A Critical Masser at Tuesday Night Urban Assault

I decided to drop by the first Tuesday Night Urban Assault of the season last night. It was the first group ride I’ve been on that wasn’t Critical Mass, and I was most interested in experiencing a different style of group riding. As its name implies, the group meets on Tuesday nights at the Adams St. Community Center starting at 6:15pm from October through March. The Adams St. Community Center is on my way home from work, making things quite convenient.

As I approached the rec center, I saw numerous people dressed in cycling clothes getting out of cars and pulling bikes off of bike racks. Soon after arriving, I saw a young man named Joey who I had met at last Friday’s Critical Mass. We were a duo of plain clothed bike commuters in a sea of LYCRA®-clad recreational and sport riders. I happened to have a backpack strapped into a milk crate on my back rack, and was wearing a bright yellow T-shirt with “Bike Commuter” in large letters on the back. I overheard a couple riders talking about how TNUA draws all kinds, knowing that they were referring to me.

Scott Page of Full Moon Vista fame pulled up right next to me and told the group to gather round. He asked who was new, and up went Joey’s hand and my hand. He told the group that we didn’t own the road and we’re not out there to anger motorists. We were told to share hazard information with each other by yelling it out to the people behind us - turns, potholes, and parked cars were all things to make note of. He said something about having a reputation for yelling at cyclists who don’t follow the rules - and there were some knowing chuckles from the group.

Scott was quite obviously the long-established leader of TNUA. People looked up to him. He spoke as if he was the model of a dedicated cyclist. He belittled others in a joking way, almost like a high school jock. Although he didn’t make a positive first impression on me with his statements and attitude, judging by the 45 or so enthusiastic riders there, he’s doing something right with the ride.

He assigned us each numbers (he was number 1, and because I was standing next to him he assigned me number 2) which the group would call off at various stops during the ride to make sure we didn’t lose anybody. And then we were off, heading towards a nearby traffic circle. I expected us to clear out of there pretty quickly but we circled around for a good few minutes. The motorists trying to pass through the circle seemed confused. I was happy when we moved on.

As my bikepooling buddy Caitlin will attest, I’m a stickler for stopping at stop signs when I’m not on group rides. This group blew right through them, probably for the better, in the interest of safety and keeping the group together. On certain roads we went single file, but we spread out to claim a full lane in low traffic or two-lane areas. Sometimes with group momentum going we’d hold back a car that had the right of way, but most motorists reacted with enthusiasm and humor as they mostly do during Critical Mass rides.

As far as I could tell, the group universally followed traffic signals, which caused the group to split if a signal went red as we passed through. At times when the forward group got out of sight, a couple bikers would stay behind to help the isolated back group find their way. This is in contrast to Critical Mass, which tries to preserve the mass as safely as possible even in the face of traffic signals changing.

Near the beginning of the ride, one cyclist’s tire popped with an amazingly loud sound. We looped around for him and he was still working on it and told us to go ahead without him. I believe that later that evening, a rider went back to get him, as he was later reunited with us.

On long, straight stretches of road, the group would ride at around 17 mph, much faster than the 8 mph or so that Rochester Critical Mass travels at. I carried on conversations with other riders when the group was stopped but I found it difficult to talk at faster speeds.

I headed out a little over an hour into the ride, after riding the hill repeatedly at Maplewood Park Rose Garden. I unintentionally popped a wheelie heading up a steep part of the hill, and figured it was time to leave to avoid too much wear and tear on my bike and my legs. Scott said that the early rides are easier than the rides he starts holding in December, but my legs were certainly remembering last night’s ride during my 9 mile commute this morning.

So Tuesday Night Urban Assault draws a different crowd than Rochester Critical Mass. I’ve never seen someone park their car near the RCM meeting place and pull their bike off a bike rack. But the folks at TNUA had just as much enthusiasm as RCM for riding on the city streets, just a different way of doing it. And although I have way more fun at Critical Mass than I did at Urban Assault, I could see the joy in it.

As far as bike advocacy goes, I doubt that seeing a bunch of riders in a large group does much to convince motorists that bikes belong on the road. But like RCM, TNUA’s strength is in empowering riders to feel comfortable on the streets. The outdated “About” page I found here captures the infectious spirit of the ride, and its goal to turn apprehensive riders into confident ones.

As someone who uses a bike mostly for transportation and never for recreation, I certainly felt out of place at TNUA. And yet you may very well find me there on Tuesday nights. Maybe I can come to enjoy recreational bike riding with enough exposure. I’m even considering a visit to Goodwill to see if they have any LYCRA® around. If you don’t mind injecting a little bit of sport into your utility riding, I highly recommend checking it out. Don’t expect the spontaneous leaderless moving social club that is Critical Mass, and expect to use those leg muscles, particularly later in the season.

Bruce Wilbur, a local cyclist, is a huge fan of TNUA and has a post up at his Scenic Route blog about last night’s ride. And be sure to visit Full Moon Vista Bike & Sport, official sponsors of TNUA (Jason gives the shop an A+).

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