Critical Masquerade: Ride Report (Comments: 1)

Tonight was the Critical Masquerade — Critical Mass with Halloween costumes. Although, as it turned out, only a few of us were in costume. I wore my black-and-white Walz cap and most of my typical costume from my vintage baseball days at Genesee Country Village. I didn’t get any pictures of myself, but I looked a bit like this:

It was about 57 degrees and raining when we started out. It got colder, but it never stopped raining. I arrived on the Xtracycle with a metal bucket full of candy strapped on the back. A few minutes after I showed up, though, Team RocBike member Adam Durand came and suggested that he ride on the back of the Packet Boat and leave his own bike locked up downtown. That was fine with me because: (a) I dig Adam and (b) I was excited to take an adult on the X for the first time. (At least, it was my first time. Adam borrowed the Packet Boat a few weeks ago and took a friend on it for 20+ miles.) Stopping and starting is a bit of a challenge, and the slow speed of the Mass certainly didn’t make it easier to balance 300 pounds on the bike, but we did just fine for the 15 or so miles of the ride. Midway through, Adam hopped off the Boat and his significant other, Kristine, hopped on. She took all the road photos that are in the video and in the gallery below. Thanks, Kristine!

We had a good turnout despite the stinky weather. I’m terrible at estimating crowds, but I’d say we had 40-50 riders at the height of the ride. We rode through downtown, then up past the High Falls district to High Falls Blvd, eventually coming back down Hudson Ave and back into the city. It was a lot easier to ride with an adult passenger than I’d expected. There was a bit of wobble for the first few minutes, but I got more stable fairly quickly. (You can ask Adam whether he agrees…)

Adam and I did have one scary moment right after we dropped off his bike on Gibbs St. As we were crossing on the Packet Boat at the corner of East and Main to join the Mass, a car nearly ran into us. Half of Team RocBike was almost killed! Luckily, even had we been smeared across the front of the guy’s car, Jack Spula was on the ride to carry on the RocBike name.

The ride ended at St. Joseph’s House of Hospitality, where the Massers watched Jesus Camp. While they were watching the movie (and bagging up some free swiss chard courtesy of St. Joe’s), Adam and Gary Young and Caitlin Holcombe fixed a flat that Caitlin got toward the end of the ride. (Caitlin’s first submission to RocBike.com is on the way … or else! Don’t make us get all spindly and vegan on you!)

Here’s a video recap of tonight’s ride. Adam will have another one of his own soon. This video runs about 6 minutes. It features video of the start of the Mass, photos from the road, and an incomplete but wonderful how-to segment on patching a punctured tube. With Adam. In a dress.

And here are my photos. These are all in the video, too.

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