The shop closed up early for Critical Mass and we headed down to the Art Gallery in a mini mass of 10 to 15 cycles which we picked up from The Drive and along the Adanac Bike Route.

Once we arrived at the Art Gallery it was hard to find a spot that wasn’t already covered in people.  We knew the June Critical Mass is the biggest one of the year, but seeing the huge numbers of people for the first time was a sight to see.

June Critical Mass view from the Art Gallery

Walking up the front steps of the Art Gallery really gave me a sense of how large this event has actually become.

There was also a large number of people who were getting themselves body painted in preparation for the ride and a few of us just couldn’t resist getting a few trees painted on ourselves.

Tree Face Painting

For Cam MacLeod this was his first Critical Mass in Vancouver and he was riding a Tree. While we were cruising down Burrard he mentioned how easily the bike carried itself.

“It is very robust, but a lot lighter then it looks, I didn’t think it would be a fast as it is,”

Cam has only worked for us for about two weeks and after a short one hour ride he was impressed by the quality that went into this bike.

I have also been amazingly impressed with this bike. Since taking mine home last week and putting it through both street and field testing I can certainly say this bike has out performed any two wheeled transportation I have ever ridden on.

Nigel, left, Monica, and ilan--they're laughing as always, (usually at each other). This was just before the start of the May Critical Mass through Vancouver.

We at the Bikes on the Drive (BOTD) have been working hard this summer, so hard we had our busiest month ever at the shop in the month of May. And while we feel chained to the shop sometimes we decided to close the shop down and hit up Critical Mass while riding our new Tree bike by Devinci with some riders from Global Agents for Change.

And while we had a mini mass of 15 riders heading down to the Art Gallery to join over 900 cyclists we can honestly say it was the best idea we have ever come up with at the shop.

It was also the first time I took out a Tree for an extended ride. I had rode the bike around East Van and down to False Creek, but this was the first time I had rode the bike for more than an hour and in a lot of traffic (cars and bikes).

A trio of riders (Lian, Shani are centre and left) cruise down the southside of the Granville Street Bridge during the May Critical Mass through Vancouver.

I also really like my old school Norco I have been riding around for the last year, it isn’t flashy or new and the frame is at least 20 years old. But I can honestly say that all of that changed when I took the Tree through its paces over the course of the night. It was by far one of the smoothest, hard-frame rides I have enjoyed since I started riding in Vancouver last year. I also had to shoot picture with one hand and ride with the other, so I felt it was a quite stable ride too.

After the ride the group from the shop went down to the Global Agents for Change BBQ in East Van where we rested our tired feet and filled our bellies with some nicely cooked burgers while meeting riders from across North American who would be taking part in the ride.

This is where ilan came up with the idea of closing down the shop on Critial Mass Friday. It was by all accounts the best critical thinking he had done all day.

So for the rest of the summer will be closing the shop at 5 p.m. on Critical Mass Fridays and enjoying a nice, long ride at the end of the week. Being a bike enthusiast yourself we hope you know why we decided to close down early one Friday a month and hope you will join us!