A new career for me?

[aderechelsea]

hello fellow-forumers.

it is my birthday today but i did all the celebrating yesterday, so i'll do some posting today.

After the breathtaking (or not?) kettei-sen yesterday i left home with a big grin of pleasure on my face. It was like i had sex for the first time but it only lasted 2 minutes ... (Sign of approval...)

anyway, the reason i left in a hurry and did not participate in the neverending debate on henkas was that i was to participate for the first time in my life in a cycling race. The event was an "Alleycat Race" and it was organised by a bunch of guys who use the bike as their primer means of transportation around Athens (like myself). If you have no idea what an Alleycat Race is, do some googling and you'll find some nice videos and sites.

in general it a race without a predescribed route but only includes various checkpoints that you have to go through in a particular order. No open roads for the participants and lots of cunningness involved.

The result of the race was really good for me because:

- i didn't get myself killed

- i finished 11th among 57 participants.

- i finished 2nd among the non-athletes.

- i had much fun

- i didn't get myself killed

- i didn't get myself killed

- i didn't get myself killed

- i came very close to a pulmonary emboly but managed NOT to die :-P

here are some pics at the finish. Teh guy in the yellow jersey was the winner (he had a bit of an accident in the process that included tram tracks)

this is their website/blog

thanks for your interest in this topic and i encourage you to take part in the next Alleycat Race in your city/town. If there is not one ... try organising it. It only takes a few flyers distributed to cyclists and no fear of the police .... :-P

Edited March 26, 2007 by aderechelsea

[aderechelsea]

a pic i found in a local cycling site with myself half-naked after the race .... (Sign of approval...)

[sekihiryu]

.... and lots of cunningness involved.

I had to read that line twice... (Sign of approval...)

[Petr]

This is what I do every day, hehe. Happy birthday! Looking forward the the visit even more now.

[kaiguma]

Very cool! IN the U.S. or at least NYC we do not do so many Alleycats, but straight-up Messenger Races and Drag Races. Sometimes no checkpoints, sometimes only 1 or 2. I think it's partly because we don't have that many twisty-maze tangled alleys. In fact, it's practically impossible to get from point A to point B in Manhattan without using open roads! There is an annual Alleycat in NYC but I have never tried it. Here is a link to a guy who helmet-cams many of the races. Try the fourth video, Rumble Through the Bronx. While I'm sure Boston is better for Alleycats, NYC is a mecca for Messenger races on the East Coast, nothing like it! And the Bronx is the roughest Critical Mass I've ever been on. One dude went to pull a gun out his trunk while I was corking, thought I might die that time, but corking is a duty (Laughing...) No fear of cops is important, as you mentioned, but here what you really have to worry about is cabbies! When you start passing cabbies at high speed they sometimes get very angry and aggressive, which in tight spaces can be dangerous . . . and fun too. When I really want to up the ante, I flip their mirrors out, but usually only when they started it and I know I can go faster to get out of dodge.

Adere-chelsea, if you ever want to come for a race in New York, you can crash at my place and have a guide for the race as well!

[Doitsuyama]

Care to enlighten me what "corking" is? I looked in the Urban dictionary, and I just hope it isn't that.

[Fay]

Care to enlighten me what "corking" is? I looked in the Urban dictionary, and I just hope it isn't that.

In the public??????? No wonder this Bronx guy pulled his gun out (Laughing...)

[aderechelsea]

Very cool! IN the U.S. or at least NYC we do not do so many Alleycats, but straight-up Messenger Races and Drag Races. Sometimes no checkpoints, sometimes only 1 or 2. I think it's partly because we don't have that many twisty-maze tangled alleys. In fact, it's practically impossible to get from point A to point B in Manhattan without using open roads! There is an annual Alleycat in NYC but I have never tried it. Here is a link to a guy who helmet-cams many of the races. Try the fourth video, Rumble Through the Bronx. While I'm sure Boston is better for Alleycats, NYC is a mecca for Messenger races on the East Coast, nothing like it! And the Bronx is the roughest Critical Mass I've ever been on. One dude went to pull a gun out his trunk while I was corking, thought I might die that time, but corking is a duty :-O No fear of cops is important, as you mentioned, but here what you really have to worry about is cabbies! When you start passing cabbies at high speed they sometimes get very angry and aggressive, which in tight spaces can be dangerous . . . and fun too. When I really want to up the ante, I flip their mirrors out, but usually only when they started it and I know I can go faster to get out of dodge.

Adere-chelsea, if you ever want to come for a race in New York, you can crash at my place and have a guide for the race as well!

interesting stuff .... i am happy i am not all alone here (Laughing...)

i've seen the vids on that site in the past. Impressive stuff and way ahead of the things we saw here. In Athens the "alleycat" part of the race is very important. There are lots of way to go from A to B that can include even climbing stairs. In the mentioned race we had to climb Acropole as our first checkpoint and some guys used the ~100 stairs that can lead you there from a nice spot saving a few Km on the bike.

Personally i lost about 2 places in the final results due to wrong route strategy. Next time i'll think better and pedal harder ....

and thanks for the invite but NY is not in my immediate traveling targets right now. Going off-topic a bit, USA looks like a nice place to visit but i really have no intention of getting all the trouble to get a visa. To get a visa from Greece is almost the same as getting a visa from norht Korea. You have to give one test, and 1 interview and pay too much money. I don't think it worths it. Too many places to go anywhere in the world and no fuss whatsoever ...

[aderechelsea]

Care to enlighten me what "corking" is?

corking is when a person will stand in front of stopped cars to let them know that there are bikes coming through.

[Hidariashiyama]

I have officially learned something new about something that I didn't even know existed. Since you guys are technically "messengers", do you race with a bag slung around your neck?

Congrats on the race.

[aderechelsea]

in the race here in Athens we cannot be messengers ...... because there are no bike messengers at all in this city.

despite the fact that i am not a messenger (although it would be a job i would love to do) i raced with a bag on my back because i had to go someplace after the race and i had to carry a towel, some deodorant and a clean t-shirt. (Neener, neener...)

[kaiguma]

Care to enlighten me what "corking" is?

corking is when a person will stand in front of stopped cars to let them know that there are bikes coming through.

Wow, thanks for covering for me there! It takes a lot to get Doitsuyama to talk dirty (so I hear) so he must have been very curious (In jonokuchi...)

Just to clarify, you don't cork for races, only for Critical Mass, where we have had literally thousands of bikes en masse in the streets, taking over all flow of the traffic for many city blocks. Once the Mass has gone into an intersection we don't stop for the red lights anymore, so a few brave souls have to park in front of aggressive drivers to make sure they don't try to zoom through the crowd when a small gap appears. This can be very dangerous, as in deadly, but I have seen some wackos try anyway. Corking can get pretty ugly, as we are dealing with impatient New Yorkers who will often get out of the car and plead/argue/threaten you to let them through. To which you can just point at all of the bikes and say, "Are you crazy?" I've actually had interesting philosophical and political discussions in thes moments, as the ride is fundamentally a protest of the car culture. If someone doesn't relieve you you often get to wait and watch the entire procession go by, and for me it's pretty easy to zoom back to the front and do it all over again. Good times.

Next Critical Mass in NYC will be the last Friday of every month, from Union Square at 7pm. The 27th will be the first of the year with any good numbers since winter is still winding down as I speak. Come one, come all, but June/July/August are usually the best, and also October when it happens to fall on Halloween.

[aderechelsea]

Critical Masses in Athens are every first Saturday of the month from Sintagma Square at 18:00 ....

(like anyone else than me will see this and come (In a state of confusion...) )

[Gusoyama]

I can't imagine the carnage one of these races would generate in Boston. Its the least pedestrian-friendly city I've ever been to.

[aderechelsea]

I can't imagine the carnage one of these races would generate in Boston.

then check out this video

http://www.digave.com/videos/rally-kev.mpg

it's not exactly a race though ....

Edited April 17, 2007 by aderechelsea

[Doyobi]

Care to enlighten me what "corking" is?

corking is when a person will stand in front of stopped cars to let them know that there are bikes coming through.

Wow, thanks for covering for me there! It takes a lot to get Doitsuyama to talk dirty (so I hear) so he must have been very curious (In a state of confusion...)

Just to clarify, you don't cork for races, only for Critical Mass, where we have had literally thousands of bikes en masse in the streets, taking over all flow of the traffic for many city blocks. Once the Mass has gone into an intersection we don't stop for the red lights anymore, so a few brave souls have to park in front of aggressive drivers to make sure they don't try to zoom through the crowd when a small gap appears. This can be very dangerous, as in deadly, but I have seen some wackos try anyway. Corking can get pretty ugly, as we are dealing with impatient New Yorkers who will often get out of the car and plead/argue/threaten you to let them through. To which you can just point at all of the bikes and say, "Are you crazy?" I've actually had interesting philosophical and political discussions in thes moments, as the ride is fundamentally a protest of the car culture. If someone doesn't relieve you you often get to wait and watch the entire procession go by, and for me it's pretty easy to zoom back to the front and do it all over again. Good times.

Next Critical Mass in NYC will be the last Friday of every month, from Union Square at 7pm. The 27th will be the first of the year with any good numbers since winter is still winding down as I speak. Come one, come all, but June/July/August are usually the best, and also October when it happens to fall on Halloween.

Do I get it right then, you guys do this on your own? I do the same every monday night during the summer, on the Munich Blade Night (English site), but it's an organized event, with the support of the police. So basically if a car driver is making trouble we can (and we should) call the cops.

A police car always go first, and after that we helpers close the side streets until after all the skaters got through, which can sometimes take up to 50 minutes. Traffic lights are canceled during all this time. Some drivers enjoy the show, but some are rude or outright aggressive. I skate with the last team at the very end of the procession, where the people are most impatient.

[aderechelsea]

sometimes the police DO follow/lead the CMRs (Critical Mass Rides) but they are not really welcome.

[kaiguma]

sometimes the police DO follow/lead the CMRs (Critical Mass Rides) but they are not really welcome.

[warning: long post]

In NYC we don't enlist the help of the police, although they have escorted us on occasion. This is usually unplanned. Reason being we never plan a route. Critical Mass here is an exercise in autonomy, with a strong anarchist bent. We start from the same place every month and there is usally an after party planned somewhere, but how we get from point A to point B is never publicized if anyone knows at all. One goal is to take as many highways/tunnels/bridges as possible, which is definitely illegal. In fact, there had always been a debate about whether we have to follow traffic laws while demonstrating, so this is probably why we don't involve the NYPD, who can be ruthless against demonstrators. The only reason we don't get arrested is our sheer volume, another testament to the power of the Mass.

There was one exception . . . August 2004, Critical Mass was held on the eve of the Republican National Convention, and most Mass riders being radically left-wing politically we were very upset that GWB had been invited into the city to declare his obvious second candidacy. A lot of us felt he would be milking our city for the 9/11 connection. (I'm just stating the facts here.) A motorcycle unit trailed us from the very beginning and eventually mixed into the crowd. A lot of us knew there would be trouble, hearing pre-reports of how the NYPD had been ordered to crack down on protesters during the convention. By the end of the weekend, thousands of innocent protesters had been illegally jailed on fenced-in piers on the West Side of the city, many for over 3 days and most released without being charged. They had already received their punishment.

Nevertheless, we buzzed Madison Square Garden and the Broadway Theatre District, known destinations for delegates to the convention, chanting slogans as we rode. We were 6,000 strong. The Mass ended at the St Mark's Ontological Theatre, a converted church in the East Village, where a free protest concert was being held. The street was choked with bikes. It was like no one wanted it to end. There weren't nearly enough places to chain a bike, and the Hall was completely filled within minutes.

It was a euphoric moment. I heard the police radios mingled in our crowd. I was near the front, but I still felt safe. A seemingly insane pedestrian woman approached me and said, "you see that captain behind you?" Surely enough there was a Ranking Officer standing about a yard or so back talking on his radio. "He just relayed your description to the other side...you've been marked." My first impression was: she's batty. I politely said thank you and stood around for several minutes. Then something got to me and I pushed through the crowd to move my bike onto the sidewalk.

Almost immediately after that, I heard and then saw a chain of motorcycle-cops pushing into the crowd. The Captain started shouting for everyone to leave immediately. It was general mayhem, almost impossible to move in the crowd. The first motorcycle reached the spot I was standing and pushed into a poor young guy who was straddling his bike. He had nowhere to go. "I can't go anywhere!" And then the officer used his motorcycle to force the kid to the ground, half pinned under his own bike as well. He was obviously in pain, and becoming tangled in his bike. The captain brought him to his feet in a very rough fashion. He was still tangled in his own bike. The other cops jumped off of their bikes and pounced on him. The first one pinned his knee into the kids neck and he was just screaming. He had four hands pulling him in different directions. I think the police were shouting at him to get up, but he just kept trying to tell them he was stuck. A completely brutal scene.

The crowd swarmed in on the unit, chanting, "Let him go!" and "The whole world is watching." One officer pulled out his club and started wildly swinging at the perimeter, widening the ring. This stand-off lasted several minutes. The Captain was on his radio again. I heard movement behind me to see a line of police in full riot gear marching up 2nd Avenue. We had nowhere to go. I raced around the edge of the Mass and forced my way onto a side street, where a smaller line of police was marching in on us. They had us from all 4 directions, but this line was not as solid and didn't have shields or helmets, so I made my break and squeezed out by the skin of my teeth. Others who stayed behind told me that nearly everyone who didn't make it out was arrested.

In the video, I'm in a blue and white flower-shirt at the 01:24 mark, followed by a tall-biker punk. But the real material is at the end. I think you have to download the clip to watch. It's about 10 minutes long, 24.5 Mb, and doesn't show the exact moment that they ran the kid over, but it's worth watching if you're interested.

[if you want to debate the politics or the act of civil disobediance, it's probably better to email me or use PM. I don't want to turn this into a political discussion. Thanks.]

Edited April 17, 2007 by kaiguma