The Thursday Night Ride has been going through a bit of strife lately. It seems that some guy has been too pushy with some of the ladies present. In exasperation, (and perhaps a bit of burn out) the ride leader cancelled the event late in the day. Still, 100 of us showed up, just to ride our bikes. Co-founder of the TNR, Marianna, took over leadership. The phrase "I just want to ride my bike" was heard often among those present.
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| I posted this to the group's FB page with "I'm just here so I don't get fined" |
After the long days of summer the Thursday Night Ride rode mostly during daylight. With daylight now taking up less than 12 hours of the 24, we are back to a more appropriate setting.
Marianna skillfully led our group around town. She and Nathan both have this down to an art, managing the large unmanageable group, and the traffic signals with ease.
Our midway break was at a donut shop on Alberta Street in N Portland.
Following the break, we were proceeding back to the Willamette River, rolling down Sandy Blvd, when I heard from behind me the sound of crashing bikes. It sounded like one of those crashes in the pro pelotons. I shouted out to the leaders that we had a problem and looped around back to the cause of the sounds. I could see a pile up of bikes and people. As they picked themselves up it became obvious that two folks had tangled up and gone down, the rest had run into them. Most got up, brushed themselves off, and cleared the street. Before long most proceeded down Sandy. The leaders shouted out their destination and said to meet them there. 5 of us stayed back to determine the best plan. The two who collided were a bit scraped up. They were in good spirits, claiming mutual responsibility. It seems that they were visiting while riding closely together, each look to the opposite side, then back to each other, bike and unicycle following the lead of the eyes. The unicycle's pedal caught the front spokes of the bike, they both went down like rocks.
After 10 minutes of assessing damages, we rode carefully along. The two involved in the crash turned off after 3/4 of a mile or so, heading toward home. The rest of us employed safety in numbers and continued down Sandy Blvd. As we neared the Willamette River, one of the gals riding with us peeled off to the left, deciding to call it an evening. Ray and I continued over the Burnside Bridge and pedaled back to Salmon Street Springs, where the remaining participants were milling around a bit and visiting. No campfire tonight, no "picnic". I visited with Marianna and updated the information on tonight's crash.
I had parked once again near Sellwood Riverside Park, so I made my way back there.
Fall is in the air, and there was a definite chill as well. By morning it would be 39 degrees. I was glad I had long pants on and a wind breaker. It was a beautiful night for ride though.
.........Road Bike.....Rollers.............MTB..........Lifecycle......Total
Today ..........0................0.................65.......................0............65
Jan...............0................0...................0.......................0............0
Feb..........124...............0...................0.......................0...........124
March......277................0..................0........................0..........277
April......559................0..................0........................0..........559
May.........414...............0..................0.......................0...........414
June........337...............0..................0.......................0...........337
July........310...............0..................0.......................0...........310
August.......40.............0....................0......................0............40
Sept...........4..............0...................83......................0............87
YTD...... 2088.............0..................83.......................0..........2171
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