This Thurs will be the ‘Last’ Cruiser Ride
The Daily Camera published a scathing Letter to the Editor this weekend comparing the Cruiser Ride to the Mall Crawl, and urging the city council to step in and take control of an ‘out of control situation’. http://tinyurl.com/kc6fm. The editorial also urged the ‘guiding lights’ of the ride to take note and increase self-regulation. Unfortunately, the man’s viewpoints are spot-on, and it is time for the people for creating this monster to make some painful desisions.
Due to the recent explosion of miscreant behavior, this Thursday will be the last Official Cruiser Ride. Of the summer? Ever? We will see. What is known, is that we need to shoot a tranquilizer in the beast before the Ride’s reputation is permanently tarnished. It is time for self-sacrifice, in order to preserve any kind of future. If you have any questions about this seemingly rash decision, feel free to email me personally at Steve@ this website’s address.
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11 Responses to “This Thurs will be the ‘Last’ Cruiser Ride”
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The ride is getting out of control and sooner or later someone will get seriously hurt and it will get shut down. It’s probably for the best to have the summer rides end. We can pick it up again next year and work on building better community relations and instill what it means to cruise.
Well it’s not actually and “editorial” from the Daily Camera’s editor, but a “Letters to the Editor” submission. The guy is a curmudgeon, but he has a fair assessment of what the ride has become and what it has the potential of doing. I do like his choice of the word ‘guttersnipe” to categorize us.
http://www.answers.com/topic/guttersnipe
I don’t think that anyone is more likely to get hurt with big or small numbers and we all knew that this was coming at some point or another. If you weren’t expecting this from the day the Cruiser Ride was born then your ignorance surpasses your inteligence. I think that it is a very good decision to stop the ride for this year. I am surprised that it has taken this long for the high school & college kids to figure this one out and ruin it for the rest of us although our behavior has never been much better than theirs. Like I’ve always said growing up in Boulder “Anything that is fun will be made illegal at some point or another.” The funniest part about that is that I have never heard a single person say that they didn’t like the Mall Crawl and that it was one of the coolest things Boulder ever did. The only people bitching now are the ones that still don’t know how to have fun. May they burn in hell!
I wasn’t around for the Mall Crawl, but I have heard people say that the last year it existed it was infultrated by uncostumed beligerant drunken idiots. Which is exactly the fastest increasing demographic on the ride. The initial wonderful idea became dilluted and tarnished. Jeff I’m not sure I understand your comment about the only people bitching now. As for the getting hurt part, Del is right. I have never seen so many crashes as last week. I was mocking these college kids, because they are on mtn bikes and they can’t even keep upright on the bike path. They are way more likely to swerve in front on an oncoming car than a seasoned and more in control participant. Also, shear numbers increase that mob mentality which CU is famous for and the police are intolerant of.
I have been silent on this topic because I am a relatively “new” cruiser. However, I have to agree with Steve, Del, and others’ assessment of last week’s cruze. It wasn’t even fun for me, and I’ve never seen it “really” small (I think the smallest cruze I participated in was 300+). This was my experience last week — I ended up having to walk my bike for most of the “ride” that I did; it was very hard to step out of the crush of bikes and/or rejoin the ride in a “safer” area (i.e., less crazy kids and more normal cruisers); and by the time folks were gathering behind BMoCA, I was done and went straight downtown. I was seriously bummed, as I really was looking forward to several hours of actually cruising. I don’t know what is the right way to move forward, but I also think (though it breaks my cruzer heart) that stopping the rides for a few weeks at least, until the buzz wears off and it gets a little cooler temp-wise (and classes/exams take over the college kids’ lives?), would be the best thing to do at this point. Riding through the streets of Boulder with 1000+ people, while a fascinating social experiment and a great thought conceptually, just doesn’t work in practice. Ah, I suppose I’ll just have to cruze on my own for a while.
here’s an article about the mall crawl: http://tinyurl.com/frqlz
about people getting hurt. yes, it can happen in a large group or small group, but with the recent large numbers people will have a propensity to do stupid things i.e. riding on the wrong side of broadway, falling off the side walk in front of a bus (that happened two weeks ago), etc.
We’ve always partied on the ride and people have always crashed but this last week achieved a whole new level. While a lot of older cruisers (the ride has certainly changed drastically in the 3 1/2 years I’ve been riding) are still around I definitely noticed that a good percentage of the crowd is now, as some of you mentioned, college kids/people solely out to party on mountain and road bikes.
When I first came on the ride it was on my mountain bike and I got a cruiser as quickly as I could. It’s definitely about the bikes first–the fact that people who enjoy bikes also enjoy partying is (was) secondary. Hell, I’ve crashed a few times myself–who hasn’t? The quantity and severity of the bails are increasing and that’s scary.
We didn’t always follow traffic laws when I began riding with you guys. We were small enough that it wasn’t always a big deal. I agree with following the laws these days but our mere size and diversity is making it impossible to make sure everyone is responsible. If one person on a BMX (an example I’ve chosen on purpose) charges across a red light, people are sure to follow. This last Thursday we were closer to “that other ride” than I’ve seen before.
I really enjoyed being in such a huge crowd but I agree that the ride is getting out of control. And as for falling off a sidewalk in front of a bus, I think we all know a famous cruiser who pulled that maneuver, Del…
Hey Will, are you refering to me or a certain cruiser that did that several years ago? I was talking about a new rider two weeks ago. One of the Ride Rangers had to pull her off the street. She was oblivious to what had happened because she was so intoxicated.
I was referring to Lenore, and it was merely lighthearted. No harm, no foul. Getting as hammered as the rider you describe is not only dangerous to the rider in question but also to everyone around them.
Actually it was Lori who crashed in front of the bus on broadway just south of 27th way about 3 years ago
One of the Ride Rangers watched a girl pull a “Lori”. Same situation on the slanted path.