One of the rides that people look forward to the most is the one that takes place in October because of Halloween.  Every year, people take advantage of the “holiday” and come dressed up in some of the craziest costumes.  Well, this year we’re working to get everyone to come as their favorite Superhero or as one of their own creations.

Our goal is to take over the streets of Houston as a huge superhero posse and make a couple of stops at some organized parties specifically catered to the mass ride.  We will have a planned route through the city as usual, and will end the night at Liberty Station Bar at 2101 Washington Ave.  This will be the official Critical Mass after party and will include music by DJ Ill set, costume contests and drink specials for all mass riders.  Note:  arm bands will be sold to all riders for $2.00 and will be your ticket for drink specials all night.  Arm bands will be available Friday before the ride and at Liberty Station.

If you know of any other stops that we can schedule for the middle of the ride, please let us know.  See you on the 29th.

Check out the new commercial for this weekend’s ride (filmed and edited by Hector Garcia with Dunamis Media)

Tonight’s ride is going to be crazy.  From downtown we’ll be riding into the 3rd ward as we make our way to Eastwood park where some antics will go down in the public skatepark.  This will serve as a small break before we head into the Heights and make our regular stop at the corner store near WhiteOak park near I-10.  From there we will go deep into the heights and make our way to a big house party in Shady Acres, home of Fiksd apparel.  Fusion Taco truck will be on hand for food, we’ll have a huge slip n slide in the back yard and music.  Everyone bring your own drinks.  A small corner store is right down the street at 23rd and Ella for those that need to reload.  See you all tonight!

We have a nice little route scheduled for tonight with our first stop/break taking place at Dunlavy park.  Our final stop will be Warehouse Live for the “Making Moves Dance Art Party”.  Below are the details.

Friday, April 30, 2010 at 9:45pm
Warehouse Live Green Room
813 Saint Emanuel Street

With host djs:
Ceeplus Bad Knives & G-Wizz
this months special guest: GLASNOST dj set

Art curated by Chanelle Frazier
featuring works by: WEAH

Drinks Specials All Night: $2 Lone Star & PBR / $3 Wells
21+ Free
18+ $5

This coming Friday, October 30th, should be an interesting ride with Halloween spirit in the air.  Ooo, that sounded scary.    Well, as scheduled, the ride will be meeting at Tranquility park at 6:30pm and hitting the streets around 7.  Come dressed in your awesome Halloween costume if you’d like and anything else you feel like wearing that night.  Should be a crazy ride!

Also, remember to keep the rides safe by respecting the road and the vehicles on it.  We know that some of you hard core riders hate cars and want to destroy them, but save that energy for your next ride through town.  Here’s all we ask from all riders, which will help keep the rides safe and enjoyable for all:

1.  Respect all vehicles on the road.

2.  Stay to the right side of the road when you can.  Please don’t take all 4 lanes when riding through downtown.

3.  THESE RIDES ARE NOT RACES, so everyone please chill and ride at a steady pace.

4.  The rides are usual flow well and we safely go through lights.  However, when it doesn’t appear to be safe to do so, please stop at red lights and keep the gaps closed between pockets of riders.  We don’t want to leave anyone behind.

We’ll see you all this Friday.  If anyone takes photos from the ride, please contact us so that we can get a few to post here on the site.  Thanks.

There’s a lot of buzz about tonights ride with many people bringing new first time riders.  Should be a good night.  If you’re coming out, be sure to be safe on the ride, respect vehicles, enjoy a laid back ride, and remember that this is a casual ride, not a race.  See everyone tonight!

For the most part, the critical mass rides are strictly for fun and a time to get out in mass and simply ride our bikes.  It’s always a good time and so many people look forward to it each month.  But Last week I was chatting with a friend online via Facebook and he brought up a great idea regarding the mass rides.  His thoughts were that if the mass would use its size and influence for “good”, we could make such an impact in this city.  We know not everyone is into “giving back” or donating their time, but what if every once in a while we strategically made a stop at a small mom and pop shop or restaurant and hooked them up with a “massive” amount of business that night.  What if we made a stop at an elderly couples home (scheduled stop of course) and cleaned their yard and did something for them that they could have never afforded or had done without the massive numbers that we brought by.

These are just some thoughts, but because there’s no clear “leader” to these rides, it would take a few of us stepping up and making something like this happen every once in a while.  We’d love to hear your thoughts and ideas.  Comments please.  See you August 28th.

Hector Garcia – The Byke Project

The critical mass rides that take place on the last Friday of each month are one of the highlights of the month for me.  It’s just very refreshing to meet up with over a hundred people (on a good friday) that have at least one thing in common, and that’s riding bikes.  There’s no official leader, no official route every month, and everything is for the most part, “on the fly”.   But it doesn’t really matter, because everyone there has shown up to simply have a good time and enjoy the ride.

I remember coming out to my first few rides with the mass, and did the ride on my bmx flatland bike.  A couple of friends came out with me and because of our small gear ratios, we pedaled hard through the whole ride, with of course a lot of freestyle tricks along the way.  But because we were having so much fun, it didn’t even occur to us until after the ride, that we had ridden as hard as we did for over 20 miles!  We all felt it in the morning and since then, I’ve decided to never do the ride on that little bmx bike again.  It’s so much more chill to cruise on my mid 80′s fixie conversion, which i do tricks on as well.  Or at least try to.

Making new friends is always key at these rides.  We’ve met alot of great people at the masses and hope to meet more.  People come out with friends, a friend, and many times there are people that come alone.  And don’t forget about the ones that come with their dogs, who enjoy the ride in the comfort of a little basket.  Wish someone would carry me in their basket.  Love seeing dogs at these events though.  But whomever you do or don’t come with, make it a point to reach out and meet new people each month.  It can become so comfortable to stick to your crew, or “clique” in some cases, and not meet new people. We encourage everyone to step out and make new friends.  There are many times where someone who came alone felt so much more comfortable on the ride because someone reached out and welcomed them.

I personally won’t be at the July 31st ride because I’ll be in New Orleans for the BMX Flatland Voodoo Jam.  But if you’re going, have fun and enjoy the ride.  And if you have any links or news that you feel would benefit readers and regular visitors to this site, please send that us.  See you all on the next ride.

Hector Garcia – The Byke Project

The Critical Mass ride this past Friday was a good one.  Over 100 riders showed up and joined in for a very chill ride.  As usual, the ride usually goes through the Westheimer / Montrose area, but we ended up back into Downtown at one point, chillin in front of the Toyota Center.  No Yao Ming hanging outside, but a good spot to hang out, do some tricks, and then hit the next spot.  That second stop was an old abandoned warehouse on the East side of town, where a mass photo was taken and lots of ice cream was thrown down.  I need to look into hiring an icecream truck to follow us for the next mass.  .

The whole ride culminated into an after party at the Aerosol Warefare gallery for the “BlowUp Houston” show, where we busted out the quarter pipe for a little freestyle session.  Good times.  Check out the photos from this last ride, compliments of Houston Fixed Gear.  CLICK HERE.  See you next month.

Through this site we’ll offer updates on the monthly mass rides, recap each month’s ride with photos and video from fellow riders, and link you to any and every other bike and fixed gear related site on the web to help keep everyone connected.  If you’d like to contribute to this effort each month with photos and video, just hit us up and we’d love to link to your Flickr feed or throw up some video.

This month’s ride takes place on Friday, June 26th.  We meet at Tranquility Park, which is in Downtown, right across the street from City Hall.  Everyone meets there between 6:30 – 7pm.  The ride technically starts at 7, but sometimes starts a little late.  Just be there on time and be ready for a chill ride.

Contact us with any questions or if you’d like to be added to the Critical Mass mailing list.  We won’t spam you, we’ll just keep you posted and informed on any events or future rides.  Enjoy.