Day 1 Of The Copenhagen Invasion

This last weekend was very busy. I am not sure that I am entirely recovered from it to be honest. Over and above the usual craziness that occurs this time of year (my oldest son's birthday and Halloween with three kids), we were visited by Halloween Critical Mass and a visit by Mikael Coleville-Anderson of Copenhagen bike blogging fame. It has taken me a few days to decide how I wanted to write about this, especially as I was not the only local blogger at the talk, and there is plenty out there about the meat of the lecture. Suffice it to say that I came away with an even more firm conviction that bicycle advocacy needs to stay away from the bike (that is "bicycle enthusiasm", which is fun and I participate in personally) and stick to the people and their stories and needs if we want to grow this personal transport movement of ours.

That being said, I have one half decent shot from the talk its self-


I am unclear if these are poll results of the reason people cycle or if it is in fact a resumé (if so is Mikael good for 1% of the environment or good for it only 1% of the time?).


It was my hope that Mikael have fun while he was here and not be inundated by "bicycle infrastructure" talk all the time. SF was the last stop of his North American Tour, so I wanted him to see the fun side of American bike culture. The part that isn't obsessed with safety and how to make that happen (really, we all know how it works, we just have to decide to do it). Thankfully, the fun hit as soon as we left the lecture hall!



Waiting outside of the building was Eric Zo, of legendary SF messenger fame. Eric had his Bullitt with him and was able to give Mikael a lift back to the Hotel W so that Mikael could grab one of their free bikes


I wish I had got a shot of Mikael flying through SF streets on the platform of a cargo bike piloted by Eric, but alas, I did not and we will have to wait for Mikael to share those with the world. There is a picture of Lilia from Vélo Vogue hitching a lift from the hotel to the Ferry Building-

photo by Mikael

After lunch at the Ferry Building and drinks at XYZ, we all headed to Halloween Critical Mass. As we got closer to the crowd, we all got excited about joining in. There is something about being in a huge crowd of people who do what you do that gets the blood going!

Wildlife

Shooting Wildlife

Fast bikes, slow camera.

Why did the chicken cross the road? 'Cause the cow saw beer!

It was a great time. Mikael looked to be having a wonderful time amongst the cross dressers and the animals and the wigs and the fishnets...... I was happy to finally get my kids to CM

Declan in the red helmet.

Úna in feathers. Cameron was off being a teenager with his friends.

I was amazed at how well Úna rode through several thousand crazy people with utter ease. She was not in the least bit nervous or frightened by the crush or the noise.

Those who were left at the end (I did not get good pictures of our group. I think my camera hates me) all met up with KT and Meli at an Ethiopian spot in the Mission for dinner, after which a bunch of us ended up out drinking until 2 am (another event I have no pictures of so go here). I finally crawled into bed at 3:45 AM to be awoken at 7:05 AM by Declan, so we could finish his costume for later that day.

You would think that is the end of Eurobike SF, wouldn't you? Stay tuned for day 2.