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Flock of Cycles Facebook Group

Flock of Cycles (named by netviln on the BikePGH board) is a monthly group ride held on the second-to-last Friday of the month. The ride meets in Oakland by Dippy (in front of the Carnegie Library) at 5:30p with the intention of hitting the streets by 6:00p.

The ride is slow paced and courteous to all users of our roadways (motor vehicles and pedestrians included).

The group stays together, allows motor vehicles to pass (when able to safely), and stops at red lights.

The point of the ride is to get together with like-minded people, show automobile drivers that cyclists can be safe, courteous, and law-abiding (thus, expecting the same), and most importantly, HAVE FUN.

This ride is great for anyone new to riding in the city who would like to get to know our roads better, learn more about riding on roads with traffic, and meet some great people.

FOC is not Critical Mass.

I realize I may have said some unkind things about lycra in the past - forgive me Olivia Newton John - but this ride just seems to be screaming for some teal and fluorescent pink lycra.

Someone please re-post that hair guy for inspiration.

Nick, if you pull together both a tall bike and a sound system, people will have to officially address you as "the awesome".

I've been working out the idea in my head. The issue that concerns me is safety. The added weight on the tall bike would be rough. That steerer already has some pretty extreme forces on it because of the length.

Essentially, the weight needs to be behind the head tube, under the top tube of the bottom frame, and in front of the seat tube.

If I can get my hands on a relatively light battery, we will have sound for FOC this month. If I can build a trike before then, we will have something ridiculous.

could you strap it to a rear rack over the back wheel? that'd be the most stable platform on a typical bike.

I'd guess he'd be stuck in a constant wheelie if he dropped any weight over the back end.

When re-posting the "Flock of Seagulls" guy, someone should try to photoshop a helmet on him. I found that image HERE anyway...

Tell me that given the way that his hair goes a helmet wouldn't look hilarious?

The hair is the helmet.

What about Kid from Kid 'n Play?

Holy cow, I remember that Kid do, it is awesome.

The guy from FoS, somebody should really invite HIM to the ride, I don't think he's busy.

I have a small 12 V AGM lead-acid battery - about the size you'd find in a UPS - that could be used for sound if you need. It's about as heavy as you'd expect a battery roughly 25x10x10 cm to be.

I have a Crate Taxi - a portable, rechargable battery powered amp.

http://www.samash.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/product_TX15%20Taxi%20Series%20Portable%20Guitar%20Combo%20Amp_-1_10052_10002_-49968097?cm_mmc=Froogle-_-Guitar%20Combo%20Amps-_-TX15%20Taxi%20Series%20Portable%20Guitar%20Combo%20Amp-_-CTX15XXXX

I could bring it, if someone could bring the proper connectors for an ipod or something. The amp requires quarter-inch plugs (like, standard guitar plugs).

Let me know.

Mick

6:00 event on the second to last friday of the month not yet posted to the FOC Facebook page. Maybe one of the gazillion FB site administrators could fix that?

I sent ndromb a message, but incase that failed, I have an older (firewire compatible) ipod to donate to the effort. I say that because firewire power appears to be 12 VDC (as my internal ipod battery isn't so superduper anymore).

You could cannibalize an ipod connector cable (see pinout: http://pinouts.ru/PortableDevices/ipod_pinout.shtml ) to supply power from the same source, and output audio for the player. Mount the thing on the handlebars (or rig up some remote control) and you can control the tunes too.

@Swalfoort 6:00 event on the second to last friday of the month not yet posted to the FOC Facebook page. Maybe one of the gazillion FB site administrators could fix that?

I added an event to the group.

You can cobble together a cable that's 1/8" male stereo on one end and 1/4" male on the other no problem with a few pieces from radio shack. As long as we can come up with an mp3 player with battery enough for the whole ride, messing with crazy apple pin connections shouldn't be necessary.

I have an ipod with a good battery and normal headphone jack, I just figured a dedicated, integrated one would be preferred.

What this is really coming down to, is what kind of batteries I can get together before next week. For a serious system we will need a decent amount of batteries, thus a decent amount of weight.

I am a small ~20watt RMS amp that would push a pair of 2-way speakers no problem. I could probably get a system together that could strap onto a bike with a rack.

I am going to try to get a basic sound system together and this bike power generator by next week so after FOC we can have a bike powered margarita party.

Since weight is an issue I might make the enclosure out of foam and fiberglass to cut down on weight (make up for a little of the weight gained by batteries). I have some carbon fiber laying around, but that would be a waste of money (an awesome waste of money, but a waste).

If I can't get a good chunk of the work done by this week, we should probably just use Mick's amp.

I've got a 1/8" to 1/4" plug adapter, if we use Mick's amp.

Soooo...are we assuming that 80's music will be played? Skinny ties and heavy eye shadow?

It occurs to me that you should keep a sound system compact enough to still have a reasonable ride, don't go the full "Made In Queens" route. Yet.

Could somebody get this on the event calendar? This FoS thing seems to have some life to it, I think the re-branding could work (don't mention the other thing, you know, the see-em)

And just for information, as good an idea as it may seem at the time, do not use Sharpie marker as an eye-liner, just don't.

Don't forget the leg-warmers. You might actually need them given the weather we've been having.

And some 'Flashdance Ass Pants' - Beck

The next Tweed Ride should be "Frock of Cycles".

Hmm.. I wonder if Nick could throw the high res up on cafe press so some garb could be procured.

?

Was just wondering if you had a higher res version of the flock of cycles image. Could put it on cafepress so people could order shirts or something with it.

I have a slightly higher res photo, but not by much (~600x600). I'll post it up.

Also, as far as this sound system goes... i was digging around the garage and found an old car stereo- tape deck, am/fm. I think this is probably the most appropriate source given the tone the ride is taking.

So, bring some cassettes, or we will be listening to DUQ the whole ride.

Too bad you haven't got an 8-track, or is that too vintage?

I wonder if I still have that Kajagoogoo cassette somewhere. Be a miracle if it doesn't disintegrate.

Do those ipod-to-cassette adapter thingies work? I've never tried one.

I got the car sterio with CD player and 1/8th inch Aux all ready to go. It's got well over three hours of battery life so bring you best mixes. And it only weighs 12 pounds! I'll try to get some pics up - hooks up like a panner to your rear rack.

I have a bazillion cassettes. Name something, I probably have it, from Camper Van Beethoven to Donna the Buffalo.

This is my first attempt at pics so...

It's about as loud as it was in my 92 Geo.

Mark, that is similar to what I am building, but I was going with a trunk bag. You make that?

The reason I was going with a tape deck was novelty. I have another with a CD player and AUX in, but I though the tape deck was more fitting given the name of the ride.

Wait! Why am I building this if Mark has that?

Mark, are you coming next week?

If you bring that, I will focus my efforts on building something bigger.

Nice! This actually seems like it was waayy too easy for you guys.

Now you need a system with multiple-bike-mounted self-powered speakers driven wirelessly from a single head source....

Yeh I plan on being there next week. I might give it a shakedown run at Pedal-Pale-Ale friday if the weather cooperates. It's just some stuff I had laying around and the battery out of my home alarm system. Nick, you have a rack on the tall bike? Music from up high will carry better.

FWIW, I have an in-dash 8-track system from a 1975 Ford F-150 pickup truck.

Use a cassette player. The CD player will sk-sk-sk-sk-sk-skip

I can bring my Psychedelic Furs tape ! ! !

I wonder what a person would have to do to get David Byrne to come to a ride? I bet he would dig the name, and concept. Though he's not much into retro.

Right now I am working on something somewhat modular.

Though, right now, the generator is taking priority. The goal is bicycle powered margarita party post-FOC.

i have a dynohub that is not being used adequately if you need something like that... i probably won't make the ride because its my best friends birthday, but there is still a chance because she works 9-5 and has to sit in traffic behind bikers on the way home.

Weather for friday is looking good. Get excited.

In addition to the 80 degrees and sunny forecast, if the FOC facebook event is any indication, there should be a pretty good turnout as well.

i'll try to make it for some of FOC but i'll be headed northshore way for the bucs game at 7

I'd like to join, but I'm generally not done work until 5:30 or 6. Any idea what the route will be? Maybe I can adjust my commute and hope to encounter the flock.

Route? I vote for including a lap of PNC park. It will help Mustion out, and would give us visibility to the throngs of people attending the game - Well Mustion will see us...

I like that plan... thru north oakland, thru the strip, across the river, around the park up there... lovin' it.

Sounds good. I can tell you right now, we ARE NOT going to try to make the right onto Craig from Forbes.

**Edit: Left. I was looking at my hands the wrong way...

Nick, I assume you mean the LEFT from Forbes to Craig? What would be the other options, continue up along Forbes?

Personally, my vote is to start on the far side of Schenley Plaza and go up Bigelow Blvd. and Bayard to get to North Oakland, perhaps using the Melwood Ave shortcut through Polish Hill. I'm down for anything though. This group might be more flexible because I would be expecting less riders than a critical mass.

You can, in fact, go right onto Craig from Forbes-outbound. It's my favourite parking lot to ride through. But for a large group, probably not advisable.

+1 for FOC. Now I need to go stock up on Duran Duran brand hair gel and find my red sequined Karate Kid head band. Synchronize Swatches!

Crap! I have another commitment for friday evening. I really wanted to do this ride. It sounds SO cool.

By the way, the bike blender should be completed tonight... so margaritas tomorrow post FOC.

The gods willing and the G2 being on time, I'll be there. And I'll bring some lime juice!

Any idea the rough route to be taken? I might be a little late is all.

What's the stoplight etiquette when part of the group makes it through? Front group pulls over and waits for those behind? Or just ride slow?

jake - Depends on the size of the group. If its only about 20 people or so, probably pull over and wait, bigger than that, can catch up at the next light.

I just broke the bike blender....

As for the route, the only part is not making the left onto Craig. I think leaving Schenley Plaza from the rear, and looping through South/Central Oakland would be a good idea.

Light etiquette will depend on the size of the group, and the section of road.

-If it is a slow section of single lane road, pull over and wait.

-If it is a busy section of single lane road, continue, letting cars pass if possible until we reach a place where we can safely slow or stop and wait for the rear.

-If it is a multi-lane road, stay in the right lane and ride slowly.

Sound good? Any other ideas?

...since my bike power generator isn't done and I just broke the bike blender, we may have regular margaritas... or just beer.

I could bring a blender that plugs into the wall, and an extension cord.

FOC stickers!

If I skip the Free Breakfast Alley Cat in the morning, I think I can get a temporary bike blender together....

Has anyone thought of twittering the ride so that late-comers could catch up? I don't tweet, but it seems like it would work for that.

edmonds - I tweeted the critical mass, I'll tweet foc. Hashtag #pghfoc

I'd like to join you guys but I'm afraid my back won't let me. Next time...

Someone please bring a retro 80's playlist on an MP3 player or you're going to have to listen to MY tunes all night. Yes thats a probly considered a threat for most people.

I've got a best of the 80s 5cd compilation around here somewhere.

Edit: Found it

It looks like I will have a stereo too. Someone else might want to bring another MP3 player...

You could plug in my iphone, but then if my wife calls everyone will get to hear a loud version of my sort of "nuclear containment failure alarm" ringtone.

I can bring two ipods with seperate 80s playlists...

We could totally rickroll the city of Pittsburgh.

Rick astley is the first track on the first CD, haha.

Rick astley is the first track on the first CD, haha

Well, I WAS going to show up, but never mind.

Whoa. Just reading that is like a mental sugar rush.

so i dunno if you guys were serious about the route but i'm blowing off the bucs game tonight, so let's go wherever...

I don't get off work until 5:30pm..... I've never 'twitted' or followed anyone, so how can I know where will you folks will be to try and catch up with this flock?

Listen for the synths. Duh.

You can browse to http://twitter.com/#search?q=%23pghfoc on your mobile device to follow the hashtag.

I'm still getting over a cold, I really want to ride but don't want to regret it...

Nice playlist, but where's the Simple Minds? (Don't You) Forget About Me...

Last week I showed up at Dippy at 6:30 wondering where everyone was, and realized I was dumb and had added an hour to the meeting time in my head.

Then I realized I was even dumber and had subtracted a week in my head.

That said, I'm afraid I can't make it today

So it's the second-LAST friday of a month, right?

Oh its on there, thats only a small portion of the playlist.

Uh oh, those clouds don't look too friendly

Forecast/radar says we're going to get a little wet, should pass quickly.

Looks like a small drop of rain. Not too worried about it. Not many blips on ye old weather.com radar.

if I wasn't watching the kids tonight, I'd be there

Just got out of work and there's no tweets at #pghfco to where the flock is...

Fantastic ride! Perfect weather, nice company, and fun music. Thanks Nick for starting this, and thanks to everyone that came along.

bloggy

bahahaha, @ Stef are you in the middle of rolling your eyes at the helmetless dude???

The other thing this particular FOC Event helped to foster was how bike-friendly South Oakland generally is. Pleasant, wide, one-way streets and let's not forget proximity to virtually every hot spot within the city within less than 3 miles. Amazing!

(Like I may have said earlier, where I grew up in Indiana Township you had to go at least FOUR miles to get to ANYTHING, and those suburban roads are anything but bike-friendly)

What a friggin' blast. I haven't had that much fun in months. Biking with a friendly group, with friendly onlookers cheering us on, and with not only our own soundtrack, but a CHOICE of soundtrack! 80s pop or 90s punk & ska, on two stereos? Heaven.

Nice to meet you all, looking forward to Midnight Mass...

It was really fun. Wish I had been able to hang around later. @david: haha, not sure what the expression is for, but we did have this convo! in some fairness, he did just move to Pittsburgh 6 days ago. He has in mind to protect his own, and will purchase a helmet soon.

Damn..... I so wanted to do this but didn't get outta work until 6:30pm, and then when I checked the Twitter #pghfco updates, there was't one until around 8pm about vagely being on the Milvalle trail. Needless to say, I went home after work hoping to see the flock, but nothing....

Next time, please help a sister! How about updating more often, or more accurately, where the flock is heading out to for the late commers? Or, setting up previously planned 'key stops' where one can try to join the ride in process?

Bummed

26+- riders, by one 8-year olds count. 24+- miles. 0 traffic conflicts. 0 meanness. Flocking awesome.

I got to tell someone new to Pgh about BikePgh.org. (the little family by Sta Sq.)

I got to talk to some elderly folks who thought the whole thing was darn cool.

Helmetless dude who collected pizza money - are you Impala? Did I overhear you say that was the farthest you had ridden? If so, outstanding! Cool bike too.

saltm, we didn't chat - I thought you were exaggerating when you said in some other post that you had too much hair to fit under a helmet. Whoa.

Bikeygirl, Sorry you missed us. I'll see what I can do about getting some google latitude-type tracking going for next time so latecomers can track us and catch up. I think there was also talk about pushing the start time by a half hour or something so people getting off work late can still make the ride.

I like the idea of several staged starts with meeting locations, or pickup points, like dippy - 5:30, east end somewhere @ 6:30, the strip somewhere 7:30, something like that. that way the earlies can be riding and people can jump in.

BTW, I thought the route yesterday was excellent, I wouldn't mind if that became sort of a base route. Esp since when dark hit we were quite a bit off of roads and in the hollow. That was cool.

Also, Nick, thanks for everything, awesome job.

I'm glad to see everyone that made it out.

I think we proved that there is no reason a group ride has to break laws. FOC was more fun than any of the CM rides I've been on (5 years worth).

The entire 24 mi we had one automobile driver who seemed a little perturbed. One.

We are thinking about pushing it back a half hour--meeting at 6:00 with the goal of leaving by 6:30. Thoughts?

A bunch of us plan on going to CM next week, and then leaving from Dippy how we did yesterday.

Who wants to host the post-FOC party next month?

Also, thanks for those who contributed beer money--it helped. I still have a case of PBR and some tequila that I'll bring to the next post-FOC party.

Also, Impala is Nick.

The helmet-less fellow is Mike.

Was a wicked good time. Bikeygirl - I did post under #pghfoc as did a few others (http://twitter.com/#search?q=%23pghfoc), but a latitude tracking system would be better. Its hard to ride, take photos, post a location, and catchup, all at the same time, haha.

I'll have my photos up sometime later. I've got a lot to sort through.

Great post, Stu!

I'm down with leading at 6:30, I'm off on fridays so anytime works for me.

I.... I just died in your armmmms tonight.... musta been something you saiddd.

Had that stuck in my head for a few good hours.

Oh yeah, the family who were counting us were awesome. They were so into it. That was the thing, we had not only positive feedback from onlookers, but especially enthusiastic feedback. The vibes really helped push me along on the longest ride I've taken so far this year.

I would also like to point out that the journey the ride took was a very helpful orientation for biking around Pittsburgh - we covered the majority of the trails and back-ways near to downtown. It was like the bike map set to real life. Fun AND educational...

Like I said yesterday, I think FOC really shows what the cycling community in Pittsburgh is really like.

Rob, I look forward to seeing your pictures.

I setup glympse on my android phone (real google latitude is buggy as hell). I will do my best to keep this running when I go on a large group ride in PGH, including the FOC rides. It seems to have crashed at least once just sitting here on my couch, so we'll see how successful it is.

I'm a little paranoid about this being used for evil, so I've made it as private as I can.

How it works:

* You request to follow the private twitter feed where I will send the links ( http://twitter.com/trackpghcycles ). If you are adamantly opposed to twitter, let me know and we can arrange something else. If you don't have a well-established twitter account that I might recognize, also sent me a PM here letting me know your twitter username. Just trying to keep the riffraff out.

* To follow a ride, login to twitter, click on the most recent link and it should pop up with a nifty googlish-map in your browser, with my location, direction of travel, speed, and a short tail indicating where I just was.

* If you have an iPhone or android phone, you should be able to install the glympse app, and use it to follow the 6 digit glympse IDs in the links (XXX-XXX).

If you are interested in co-glympsing with me, we could make the twitter account a communal place to post the links. Just PM me.

@Edmonds: To clarify who I was, I was the guy who was wearing his helmet MOST of the ride, had the blue bike, blue helmet, white tee shirt with blue sleeves and my single right-side open pannier. Also by the time we finished in South Oakland I managed to throw on my simple reflector vest.

Also, I would be down for "timed" checkpoints. The funny thing is we ended up doing that anyway on this last ride, just randomly. No reason we couldn't have "scheduled" stops like that in places like the Strip, Downtown, South Side, etc. I mean, we basically did that anyway without scheduling.

Also, I'm for any route that doesn't involve major climbs or steep stuff. I mean, I can do those on my own, but we don't need this to become a marathon. That said, I'm glad we came DOWN Polish Hill. Personally I would have rather seen a route through the Strip and maybe part of Uptown with the Armstrong Tunnel and 10th Street Bridge.

My point is that there is no reason we need to follow a similar route each time or anything. I would love to hit lots of Pittsburgh neighborhoods with this as we do it over the months. That said, I understand there is definitely limitations with going to places like south of the South Side Flats or the Hill District or something, but I think the more people that see something like this, the better.

Thanks all for looking into this!!! I think tha just setting pre-determined stops along the route will suffice!! Specially for the people who are less technologically advance.

I mean, if you think about it, when birds migrate they pick-up other birds to join the flock during the way....

Allrighty, a month from now then!!!

And Midnite Mass... I will put it on my calendar

Impala: I am just now looking online to find one of those open panniers after admiring yours. Where did you get it? Hell I might just make my own...

I, myself, prefer a random route without a lot of predetermined time points or destinations. But I am only one cycle in a flock.

Part of the fun of these rides for me is being able to spontaneously pick someplace to go, and go there. If we have to get over to southside to pick up a couple people up who may or may not be waiting there, we can't be very spontaneous.

Before he blew it off, there was talk of routing the ride to the North Side to drop mustion off at a Pirates game. Last midnight mass we rerouted the mass to drop someone off at home. If we have time points or places to check in, we wouldn't be able to do things like that.

Get a phone number from someone you know will be there, have them route the ride over to where you are.

Just my two cents.

@dwillen: True, but I think we could still be spontaneous while accommodating for perhaps one other time-point. I think we should opt for something like and start on time, or not do that and do what Nick said and start one half hour later.

@mustion: I actually got them at REI on the South Side. I'm pretty sure they currently sell the exact same design. They are great for holding a bunch of random crap like I often have, not to mention a bunch of groceries. They're not so good in the rain because they don't have anything like a built-in cover, but I'm sure that's something that's not hard to jerry-rig. I often just have a heavy washcloth or something to cover over the stuff (like papers) that could be damaged by water.

I agree with Dan.

I think what made FOC fun was the "Rider in the front is the leader" rule I pushed on the guys up front works well.

The rotating leader system allows people to see parts of the city they have never seen before--everyone takes the group to their favorite places.

Bikelygirl, I'll PM you my mobile number.

6:30 start time works for me. Especially in the summer when the days are long. I will have tracking going next time, which shouldn't be that complicated to use.

Go to twitter.com, make an account, go to http://twitter.com/trackpghcycles and click follow. When you are ready to join the ride, visit http://twitter.com/trackpghcycles again and click the link(s) that will be there. It will bring up a map with a continuously updated real-time location of the ride.

About the finding us thing:

If I can get it working more reliably, amateur radio has the answer!

http://aprs.fi/?call=KB3QYG&dt=1241308800&mt=m&z=15&timerange=3600

This website will update with my position real-time while I'm running the system. We used it in the marathon to track where the lead and last hand-cycle racers were (the link is the log of that route). I could bring this along to the next one, and anyone could go to aprs.fi and check where KB3QYG is.

I too prefer the spontaneity. If we can get some sort of online update system together it'd be perfect. I think last night, we just sort of forgot... we were on panther hollow and someone checked this board and said "oops, we forgot to post updates!" Kind of hard to do while biking.

I just read the thread where this ride was proposed... I'm glad we proved the nay-sayers wrong. The ride was very very successful.

They nay-sayers were mainly talking about trying to change CM.

But, I am also glad they were wrong, because it means I was right.

@alnilam, that looks exactly like this glympse thing I tried out. If people don't care and it makes it easier, I'll just make the glympse feed public. I just wanted to avoid some crazy person with a grudge tracking down a bunch of good mannered cyclists.

Who was the dude in the purple shirt who left with Stef when we got pizza?

And what was the awesome street in polish hill we went through with the signs and 'interesting people'?

You mean Gold Way? My coworker that came along on the ride lives on that street.

Thats an impressive speed you've got there

I'm the purple shirt dude.

@edmonds- yes, it's true: additional padding and visibility. Sad that we didn't get to meet in real life! but there's always the next ride. I should probably be able host folks afterward for the next one (highland park).* Wish i could have stuck around a bit later last night, but I had a blast for the time I was there. That was Jake Liefer with whom I fled the flock. We realized that we have a ton of mutual friends and that we were heading to the same goodbye bash for one of them.

*there will be [hula]hooping.

Thats an impressive speed you've got there

Thats how I roll. I hit the turbo button.

It was probably the trees in the park, with the rain and lightning that messed up the GPS.

Were you watching it? Did it look decent enough to find where a group would be? They don't have any sort of instant replay, so I can't watch myself.

i could use a turbo button.

Yeah we should bring it through HP next time - loop around the park/reservoir as a sort of victory lap and then after party at Stef's...

dwillen - Yeah, I was super impressed by it. It gives you a running route up to the current location, then moves along the map to the next location, looks like its exactly what we need to track rides in an easily digestible format.

Was it just sitting in your bag running on a timer in the background?

Stef, I was actually going to try to convince you to host next time. I'm not sure why, but it sounded like a good idea.

I had my phone in the front pocket of my rain jacket. The app kind of runs in the background and doesn't seem too hard on the battery. The timer is how long the "glympse" lasts. After the timer runs out the location data stops being shared. I can set it for 4 hours though, which should be more than long enough for a ride.

Its pretty cool. I can send glympses via SMS, email, twitter, facebook. I figured a twitter account was the easiest way to maintain a sensible list of people to share the data with.

Agreed. Wonder if Glympse will update with iPhone 4.0 to let it update in the background. If it does, we can have a couple going for redundancy.

This looks like fun, I'm not sure I can keep up with that pace. 284mph? WTF yinz ride. I mean I can go like 200 but 284? Maybe I'll just stay home and watch on the Interweb.

Yeah, it was a good ride. I was happy that the post-ride pizzas survived on my rack without too much wear and tear.

I do like the random nature of the ride and prefer not setting up too much in the way of pre-defined stops. I would rather not push out the start time either, leaving around 6ish seemed to work out ok. Later and I have a lot of time to kill between work and the ride. But that's just my take on it.

I had a few people tell they couldn't make it until later. I figured no one would really mind a half hour difference. I don't think we left until 6:10-6:15 anyway.

Personally, if I get off at 5, I have to push it to get there much before 6. Though, it doesn't really matter.

Cyclemeter for iPhone will post your location to Google Maps but it's more accurate and harder on the battery. And you can have it post updates to Twitter too.

We could always have an "early start" crowd that just loops around Oakland for 30-45 mins and then still meet up at Dippy at 6:30. I mean, that's basically what I would be doing anyway.

A small group can navigate rush hour traffic in Oakland pretty well. It's when you start to get more than a dozen or so that it gets more difficult.

Photos are up

Rob, that first picture is pretty awesome. I remember you taking it--my rear end was killing me at that point.

Nice photos! I'll have to check out your strap situation, because mine was annoying the crap out of me and I just packed my camera away half way through the ride.

Most of my strap situation for that ride was just some techniques I've accumulated shooting with that strap while riding over time. I'm actually in the process of cobbling together a few different things to carry my camera in a safer manner, involving a new strap and a bag. Currently for long rides, I keep my camera in a handbar bag, but it bounces around, can jump out, takes every hit my bike does, and leaves the camera un-tethered to my body.

I might have my new set up by friday (if you're coming to our anti-CM), if it works out, I'll show you the strap I have right now which is neoprene and super nice, I got it for free, assuming the new setup works out, you can have my old one.

Yea, I will be at anti-CM--testing my newly implemented bicycle tracking system.

Anti-CM? Do tell.

Meeting up at the same time and place as CM, but doing our own thing and following the law again. I'll be there, Nick will be there, Dwillen and a few others.

Ah, like the split-off from CM last month, that sounded amazing. I'd join but I'll be out of town. Have fun, see you the following week for MM...

It will be similar to our split off, minus the aggravation at the beginning.

If you guys get Bumper Bike again I'll be pretty jealous.

rob, consider this for a great camera solution: http://www.ortliebusa.com/CartGenie/prod-20.htm

its submersibly waterproof, and the most comfortable bag i've ever owned. there is a camera insert for it that adds padding and compartments... its perfect

Mark - I had looked at that, but its way too expensive, doesn't holster the camera in a way that makes it accessible in the way I need it, its all around too big and still leaves the camera untethered when I take it out of the bag. My solution keeps the camera safe in and out of my hand, allowing me to shoot with a full range of motion on my bike.

Dwillen says: Get a phone number from someone you know will be there, have them route the ride over to where you are.

Strikes me as the best strategy.

As far as stareting later? This time of year it would be OK, but I was glad to get all that riding time in.

When the sun starts setting earlier, the earlier start time will be much better, IMO.

Mick

shooting while riding... almost as dangerous as running stop lights!

Especially for those you're shooting at. Bullets hurt...

mark - Only if you're dumb about it (shoot in large crowds, next to cars, on rough terrain). I'm never looking through the viewfinder, its all 'from the hip'. I'm really only putting myself in danger.

I'm way late to the post-ride-comment party, so let me just say "Great ride, much fun, will do it again, thanks for putting it together."

Rob was just kind of aiming and shooting. There were a lot of times where I was behind him only see his lens popped over his shoulder or under his arm while he was facing forward.

Nice bunch of photos. You should send #48 and #51, with Mick & Stef, over to the guy at the "Copenhagen Cycle Chic" site, with a little explanation of the Flock ride. I'm sure the burgh has never been represented over there.

Something I noticed on the ride, a large percentage of the bikes were fitted with racks, fenders, lights, everything, real ready for anything bikes. A much larger percentage than, say, CM, or the typical cross section of bikes you see in town. I'm not sure what that means exactly, I guess the flock is real everyday riders.

Does that mean it also moved a bit faster?

Uh, no.

I'd categorize the pace as "social and pleasant". Lack of imprecations being screamed at us by other road users may have contributed to a feeling of slowness...

Id say, average speed was much much slower than CM. For a faster ride, check out Midnight Mass.

Slow and leisurely. I was guessing we'd traveled 15 miles at one point; turned out it was closer to 20 then, and 22 to 24 by the time we got back to Oakland. Many stops for traffic lights, chatting with people, and keeping us fairly close together. It seemed long, but to me only because it got dark and I was getting hungry.

By the time I got home, I'd probably put 35 miles under me for the day, but since the better part of it was so laid back, I didn't feel at all drained.

Yea, we were starving by the end. 22 miles was longer than I thought it would be, but I had a lot of fun. The pace was slow enough for anyone to keep up. With the slow pace, people yelling and cheering, and the music, it was like a mobile party.

Yeah, the music and cheering gave the ride a good vibe.

I put glympse on my phone - looks handy for stuff like this. I have figured out how to send glympses, but I haven't figured out how to track somebody else.

This reminds me of something I've been imagining for years: a version of TRON for bicycles, for real.

@Lyle on my phone, it is menu -> settings -> view a glympse and then it asks for the 6 character ID (the end of the URL) xxx-xxx.

Let me know if you want the trackpghcycles login details, we could all send our glympse invites to the same protected twitter feed.

"...like a mobile party."

So the sound systems are kind of worked out, so the next project is, what, a snack and beverage trailer? Disco lights?

I was thinking about making my stereo a trailer. That way, it would be used on any bike.

My next project is fixing the damned bike blender that I broke twice.

I am also working on a trailer for touring. I was going to make it fit a tote, but then I decided a plastic cooler only weighs a little more. If I get it done for next month we could have a picnic!

@ndromb If I get it done for next month we could have a picnic!

I have a BOB trailer. I can fit my small grill in it and still have some room for a few dogs and burgers. I'd love to do a picnic.

I'll gladly donate my Gnashbar BOB-clone to the cause of ride-eat-ride as well.

I'm wondering what the effect would be of multiple glympse updates from different sources in the same group. If I'm riding a block behind you, is that going to look like two riders near each other, or just one, rapidly spiralling his way down the road?

Nick, I was thinking about that, you probably just need to use the spindle from an actual blender motor, it's probably a high strength tool steel or hardened or something.

Also try using a second idler roller on the opposite side of the tire from the drive roller to keep enough pressure on the drive roller.

I think I am going to make a stand-alone bike blender with the bender in front of the rider. I am going to try to ride of the roller all together and use a gear box (like a hand drill).

@Lyle, it would appear as two different arrows on the map. We would have multiple glympses, but they aren't updating the same dataset. A user would choose to view one or the other, or both (layered on top of one another). The URL the thing sends out is the ticket to view the map and we would both just be posting our own URLs to the same twitter feed. The benefit is if maybe one of our phones stops updating, someone looking for the ride would still have one working glympse.

I don't know if anyone else has any strong opinions either way, but I could always make the feed public. I personally would feel better knowing only cyclists are able to track us down.

I just don't know how useful it is going to be. Knowing were we are at a given moment helps, but it doesn't take into account where we are headed.

I just think the easiest way to find us is t call someone.

I agree, it isn't useful if we're on the north side and you're in regent square. We'll be somewhere else before you get there. But if we're biking down Penn and you're sitting at work in doughboy square, it would be neat to know that.

Also, anyone with their own android/iphone can view the position in real time, on the go. So you could take off from work, and join up with us from anywhere.

It doesn't add any additional trouble, as I'd be carrying my phone anyway. Just a few buttons to push before we take off is all. It will be interesting to see if anyone uses it, or finds it useful.

I imagine something like, it kind of looked like rain and some people didn't show up, but the sun came out and it became nice right after the ride started. Someone checks the map and sees there is a big group of cyclists heading right past their house/work. They could easily join without having to worry about phoning a friend.

I definitively think it is a good idea. I just think having a rider's phone number is probably more practical for most people.

On that note, if anyone want's my number to find us next time, PM me.

The GPS log will be cool for ride reports.

As useful as it would be, glympse doesn't seem to log anything. I'll run an extra app for that.

Nick, are you up to the challenge?

Coolest ride ever...

You think your rear end got sore riding the tall bike, wait till you haul a couple of kegs around for 22 miles

It would totally suck to get it up on the fort pitt bridge sidewalk, only to back it all the way out upon encountering those stupid sandbags and construction signs.

I just won off of eBay some of those valve cap lights, they're coming from Hong Kong so hopefully they'll be in for the next Flock of Cycles mobile rave.