Moonlight Madness Ride: July 30th.

You gotta get to this ride. No excuses.

THE MOONLIGHT MADNESS RIDE

Take a night-time bike tour of Baltimore City on a safe, well lit, mostly flat route of about 20 miles. Get an intimate view of the city after dark. Skyline, neighborhoods and waterfront as well as sights ranging from illuminated classical buildings and monuments to the neon of “The Block”, from churches, museums, and City Hall to the enormous “Wizard of Boh”.

Ride Start: in front of the Youth Hostel at the corner of Mulberry and Cathedral. Thursday, July 30th. 8:00pm with an 8:30 push-off.

(catty-corner from the main branch of the Pratt Library)

Ride is casual speed: 10-12mph. length: 20miles. You should have a properly functioning bike, be wearing a helmet, and have safety lights on front and back.

Click HERE for the route!

MDOT’s new Bike PSA.

In spite of this scary screen shot I took of her, Sheila is doing a fine job supporting bike transportation.

Full vid here: YouTube – Baltimore Bikes.

Cultural Exchange.

A few weeks ago I rode with a friend/co-worker from our work place to his house along his usual commute route. He led the way. We rode along crosswalks (I hate that), we traveled on curbs (I hate that too), we cut through glass strewn alleys (yuck) and over gravelly cut-throughs (whoa). As he rode ahead of me he would announce what was coming up and why we were going that way. “I stop here and go up over the curb and then down that grassy trail- that way we don’t have to stop at the traffic light.” Personally, I always ride on the road with cars so this was annoying.

But our ride was also peppered with stuff like: “See where that pizza place is? That used to be a field with a cool barn in it”, or “right there last week I saw a ground hog with its head in a Burger King bag” and helpful safety advice like “Careful of that manhole cover. It’s got some kind of goo on it that I slipped on a while back.”

After we parted and shouted goodbyes and I got onto the smoother pavement with the cars and the traffic lights and gained some speed, I realized that I had just had a wonderful experience. I certainly didn’t recognize it at the time. My friend had ridden this route day after day, slowly shaping it to his liking, making decisions based on the terrain and colored by his personality. During the ride, I didn’t get any of this.

That little ride meant a lot to me, although I’d probably never ride it again. Ever been on someone else’s route?

Moonlight cruise.

(hey check it out- i’ve been deputized into the brigade)

The Moonlight Madness ride has been happening for several years, but I never had ridden it. The organizer, Bob Moore, died earlier this year and I felt that the ride needed to continue at least as a memorial for him. I somewhat reluctantly decided to organize the ride. I threw around some emails, talked it up here and there and printed cues for the ride, but I really had no idea what to expect for a turnout. Yikes! 60+ riders, smiling and eager for a beautiful cruise through charm city.

At 8:30 the riders snaked through Charles st. traffic peacefully. We got a round of cheers as we rolled past the Art Scape booths north of Penn Station. North towards Loyola and Notre Dame, the group broke up into several smaller clusters- everyone chatty, discussing their own personal biking worlds. At the start, I was hectically darting from the front of the group to the back, trying to check on everyone, but eventually settled down and quit worrying about the safety of all these good people. I reminded myself that, like me, all these riders have experienced and come to terms with the difficulties of biking in B’more. They knew what they were doing. Just settle down and enjoy the ride.

Some moments of getting lost south of Bolton hill, re-grouping near Lafayette square, comical moments along “the Block” and down to Fells pt. for a lemonade break. Then to the all-knowing glow of Mr. Bo, Patterson park, back across town to Pratt and the Inner Harbor, and up Federal Hill. Finally, an easy cruise back up Charles st. to the Baltimore Hostel again. It was 11:30pm.

I made an attempt to convince the NBBB members to be irresponsible and get a beer (or two) with me at Mick O’Shea’s, but they’d have nothing of it. Best for me too I guess. There was a friendly and sizable crew for the ride back to Hampden- the full moon partly lighting up the potholes and broken glass.