July 2007 ride to Berwyn

July's ride was very memorable-- just when it seemed like we were in a serious rut we did something completely unprecedented.
Steven Lane did publicity, and coordinated with the Save the Spindle folks in Berwyn, while TC and Garth worked on the route.
I reposted John G's cafe route to the website, on the principal that having only one route is a step backwards, but no-one printed it and no-one else brought a route to propose.
I had a string of technical mishaps trying to get some sort of a working sound system out the door, and ended up arriving very late. I managed to meet up with Javier along the way, even though he'd been expecting me close to an hour earlier. He had a string of technical mishaps getting his kids out the door (we both ended up leaving substantial weight behind . . .).
When we got to the plaza, it was packed densely at the outer edges, and oddly un-dense towards the middle. Not sure what that was about. There were police giving tickets for open aclohol on the plaza, so that may have forced people to "hide" at the outer edges, dunno. I was expecting to see the plaza more full than ever before, considering recent growth trends and July always seeing the largest turnout of the year, but didn't really have that "new record" feeling. I wonder if the pre-publicity about riding to Berwyn kept some people away. Not the usual dream destination you hear come up in cycling conversations . . .
So, the mass started to circle on the outer streets, and it was as easy as usual to get a group to break off and "front" the ride southbound. A couple of diversions due to street closures went smoothly. The front of the ride kept a good pace and there weren't a whole lot of massup opportunities. My iPod kept dislodging from its cord and there were very few opportunities to stop and reconnect, which was just as well because my smaller batteries all seem to be sick at the moment and it stretched the juice out a bit more . . . There were very few other sound systems on this ride. Andrew from Austria was in town and was asking what happened to the sound-- he didn't see any except mine. Some may remember Andrew as the guy with the huge PA on a plywood trailer in mid-2005-- the hyde park ride with the great pictures of people splashing through an open hydrant has a few shots of him (see Don Sorsa's great collection at http://donsorsa.smugmug.com/ under "events".)
Andrew's gotten involved in growing Critical Mass in his native Austria since leaving Chicago-- see http://www.criticalmass.at for the CCM Vienna page, which declares, "Autos machen Lärm, wir machen Musik!" (cars make noise, we make music). Noteworthy is that the ride is on the 3rd Friday-- surely so that Andrew can fly to Chicago to catch our mass when he wants to!
Back to the ride-- for me, it seemed to flow very smoothly up and through Little Village; I found out later there had been a serious mishap involving an insane driver on 18th near Blue Island, so far no reports of anyone seriously hurt-- of those that were close to this incident it seems very few continued on past it. Almost noone at the Spindle was aware of it. In little Village we diverted rather quickly to 25th, leaving an open expanse of 26th street ahead of us. I'd have preferred to stay on 26th-- we become a "Little Village Bike Parade" every time we come down 26th, wheras we just cripple a residential street by taking 25th.
I ended up heading back on 25th later, and it was clear we'd got the neighborhood riled up-- lots of kids out on bikes; one kid, maybe 9 or 10 years old, came riding at me yelling "whazzup, nigga, kings! kings! somewhere east of Central Park (the border between the LK to the east and the 26 to the west) A phase, I hope . . .
I considered telling him I live "o'er by da D'sss" to see what he'd do but decided to say nothing . . .
I can't remember where, but somewhere towards Kostner we diverted back to 26th.
When we got close to the obscene clover leaf at 26th and Cicero, there was a good opportunity to see most of the ride, and I was surprised to see I was close to the back, when I knew I wasn't that far from the front. From what I put together there were more groups behind us; I'd say the front group was about 3 blocks long, maybe 4-600, and we definitely had more than that at the Spindle.
It seemed like a lot of riders knew the turf when we got to Cicero as they knew how to get up onto the overpass to take pics and vide of the mass. I've never seen so much camera action during a ride, so I expect to see some good footage somewhere along the way.
The ride started to seem long just afterwards- I recall a rider telling another that our destination was 7600 W and we were only 5000 . . . but the next stretch went by quickly thanks to good route choices. We had a much easier time on the last stretch of Cermak than I would have expected. When we arrived at the Spindle the riders immediately surrounded it, with a group circling in the middle. We hung out in the lot for over an hour, and the scene was very social-- moreso that when we end at the lake or some other city event. Back home afterwards I ended up at John Stoner's birthday dinner at Cocula's on California and Cermak, and it was trip to see groups of cyclists riding by for hours . . . although I cringe at the thought of small groups of riders on the highway-like stretches of Cermak just east of Cicero. My group ended up on 23rd for most of the way back to Little Village and it was very quiet.
Hopefully more ride reports to follow, and fill in the blanks.