hello!

CRITICAL MASS
Friday 30th May 6pm
Central Library Manchester

A totally ace bike ride around our city to meet other cyclists and ride
without purpose on our roads for a bit...it's such a nice and sociable and
fun way to spend a Friday evening on a bicycle..wow. so ace. and now we're
getting bigger and bigger..someone said they counted at least 100 people
on the one last month, how ace is that?!!..come and be part of our lovely friendly cruise around..to collectively enjoy the beautiful experience that is riding a bike.

We're probably gonna go for a beer at the sandbar afterwards and then some
of us are riding on to stockport to go to the Stockport Beer & Cider
Festival at EDGELEY PARK, Stockport..if you want to join us it would be
ace.

People's comments about Manchester Critical Mass

"...it's brilliant. Usually I'm charging around on my bike, getting where i need to go as fast as i can. Critical mass is different. It's about enjoying riding. It's the most relaxed ride around the city I've ever had. Where all my worries and fears float away. And I've met some lovely people too"

"I was scared it would be some angry bike militants but everyone is so friendly and the ride is fun no aggro at all. See you next month!"

"it's quite something to have that many peeps riding round at once."

"Critical Mass sometimes has a reputation for being an angry rabble of cyclists that want to string up any car drivers they see. This is not true of Manchester Critical Mass, it is a fluffy mass of people that like to have fun on bikes, there are often have children with us and a bicycle sound system to add to the party fun atmosphere. As well as being fun and a social event it is also to show how great a car free city will be. This is achieved every month by showing motorists an alternative, yet critical mass Manchester doesn't aim to annoy drivers we want them to join us.."

(taken from emails we've received)



MIDNIGHT RIDE
This month the Midnight Ride will be a total treat. FRIDAY 6TH JUNE

We'll be cycling around 20 miles to an amazing castle then camping out
then riding back the next day (or for those sleepy heads there's a train
station real near that will take about 30 mins to get into mcr)

So you will need:
tent/bivvi
sleeping bag
food
water
drink
the OS Landranger map for Manchester ould be very useful
Tools e.g. spare inner tube, spanners, allen keys, tyre levers etc.

As usual we'll be meeting up at 10.30 at the sandbar leaving at quarter to
midnight

We will have 2 rides 1 that will go a little faster to set up camp and one
that will ride at a slower pace. We hope that people will join these
groups so that we can cycle and socialise at the same time and also look
out for each other.

Please email us with your telephone number if you will be attending, and
let us know if you can't attend (if you have registered on the ride)



SUNDAY RIDE
i was thinking that next Sundays ride (sun 25th may) could be to Liverpool
along the tpt (and back?! or the train!) as we didn't go yesterday due to
exams and stuff.

Anne Tucker told me it's the Liverpool Streets Ahead Festival from 9am to
5pm so that would be nice:

Liverpool will be awash with fantastic street theatre, music, dance,
puppets, both shows and spectacle, featuring leading artists from all over
the world.

With shows on every corner, roaming acts along the streets, surprises in
the squares and shop windows, performers hanging 60 feet above your head,
the best of European street arts of the past decade are revealed. Streets
Ahead will be a high energy weekend of delights culminating on Bank
Holiday Monday evening when the festival is handed over to you, the
audience, to ‘play the city’.

And we'd ride along the lovely tpt:

we'll follow a winding riverside path near the southern suburbs of
Manchester, passing by Chorlton Water Park Local Nature Reserve. Canal and
railway paths take us through Trafford to Warrington and on to the
tranquil St Helens Canal.

Towards Liverpool we'll pass through Halewood Country Park and the village
of Hale - complete with thatched cottages and country pubs - past
Pickering's Pasture Country Park with open views of the dramatic Mersey
Estuary, dedicated as a European Ramsar site for its wildlife importance.

it would be ace.

unless someone has a better/ different idea???


Can you come to any of these? let us know


also see http://ibikemcr.org.uk/index.htm

NEW WEBSITE COMING REAL SOON...WOOOO!

x x x

lol thats what i was gonna say.

Yep!! What does london have in terms of cycle to a castle, camp out, cycle back - That doesn't involve cycling 150+ miles?

There's also the folly castle by the reservoirs on Green Lanes. Although I wouldn't want to camp out in Clissold Park...

it was a pumping station, now a canoeing and climbing centre...

hampton court?

It's not a folly, it is, as Nasty pointed out, a pumping station cleverly disguised as a castle, my brother and I used to hire it out to put on parties.....

also the cycle mechanic based in the little "folly" gate lodge, is nice and good at what he does too.....

The folly pop lady at the zebra is nice too.