AWESOME July 4th Rides, and other events in July

July 4th is 1000% bikes this year with an awesome Santa Monica Critical Mass/Firewerckx Ride mash up, and a race to the beach put on by Los Angeles Brakeless earlier in the day. Other events this month – the increasingly amazing CRANK MOB, Storm the Bastille on Bastille Day, Venice Critical Mass, some important Santa Monica City Council meetings, and probably a Friends of the Friendless ride.

Santa Monica Critical Mass falls on July 4th for the first time in it’s history. As always we’ll be meeting at the cannon at the top of the Santa Monica Pier, Ocean & Colorado, at 6:30pm, and then riding around 7pm. Last month’s ride was amazing, and without police presence. You can see who’s attending on the SMCM Event on Facebook, or mix it up in the forums on Ridazz.

What ought to make Santa Monica Critical Mass really spectacular is the good possibility of joining up with The Big BANG Firewerckx ride. The ride starts just south of the Santa Monica airport at 8pm, so if SMCM chooses to, it can comfortably make it to the ride by it’s 8pm
start time (sharp). Last year the Firewerckx ride was spectacular, a forshadowing of it’s organizer Kieron’s skills, who organizes CRANK MOB. The ride will head down to Marina Del Rey to catch the amazing fireworks display, and then we’ll ride around on closed streets for a while before heading to an afterparty. If you want to skip SMCM and head straight to the Firewerckx ride it meets at 12600 Woodbine St. in Mar Vista, and leaves at 8pm sharp. There is also a all day BBQ beforehand – see the event listing on Midnight Ridazz for details on that.

Before all of that (still on July 4th) the new fixed gear bike shop Los Angeles Brakeless (aka LAB), is hosting a race to the beach from their shop. The race starts from LAB, 3314 Motor Ave, LA, at 1pm. Participants pay a $5 entry fee, and the winner takes it all home. I’d pay in singles so they can be that much closer to sleeping in a pile of cash.

Here’s some other events for Westside bikers:

Monday, July 14th, 11am – 2pm, Storm the Bastille: Stephen & Enci Box started the ride series Storm the Bastille to get more riders to attend public meetings. This year they’re hosting a Storm the Bastille event on Los Angeles City Hall lawn (200 Main St.) on . . . BASTILLE DAY!!!

Saturday, July 19th, 9:30pm, CRANK MOB: CRANK MOB is, month in and month out, the best ride citywide. Last month it was like the end of the world over and over and over. There were a number of head injuries, but for the most part the ride was epic and FUN. Wear a helmet for those preventable head injuries and come out to experience the RAWESOME of CRANK MOB – Sawtelle & La Grange in West LA.

Thursday, July 24th, 9:00pm, Cub Camp, the Friends of the Friendless: It’s not certain, but usually the 1st week of Cub Camp is a Friends of the Friendless ride. That means we ride around until we find cyclists riding alone, and then we offer to escort them to their destination. We did it this month and it was epic and fun. Meet at the Bikerowave at 9pm.

Friday, July 25th, 7:30pm, Venice Critical Mass: Venice Critical Mass was great this month. We had two great soccer games, a lot of gymnastic amazing on rings, and an awesome time. VCM is a ride of destiny that got squashed by the weather this winter, but it’s making a comeback. Come out for the ride – it meets at Windward Circle.

Other than that there are a couple of important public meetings in Santa Monica which Westsiders should consider attending – particularly Santa Monica City Council meetings on the 8th and 15th. I’ll write more about those later.