January’s ride was joined by some families carrying Palestine flags, and the kids were really happy to see both a penny farthing and a tall bike riding alongside them. There was a good turnout on a cold but dry night.

The ride went across Waterloo Bridge first, and was being guided by some activists from Australia, who wanted to stop outside the Australian embassy near Somerset House on the northern side of the bridge. The ride happened to coincide with the date of Australia Day. The road in front of the embassy was peacefully occupied for a while, as banners were unfurled in front of the main embassy door saying “no pride in genocide” and “treaty now”. Several cyclists carried the Aboriginal flag on their bikes.

The ride then went east towards the City, looped around a bit, and then crossed back south over London bridge, turning left onto Tooley Street towards Tower Bridge.

At this point the ride stopped for quite a while, and a fair proportion of the riders branched off home, or went to Potters Fields on the river, or went to Hop Kingdom to get a beer.

For the last 3 or more years, small groups of phone thieves wearing full face masks have used Critical Mass as cover, to steal phones from pedestrians as the ride passes by them. Different approaches and attempts have been made to address this problem (see the attached leaflet). Earlier on the ride, this same group had been pointing at pedestrians with phones and it appeared they were looking for opportunities to do a snatch.

At Tower Bridge, some riders in full face masks were trying to get into the small Sainburys and were causing trouble at the door. They were approached by some regular CM riders and asked to leave the ride if they were just here to steal phones. A heated discussion with two individuals in facemasks continued for about ten minutes, but everyone stayed reasonably calm, without wanting to escalate. The reduced ride restarted then and headed south, and the small group in facemasks then left at Elephant and Castle.

The ride then looped back to the Southbank where it dispersed. This group of phone thieves did not reappear on the February ride.

Critical Mass has no leaders and no one is entitled to make any announcement on its behalf. If there ever is any, the correct response to such an announcement would be for people to ignore it and make up their own minds.

We loved the London Critical Mass ride. It’s definitely one for every cyclists calendar!

We left from Waterloo and went around the city. It was great!

If you want a better report, posts yours to londoncriticalmass@riseup.net or to the list http://lists.riseup.net/www/info/cm-london otherwise every one will be turning to reports or comments from face book to keep informed!

This was a difficult Mass. After visiting locations where riders had been killed, on the reasonably successful September and October rides, this ride was led out by fast moving riders, who set the pace without waiting for others behind, and the rest behind struggled to keep up. There were a larger number than usual of Palestinian flags being carried by riders but they dropped out of the ride early on.

The ride splintered early on, roaming in between traffic (“filtering”), causing cars and other vehicles to end up between groups of riders, putting cyclists at higher risk of an accident. Mixed in amongst these riders were a group of approximately ten teenagers, dressed in black facemasks, some riding high powered ebikes.

The ride went east and then north into the city, running into roadworks and a road closure, which caused a fair degree of confusion over what to do next. The ride eventually came back together somewhat, and headed north along the eastern side of Regents Park, after again filtering through traffic around a huge traffic jam around Kings Cross St Pancras.

Around Kentish Town, a middle aged woman temporarily visting family in London had her phone stolen by the teenagers. They were chased down by Mass riders but ultimately managed to get away. Some CM riders remained with the woman and helped her to report what had happened to her. Others went on.

The ride splintered further as some went north to visit a squat; while the majority of the ride ended up back at Granary Square, where it dispersed.

The reappearance of the phone thieves acted as a catalyst for more discussion about how to approach the problem, and producing of leaflets for the new year rides to hand out to participants, advising them that the fast pace of the ride in the darkness was enabling the gangs of thieves to do snatches – the most important thing is to slow down and communicate with each other on the ride.

This was Haloween Mass so some riders were dressed in costumes. The mass headed east on the south side of the river, and crossed over Tower Bridge. A much faster moving group led by a “Riddler” rider, who was on an electic unicycle with others, and was lighting green smoke canisters, turned left after the Tower of London junction, bringing riders back towards the west end. About half to 60% of the Mass stayed together, waited for each other, and headed north to Homerton. The “Riddler” group reportedy later turned around and tried to join back up with the Mass, but were unsuccessful and this group dissipated in Whitechapel.

(this following account is taken from a social media report:)

“My account is this: It all started after we stopped at a location in Homerton where a cyclist had recently been killed by a motorist. We blocked traffic and had a little protest, lighting smoke bombs and distress flares. [Unfortunately some local kids put a firework on top of a bus shelter while Mass was stopped, and these fell over, hitting a house, which probably caused the residents to call the police]. About 15 minutes after we arrived, a police van turned up and moved us on, following behind us. Some minutes later, they pulled up alongside one of our speaker guys and jumped out and grabbed him. He was in a Halloween costume, and his fake plastic machete looked a bit too real, I guess, because they thought it was. While they were talking with him, other police officers tried to usher the rest of the Mass away and move us on, but we refused to leave until they released our speaker guy. During this time, 3 or 4 more police vans had turned up. After about 5 or 10 minutes, they knew they couldn’t do anything, so they released him, and we started moving off again.

I don’t think they liked the fact that it looked like we were heading towards the city center, so they began their campaign of harassment, with sirens blaring, horns honking, driving dangerously close to us, and forcing us to the left. At first, I thought they were just trying to get past to head to an emergency, which others probably thought too because we all moved over and let them pass. But after it got ahead, it would stop, maybe blocking a junction it didn’t want us going down. We would pass, and they would do it again and again and again.

After doing that a couple of times, we stopped getting out of their way and blocked them from passing the Mass. They still tried, sirens blaring, horns honking, edging closer and closer, nearly knocking people over. Up ahead, a van had managed to get ahead and blocked off the end of the road we were traveling on, with a dozen police on foot walking towards us in formation. They were trying to kettle us. Mass had spread out quite thin and long though, so there were side roads still open to us. The front of the Mass managed to double back, warn the others behind, and we all headed down a side road with smaller streets. We either lost the police here, or they gave up and went home, and we headed back towards Waterloo Bridge. This is how it looked to me. Others might have a different perspective.”

Critical Mass has no leaders and no one is entitled to make any announcement on its behalf. If there ever is any, the correct response to such an announcement would be for people to ignore it and make up their own minds.

We loved the London Critical Mass ride. It’s definitely one for every cyclists calendar!

We left from Waterloo and went around the city. It was great!

Critical Mass has no leaders and no one is entitled to make any announcement on its behalf. If there ever is any, the correct response to such an announcement would be for people to ignore it and make up their own minds.

We loved the London Critical Mass ride. It’s definitely one for every cyclists calendar!

We left from Waterloo and went around the city. It was great!

If you want a better report, posts yours to londoncriticalmass@riseup.net or to the list http://lists.riseup.net/www/info/cm-london otherwise every one will be turning to reports or comments from face book to keep informed!

Critical Mass has no leaders and no one is entitled to make any announcement on its behalf. If there ever is any, the correct response to such an announcement would be for people to ignore it and make up their own minds.

We loved the London Critical Mass ride. It’s definitely one for every cyclists calendar!

We left from Waterloo and went around the city. It was great!

If you want a better report, posts yours to londoncriticalmass@riseup.net or to the list http://lists.riseup.net/www/info/cm-london otherwise every one will be turning to reports or comments from face book to keep informed!

Critical Mass has no leaders and no one is entitled to make any announcement on its behalf. If there ever is any, the correct response to such an announcement would be for people to ignore it and make up their own minds.

We loved the London Critical Mass ride. It’s definitely one for every cyclists calendar!

We left from Waterloo and went around the city. It was great!

If you want a better report, posts yours to londoncriticalmass@riseup.net or to the list http://lists.riseup.net/www/info/cm-london otherwise every one will be turning to reports or comments from face book to keep informed!

Critical Mass has no leaders and no one is entitled to make any announcement on its behalf. If there ever is any, the correct response to such an announcement would be for people to ignore it and make up their own minds.

We loved the London Critical Mass ride. It’s definitely one for every cyclists calendar!

We left from Waterloo and went around the city. It was great!

If you want a better report, posts yours to londoncriticalmass@riseup.net or to the list http://lists.riseup.net/www/info/cm-london otherwise every one will be turning to reports or comments from face book to keep informed!

Critical Mass has no leaders and no one is entitled to make any announcement on its behalf. If there ever is any, the correct response to such an announcement would be for people to ignore it and make up their own minds.

We loved the London Critical Mass ride. It’s definitely one for every cyclists calendar!

We left from Waterloo and went around the city. It was great!

If you want a better report, posts yours to londoncriticalmass@riseup.net or to the list http://lists.riseup.net/www/info/cm-london otherwise every one will be turning to reports or comments from face book to keep informed!

29th Anniversary

Mass set off at 19:30 as per the current norm, soon after the curtain bell in the National Theatre. The second mass of the year to start in daylight, this felt like the first sunny mass – but not yet swelled by the TimeOut referred summer tourists. Didn’t recognise a soul, but a lot of these groups know each other – they seem directed by the eponymous telegram channel. FB is nearly as quiet with active users as this list. This April they wanted to go to Emmanuel Road, on the north side of Tooting Bec Common to support Lambeth Council in putting in a pedestrian crossing near Telferscot Primary School.

It seems that the blob of the mass follows the sound systems and as they set off at speed due south down Waterloo Road to hit into Elephant & Castle. Chaotic. Electrified mopeds with earsplitting sound system playing AI created house surrounded by a phalanx of teenage racers. No corking. Shedding the bulk of the mass as it pushed around onto the A3 passed Kennington to turn outside Stockwell Tube onto Stockwell Road, to Brixton, down straight through up the hill, take the side to New Park and down to the north side of the common. The instagram channel @critical_mass_london has the map and pictures.

It’s about 30 mins on the SatNav and it took about 40. Occasional people would cycle from the back and implore the kids to stop, but the volume of the Blasters is ear bleed, so there wasn’t much convo. Just cool Ninjas on the worlds biggest scooters nodding their heads. Little disruption to the traffic, accustomed as it is to 5mph driving, joining the mass at 15mph seemed acceptable to them. I was kind of impressed at the tolerant attitude (though it was insouciant) and the tension is normally felt at the back.

By 20:10, we’re at Tooting Common, skip passed the site and block the road by the corner shop. There had been a little pause at the top of the hill by one corner shop and here we were over 20 minutes. No annoucnement. People couldn’t get passed the systems and the gopeds parked in a circle. Vehicles just made to wait.

The sheer volume of the systems booming out crud to 500m2 puts the blob into glassy eyed acquiescence and even vehicles. What to do, what to do? The much reduced mass heads off by 20:35 and continues to the end of the road before turning back east on the hill to Clapham South Tube station, along the south of the common to turn up to hit Queenstown Road to come back into Battersea. I think people follow the mass of glympse and telegram because it reconstitutes itself before getting to Battersea park just before 9 to stay for 20-25 minutes.

It’s a more traditional stop, but I don’t think the cool electric warriors swanning about really understand about corking, hills, effort or why not to stop for 40minutes in the first hour and a half. It was too boring so I did some laps of the park before not joining in for the end of the loop – which we can follow online as going over Chelsea Bridge, east to Pimlico and up Vauxhall Bridge Road, to Victoria, up to Hyde Park corner, Marble Arch, down Oxford street and back to the South Bank where vans wait for the sound systems to go home.

As by the photos online, there were still at least 30-50 people to do a bike raise at Oxford Circus. 

All the chatter on their channel is that they want to do suplementary masses on other nights of the month and hopefully a lot of these people will drain out into that and lose interest. There were some real low points – from the kids scrambling all over the Buddha idols, to the lack of conversation possible, lack of coherence. But hey. The vibe always changes. A few years ago everyone would have been in costume for the coronation, a few years before there would be protests against it. Mini bikes, long boards, micro skateboards, it all comes and goes. It’s quite calm. Loads of weed smoking. Just loads. Dominant. But it’s dull. If there is a stop, then the men could at least think about making it near public toilets on the 2nd. But hey. Bike acrobats are making a bit of a comeback along with the oh so enjoyable wheelie acrobats running into people, there’s also on bike stuff, like planks. Which is nice.

If you go to mass these days, follow the telegram channel, then you can just dip into it when convenient. Bring ear plugs. Write your moped. Live tweet while moving to your friends.