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Yesterday, I got my first sunburn of the year. I am a member of a website called Meetup.com, and we have a St. Louis group that I have been trying to actually "meet up" with for the last few months. This particular event just happened to make it possible.
You may remember the tragic accident in Arizona on March 27, 2010, when 3 riders were killed, and 5 injured when a dumptruck ran them over at a stoplight. That group of riders were members of another group on Meetup.com, based in Phoenix, AZ. This event was to increase awareness of bikes on the road, and to encourage riders to concentrate more on safety. It ran from Osage Beach, MO, made a total of 5 stops along the way, ending at Forest Park, in St. Louis. The last leg of the ride (from Wentzville, MO) consisted of 84 bikes, 1 pickup truck, and a total of 114 people.
The organizers did a fairly good job of coordinating traffic blockades, and even used a set of bright orange Goldwings (one was a trike) as rolling traffic cones to allow for lane changes when needed. The victims in Arizona were on their way to a restaurant at the time of the accident to plan the rest of that day's ride, but never made it there. The owner of that restaurant actually rode his bike from AZ to MO and participated in this ride as well!
These are the bikes from our little Meetup group. We met at a local mall, then rode to Wentzville (40 miles or so). We were the first ones there:
We had a pre-ride meeting, to determine who was going to block traffic:
This was a nice Victory I just had to take pictures of!
The escort truck:
Once we arrived at Forest Park, we had private parking set aside for us, and we all took a group picture at the Worlds Fair Pavilion. If I find one of those pictures, I'll post it here too. This is the parking lot with all the bikes:
The silver one up front all by itself is the restaurant owner's bike. After looking through the bikes, I think I can safely say that mine was the oldest bike there though. One guy even asked if I needed extra parts for my Fairing, since he has an old Windjammer in his garage that he just wants to get rid of!
Of course, I gave him my card and told him to call me!
After the ride, I headed home and stopped at a QT close to my house. I went inside, and when I came out, a swarm of zip-splats came out of nowhere and invaded the parking lot!
Not sure where they were headed, but It looked like they were just making a pit-stop on the way to somewhere else.
You may remember the tragic accident in Arizona on March 27, 2010, when 3 riders were killed, and 5 injured when a dumptruck ran them over at a stoplight. That group of riders were members of another group on Meetup.com, based in Phoenix, AZ. This event was to increase awareness of bikes on the road, and to encourage riders to concentrate more on safety. It ran from Osage Beach, MO, made a total of 5 stops along the way, ending at Forest Park, in St. Louis. The last leg of the ride (from Wentzville, MO) consisted of 84 bikes, 1 pickup truck, and a total of 114 people.
The organizers did a fairly good job of coordinating traffic blockades, and even used a set of bright orange Goldwings (one was a trike) as rolling traffic cones to allow for lane changes when needed. The victims in Arizona were on their way to a restaurant at the time of the accident to plan the rest of that day's ride, but never made it there. The owner of that restaurant actually rode his bike from AZ to MO and participated in this ride as well!
These are the bikes from our little Meetup group. We met at a local mall, then rode to Wentzville (40 miles or so). We were the first ones there:
We had a pre-ride meeting, to determine who was going to block traffic:
This was a nice Victory I just had to take pictures of!
The escort truck:
Once we arrived at Forest Park, we had private parking set aside for us, and we all took a group picture at the Worlds Fair Pavilion. If I find one of those pictures, I'll post it here too. This is the parking lot with all the bikes:
The silver one up front all by itself is the restaurant owner's bike. After looking through the bikes, I think I can safely say that mine was the oldest bike there though. One guy even asked if I needed extra parts for my Fairing, since he has an old Windjammer in his garage that he just wants to get rid of!
Of course, I gave him my card and told him to call me!After the ride, I headed home and stopped at a QT close to my house. I went inside, and when I came out, a swarm of zip-splats came out of nowhere and invaded the parking lot!
Not sure where they were headed, but It looked like they were just making a pit-stop on the way to somewhere else.
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