride fast - and I want everyone to have fun at mass, certainly - but my feeling is that this is a group ride that specifically targets itself to bikers of all abilities. What makes it the midnight mass is that we are a mass, not a streched chain (though I think those who have pointed out that last week this problem was particularly exacerbated by the route we took).

I'm not advocating specifically for a slow ride or a leisure cruise or something, but I do believe that we need to make an effort to accomodate the ability of the slowest rider in the pack. That means that some rides will be faster, and some slower depending on who shows up - a rainy night where the hardcores are there might be a good hard push across town, and a balmy clear night where someone on a cruiser with ape hangers and 3 new kids who pulled their rusy old mountain bikes from under mom's portch will of necessity be a slower, more chilled ride. We've never had to ditch someone because they couldn't keep up before, and that to me is a point of pride and a symbol of what MM is about. Yes, its about riding - but its also about meeting new people, finding new places, chilling out, building community and just creating a fun atmosphere. Besides, there are lots of opportunities for the all of the sprinters to get their engines revved around town- hey fixie happens every week, fast nights every 2 weeks, and the rushour races (find out about all of these rides at fixedvancouver.com.

As I mentioned above, there is no simple solution here and this is something that we as a group will need to adress, particularly as the Mass grows as the summer months approach. In the mean time, I think those at the front of the ride need to make an effort to keep one eye on how far you are ahead of folks, and to stop and mass up at stoplights, at the top of and at the bottom/runout of big hills. Being a group is what makes this ride work!

Anyway, enough with the serious talk, and on to the photos from the last ride!

Here we are bombing Lougheed... Red Sara here is on her virgin MM ride! Welcome Red!

After a good push down Lougheed, we stopped for a rest and beverage break underneath a burnaby overpass. Huzzah for trains!

It was at this point that we decided that climbing the mountain was perhaps, under the circumstances, not the best idea. Everyone was damp, and more than a few riders were a little burnt out. We decided instead to hit a shorter destination, and rolled south to Burnaby Lake. Despite the grim weather, it was worth it for what we got... This is a place we will definitely have to visit in the summer time.

Hot scotch was drank, the view admired, and shivers shivvered.

Soon we hit the road again and rolled Van-ward. At Boundary Road, those of us who weren't too cold or tired or didn't have to get up at some absurd hour the following morning hit up the 24 hour Knight and Day for 3 AM breakfast, onion rings, and desert. mmmmmmm.

Join us this week for the next Midnight Mass - Thursday March 22nd. Meet at 11:45 pm,
Grandview Park (Charles St at Commercial Drive, across from Havana and Turks), roll at midnight. Come ride with us and find out what it's really about.
__________________________________________________________________

In other bikenews - check out the following great stuff this weekend!

THE INNAUGURAL SURREY CRITICAL MASS!
Saturday, March 24

Speak out against the gateway project and assert the presence of a bike community in Surrey!

The date and time is set for 3:30pm on Saturday March 24, rain or shine, meeting in the plaza outside the Central City tower (the big tower at Surrey Central Skytrain). There is a VACC meeting that ends at 3pm just across the street in the North Surrey Recreation Centre building.

Flyers and posters available for download at:
http://www.velolove.bc.ca/SurreyCMPoster01.pdf
http://www.velolove.bc.ca/SurreyCMPoster02.pdf
http://www.velolove.bc.ca/SurreyCMFlyerSINGLE-SIDED.pdf
http://www.velolove.bc.ca/SurreyCMFlyerDOUBLE-SIDED.pdf
or http://surreycriticalmass.blogspot.com

Planning and promotion is taking place on the new Surrey Critical Mass email list. If you'd like to join, or if you live in Surrey, please email mailto:surrey-request@lists.velolove.bc.ca?subject=subscribe . You can also signup online at http://lists.velolove.bc.ca/mailman/listinfo/surrey

------------------------------------------------------------
*~~Bicycle CARcass III~~*
Sunday, March 25

An Afternoon of Bike Sportage & Funtasy in the Republic of East Vancouver.

Sunday, March 25 2oo7, 1:00 pee emm at Strathcona Park (on Venables, 4 blocks East of Clark)

Roster to include:
~ The Whip-Lash ~ The Tubes of Despair ~
~ The Excalibur Challenge ~ The Foot-Down Derby ~
~ The Blind Race ~ Capture the Grub ~
~ The End of the World as You Glue It ~
~ The Panty Race ~ The Ecar Ytnap ~
~ The Balloon Smack-Down ~
~ Silliness ~ Contusions ~

And of course... *~The Bicycle CARcass~*
bikes + rugby = nine-one-one

Free, Vegan-friendly, Kids welcome. Costumes encouraged. Open to Fighters, Lovers & Spectators.
Any ol' bike will do. Wear armour or die. And maybe bring duct tape.

For more information, go to http://bicyclecarcass.blogspot.com

----------------------------------------------------------------
And, last but not least, Chopper Sundays/ Freak Bike Sunday Sessions continue at the pedal play shop - I dropped in this weekend to check it out and got a sneak peak of Morgan's new Tallbike in progress!

Drop by the pedal play shop (194 3rd avenue - Alley entrance... Look for the 'Pedal Metal Studios' sign) sundays to check it out!

Thats all for now, see you cats on the road.

Upcomming Radness

2007-03-09T14:49:00.000-08:00

Well, it seems like you can't swing a dead cat these days without hitting a kickass weekend of bike partying or some rad new bike event. And that's a good thing! The latest and greatest comes from our beloved friends in Victoria...

In the words of Triane, Recyclista and Velovixen extraordinaire:

Did you miss out on your high school prom?
Did you go but wish it never ended?
Do you hate proms but love your bike?

If you answered yes to any of these questions, then you may need to find yourself a date for the
Bike Rider's Ball

A Recyclistas and Bike Lab Event
Friday April 27 – Wednesday May 2

Bike Inspired Art Show, Race, Rides, Dance Troupes, Bike Polo, Live Music, Costumes, Food and one heck of a Prom. This weekend bash is to raise money for the Bike Lab Society's Youth Programs. Be there!

More information to come.
www.recyclistas.ca/events

We are seeking bicycle inspired art submissions for the art show. Interested? Contact me at bikelabsociety(at)gmail(dot)com

Also on the horizon: Freakbike Sundays! In the words of Jim:

Missing the smell of molten metal
The sweet sizzle of vaporizing steel
the sirens song of the angle grinder

Brought to you by the miracle of unemployment
Sailor Neale, Jim H and Maitland Wright
present

!!Freak Bike!!
Sunday Sessions

Starting March 11

Every Sunday Afternoon between 12-4 pm or til whenever.
Staffed by Jim and/or Sailor Neale
Race Minis, Choppers, Utility Bikes, Trailers or Chariots
Got an out of the ordinary idea we will give it a shot.
Some materials readily available
Welding and consumable donations
sought and accepted graciously
Hourly rate applicable/negotiable

You know the addresssss

194 w 3rd ave in the alley

Watch for special editions in the near future

The return of
BONEYARD
and
Closer to Heaven Tallbike Workshop

International Women's Day

2007-03-06T23:43:00.000-08:00

FYI, the next Midnight Mass falls on International Women's Day. We'd like to encourage all you bikers to whom IWD has something to say to come out and ride bikes with us this Thursday.

Bikes did contribute to the emancipation of women, after all.

As per usual, Thursday, March 8th, at Grandview Park on Commercial and Charles. Meet at 11:45pm, roll at midnight.

I hope to see all you feminists on the road!

Burnaby Redux

2007-03-05T23:51:00.001-08:00

Well, last week we decided to rock it East again - for only the third or fourth time ever. On our trip to portland a couple of people noticed how the Zoobomber's 'Legoland' playground had some similarities to the playground we had once visited out in Central Park. It was a nice night so we decided to pack it in for the haul and roll east to play.

Marlo shows off her new fixie..

on the road..

When we got to the playground, however, to our dismay we found that the tree house and series of connecting walkways we remebered from last fall:

WERE FREAKING GONE!!

Theories on the missing architecture abounded, but the best one I heard was that the badass windstorms this winter destroyed a bunch of trees in the park and possibly took out the fort too. Lame.

Fortunately the ever popular ROLLERSLIDE wasn't gone.

Some nearby trees also attracted attention - After some deliberation, Nag Mike decided to try and get his bike up there...

There was the usual hangouts and madness,

before we rode on looking for food. Someone said 'Pancakes' and it was on. 24 hour pancakes, watch out, the midnight mass is comming.

Turned out the 24 hour joint in question was Binos.
Yes, Binos - that 'family diner' with the dirty off beige and brown sign that was an object of ridecule and derision to all of us as teenagers. Heh, Binos. Anyhow, turns out they actually make and sell food there (think Denny's, if Denny's with the Ghetto factor cranked all they way to 11)

You wouldn't believe me about the menu if I didn't show you:

More chillin and illin, pancakes, sausages, and tea.

And what would drunken 3am breakfast be without some hot girl-on-girl action?

Our server was pretty tollerant considering he was dealing with a sudden mass of 25 or so drunken and rowdy dirty bikers rolling in and packing the joint. He had us all written down by description - 'grey hat & glasses', ect.

Eventually we filled up on hashbrowns and other greasy breakfast substances and trickled out into the world and off to our respective homes.

The next ride is THIS THURSDAY - MARCH 8th. Come ride with us!

Bike Heroes of Victoria

2007-03-02T18:02:00.000-08:00

Our amazing friends on the other side of the Georgia Straight passed this along to me the other day. Observe and bear witness to the bike hereos of Victoria...

Bikes Are Sexy! The Final Cut

Stick It To the Mann!

2007-02-22T20:56:00.000-08:00

So this just rolled accross my desk today.

STICK IT TO THE MANN

INAUGURAL SURREY CRITICAL MASS BIKE RIDE!!

MUSTER POINT: SURREY CENTRAL (SFU CAMPUS)

DATE: SATURDAY, MARCH 24TH

CONGREGATE @ 1:30, RIDE @ 2:00

SPEAK OUT AGAINST THE GATEWAY PROJECT

ASSERT THE PRESENCE OF A BIKE COMMUNITY IN SURREY

I like this idea. I like it almost as much as I dislike the idea of trying to build our way out of congestion (when virtually every major transportation expert has told us that building more roads will reduce congestion only breifly, and then bring us back up to an similar or worse level, with essentially double the overall amount of cars on the road). If we want to be serious about addressing climate change and environmental issues overall we need to start planning for a different world. Planning for more tranist and more cycling. The Gateway project is anathema to this.

Anyhow, the idea of holding a Critical Mass style ride over the Port Mann to draw attention to this issue, as well as help build momentum for bike riding in Surrey (and all the 'burbs) is a good one.

Who's in? It'll be a wild ride, that's for sure, but it might just bring some good attention to an issue that needs to stay in the public eye.

Mini Bike Winter 2007 (or, portland kicked (my) ass)

2007-02-21T14:05:00.000-08:00

We're back. Roadrashed, weary, and pumped. These ambassadorial weekends up and down the West Coast, to Victoria, Seattle, and Portland always leave me this way - burnt to a crisp, in one sense, but burning with inspiration in another. There really is nothing like immersing yourself in the bike culture of another place to recharge your batteries. On one hand, you see all of the things they do differently, the innovations and the ideas. On the other, you witness that there is indeed a very strong link between what they are doing and what you are doing. They're living evidence that we are not alone, and that we must be doing something right. Its revitalizing. And its a hell of a party.

So, the Minibike Winter Olympics. What the hell am I talking about? Well, a little background is in order here I suppose. Portland is considered to be the (or one of the) most bike friendly cities in the US. In adition to A-list bike infrastructure, they have also developped an incredibly vibrant bike culture: chopper gangs like Chunk 666 and the Dropouts; the first (and highly influential) bike dance troupe, the Sprockettes; a longstanding bike polo tradition; and - of key importance here, the Zoobomb.

The Zoobomb is a weekly event in portland where local bikelovinglunatics gather downtown, take the Max Train (portland's equivalent to the skytrain, only about 200 times better) into the center of a small mountain (think burnaby mtn) that borders the downtown core, and then use the industrial sized elevators (built for serving the local zoo - convinently located on top of said hill) to ride up, ski-lift style to the top. Once atop the hill, the bombers meet up, socialize, drink, and, when good and ready, get onto tiny little bikes (kids bikes, usually - 16" wheelsize is considered normal) and rocket down the hill at incredibly high speeds. This has been going on for over four years, and despite early skirmishes with the police, the freak/fun/fool identity of Zoobomb has won itself a place in the heart of Portlanders everywhere - as a cultural symbol of Portland, they have won themselves a sort of autonomy and immunity.

Minibike Winter is a celebration of biking put on by the zoobombers - an event to get down and dirty, compete for glory, and to generally give themselves props for riding year 'round. Those of you who ride Midnight Mass in the winter know what its like to keep coming out when the weather sucks, and you know its worth it. MBW is a party to celebrate that, zoobomb style.

Now nothing is done, bikestyle, down in portland without taking it to the extreme, so MBW was packed full of crazy events and parties. This is the story of the brave BC contingent who went down to participate.

DAY ONE: Trials of Blood and Fire.

Our van got rolling early, loading up rather efficiantly (for Vancouver bikers, that is)... but it wasn't long before we had our first Trial of the trip - a flat tire before we even left Vancouver. It was probably a good thing that it happened in town, not on the I5, but still - a bummer. After a frustrating back and forth between the rental company (who told us to push the **creepy** 'ONstar button', and the ONstar people (talking to us from Atlanta or somewhere, out of the car speakers, and through some kind of hidden microphone in the car and tracking us with GPS... agatin, **creepy**) who put us on hold, while they called our rental people, Cara got bored of being given the runaround and called a tow truck and found us a nearby tire shop. With Fish in control of the situation, we were on the road in no time again, and picked up our Solo Victorian, Triane from the ferry and made for the border. Light traffic on the highway had us in portland before 6, well in time to attend the LightBar, put on by Mykle of Portland:

Housed in a large white tent in Mykles huge back yard, and featuring drinks by donation (!!) and some bangin punk/synth/? live music, the LightBar was a perfect meet and greet where team BC met up with ourselves, as well as old and new friends from the portland bike crowd. Nametags, torches, and mini LEDs were built to prepare for the mass Lit ride which was to follow.
We mounted our two wheeled steeds and poured out front of Mykle's, where we took to the streets in a rowdy, fire and firework spewing, light flashing mass. Midnight Mass on firey steroids.

Of course, there being a bunch of Vancouver bikers there, it wasn't long before this degenerated into a naked lit ride...

The ride took us downtown, where after a few foot-down derbies we proceeded to the Pile (the Zoobombers maintain a pile of extra minis downtown for anyone who wants to bomb, but doesnt have a bike) where we met up for the Badass Challenge - a ride UP the zoobomb hill. Ifny, Nick B, Lyle, Jeff and I all competed from Canada. Ifny took first Foreigner, I came in 10th, and Lyle and Nick got a bit lost but made it to the top. Jeff was not seen until the next morning. Seriously. We then prepared for the first Bomb of the weekend.

This, unfortunately, was also the bloodiest bomb of the weekend. I got cut off and knocked into morgan (who stayed up), but in crashing took down 4 or more people behind me, including lyledriver on his minichopper. Earned myself a little limp and ROUND THREE of roadrash on my face.

Actually, I'll give a prize to whoever can think of another decent nickname for me based on my propensity to do this to my face.
I wasn't the only one to go down - I heard tell of several other accidents, including this one where Nagasawa mike got cut off and went down on his brakeless track bike (ok, so maybe riding a brakeless track bike at high speeds down the zoobomb was a bit sketchy too.) Mike's all right, thankfully, and joined the Zoobomb injury elite by leaving some skin on the hill.

Tired and sore, we rolled home to our respective crash pads (Thankyou, again, Portland for housing us so generously!) where we got some much needed rest.

DAY TWO: Ben Hurt, Chariots

Day two we met up in one of Portland's industrial concrete jungles (these are apparently all over the place in town). We met up for breakfast and preparations for the day's events.

Standing around under the bridge, I had the strong feeling that we were engaged in something tribal - over in one corner were the Dead Babies from seattle, accross the way a cluster of Sprockettes stood, Project B was off trickstering in some big puddles, the Canadians worked on their chariots, and zoobombers were everywhere. Urban tribalism... I likes.

The first event was a Drag Race - dress in drag, drag a partner, all while taking a drag on a cigarette. Multi-level dragness.
The winners? Cara and Nix dragged out as Red and Blue Brake!

Next was the Chariot whiplash:

Daaaaamn.

2-mini driven chariot with chain-linked steering. cool!

We all then rode en-masse then to the post-apocalyptic (really - its a 'Superfund' EPA protected/prohibited site because its so freaking toxic) site of the day's main event, the 'Chariot Deth Match.'

The other highlight at this location was the Toxic Challenge - a modification of the Cupcake Challenge (riding your mini off an ramp into icy water) - in this case, the modification involved jumping into ultra toxic superfund water, yum!

Eventually the cops ('the pepper' as the PDX kids say it) got wise to our antics (apparently someone thought it would be funny to block a train trying to get through?) and came to move us along. A personal highlight for me was these two cops as we rode out:
Felix (Zoobomber): "yeah, its just some events as part of zoobomb's minibike winter"
Cop 1: "Zoobomb?"
Cop to (to cop 1): "You don't know about zoobomb?"

I love that city. Its worth noting that the police were very hands off. They didnt try to grab anyone, weren't flashing lights or using megaphones, or any kind of pressure at all. They just sort of showed up, and people started moving on.

We rode out from here and back towards northeast portland. Morgan got a flat, so I towed him to a gas station to help patch it (it had a thorn in the tire). On the same ride back into town, the drummer from one of the bands that was to play had an accident and hurt himself pretty badly - we're hoping he ended up okay.

That night we went to the Recyclry, a local community bike shop, to party down.
There was an animal themed fashion show:

A performance by the Lovely and talented Sprockettes,

And the kick-ass stylin's of Show Me the Pink to rock the house out.

DAY 3: Olympiad

Day three had us meeting up at the local HI hostel, where Urban Adventure League Shawn (the man behind the portland midnight mystery rides, amongst other excellent urban adventures, fed us a delicious brunch.

Then it was down to the river to meet up for the day's insanity.

(curious bystanders)

Events included minibike sprints and tricycle relay:

12" minibike shotput/discus,

and of course, the Actual Cupcake Challenge:

As events wound down and it got colder, team canada reassembled to plan rides home for that night/ the following day. We hit some dinner, and then reassembled at the pile for the nights final events. Onto the Max and up the hill for the zoobomb competition. The racing was split into several categories. Skate race, freak bike race, open class (any bike welcome), and 16" class. There were a couple more wrecks during this bomb, including my second of the weekend and Haley who was a few meters behind me, and probably went down trying to avoid my sorry ass.

I'm proud to say, Vancouver's own Lyledriver of Project B, winner of the Operation M.E.O.W. Alley Kitten took 2nd place in the 16" category!

From Left to Right (3rd-1st) Mechanic Mark, Lyle, and Gabe (aka Captain Fun/ Warchild)

After the races we met up at a kids playground on the zoobomb hill that the locals call 'Legoland.' Complete with bridges and slides and A GROUND SURFACE MADE OF RUBBER, legoland made a perfect course for mini racing. Indeed, this was how the key to the city was awarded. Throughout the weekend, points had been assigned to competitors for winning/ competing in events. When it came down to the final race to award the final points Gentleman James and Ifny were both in contention for the key. Unforutnately, the local kids new the turf too well and Zoobomber Solid Gold took home the key. Well - there's always next year, kids. We chilled at legoland as long as our tired eyes would let us, watched the locals play beer bungee, and eventually packed it in, some driving home that night, and others heading back to their crashpads to sleep for early departure the next day.

Sore, broken, and elated we travelled home with our dutyfree whiskey and sparks. Until the next wescoast bikejam, this is midnightsimon signing off.

More Photos of the weekend from:
Nagasawa Mike
Lyledriver
Haley Hardcore
Denny T's Set #1 and Set #2
Gabe (AKA Captain Fun)

For Blood and Glory

2007-02-21T01:59:00.000-08:00

Portland... still recovering... (& sorting media) FULL DEBRIEF, including pictures and videos to come soon!

in the mean time...

Check back soon for a full Mini Bike Winter 2007 report.

Also - Midnight Mass this thursday - start planning what you want in your thermos and where you want to ride!

/midnight/simon/out

A sweet taste of spring

2007-02-14T00:12:00.000-08:00

This week's ride was the warmest in months. Its about god damn time too - too many soggy, or worse, sub-zero rides start to weigh on the spirit, if not our poor drivetrains. A solid turnout of around 30 riders came out to worship clear skies and 'balmy' (ok, well, better) night air. Charles brought his radio to premier his new Midnight Mass playlist (taking requests over at The Fixed Vancouver forum).

Rhiannon told us she knew of a secret park far over on the west side that was accessible only through alleys and had an impressive view of downtown, and we passed navigational duties on to her. One small hiccup, when at Main and 12th we stopped to wait for a few riders who'd made a minor detour to exchange bikes (skylar's 20" BMX was no match for the pace we were setting). Unfortunately the mass somehow got split, with the larger portion powering off towards the West, leaving a few stragglers who were disconnected from the posse. We gave chase and eventually caught up deep on the other side of town, but it came up that we need to work on our group riding skills. Keeping an eye on who is behind us, and how far; calling out CAR and CLEAR at blind intersections; maintaining a pace that everyone can match - these are all things that make the ride hold together, that make us a Mass and not a mob.

Anyhow, once everyone was joined back up, we had a mini portage,

before finding the park. Please excuse my crappy excuse for photography - the view was nice, but looks like you'll have to see it with your own eyes to actually appreciate it.

Next stop was the Jericho Pier - somewhere we've never gone before. The air was warm and the sights spectacular. We chilled.

From Jericho, it was a natural to bump over to the Naam for some latenight eats. MMMMM, miso gravy.

Bike Polo is still scheduled for this weekend (1pm, Grandview Park Tenis courts), despite the exodus of a mass of bikelovers to Portland Oregon for the 4th annual Minibike Winter Olympics. If you attended the Bikes Inside party, the Minibike Thunderdome Alley Kitten Afterparty, or have ever met a Zoobomber, you know how crazy mini bike mayhem can get. Portland's maniacs have been coming up with bizarre and entertaining ways to hurt themselves, claim eternal glory, or both for years; this year, Project B, MC3, and rowdy Vancouver bikers of a variety of stripes look to stir things up and bring home some gold - wish us luck!
**UPDATE**
Just checked the weather south of the border - looks like rain... CLEARING UP FRIDAY MORNING, AND STAYING THE HELL GONE UNTIL LATE SUNDAY NIGHT... looks like they knew we were coming!

Next Midnight Mass is Thursday, Feb. 22nd - Grandview Park at 11:45. See you there.

Bike Polo!

2007-02-10T03:25:00.000-08:00

1 PM, suckers, Grandview Park tenis courts.

We've got mallets - bring your ugliest bike.

New players always welcome.

--also--

Complete results from the Operation: M.E.O.W. alley kitten, including finishing times, now available at Http://alley-kitten.blogspot.com

OPERATION: M.E.O.W. ... Mission Accomplished.

2007-02-05T13:22:00.000-08:00

We have reports from the front that OPERATION: M.E.O.W. was an unqualified success. Thanks to all who raced and volunteered, you made this event happen.

Updates& official results at: http://alley-kitten.blogspot.com/

Alley Kitten: Best Dressed

2007-02-02T00:45:00.000-08:00

Hey just a reminder to all of you alley kitten racers - dress yo' ass up. There are good prizes on the block for best dressed, including a cycle cap from dreamcycle, as well as a custom top tube cover (potentially a special race edition!)

So start thinkin' 'bout your threads, kids.

Fast Night this Thursday, Feb. 1st

2007-01-30T18:37:00.000-08:00

Fast Nights are Midnight Mass's evil twin... We meet at the same spot, Grandview park, but at 10pm. The rules of Fast Night are simple... Come if you can keep up. If you cant keep up, we usually follow a skytrain route to get your tired ass home. Bring water, tubes and a pump. Be afraid, be very afraid.

Alley Kitten Update

2007-01-30T14:13:00.000-08:00

January 16, 2007

ALLRIGHT MAGGOTS!

Race day is less than a week away, and Drill Sgt.s KTJ and Midnightsimon have been hard at work putting together a gruelling course that you little runts are LUCKY to have the PRIVILEDGE of racing. Should any of you manage to mewl your way through our training, YOU WILL EARN the right to hold your head high and walk as one of THE FEW, THE PROUD, THE MINI BIKE ARMY.

You will be expected conduct classified espionage missions. Be ready.
You will compete not just for the glory of first prize, and the honour of being bessed dressed, but also for six packs provided as a SPECIAL PRIZE for the winner of a stage of this race, provided by our allies at PROJECT B

There will be an international contingent coming from portland to throw down in this competition, so bring your A-game, kittens - Canada's reputation is on the line. PDX took second place last race, and they're no doubt hungry for the dead-sexy TROPHY and CASH PRIZE being offered in this race. Lets look alive soldiers. They're bringing a film crew with them, this is your time to earn eternal glory.

Victory Sqare. Saturday February 3rd. 17:30 hours. 18" wheels or smaller. Race for glory.

(Crossposted from http://alley-kitten.blogspot.com)

What's a little ice between friends?

2007-01-22T15:01:00.001-08:00

Last week's ride proved that MM riders are hardcore.
Hardcore because they showed up to ride when it was -10 out before the windchill.

Hardcore also because those who did show up were frozen solid right to the core, and, unfortunately, will likely never completely thaw out.

After meeting up in the park and freezing our respective bits off, we decided it was time to get moving to get the blood a flowin'. There was some discussion of taking the ride down to the fraser river, but it was decided to be far too cold for anything that ambitious and so we settled on missioning to the Langara Golf Course up at 49th and Ontario.
Along the way we had our first casualties - KTJ and Tim fell back due to insufficient warming gear. Midnight mass is awesome - but its not so awesome that its worth frostbite. Alas.

On to the golf course we rode, in hight spirits despite the biting cold.

I was wearing full fingered gloves, but it wasn't enough. note my stylish sock hands.

We arrived at the golf course, hopped the fence, and crunched around in the snow and enjoyed some hot drinks to revitalize our spirits and thaw our frozen internal organs.

By this point, even those of us with two pairs of socks on were beginning to grumble about how we'd like to keep our toes (if for nothing more than sentimental attachment), and so we packed up and rolled to Fraser and 49th where we'd been tipped off about a new 24 hour joint.

Hot cider, hot chocolate, and tasty eats. The perfect cure.

Thats it for the last ride - but be sure to come out and ride with us again this thursday January 25th - meet at 11:45, roll at midnight!

The Raising of Funds

2007-01-18T15:54:00.000-08:00

Fellow denizens of the midnight wolrd!

With the Alley Kitten fast approaching, we need your help! This time around, we'd like to use the $5 alley kitten registration fee primarily to create a CASH PRIZE for the race winner. Awesome? Yes, we know! But what that means is we're going to need a little extra dough on the side to make this race happen (alls thems free shots, and goofy/grueling checkpoint activities cost cash money, yo!)

SO.

We're pumpin' out some Midnight Mass Swag as a fundraiser!

HOT limited edition Midnight Mass 1" and 1.5" buttons (produced by Chris of this is plan B are now available by donation ($1 minimum, eh). We win, you win - what could be better, right? Impress all the pretty ladies and sexy boys. doooooo itttttttt.

Wanna get one? Track down KTJ or myself - we're usually packin'...

See you on the street.

Feb. 3rd - OPERATION: MEOW - A Mini Bike Race!

2007-01-16T00:20:00.000-08:00

So check this out:
Midnight Simon and Kati J are at it again with:If you don't feel like getting taken through boot camp, then volunteer! just contact us through the website.

This race will have a military theme. This race will have a Cash Grand Prize. This race will have a prize for 'best dressed' (bike &/or rider - interpret this yourself). This race will end at Saturday night's BIKES INSIDE party (do. not. miss. this. party.)

This race will blow your miniloving minds.

HTTP://ALLEY-KITTEN.BLOGSPOT.COM for more details.

(WHAT IS AN ALLEY KITTEN? Click HERE for more details)

GET EXCITED!!!
<3<3<3

(edit - oops! kati, I didn't see that you'd just posted about this! I've merged our posts! -midnightsimon)

Bikelove 2006

2007-01-10T00:22:00.000-08:00

Well kids, its been a great year. Thanks to all of you for the bikelove and the good times!!

The Best Things in Life Are Free

2007-01-07T23:24:00.000-08:00

Like bike polo.

The Classic Crawl

2007-01-05T16:47:00.000-08:00

Allright, so I've finally got myself together enough to recap our latest adventure!

A solid 20-25 riders showed up for the last mass of 2006; a good turnout considering how many people were out of town or put off by the cold weather! Seeing as we were saying goodbye to a good year, we took it upon ourselves to do a bit of a tour of some classic Midnight Mass locales.

Thanks also this week for photographic contributions from Josh Young, who runs his own photoblog. I've included some of his pictures here, but to see the whole set from our ride, be sure to check out his blog: http://babymonster.photoblog.com/user/babymonster/2006/12/28/

Morgan of Project B showed up (though not to ride with us) on his crazy stunt trike. WTF! We expect to see mastery of some good tricks soon Morgan.

From the park we hit the road and cruised southwest...

(this one & her friend came all the way from Edmonton just to ride MM! well... okay, they came all the way from Edmonton and they rode MM - whether or not we were the focus of the trip might be debatable...)

our destination: the super-secret DATE TREE. One of vancouver's oldest and best climbing tree, it features a spectacular view of the city, as well as a couple of SWING SEATS up at the top. Where is it you ask? I guess you'll just have to befriend a midnight masser...

(the view from above)

We kicked it at the tree for a while...

Before heading out to that old classic MM haunt, the Crescent... AKA, the GhettoDrome

Again, we kicked it...

A few drinks were drunk, races raced, new friends made.

And then we booked it westward once more, to the cold cold shores of Jerchio beach. Along the way, we had only one minor misshap... (don't ask me how this happened.)

At the beach, we chilled for a while (literally), and huddled for warmth.

It wasn't long before someone suggested we book it to a nearby place that could supply warmth and or food in some pleasing combination, and, taking our location into account, it was pretty obivious we hit up our oldschool feedlot, the Naam.
Skyalar attempted to push us father west... but was outvoted by frozen toes.

Moreover, our good and faithful server seemed to be in high spirits, and not the least put off by our 2 am ambush - they must be getting used to us by now (or we are tipping well enough.. remember kids, tip your midnight food and beverage purveyors well, for they are the glue that hold us together! or at least they've got a monopoly on the sutff...)

Well, that's it for last week's ride. Nick Cee gave me a headsup on a new 24 hour joint we can hit up next week, which I'll suggest as a direction to ride when we get to the park. All y'all keep your brains workin' and show up with some suggestions too. Until then, ride hard and don't let the weather get you down!

___________________________________________________________

BIKE POLO IS TOMORROW 12/1pm start time at the Grandview Park tenis courts. Alas, I shan't be there this week (still getting back on schedule after les holidays), but everyone else will. be there, bring yo' bike.
___________________________________________________________

HOUSEKEEPING:
I've edited and updated the links on the right hand sidebar - included is now a link to a YouTube Playlist of midnight mass vidoes! Click Here to see 'em.

If you have a link that you think is relevant (blogging bikers? rides? gangs? ect..) and would like to be added, hit us up with it!

FIXEDVANCOUER.COM

2007-01-04T09:08:00.000-08:00

Midnight Mass is the place to meet awesome bikers outside of the web, but what about online?

Come check out FixedVancouver.com to chat and mingle with fellow cyclists from all over the city. Want to organize a bike ride? Post about it and get people to join you! Or talk about how the last ride went and share some of your pictures.

Despite the name it isn't just for fixie riders - all bikers (of the pedal variety) are welcome.

Strange Things Done in the Midnight Sun

2007-01-04T00:15:00.000-08:00

I'm just now sorting through all of the photos from December 28th's ride - I should have them up tomorrow. Until then though, here's a little place filler, filmed at the ghettodrome last week...

heh.
_________________________________________________________
In other news, big things happening here on the Midnight Mass blog.

I've invited a few long time MM riders - people who've been out to Mass in all its forms, from shitty rainy days to glorious summer mashups, people who have helped build Mass by spreading the word, printing materials, or just showing up faithfully since the beginning - to contribute to this blog. Here's hoping you'll start seeing a little sumthin' sumthin' from some new voices on this site in the near future....

Tune in soon for a recap of last ride, and more..

they came from THE UNDERGROUND

2006-12-28T03:22:00.000-08:00

No photos survived.

Which is a hell of a shame, since last ride we found ourselves in one of the coolest destinations yet - a network of interconnected tunnels and multilevel parking garages (extending deeper than I'd have ever thought) under the downtown core of Vancouver.

This is something that I was vaguely aware existed, but had never really considered. Since the forecast for the night was 'A HELL OF A LOT OF RAIN AND WINDS UP TO 100 KM/HR,' Maitland suggested that we find ourselves somewhere dry to ride - specifically underground. We cruised from grandview towards the downtown core, skimming under BC place to take advantage of the covered section that used to be a part of the indy track. We then looped into downtown and dropped beneath the city's surface through a parking garage entrance next to pacific centre. Down and down we went, playing tag with the security guards before popping out above ground. We headed towards the courthouse and dropped down again, this time passing by where the cops secretly unload dangerous criminals for trial. Tunnels extended from here deeper underground (we did not check this part out - maybe next time?) and also connected back into the pacific centre complex. Back to the security guard. Back above ground after a laugh. How far does this network extend? How much of the guts of the city are avaiable to see for the intrepid explorer? Thats up to you to find out.

From here we cut towards stanley park, but decided to skim by lost lagoon instead of looping the entire park. Probably a good idea - as all of us have no doubt seen the photos of the wreckage that night's storm unleashed on the trees in the area (what I saw in the paper made me feel ill and sad - extreme weather: one more reason to fight fossil fuels). From there it was back to the classic Twenty-Pho hour noodle shop where we gorged ourselves on hot pho before hitting the streets to return home - pushed by delicious 100 km/hr. tailwinds. FASTFASTFAST.

My photos were lost due to borrowed camera kaffufles. THIS WILL NOT HAPPEN AGAIN, as I have procured myself a dandy new digital, which I'll bring to tonights ride. Our favorite photographer Oker also attended this ride, so should some of his photos become available, I'll update here with some evidence of our underground adventures.

Be sure to come out and ride with us tonight - DEC. 29th, 11:45 pm at Grandview Park (commercial drive @ charles st.) Bring your lights, bundle up, and bring something warm to drink! See y'all there.

Bike Craft Fair!

2006-12-15T12:53:00.000-08:00

B i k e C r a f t F a i r.
Sunday, Dec 17th Noon til 5pm at Spartacus Books
319 West Hastings Street, second floor.

This is a special craft event, where beautifully hand-made items like
tool bags, seat covers, arm warmers, and reflective doodads
are all made spectacular, celebrating the art of bikes and bike riders.
Over a dozen artisans assembled for your inspiration.
TELL YOUR MOMS!!!
(Great holiday gifts for those bike-obsessed kids)

more info BikeCraft: http://www.bikecraft.blogspot.com/

______________________________________________________________________
POLO UPDATE:
Polo is tomorrow - we have two out of town visitors from seattle looking for blood and glory. Meet noonish at the grandview park tennis courts. BYO Bike & Beer.

And a year slips by...

2006-12-08T13:22:00.000-08:00

Twelve Months. Three-Hundred and Sixty Five days. Fifty Two weeks. It sure doesn't feel that way. It seems pretty much just the other day that a pack of foolhardy bikelovers gathered in the crappiest month of the year in driving rain to cruise the jet-streaked midnight streets. We came together because we love the night. We came together because we love to ride. We came together to give each other reasons to ride - we created community as a tool to ride out the worst that winter can throw at a cyclist and to celebrate the best that the summer could offer us. And it wasn't long before we were enmeshed in the amazing network of Vancouver Bikelove. I've met a lot of amazing people at these rides, and I know others have too. I've seen friendships grown, networks built, crews formed. And with these folk I've mashed my pedals over every inch of this city in its darkened state.

I thank every one of you that's come out to ride and make the Midnight Mass what it is... because when it boils down to it, the midnight mass is you - yes, it's a name and an idea; more importantly it is the group, a mass of bikers, the wheels on the ground. Every ride is different, has a different feel and flow, a different identity formed by who comes and where we choose to ride. If you are there, Midnight Mass is you. And you fucking rock.

I'd also like to give a shoutout of thanks to Morgan of Project B for stepping up and doccumenting the anniversary ride - you did an ace job my good man!

So, sentimental philosophizing aside, lets get onto the ride.

The meet-up at grandview was a festive affair - complete with vegan cupcakes supplied by Asha.

Of course, they baked one giant one and made me eat it. Not that I'm complaining mind you - I'm a bit of a sugarholic as it is.
There were also sexy-as-hell patches with the midnight mass chainring-clock logo for all in attendance..

I think we pulled about 30-35 riders - well down from the summer peak of 80 in July, but pretty solid considering the time of year and weather... hell, we were pulling 8-10 most of last winter.

It wasn't long before we hit the road, owning the streets only the way you can in the middle of the night..

Our destination was the Mountainview Cemetary at 33rd and Fraser... the first place that the Midnight Mass ever rode to oh those many months ago. Here's a couple of photos from that first ride, and what I wrote the next day:

" Friday, November 25, 2005

Midnight bike ride a soggy success

Well, it rained like a motherfucker last night, but despite that, we got 10 people together and rode it out anyway with stops for hot mulled wine, hot chocolate, and doobies in the cemetary. Despite getting a bit damper than I'd have liked, I had a kickass time. Best part of the night was finishing the ride at 24 hour Pho, where hot noodle soup and tea were exactly the healing balm needed to warm our soggy souls.

Plan is to try and do this again in two weeks - so the next Midnight bike ride (Midnight Mass, as has been suggested) will be thursday Dec. 8. Meeting at 11:45 @ Grandview park. Hope to see some of you there!"

This year, we had less rain and more riders - here we are chillin' a year later in the same part of the cemetary..

Hot Scotch - the traditional libation of the midnight mass, amongst other refreshements were consumed before we hit the road again.

Someone called "bikeswap!" and before thre was a scramble to grab someone elses bike and get on it - freewheelers ended up on fixies and vice versa, short people struggling on tall folks' wheels, and all sorts of confusion. We rolled west on 37th ave. to Oak St. where we swapped back to our own bikes to bomb the hill down to 33rd. The next stop was the Crescent (AKA the GhettoDrome), another MM favorite spot, and destination of MM's second ever ride, last december. Here we chilled again, and a second batch of cupcakes was consumed (non vegan this time) while a few people raced and sprinted around the 'drome. Amazingly, despite the fact that the ghettodrome is in the heart of Old Money vancouver, and is surrounded by mansions, we've never been hassled here - by residents OR the police. I don't know if its because we've never been rowdy enough (this would be surprising), or that the properties surrounding the 'drome are so large and the houses set so far back that they don't even know we're out there. Either way, I love that spot and would like to see us set up a midnight race there or something. Midnight Dash for Cash in the Ghettodrome?

We peeled out after a good while, heading (accidentally) west, though soon realizing our mistake and rolling back east to the old old favorite 2 am feed spot, the 24 hour pho noodle house at Cambie and Broadway. Pho and hot green tea were consumed and we toasted an amazing year.

Thanks again to all who came out - I'll see you next week THURSDAY DEC 14th, for the next Midnight Mass!

____________________________________________________________________________________
BIKE POLO UPDATE:

POLO IS STILL ON KIDS - NEW MEETING TIME, 12:00 noon to take advantage of the limited daylight. Grandview Park Tennis Courts. BYO Bike & Beer - mallets supplied.

late posts abound

2006-11-09T16:48:00.001-08:00

I'm sorry about the lack of content lately - I've been taking a bit of an internet vacation since the bike bee, but I'm back and ready for more action. For starters, here are the photos from our first ride of October. This was one of our most adventureous rides yet - all the way out to exotic BURNABY!

Meeting up:

Then off to the great Eastern Climes of Burnaby...

Unlike most MM rides, where we ride for a while, then stop and hang out and socialize before riding & repeating the process multiple times, this ride we booked it all the way to Central Park in one go. Then upon arriving in a well concealed playground, we partied!

Oh yeah, did I mention the Rollerslide? (yes, the rollerslide....)

Damn that was a fun ride.

Unfortunately, no photos of October's second ride survived, as my camera was recently stolen. You'll all just have to imagine how wonderful it was in your heads!

-or-

You can come out tonight and ride with us! 11:45 at Grandview Park, Rolling at Midnight. See Y'all there.

_______________________________________________________________________

TAKE NOTE! The SECOND MIDNIGHT MASS of November will be MM's ONE YEAR ANNIVERSARY. Come ride with us and celebrate!

Bike Polo!

2006-10-15T16:12:00.000-07:00

BIKE POLO. If you don't know, its pretty much the greatest game ever. Thrills, chills, and oh yes spills (Rob Rao yesterday earned the title for gnarliest polo injury yet - hope your hand's okay Rob!)

Come out and play with us.

All you need is a bike (don't bring your prettiest one - the game can be a bit rough on the bikes)

We've got mallets & all other necessary gear.

To find out more, visit the Eastvan bike polo website: http://www.myspace.com/vanbikepolo

OR EVEN BETTER, join the eastvan bike polo email listserv! Joining is relatively easy (jump through 1, maybe 2 hoops) - send an email to this address: eastvanbikepolo-subscribe@yahoogroups.com
_____________________________________________________
ALSO
We are desparately looking for outdoor covered areas of aproximately basketball or tenis court size. LET US KNOW IF YOU KNOW A GOOD SPOT!

South Creek Cruise

2006-10-11T13:58:00.000-07:00

The fine weather continues to stretch - and, no big surprise - Midnight Mass turnout has continued to hold at summer levels. Over 60 riders turned up for the third consecutive midnight mass of September. This is apparently a city of sleep-deprivation junkies (no complaints here).

Our ride last time took us on a meandering tour of False Creek's South side - here's a recap.

The usual roundup at Grandview Park - meetin' up and chillin' out with friends:

Then it was down first avenue towards science world - always a fine bomb. A nice long, steep run-in from first avenue to Clark, with a second bit of speed as you cross the bridge to terminal. Hot industrial scenery over the CN yards, and classic Vancouverness as you pace the skytrain tracks and approach Science World (or 'the golfball' as the portlanders called it) and bleed off your speed. Life doesn't get much better than this kids - pure, unmediated life.

After a brief stop near science world to deal with some mechanical difficulties (side note - we need to get better as a group of waiting for those who are falling behind the pack. We are meant to be one Mass afterall), it was on to 'the crosstown express' - the false creek passage along first avenue, under the cambie bridge, and onto Lamey's Mill Road feeding you into Grandville Island. Here we stopped to refresh yet again, make some new friends, listen to the two (count 'em, two) stereos that came along to provide our evening's soundtrack, and play some schoolyard games!

Midnight Jump Rope! (playtime after bedtime)

The Fixie Kids, as they are apt to do, turned the pause into an opportunity to show off thier skid skills...

At this point, however, we awoke the ire of some local residents (perhaps we should be a little more discreet about our chill out spots), and it was time to pack it up and roll on.. The farthest west we made it was Jericho beach where we hung until Nos Amis, Les Policiers arrived to give us the boot. (Apparently there was some climbing on top of the concession stand? And apparently people live inside and phoned the Pepper to complain - again, perhaps we need to work the discression angle a little harder; our greatest strenghths lie in our mobility and invisibility to the realworld).

From the beach we split up and headed homeward, some choosing to roll on to the old favorite, Seigel's Bagels. This time there were few enough of us that the poor counter guy (same guy, every thursday) was able to get our food out without risking pulling a ligament. Mmmmm, bagels.

Thats it for last ride.
The next mass is tomorrow - possibly the last clear day before the dreaded Vancouver Winter descends upon our fair city, transforming us all into amphibious creatures (Vancouverus Velocipeda Aquatica). Bring your lights & friends & wheels & thermoses full of hot refreshment - oh, and of course your secret knowledge of this fair city. See y'all there,

The Bike Bee

2006-10-03T19:50:00.000-07:00

So I promised you all I'd blog Velomutation... and I will... but first I want to talk about something that is a little more time sensitive - the bicycle bee!

What is it?
The Bike Bee, scheduled for the weekend of OCTOBER 20,21,22 2006 will be a community building and peer learning event focused around... well, bicycles!

Bryce explains the root of the 'bike bee' name, and how it applies to what we'll be doing over the weekend:
The idea intended to be evoked refers to the importance of quilting bees in the past. As many of us know, women would get together & work on a quilt together.
Often the quilt would go to someone who needed it. New wives could be introduced to a group, and get to know the place they live. While quilting, any and all kinds of useful information would be passed back and forth, from solving a pesky family problem (many minds work better than one) ... to family herbal lore ....
The [bicycle bee] idea [functions in a similar way] -- a way to foster communication, take bike repair and building out of the sometimes offputting workshop, and into the hands of anyone who has, or wants a bike. ... Instead of a quilt, the project is a bike, but the process is the same.

What we want to do is to take you - yes, all of you - and bring together the knowledge and skills that we all have in order to teach and help one another, while weaving our community together more tightly.

In order to do this we will be hosting a three-day (well, 2 day/ one evening) event that will include the following:

Bike Build-a-thon: Don't have a bike, but need one? Come down to the Bike Bee, and make use of the used parts and bike knowledge of your peers to build one up over the weekend!

Chopper building: The same as above, but with art-bikes as the outcome!

Workshops Galore! Spread over the course of the weekend we will host a variety of workshops, from art-making, to bike mechanics and safety, to guerilla biketevism! Confirmed workshops include the following:

oO Bike Anatomy 101
oO Fix Your Flat
oO Bike Repair Basics
oO Car Re-education Workshop
oO Anti-theft Techniques and Devices
oO CarFree Cities Conference Presentation/Forum (from the recent conference in Bogota, Columbia)
oO Bike Art & Jewlery making with Victoria's Recyclistas
oOBike Ornaments (jewelry, xmas tree, paperweight applications)
oOForum: A Vancouver Bicycle Hub, what is it and do we want it?

With LOTS MORE TO COME!

But wait, you ask, what if I want to get involved? I'd like to host a workshop, to volunteer, or to help plan the event!

WELL KIDS, HERE'S YOUR CHANCE! The next planning meeting/ potluck is to be held TOMORROW, Wednesday October 4th, at spartacus books (319 w. hastings, 2nd floor (between homer/hamilton, near dressew). bring finger food to share, your own cup/dish/cutlery if possible. & bring yer bike upstairs! This is the BIG ONE...there will be a mini orientation for newcomers, workshops designated, more logistics, tunnels dug...

If you have a workshop idea, please consider the following:
1. what your workshop is about, & what it could be titled.

2. how much space you would need, with what facilities (e.g. small space, workcounter, access to a tap, bike stand/s).

3. what is the maximum number of people you would be able to accommodate during your workshop? (this number could relate to available bike stands for example, or to the amount of one-on-one instruction you intend to offer.)

4. approximately how long would your workshop be (e.g. 1 hour, 2 hours, 1/2 day etc)

5. what materials you would use. what supplies you can provide yourself, & what you might need help with (e.g. tools, fabric, inner tubes). while we encourage workshoppers to bring as many of their own supplies as they can, it is also possible for us to help with this, either by gathering them though the community, or offsetting the costs of getting them. we encourage you to be as resourceful as possible, & we can help finding ways of sourcing supplies without purchasing them new.

6. what safety concerns might there be? what safety equipment might you need? (e.g.e proper ventilation for paints? safety glasses?). safety also includes a comfortable, inclusive, supportive working environment. we will have safety marshalls on hand at all times, as well as helping "rovers" who will assist all participants in the bicycle bee in having a great experience.

please remember that workshops will be by donation; therefore we are asking workshop organizers to keep their costs to a minimum ($0 costs provides you with access to limitless hugs).

Thats it for now - check back soon for Velomutation & more!

VelomutationVELOMUTATION!

2006-09-27T17:30:00.000-07:00

Holy crap - what a weekend! What a turnout by the Zoobombers of Portland at the Midnight Mass!

Pictures and a recount to come soon! Check back, check back!

Seasons

2006-09-21T00:54:00.000-07:00

The first ride of fall - damp streets, black slickness shot through with orange light and lit by purple skies. We love Vancouver.

Oker made us proud again this week with his fabulous photography - here's last week's ride.

Scarcy cemetary...

Then westward to the Crescent - drag races and hotdogging for all....

Ladies & Gentlemen - Cowboy Wyatt:

That boy can skiiiiidddd.

The party continued at the crescent, until we got hungry and split.

We ride again this week - a bonus MM as a part of the Velomutation Bikelove Weekend - come check out four days of bike mayhem! http://velovan.blogspot.com

As usual, meet at grandview park at 11:45, roll at midnight. See all y'all there.

CBC interview, digitized

2006-09-08T17:50:00.000-07:00

Apparently one of my roomates (thanks Mairin!) managed to tape the midnight mass CBC interview back in July - I've added some photos to run as a slideshow and am posting it here.

___________________________________________

Polo in the park is on again this weekend!
Satuday, 2 pm, Strathcona Park tennis courts-

We'll bring the mallets, you BYOB(ikes)B(eer)

Midnight in an Undressed World

2006-09-06T12:45:00.000-07:00

Well, I've finally got my act together enough to get a post up about last month's raucus and rowdy midnight undie ride - so here we go! Enormous thanks to Rob for contributing photos this week. Check his flickr site out here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/brownrage

The adventure started at grandview park. Clothes slowly started peeling off, as a few brave souls decided to get the ball rolling (yeah julie and rob!)

The Team Tracksuit was out again in full force - infact, I'm pretty sure their numbers have grown...

After a couple of words with the local cops (they pulled up and observed us from an unmarked car before comming out to see what was going on... "we got about 10 calls that there were 60 people milling around in the park in their underwear...") we hit the road, with downtown as our destination, hoping to thorougly confuse the downtown club crowd.

Then it was on to english bay, for an impromptu beach party in the middle of downtown.

at this point, the residents of one of the taller buildings started signalling to us - in one appartment a bunch of turtle lights popped up and started waving at us - we cheered and waved ours back. Then from one of the top floor appartments someone busted out a flood light:

This of course, inspired even rowdier behaviour...

Eventually, of course the police came and we hit the road. They tailed us for a little while before apparently deciding that maybe there was some real crime taking place somewhere in the city that might possibly require their attention and let us go. We rolled over the burrard street bridge and overwhelmed the staff at seigel's bagels again - REMEMBER KIDS, TIP YOUR OVERWORKED BAGEL MAKER!

From there, a few of us rolled all the way east to Trout Lake, where we arived JUST IN TIME to MISS some fire spinners, who had just finished packing up. alas.

Join us this month for the midnight mass - there are THREE.

We will still be holding the regularly scheduled 2nd/4th thursday rides (Sept 14th & 28th), and there will also be a bonus Midnight Mass on Sept. 21st schedueld to coincide with the Velomutation Bikelove Weekend.

Meet us at grandview park at 11:45, roll at midnight!

An open letter to the WestEnder regarding their column on Critial Mass

2006-08-30T16:14:00.000-07:00

Steve Burgess, columnist for the WestEnder (most notable for his dull travelogues, of late) last week wrote a pretty negative column based essentially on one woman's (dubious?) account of her experience being 'attacked' at critical mass. Reading the article made my blood pressure rise to dangerous levels but I let myself cool off before writing a letter to the editor. Unfortunately, I probably let myself cool off too long to actually get my letter printed (though I did send it in). I figured that I might as well circulate it to where it can be read, whether it ends up in the paper or not. My favorite part is when he closes with "Idiots are everywhere, I realize. How does it help to put some of them on bikes?". I thought long and hard before I decided not to respond with the obvious cheapshot "Idiots are everywhere, how does it help to have them writing front page columns." If we want to win public opinion, we have to refrain from injecting the same kind of venom and childishness into the debate.

You can read Burgess' article here

My letter is as follows:

It is unfortunate that the Westender feels the need to lower itself by publishing such inflammatory, and vitriolic material as Steve Burgess' recent column on Critical Mass. Indeed, it is unfortunate that Mr. Burgess relied on one person's account of an event and a lot of personal opinion for the bulk of his piece. Had he done his research (a quick Google search would have done), Mr. Burgess would have found that CM is not an 'organization' and hence has no 'leaders' whom he could have contacted. The Mass, rather, is just that – a mass of people, in most cases with little or no connection to each other, united by the love of bicycles and the desire to ride together. The corollary to this diversity is an intense diversity in motivation among participants. Certainly to some, CM is a protest in the traditional vein, but to many others it means many different things – a ride with friends or family, a chance to safely cruise the streets of downtown, a street carnival complete with tall bikes, mini bikes, music and people in costume, a place to meet new people or network, or just a chance to use public space in a different way. It seems to me that the Mass is much less of a protest against cars than it is a celebration of bicycles. Of course, there are occasionally confrontations between angry motorists and cyclists (I've seen some myself, though never anything that approached the 'hockey riot' scenario Burgess describes). In these cases I find it crucial to point out that the majority of the tense incidents are centered around one thing: safety. Yes, cyclists in the mass do violate traffic ordinances when they 'cork' streets to allow riders through a red light – this is done in the interests of safety. Should the mass become split and cars get between cyclists, drivers will try and get out – usually through cyclists. Situations like this are when cars become surrounded. Riders see the opportunity for a driver to attempt to cut through the mass and will place themselves to make absolutely sure that the car does not move anywhere until all riders have safely passed. I understand that this may appear threatening to a driver, but what drivers must understand is that a five-thousand pound machine revving its engine and inching forward appears pretty threatening to us too. My experience has been that tension and raised voices are nearly always a byproduct of fear. Before passing judgment on Critical Mass, I urge Steve Burgess (and indeed, anyone else concerned or even interested) to come out and actually ride in one. You might even have a good time.

______________________________________________
***Update***
______________________________________________

So I went and grtabbed a WE today to see if they had printed any responses to Burgess' column - I've talked to a lot of people who told me they'd wrote in because they were upset. To my surprise, I found that aside from the Rant/Rave section, the WE contained no printed letters from readers on any subject. Tell me, now, how are readers to respond to information they find upsetting, incorrect, or conversely, gratifying? It seems to me that the public is not well served by one way communication with our media. Moreover, as a member of the cycling community, I find it distressing that we have been essentially openly attacked by a media outlet without any effective fora for response.

So, bikers and non-bikers alike, if this bothers you too write a quick email to the WE - you can hit them up at editor@westender.com

Mini bike revolution!

2006-08-29T02:01:00.000-07:00

Hey there minibikelovers!

Looking for another way to get your mini on? Planning is now underway for Friday, September 22nd's unveiling of the first ever Alley Kitten challenge!

That's right, an Alley Cat on mini bikes. You better freakin' believe it!

Want details? http://alley-kitten.blogspot.com All you need to race for the taste...

This event is a part of the Vancouver Velomutation weekend of bikelove - four days of bike culture, bike parties, and bikelove. Check the website for more details.
_________________________________________________

In other news, the first ever Midnight Undie ride was a smashing success with approximately 80 riders, a good 70% or so of them in their skivvies!

I'm rather desperate for photos of the ride, however, so if you've got some pass them on and we'll see if we can get them online here! Hit me up at midnightsimon))at((gmail.com if you've got anything you'd like to share. Until then, see you on the road!

Polo in the park

2006-08-25T11:42:00.000-07:00

Bike polo tomorrow (saturday).

Strathcona Park, 1:30 pm.

Bring:

Beers
Bikes
Boom box (if ya gots one)

We'll supply the mallets.

Also, anyone with pictures from last night's Midnight Undie ride - send 'em my way, I'm looking for pictures to publish here. Hit me up at midnightsimon**at**gmail.com.

Industry industry...

2006-08-22T13:48:00.000-07:00

Hello again cyclesomniacs - seems like it was just yestarday that we rode, but we're mere days away from the first ever MIDNIGHT UNDERWEAR RIDE! Thats right - this thursday come out prepared to put your pedals to the metal in your skivvies - or if you're shy, at least laugh at (with!) those who do! Tighty whiteys, fancy lace, corset, boxers, christmas undies, bras bras bras, undershirts, thongs, granny undies, stockings, the list goes on - Midnight Mass loves variety in underwear almost as much as we love variety in bikes! So pick out your favorite pair and come meet us at GRANDVIEW PARK, THURSDAY AUGUST 24TH - Meet at 11:45, roll at midnight.
For comfort (it seems to be getting a tad chillier these days) perhaps show at the park with your clothes on and we'll drop to the skivvies right before we ride..

___________________________________
IN FURTHER NEWS:
Heavy duty planning and excitement in the road up to the Vancouver Velomutation Bikelove weekend! Thursday the 21st of September right on through to Sunday the 24th are four days packed with more bike fun than you can shake a stick at. Expect the opportunity to meet and greet bikers from Victoria, Seattle, Portland, and perhaps even farther flung locales! So far, the lineup looks like this:
)))Thursday the 21st - Bike movies and Midnight Mass!
)))Friday the 22nd - The First International ALLEY KITTEN mini bike courrier style race (more details on this wild event coming soon)
)))Saturday the 23rd - Bicycle CARcass sports at Strathcona Park - Speed Freaks Alley Cat race, also starting at Strathcona park. (reg/start time TBA) - and the Main Event - VELOMUTATION, THE PARTY! Featuring performances by Vancouver's own B:C:Clettes and Brakes (all boy mini bike burlesque..!), as well as portland's original Sprockettes. Dont miss this party. (pedal play shop, 194 w. 3rd ave. Enter thru the alley - 9pm until late)
)))Sunday the 24th - Mini Bombing down large hills? Also, possible Polo?
For more info on this wild and crazy weekend of bikelove, check out the brand spanking new Velomutation weekend blogsite:

http://velovan.blogspot.com/
___________________________________

BIKE POLO?

Sunday's Polo at the Little 100 went smashingly, and we've got some new converts. We'll be trying to get this stuff going regularly into september so that we can get some practice in and field a couple of teams with a chance to compete against the Yanks when they come up here for Velomutation. To get on the polo updates email list, hit me up at midnightsimon))at((gmail.com

___________________________________

AND FINALLY-
Last ride's photos & recap!
All photos this week by our talented shutterman, Oker - Check out his flickr site. (Thanks once again Oker!)

This week we had about 35-40 riders, and ventured East for only the second time ever. First time Masser (B:C:Clette, and full time bike babe) Rhiannon led us out to a super-secret location that blew everyone's mind!

The Meet & Greet at Grandview Park:

Bombing the drive:

And the Grassy Fields of New Brighton Park:

Of course, New Brighton does have a pool...

But after getting the hairy eyeball from the security guard, we decided it was perhaps time to roll out:

Then Rhiannon took us to the refinery - a steep climb followed by a ride through a dark, dark, dark gravel path in the forest (this was pretty sweet actually). Riding eastward to an unknown location had an added benefit of keeping the group solid and together - usually, riders peel off at variying stages of the ride as they get tired, or start to think about work the next day a little too much. This ride, however, we kept virtually everyone with us once we'd crossed east into burnaby. It was pretty cool to have that cohesion.

Rolling westward again, the group began to break up on hastings st. A pack of us managed to roll to Pizza garden together, however, for tasty 2 am Pizza..

So come roll with us again this week - who knows where we'll end up. 11:45 @ Grandview park, ride @ midnight. Bring your undies.

A call for planners, dreamers, ideas, volunteers, and more...

2006-08-21T12:28:00.000-07:00

Hello good bikers!

Invitation.
Planning is just beginning for a
Bike Building Event
in October. (Date proposed Oct 20, 21, 22.)

WHAT IS IT?
The vision so far includes chopper building, regular bike building, and other bike-related workshops.
Also potentially featuring a dance party at warehouse/studio space and rumours of food provided for the weekend.
Probable location PedalPlay and Depot spaces, plus Simon's place.
Satellite workshops also possible if someone(s) wants to make it happen.

NEXT MEETING is for other people who want to come to create a RAD weekend event where we work, learn, inspire, come together as different biking organizations, and hep this community GROW and be healthy.

We are meeting on THURSDAY Aug 24th at 7pm at Jane and RusL's place on South Main - for the adress please email midnightsimon))AT((gmail.com
PotLuck if you can.

Aug 24 meeting is for people who are interested in producing this event
in some form or another, this also means helping to define the event - what kind of activities/workshops/events would you like to see? Come contribute! Bike Movies? Bike Stencils? Bike Button making? Bike crafts? why not - think you have an idea that would work, or want to organize a workshop or activity bring it with you!

So far, emphasis is on:
-bikes, building, fixing, learning how to do all of the above (freak, regular, mini, whatever... ifny has a bunch of bikes to donate!)
-peer education... lots of people with knowledge to share, people who want to learn
-community created event - a chance to network and make the community tighter
-accessible, for people who cannot afford it and for those who can
-safe, inclusive, tolerant, welcoming to all.

So far there has only been one discussion about getting this project off the ground, (basically, to say 'hey - lets schedule an event for october!), so if this sounds like something fun to you, come join us and help get the ball rolling! Both the essential focus of the event and the activities that would take place are still yet to be defined, so come out if you want to be involved in this aspect.

Also come out if you have ideas for workshops or events, skills that you think you could contribute to the event, or anything else that you think would be helpful that you would like to contribute!

The meeting takes place on this thursday, before Midnight Mass. Remeber, this week's ride is UNDERWEAR THEMED, so come on out and ride in your skivvies!

Recap of last ride to come tomorrow - over and out.

Bike Polo!

2006-08-19T18:59:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow - Sunday August 20th - Strathcona Park (google it if you need directions)

Scheduled to coincide with the Little 100 cruiser race.

Polo starts at 1 pm.

You bring the bikes, we'll bring the mallets.

over and out.

and bigger yet...

2006-08-08T14:59:00.000-07:00

Allright kids - I apologize for taking so long to get a recap of our last ride up but I've been in recovery mode from the nasty spill I took at the end of last ride, which has involved much sleeping, vitamin E, T3s, and the occasional crazy bike party in seattle. I'm back in action though, and only slightly less pretty than ever.

Just a reminder, we ride again this THURSDAY, AUGUST 10TH as well as our (lets say, weather permiting) Underwear Ride which takes place Thursday August 24th. Of course, riding in your undies'll be optional - but I mean, who wants to be the kid at the lantern festival who doesn't have a lantern? The next day of course is critical mass (Leaves the art gallery @ 6 pm), which is followed by the traditional aprez party at the Anza Club. Also of interest, there will be a Mini Bike Army ride in the very near future, so check back here or even better, www.minibikerarmy.blogspot.com for more details.

Okay, so with all of that out of the way, lets get to recapping the July 27th ride! Once again, the last ride was the biggest ride yet. Its at the point now that every ride is the biggest ride! Lets hold some of this momentum into the fall and winter - prove that a little weather never stopped a Vancouver biker.

This last ride, as we possed up at grandview park, we realized that we had at least 80+ bikers - this is amazing - it means that our rides are reaching critial mass proportions... Vancouver - we are awesome.

From the park we cut south to First Ave. and bombed the hill en-masse down to Clark where we dominated the bridge over to terminal and re-massed at science world:

(photo by Oker)

Then it was westwards, skirting false creek, to Grandville island. We possed up again (maintaining group cohesion with so many riders is a new challenge we're finding - however, the stops allow a social aspect to the rides which would be missed if the didn't happen)..

(photo by Oker)

(photo by Oker)

After massing up we took a quick spin around G.I. - including a tour up, and bomb down, one of the parking garages. (I love parking garages)

(photo by Oker)

Oker - the man behind the camera!

(photo by Oker)

From here we proceeded westward again to the beach where skinney dipping may or may not have occured. Wouldn't you like to know. Show up on thursday and maybe you'll find out!

Thats it for this installment. See you on thursday, and roll safe in the meantime.

The Dead Baby Downhill - Northwest bikers meet, network, party their freaking arses off

2006-08-06T18:19:00.000-07:00

The Dead Baby Downhill - one part downhill all-bike-class (from mini to tall, fixie to tourer, 10 speed to chopper - you name it) race, one part show (bands, bands, bands, performances by the oh so lovely (did I say lovely, I mean freaking HOT and inspirational) B:C:Clettes and Portland's own equally freaking hot and inspirational Sprockettes), one part bicycle skill competition (mini and tall bike jousting, bunny hops, skid comp, ect) one part chance to meet and network with bikers from vancouver to portland, and all parts PARTY. Sound like a good time? It is. This year among the some two dozen (!) vancouverites traveling down to the downhill were at least three distinct crews down acting in ambassadorial capacity - the 'Clettes, MC3 (Vancouver's venerable and legendary chopper collective), and a fresh faced pack of kids repping the Midnight Crew - Tim, Kati, Sascha, and Mark all proved themselves hardcore riding down there, while I (hey, I'm wounded ok?) took the cushy route and snagged a ride with some of the other Vancouverites driving down.

Friday morning, bright and early, we rise and roll our tired asses down to the pedal depot where we meet up and organize our automotive seating plans for the ride down:

With surprisingly few delays (a first for vancouverites!) we were on the road and at the border in no time. Jack, who had been denied entry once before (insufficiant ties and equities... yeah, right, like any of us would want to sneak into your country to STAY. get real) used a combination of smooth talking and impressively organized doccumentation to get us past the boder guards and then it was onwards to Seattle - with a quick pitstop by one of our teams to pick up a couple of canadians we'd linked up with who are on the first leg of a tour to Tiajuana. Damn.

We arived in town with plenty of time for chillin out. MASSIVE, MASSIVE thanks to dead baby Soren for providing us with a beautiful place to call home base (a nice top-of-an-awesome-old-house apartment with a eye-popping bike workshop), as well as guiding our clueless foreigner asses around!

- soren's workshop... there were some crazy and beautiful bikes in there -

-long car rides to funny things to bikers...-

-refreshments upon arrival-

Apparently there was some kind of airshow on that weekend, but we kept getting buzzed by jets all afternoon - fighters like these ones, but also big transports that said Navy on them. I suppose the rationale was that they were warming up for/ advertising the airshow - but all that flying around over the city really made me wonder if it was intentional for other reasons. "Remember! we are at war! don't worry though, we're in control - we're badass! our army is invincible. Just keep quiet and let us handle things and it will all be all right..."
Or maybe I'm just cynnical.

After recharghing our batteries it was onto the downhill:

-Chris B, Sascha, and Cowboy Tim after checking in for the race ($20 transforms itself into a t-shirt with your race number and a dead baby bikes waterbottle that is good for as much beer as you can drink at the kegs at the bottom of the race)-

-sascha and his fixie - the next day he proved how crazy he is by buying a chainring twice that size. okay, well thats obviously an exaggeration - but not much of one.

-the cowboy tooling up his mini, getting ready to take on the zoobombers

The 'Clettes/MC3's charming and mystirous Nix - and our good friend Sparks!

-Mark Reverse (how does he do those backwards cicrles?) repping the Midnight crew-

-James and Sara, of Portland's sprockettes-

-redsara, and in the background portland's Gabe aka Captain Fun-

and then we race.
and if you come next year
you'll find out what that part is like.

At the bottom, the babies have provided us with a full on party.

Kati and Nina at the bottom of the race

pedal powered rides!(!)

Soon it was time for Vancouver's velovixens, the B:C:Clettes--

-Damn. Our city is an exciting place with some amazing people in it. These women rock.

Then it was time for the Sprockettes - the mothers of the synchromized dance movement..

The footdown derby followed. If you've never been in a derby before, the rules are simple. Ride in a circle. don't put your foot on the ground - if you do, you're out. pretty much everything else goes - checking, shoving, sliding, bumping - whatever you think you can pull off. the crowd moves in and shrinks the arena as time goes on. We did 3 - I made final 4 in one of them on my road bike, which I think is pretty good, but Ifny showed her mini skill by winning a a round, and competing in the sudden death final:

Then onto the tallbike jousting. Unfortunately, no pictures of the event survived, as the free beer was flowing pretty heavily at that point. However, Cowboy Tim - in his first ever tallbike joust (first ever tallbike ride? correct me tim) won several matches handily, and Vancouver's own Tall Paul made it right to the final fight against legendary tallbike jouster Dead Baby Ken. Alas, ken took home the trophy. Looks like we'll have to train up. I might be crazy, but its also possible that that was Tall Paul's first joust. If so, watch out Seattle, we're coming for you.

From there we partied late into the night - ending eventually at Denny's at about 4 am where I had an item on the menu called the 'Heartland Scramble' which consisted of a large portion of scrambled eggs (which scrambled into them, had bacon, potatoes, cheese, onions, and green pepers), a side of hashbrowns, two strips of bacon, two sausages, and three pancakes. This was one menu item. I was reminded once again that we were in the USA.

The following day we went out for breakfast at a great little brunch joint called the Globe with some crazy ass and varied menu choices, before being led by Soren on a fun little tour/ freak bike parade (I love traveling with MC3 - their bikes and personalities never fail to attract positive attention from all sides) of Seattle before heading to the park to check in on the Seattle bike polo players, who were in a bit of a throwdown with the Portland kids.

..

Alas, all good things come to an end. Eventually the last of us car folk put our tourers from Montreal and Saskatchwean in touch with the Reverend Phil and some of the other portland kids and packed our weary asses up with much tiredness and a little more regret. Tim, Chris, Sascha and Kati stayed the night and are likely en route back to Vancouver right now.
Another sucessful ambassadorial, and we leave with the ties that bind these three cities a little tighter. Its one culture - if we pedal hard enough, we can make the border dissapear.

Midnight Massive

2006-07-25T12:24:00.000-07:00

North shore loading terminals - photo by Oker

The June 13th mass was, hands down, the largest ride we've had yet - 60 midnight loving bike freaks turned up to roll.
After some initial confusion as to our destination a small but determined 'lets ride to burnaby' faction was outvoted (ahh democracy) and we set out once again for stanley park. The route took us down Adanac to Main, North to the ocean where we looped under Canada place and the cruise ship terminals. We followed the water along coal harbour until posseing up for refreshements and some flat tire fixing at the mouth of the Stanley park seawall. Around the wall (with some of us riding up to prospect point, simply to bomb the dark dark dark road out), and then to Seigel's bagels on Cornwall for delicious bagely goodness. Huge thanks to Oker and Mike Fuller for their fine photographic work. Go check their flickr sites - there's some amazing stuff there.

trying to decide where it is we will roll this week. At this point, the burnabies still have it. This week, come armed with your ideas of where to ride. (photo - Mike Fuller)

Chilling out before hitting the stanley sea wall - anthony and sascha check out Mark's rad fixie (and his radder drink holder). (photo - Mike Fuller)

(photo - Oker)

(photo - Oker)

HOT KIDS EVERYWHERE! (photo - Oker)

(photo - Oker)

(photo - Oker)

Fixin' a flat - it took like 5 people to deal with this bastard of a tire. (photo - Oker)

Obligatory hot scotch shot...(photo - Oker)

and other refreshments... (photo - Oker)

Cruisin' around stanley - check out the tail lights! (photo - Mark Fuller)

Watch for bikes! There were 3 of those crazy kids with ski suits on. Freaking awesome. (photo - Mike Fuller)

(photo - Mike Fuller)

(photo - Mike Fuller)

Finally we cruised on to 24 hour eats - in the form of seigel's bagels.

(photo - Oker)

(photo - Oker)

Mark shows off his moves. (photo - Oker)

And this fellow shows off his new midnight mass button - products of Adam and Chris B's work (they rock guys, thanks!)(photo - Oker)

The Mini Bike Army!

2006-07-22T01:33:00.000-07:00

Midnight Mass loves the bicycle. Midnight Mass also loves the freaky bicycle.

Enter the Mini. Enter the Mini Bike Army.
Mini bike - usually a child's bike, 16/18" wheels or smaller.
The Mini Bike Army - the bunch of fools who ride these miniature machines. Get one! (they're cheap - think Value Village, Salley Anne) Join us!

Hats off to Chris B, the founder of this people's army, for getting this business started. This week the Mini Bike Army has held both its inagural and second rides - the second of which I had the pleasure of attending. Activities included totally confusing most people around us, making strangers smile (or try pretty hard not to - that was yaletown after all), riding through large fountains, bombing several parking garages in some pretty intense racing, and riding the yellow line down robson street. Thrills, Chills - even some pretty rad Spills were all included in the package.

Mini Bike Army summer Skating League:

To all of you in Vancyle who love to ride a little wierd, uncle sam (riding on a mini, top hat and all) wants YOU! For more info, or to enlist check out the website:

Mini Bike Army

Account of last week's ride to come soon - the next Midnight Mass is Thursday July 23rd, prelude to Critical Mass, the following day - 6:00pm on the Georgia street side of the Art Gallery.

I'll close this post with the Biker's Creed - freshly plagiarized & modified from Stanley Kubrik's Full Metal Jacket --

This is my bicycle.
There are many like it, but this one is mine.
My bicycle is my best friend.
It is my life.
I must master it as I must master my life.
My bicycle, without me, is useless.
Without my bicycle, I am useless.
I must ride my bicycle true.
I must ride better than traffic, my enemy,
which is trying to kill me.
I must convert them before they choke me.
I will.

My bicycle and myself know that what counts on the road,
is not the gear we wear,
the style or make of bike,
nor the destination in mind.
We know it is the ride that counts.
We will ride.

My bicycle is human, even as I, because it is my life.
Thus, I will learn it as a brother.
I will learn its weaknesses,
its strengths,
its parts,
its accessories,
its cranks and its wheels.
I will ever guard it against
the ravages of weather and damage.
I will keep my bicycle clean and ready,
even as I am clean and ready.
We will become part of each other.
We will.

Before all bikers I swear this creed.
My bicycle and myself are the defenders of my city.
We are the masters of our enemy.
We are the saviors of my life.
So be it, until there is no traffic,
but Peace on the road.

see you next week.

summer makes an entrance

2006-07-03T00:15:00.000-07:00

This last ride was perhaps the first on which it has really felt like summer. A solid turnout of around 35 riders, many new faces, and cool, clean, summer air.

We had some bad luck right off the bat when Chris B got a flat at the park - chris and some heroic samaritans stuck it out at the park before managing to catch the pack later at the burrard bridge. Damn those kids ride fast.

Bombing the bridges (check out those killer socks):

Using the community garden (5th & Cypress) to - uh, well, build community actually:

This is just rad:

Still chillin by the gardens - fixie fever here:

I think the poor night guy at the Naam hates us by now. Maybe we should call ahead...

Thanks also to Oker who took a truly fantastic photoset of this ride, including some great ones of us at the beach. (I tried to link some of the photos here, but flickr appears to be resisting me!) You can see his photos here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/anavrin/sets/72157594175922287/
Have a look - its worth it!

The Rain in June falls mostly on Vancouver

2006-06-20T15:45:00.000-07:00

This is a wet city. There's no denying it. Even in june the heavens show a remarkable propensity to open up and let fly with that pattented vancouver brand of liquid sunshine (or in our case - moonshine). Did that stop a brave band of hardcore midnight lunatics from hitting the streets? hell no! (though, it did interfere with the taking of many photos - h20 + electronics = bad news). 12 soggy travellers were either crazy or stupid enough to meet up at grandview park, and rowdy enough to ride all the way to jericho beach, before stopping once more at the 'naam for delicious 2 AM eats. This week, I promise it won't rain. You can hold me to it. really. Until then, here are the phew pieces of photographic evidence that yes, we did indeed go swimming last ride.

These two guys rode all the way in from Lougheed in burnaby. They left us at the 'naam at about 2 AM to go ride home. They are crazier than even us.

Ifny showed us up on her mini bike. Rad pants too.

<
HOT. SCOTCH. BREAK.

robot rock

2006-06-06T16:26:00.000-07:00

Fountain City Explorers

2006-06-05T17:25:00.000-07:00

Well, we started off this week's ride with the idea to maybe ride all the bridges in and out of downtown - but in the end we just went exploring. 33 riders this week came out and braved some light rain here and there - meaning that the rides are now averaging at 60+ wheels.
Meeting up:

Fountain near the QE:

Chillin at the 2nd fountain of the night - richards street where it meets yaletown. We got the hairy eyeball from the security guard, but I think he was confused enough by all the bikes to leave us alone..

BIKE FRISBEE!!!

Chillin on Grandville Island:

Then on to kits beach - The watermark restaurant might be an expensive and ugly appropriation of our public beach - but by night we had it to ourselves, and the fountain sure looked purdy. (it also provided handy cover from the rain that started up just about then):

Then, finally, out of the rain and on to the Naam for tasty 24 hour eats (apprarently Benny's bagels is no longer 24 hours? This was an unpleasant discovery)

Join us for a ride this june - it's bike month afterall! Rides this month take place on thursday, june 8th and thursday, june 22nd.
Meet us at Grandview Park (commercial drive at charles st.) at 11:45, ride at midnight!

Stanley Dark

2006-05-23T12:54:00.000-07:00

Once again, we re-set the turnout record this week with 35 riders and 70 wheels. Momentum grows! Thanks to all of you brave cyclesomniacs who have consistently showed up to make this ride so awesome - I hope to see you kids (and kids at heart) out again this thursday may 25th for the next ride!

Last ride took us around crab park and under canada place and the soon-to-be convention centre, around coal harbour (where we thoroughly confused the late-night fancy diners) and around stanley park - finishing with a long bomb in the dark forrest from prospect point. What a rush! We wrapped things up at Seigels 24 hour bagelry, where we likely blew the counter guy's mind comming in en mass like that at 3 am. radness.

Here's what we managed to capture from the ride-

Massive Mass

2006-05-09T15:01:00.000-07:00

Well, last week we had our largest midnight ride yet - upwards of thirty people (60 wheels!) turned up for april 27th's massive mass.

Since pictures speak louder than words, I'll let the photos do the talking this week. Massive thanks to Andy Hudson for his photo contributions. Anyone else with a favorite picture or two, feel free to hit me up with them and I'll try and get them posted - midnightsimon(at)gmail.com
Meeting up:

China Creek Skate Park:

Off to Queen E:

To the Blodel Conservatory...

Then back to the old favorite for twenty-pho hour:

So that's last week kids - the biggest yet. But the weather is fine, the night air crisp, and the riding sweet. So get your ass out to this week's midnight mass - thursday, may 11. As always, bring your friends, your lights, and your secret knowledge of this fine city. Lets build some momentum and spread the word!

Jericho, lo los, and Tallbikes

2006-04-22T14:09:00.000-07:00

Despite a rather soggy showing by the weather (aaaah, vancouver), an impressive 16 riders showed up to mash pedals in the darkness this week.

Included in this crop of fearless and weatherproof adventurers, two new cycle varieties! Now, in addition to mountain bikes, 10(&+) speed road bikes, fixies, cruisers, BMXs, and Tandem bikes, we proudly add: Low Riders and Tall bikes!

Our ride took us Westward, where we sheltered under the old Expo Gazebo next to Science World.

From here we rallied and faced the elements again, pushing westward, westward, westward to Jericho beach (alas, my camera acting up again, refused to cooperate for this leg of the journy). Impressively, both Tall bike and Low Rider kept pace with everyone else to make it to the Jericho concession stand, where refreshements were consumed.

The next, and final destination was the 24 hour west side vegetarian institution, The Naam, where we finished for burgers, chilli, nachos, dryness, and good company-

Hit us up next time, Thursday, April 27 - We meet at Grandview Park (Commercial Drive @ Charles St. - accross from the Havana and Turks) at 11:45, roll at midnight.

Tour de East Van

2006-03-30T20:34:00.000-08:00

Actually, this week was more like the tour de le lower east side... There's lots of east van yet to explore. The weather held (despite a very light sprinkling of rain, it was rediculously warm) and there were lots of new faces out this week. Hope to see some more of you kids next time!

Here we have the kids posseing up at Grandview park (meet at 11:45, rollin' at midnight). This week's turnout was about 15 cyclesomniacs.

Emiliano scopes out Katie's sweet cushy seat cover.

We rode north and east towards New Brighton park, and then took to the trees...

The exact location of this oh so sweet tree fort remains secret, and ascention is not for the faint of heart..

But for the crazy kids who came out this week, it was more than worth it:

Upon leaving the treefort, we realized we'd picked up some new riders:

First ever tandem at a midnight ride! We've still never had a chopper or tallbike yet.

Of course, we stopped for delicious and revitalizing hot scotch...

Back on the mean streets, we made our way SouthWest.

Past the PNE

To this week's 24 hour final destination, Pizza Garden (curse you, uncle fatty- curse you for not being open at 2 am!! WHAT IS THIS CITY COMMING TO?!)

The next ride is Thursday April 13th, so book some time off work, tune up your wheels, and tell your friends; then get your ass to the midnight mass! Meet us at Grandview Park at 11:45, roll with us at midnight!

Midnight Mass Video

2006-03-28T16:52:00.000-08:00

I cooked this up from various bits of footage I shot on my camera during rides - pass it on to anyone who has been humming and hawing about comming out, and show them what they're missing..

to view the video larger, or to obtain a permanent link to it, cut and paste this link into your browser: http://youtube.com/watch?v=aGoFAfFi75c

Remember, next ride is Thursday April 13th

Forget the sleds, we brought bikes!

2006-03-17T13:22:00.000-08:00

Well, I dont think anyone expected a blizard in March. But thats what we got. On what happened to be, coincidentally, the second thursday of the month. So, that cold thursday a brave eight souls gathered at Grandview park and (slowly) set out into the driving storm. It was slippery, it was wet ... and damn was it ever fun. Snowflakes, at one point, the size of your palm. And I thought just because I didn't go snowboarding this year I wasn't going to get to make fresh tracks!

A couple of spills (though nothing major), a number of chills (well - nobody was expecting freak weather like THAT!) Temperatures in the teens in december, freak snowstorms in march... Can you think of a better reason to ride a bike? Oh yeah, because its fun. Well then, there's two good reasons. This week we rode west on the off-broadway route, before crossing to false creek and then over the burrard bridge to downtown. We made a couple of detours for extra gloves, and a few stops to warm up with the medicinal power of hot scotch and hot chocolate, before finishing our ride at Hamburger Mary's for... bacon cheeseburgers. Hey, its 2 am, we'll take what we can get.

Join us next time - Thursday March 23rd - meet at grandview park (commercial drive @ charles st. - across from the Havana and Turks) at 11:45, ride at midnight!

Midnight Mass details move to Blogger

2006-03-10T14:17:00.000-08:00

Hey kids,

I've decided to start using blogger as a central website to spread info about the midnight rides, host photos, and allow comments and contact. Flickr is a pretty good site, and I'll keep the older photos there, but it was somewhat limited in what it allowed me (and you) to do. I'm hoping the more interactive and textual aspects of Blogger will help the rides grow. Anyhow, photos from previous rides remain up at Flickr

Hopefully, I'll be able to get some pictures up here from last nights crazy (snowy!) ride soon (I hate having to borrow cameras!)