the Alley Cat virgin

Yes, that was me up until the other week. Drunkdodger 5002
took that from me and gave me a pair of sore legs for my
commute to work the next morning. But it paid the small
community of cyclists well that night! You may have some
opinion on alley cats depending on what "label" you give
yourself as a cyclist, or you may question how "cool" they
are (so you're aware, they're not cool, just fun as hell -
like a scooter, I guess). Although alley cat cards have
become the Office Space flair for cyclists. How much FLAIR
do you have?



Now I guess if you live in a large city (NYC) or have a
really active cycling community (austin), then you can be
selective on what events to lend your coolness to, but for
the Joe Six Pack of cities, including yours, YOU need to
make a concentrated effort to be part of anything bike
related. You need to bring the party, be the party,
otherwise you end up with 6 people looking at each other
thinking 'what the fuck? why even try?'. That was the big
REVELATION last month. (god doesn't reveal anything to me
except that I usually will be the butt or on the recieving
end of some crappy joke. I had a BAD LUCK tattoo, but it
was too obvious, like wearing a "i'm with stupid" shirt
while entering a room with George W).



So I made the effort to be at ANYTHING bike related, and
life is better for it. An alley cat that I thought would be
10 or so familiar faces brought out 29! 9 or so dropped out,
I learned the hard way to plan my route, met some new people,
but ultimately two people drove this culture by riding and
planning the routes (after riding home from the 9-5) and
MADE this happen, and I did my part in showing up.

There was also Critical Mass on a miserable rainy friday
evening, that ended with some good people having coffee at
the Co-op food market. The local bicycle coalition meeting
at the coffee shop, that DIDN'T require pushing tables
together because only a couple showed up. Or the Long Bike
Back ride, which if you had a friend ever hit by a car, you
would be there for principle alone (and whenever there's
more than a couple of cyclists, you can TAKE THAT LANE!)

So if your local scene sucks? Well, I'ld have to say...
IT'S YOUR FAULT! Our Critical (non)mass was 6-8 people, if
I didn't bolt on some dorky fenders and get off my warm
couch, it would've been one less. JUST BE THE PARTY.