I have a dream, and it is called Boulder Cruiser Night
Photo Gallery from the 5th of July Cruiser Night
A few weeks ago, it was announced that the Boulder Cruiser Ride was disbanding. There would be no more semi-organized rides leaving from the Sports Garage. The group who has been active in the Happy Thursday Yahoo Group got tired of drunken mob shenanigans and decided to start meeting at roving secret locations. That much is fact, and is what is.
The Cruiser Ride grew to a point where it reached its maximum capacity, in its current form. The current format was everyone meets at one location, and everyone cruises the same route, and everyone stops and starts with everyone else. The crowds snarled the ride to a crawling parade, where drunken hooligans with a bad attitude could act like idiots and harass bystanders, hidden in the anonymity of a huge crowd . People bickered about stopping too much/not enough, riding too far/too little, too much booze and no booze. And most of all, the veteran cruisers wept nostalgic over the days when they flew through traffic circles under the radar with the breeze in their hair.
Boulder is a quintessential bike town. The ‘keep Boulder weird’ attitude has lured literally tens of thousands of people to experience and enjoy the Boulder Cruiser Ride over the years. That attitude will never die. It is here and it is in our blood. What we need is an even BETTER Cruiser Ride. Last year swelling crowds led us to move the start of the Cruiser Ride away from the Sports Garage for the first time ever. Cruiser Ride 2.0 started at Scott Carpenter Park, and allowed the group to swell to over 800 people, until finally the ride reached the limit of how many people could fit through one intersection at one time. Megaphones, Ride Rangers, and Rules were all used to try to keep the crowd within control. But who really wants all that? So I am going to use my little quasi-media outlet to promote and spread the world about the Cruiser Ride 3.0. But I am going to change the name.
I have a dream, and it is called Boulder Cruiser Night. I dream of a Cruiser Ride that has no limits of size. I dream of a Cruiser Ride that has no limits of participation. And most of all I dream of a Cruiser Ride without any complaining, whining, bickering, or drama. Thursday night is a night where all of Boulder gets out and cruises around town, ringing bells and horns, waving and cheering “Happy Thursday” to other cyclists, pedestrians and bystanders. Cruising generally happens between 7 and 10pm. Cruising generally happens between Scott Carpenter Park and Eben G Fine Park along the Boulder Creek path, along Spruce, Pine, and Mapleton between 28th and Broadway, between the Tea House and North Boulder Park along 13th, and of course anywhere in the downtown area or up on the Hill. Parking garages, bike paths, sidewalks, and alleys are all fair game. I have a dream where an estimated 1000 cruisers take to the streets of Boulder on some random Thursday night, without start, without end, without destination, and most importantly, without any leaders or organization. The ultimate freedom will occur when we can cruise without any limitations, including rules about where we start and stop. I want the mantra: Who is your leader? NO ONE!!! to ring loud and true.
Last week we had a great start towards this goal. There were 3 smaller cruiser groups of 50-100 or so that mostly remained separate throughout the night. By keeping our groups small we avoid many of the problems that Cruiser Ride 2.0 suffered from. The key to keeping this practice going is going to be for the veteran Cruisers to intentionally break the groups up. We aren’t going to achieve the ‘bikes all over town effect’ if all the groups merge together and head off to one location. I envision if we try and keep the groups less than a hundred, or even better around 50 people, then we can get 5, 6, 8, 10 cruiser rides circling all over town. The more music bikes we get to lead groups around, the more groups will naturally form. And if you want to stop, grab your friends and stop! If you want to go to the liquor store, then go! If you want to ride up Flagstaff on your Picnic Table bike, sure, good luck soldier! You should have no problem hooking up with another group later on, because they will be everywhere. And this way there can be no complaining, because you are riding where and when you want with whomever you want.
Where does Cruiser Night start? Wherever you are at! Where does Cruiser Night take place? All over town! Where are the Cruisers meeting up? Everywhere. What do you say whenever you pass someone else on the street? Happy Thursday! What is the route? There is no route! It ideally starts at your favorite watering hole or back yard BBQ with your crew. For us; this week we are meeting at Hot Robbie’s for a pool party. After that, see you out there, hopefully at a parking garage dance party.
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20 Responses to “I have a dream, and it is called Boulder Cruiser Night”
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Hell Yeah! I LOVE IT!!!! Oh that I were there to enjoy this beautiful event… Guess I’ll try and get this going in Asheville, NC next, as I am ready to give up on Charlotte.
When you post something cruiser related on your blog would you like me to post it to the Yahoo groups list? Do you want the cruiser community to know your dream?
Nice pics by the way. The color, tone, contrast or whatever the photo jargon for that style of photo is pretty sweet. Is there a pic of Farrah Fawcett in a one piece on the beach from 1978 hidden in there somewhere?
Do not support the crap of the yahoo cruiser list. It takes away from the mojo of the cruiser ride and amplifies the crying of the veterans who think they own the cruise.
I like your dream and think it will be the future of the cruise. See ya tonight.
I love it man! Ole Ole Ole. Thursday is OUR night, we are the Goonies of Boulder, Cruisers never die!
Nice dream, Steve. I’m with you. I’ve already been spreading the idea since you and I spoke at the Bike Swap a few weeks ago. I’m looking forward to seeing you at Rob’s, and seeing all the other riders on the streets, bike paths, and alley ways of Boulder.
Marco
Not sure I understand how you are achieving this. On one had say “Who is your leader? NO ONE!!!” but you also want “Veteran Cruisers” to intentionally break up the ride implying some sort of leadership to make that happen. That means there are multiple leaders making multiple rides happen. Also, that means having multiple pied-pipers as well who then become the leaders of each of those rides.
In concept, the idea is great. However, I wonder about the practicality of it all. Right now there is no central management of the cruiser ride or stewards of it anymore and I wonder how long that will last. My experience is; people want leadership and want someone to just deal with it and make it happen so the rest can enjoy.
The idea of multi rides has been toyed around for years. I decided to see how well that would work when I came up with the cruiser scavenger hunt. Turns out people started congregating to the largest crowd and the separate ones were eaten up by the larger group or where the coolest vibe was.
This week we will see a lot of the rides coming back together and now you have the issues of someone trying to separate people out rather than lead different rides. Doing that will give an air of “elitism” rather than community ism. Which is what I think your dream is about.
Not to pick on semantics but what about the word “Cruiser” does that imply a cruiser bike? If this is open to all shouldn’t you just call it Boulder Bike Night, since that is what we all are doing? I think the word “Cruiser” does imply a cruiser bike. It’s kind of like using the term skiing or ski hill when referring to all downhill snow sports instead of the word snow riding which includes all types of downhill equipment. If you are going to be “inclusive” then use inclusive vernacular.
I really believe “cruiser” in this sense implies the pilot, not the vehicle. A dude/chick out for a cruise, on whatever the hell bike he/she has on hand. It’s this mindset that the ride(s) need.
Nice post, and nice pics, Steve. And that picnic table bike is totally awesome. Still the best cruiser ever (sorry Steve, this one is actually better than “The Ride”), was this old vintage jobbie owned by Curtis Anthony of Via Bicycle in Philadelphia that had a pannier-integrated (beer) cooler on one side and a propane-fired (working) grill on the other.
This is a response two Chris V’s comments regarding logistics and semantics. No one has to ‘lead’ anyone anywhere. This is proving a very hard concept for some people to grasp, but I will persist. The ride does not need leaders. Mini rides don’t need leaders. I want to attract free thinking and free spirited people who do not need their hands held or to be babysat. If a veteran cruiser who stands out decides to rally his mini-group to deviate from a huge pack off in their own direction, this does not inherently make them ‘leaders.’ People will likely follow, on their own fruition. For example, last week much of our big group left North Boulder Park to head to Eben G Fine to meet up with another group. After half of the group left, I started yelling, ‘Bandshell!’ We set off towards the bandshell in disbanded little groups, thereby splitting up our group. Was I ‘leading’ anyone anywhere? No. I just provided a suggested alternative next meeting point. How ever everyone got there was up to them. I don’t think that makes me legally responsible for much.
Semantically, ‘Cruising’ and one who is a ‘Cruiser’ are people who partake in ‘Cruising’. They could be doing this on any style of bike. Think of it in terms of muscle car cruising, like cruising the strip. We know that Cruising on Cruiser bikes is the most fun, but if someone wants to do it all hunched over on a fixed gear or riding manuals all over town like Paul, then that’s cool too. If people want to run around half naked or in costume and let their freak flag fly, or they want to dress normally so they can go out to the bar after and not be That Guy, then so be it. Its all good.
You are my friend Chris, but I’m going to say that I’ve never been a fan of the whole Ride Ranger model. This should not come as all that great a shock to you, knowing me and my personality. It seems to me like it is fighting cops with cops. I don’t like hanging out with cops. Ride Rangers are necessary for a Moonlight Classic type event. I hate the Moonlight Classic. It is preplanned, predictable and boring. I don’t even really like parades that much. Some people do. And if someone wants to lead a bike parade on Thursday for the people who need to be led, that is great. But I won’t join. I don’t want people telling me what to do. If I want to ride around without a light and risk getting a $50 ticket, well, I’m 36 years old and that is my prerogative. I don’t wear my seatbelt all the time either. I’m a madman!
Fear mongering is very prevalent in our society right now. To continually mention the police and police involvement (like on the front page of cruiserbikeride.org) is exactly the wrong way to go about this. We will manifest police involvement by keeping the police on the fronts of our minds. This is the Law of Attraction. Whatever we focus on, we will create.
If you really want to achieve the Dream, then dream it and live it. Don’t get caught up in the can not’s, the what if’s, and the semantics.
Believe. Achieve. Let go of controlling people out of fear of them being bad. Allow people the freedom to be good. Some might call this thinking idealistic or unrealistic. I call it forward thinking. And that is why I live in Boulder, because it’s a forward thinking town. HAPPY THURSDAY BEEE-YOTCHES!!!!!!!!
Steve I agree with what you are talking about because that is EXACTLY what is was like 10 some odd years ago. No police involvement, no leaders, no worries, freedom to do what you wanted, the freedom to be good. Nobody was being a “Ride Ranger”.
Do you think I liked being a Ride Ranger, do you think any of us enjoyed that? Yea, like I really like to spend my Thursday nights yelling at people to stay to the right of the road. You make it sound like we wanted to do these things… WE DIDN’T!
Several years back the cops came and they said “Who is in Charge here!” and everyone said,(just like your dream) “NO ONE IS!” So, they cracked down on the whole ride and started riding with us and the cruiser ride SUCKED! Constantly looking over our shoulders for the police.
What choice did we have? We either organize and proved to the city that we could police ourselves with Ride Rangers or they would do it for us. Without the Ride Rangers we would have had the city police on the ride every single week, would that have been a better option? Would you rather have me telling you to put a light on your bike or would you rather the Boulder PD write you a ticket? Besides lights on a bike is not only the law but courteous to the other people you ride with.
You may not have liked the methods we took or agreed with the methodology, but I can guarantee you the other option was a hell of lot less pleasant and a hell of lot less fun. Ask anyone that got one of those ridiculous tickets.
You know I once had a dream that the Boulder Mall Crawl would be around forever and we could celebrate Halloween they way it was meant to, but we all know how that ended.
Be forward thinking, but don’t discount history and lessons to be learned from history so you do not repeat them.
The irony Chris is that your efforts of focusing on making the ride NOT like the Mall Crawl, were making it EXACTLY like the Mall Crawl. It only took 2-3 months for the ride to quickly escalate to the point where it was the biggest drunken college mob the Cruiser Ride has ever seen. See? This is the Law of Attraction. Make the cops and Mall Crawl the focus, and that is what you will get. The more rules you make, the more people will push the rules and try to fight them. The mob mentality will not be able to flourish if we keep in smaller groups. The mob needs a container to unleash in. Control the mob with awareness, not with controls.
Chris. You need to let go of the fear. Step away from the keyboard. Just go out there and allow what happens to happen. It will be OK, I promise.
Steve, it will be interesting to see how things unfold this evening. With everyone together again I don’t see much splitting up occuring. But who knows, maybe the ride will just spontaneously split into different factions with no leaders. It would be cool to see that happen.
For those of us who actually did the rangering it was not something we wnated to do. We felt a responsibility to the ride and the riders to keep it safe and to keep the police off our backs. One of the reasons the ride “ended” is that those of us who were helping out just wanted to ride again. We didn’t want to make announcements or yell at drunk kids running stop lights.
So let’s see what happens when the ride starts together again. Maybe it will work. Maybe it won’t. But I think we all share your dream.
What does this mean \”everyone back together again\”. Has the yahoo group decided to meet at the Sports Garage?
The key to this whole change of thinking is based upon NO STARTING POINT. If everyone just meets at the SG, then yes, nothing will change.
You know, I\’m going to throw out this idea. Disband the Yahoo Group. Why do we need it? No leaders. No committee. That Group has turned so many people off over the years. I finally had to quit last year and I\’m far from the first. Frankly it was the best thing I\’ve done. No complaining for one. No expectations of what the ride is going to be or do. Just get on the bike and ride. No expectations and no whining.
That is exactly my plan. I have no desire to be the ride steward anymore and look forward to watch what happens with the ride. The cruiser web site says it best, “The ride is no longer being helped or supported by those that did so for many years. They are now enjoying the ride rather than assisting the ride.”
However, I’ll still express my view online
i think there was a post on the yahoo group to start at hot robbie’s place.
OK I’m shutting down the rants on this. It is starting to look like the Yahoo Group bitch list on here. I just deleted two heated responses to Chris V’s comments. The first one was written with a fake email address. If you want to say something, you need to be man/woman enough to back it up with your name for starters. The second one was pretty heated as well, and was written by someone who is basically sick of the attitude of many of the Yahoo Group types.
I want to try and encourage leaving the past behind, and moving forward in a positive fashion. Angry rants telling people to fuck off are not what I’m trying to promote. Anger is not the problem of the person who makes you angry, anger is your problem because you are not capable of letting it go. Damn, some sage advise, I should abide by it sometime ;>)
I will summarize those two emails and say that basically Chris, they are saying you use the word ‘we’ in your emails a lot, but really you should be using the word ‘I’. There were some more comparisons about how Mall Crawl is an invalid analogy, and some more about the famous elitist attitude and how it sucks. Blah Blah.
Positive comments from here on out peeps. Thanks.
Steve Z,
I am one of the ride organizers for the Southbay Cruisers in Hermosa Beach,CA(www.southbaycruisers.com) I learned about your site from fossil fool. I’m very impressed with your website and the progress you’ve had with your rides over the years. I especially like the Cruiser oath on your home page. Would it be ok for me to incorporate it into my site. I’m thinking it would also be good to pass out on my rides especially as new people start showing up.
I’m looking at all the comments on this blog and although I obviously don’t know alot of the specifics(ie-who the “Mall Crawl’ group is as I’ve never been on one of your rides) I find it all very interesting. Our cruiser ride in Hermosa Beach is small in comparison to yours-about 40 - 50 people per ride-, but it is growing fast and I’m concerned about police intervention. Although we’ve had no problems so far, the police intervene in Los Angeles regularly on some rides-sometimes with helicopters, and arrests. I don’t want our cruiser ride to become like that. I want it to be seen as a positive community building event.
I have some ideas now on things that I could do to help manage it’s growth,keep it fun, and keep police intervention to a minimum. I’m curious if you have any suggestions or ideas. Feel free to write me at info@southbaycruisers.com.
Good luck with your ride!
One love for all riders on Thursday!!! see ya next week
I just moved to Boulder last week, and while wondering around town on my first night here (Thursday) I saw a large group of riders. I, of course, joined the procession. While it was generally a great time, I did catch some static from one lady about something or other. I don’t think she liked my bike/dress/whatever. I’ve never been on a ride with a dress code, and that don’t sound all that fun anyways. A fine gentleman I later met at the parking garage, Marco I believe, more than made up for that not so warm welcome with a shot of tequila and a PBR. Thanks Marco.
Oh yeah, another classic late night ride for anybody interested is the Harvest Moon Cruise in Austin.
Yes it is true there is a group of people on the ride who think that because they spend their lives in thrift stores and talking about how great Burning Man is, that they are cooler than everybody else. We are hoping these people start their own ride from a top secret location and don’t let any heathens in normal clothes join. Please, oh please. Granted I’ve spent time on both those activities, but I’m pretty much over it and all the attitude. Yeah Ben, that was Marco, and H Robbie’s tequila. See you next week.
I’ve yet to be a participant in one of the cruiser rides, but from what I’m hearing it sounds like the only problem with the cruiser rides is that it became popular. When you have a small group of people, being free-spirited is great, as the potential for causing problems is minimal. But the larger the group gets, the more the free-spirit attitude starts to work against it. It simply isn’t sustainable with that many people. I mean, if you have 5-10 bike riders cruising down the road you can get away with a few people riding abreast, or people generally being incautious. But multiply that by 10 (or even 100) and you simply can’t sustain it without someone getting hurt or the group causing chaos for those around them. It’s probably not that anyone wants to cause problems, it’s just that larger systems inherently become increasingly chaotic and more complicated. It’s basic science.
Some people want to be part of a larger group that is organized (or even managed by the police). Others want smaller groups that give them more freedom. It sounds like what’s happening is that you’re giving them both. That’s great—it’s the only solution to the “problem” that you face, and what a great problem to have.
No, can everyone quit the bickering and enjoy a good bike ride?