Hmm. I rode with the Leeds CM a couple of times, a good few years back. I’d been knocked off my bike by a taxi driver, and after throwing the remains of my bike at his windscreen and uttering a few choice obscenities, I felt full of righteous indignation and a flaming desire to sock it to all the dangerous, inconsiderate drivers out there. A friend pointed out a CM ride coming up, and I vowed to join in.
On arrival, I had by bike criticised by a young gentleman on a bullhorned fixie, because it had nobbly tyres and purple bits, and gears. “Fair cop” I thought “You get a percentage of nobbers in any group, maybe others are different”. We moved off and rode for a while, and then stopped. In the middle of a junction. Blocking a right-turn, a straight-on, and a bus lane. “Hmm.” I thought. “Not only is this hacking off the car drivers around us, but it’s also holding up the people who are using public transport. Tell you what, I’ll step off my bike and stand on the pavement.” This action was greeted with a mixed response from my riding peers, some chose to simply snigger at my apparently ‘noob’ faux-pas, a couple quietly but politely told me that blocking junctions was what we were there for, a larger number offered the same sentiment but with, shall we say, coarser language and more emphatic gesturing.
I blushed slightly, got back on and rejoined the group, and we rode on slowly, a large number of vehicles gathering behind. Three or four stops later, a police van appeared behind, simply monitoring the progress of the group as far as I could tell. A couple of people in the group turned an interesting shade of white and cycled off slowly, in different directions to the main peloton. A couple of (admittedly shorter) mid-junction stops later, two young officers stepped out of the police van. One went to the rear, to have a quiet word with a couple of drivers behind who were making their displeasure known somewhat vociferously. The other approached the group and asked very politely if someone was in charge that he could have a word with, to be met with a mix of mumbling, plain ignoring and the odd not-very-clear bit of profanity. He asked again, to much the same response. A third time, and the not-very-clear profanity got a touch louder and a bit clearer. He shrugged, and wandered back to the van to consult with his superiors.
Two junctions later, the group stopped and the police van stopped behind us. This time, the other officer approached the group and asked, again politely, if anyone was in charge with whom he could have a word. At the now usual derisive response, he simply stated, loudly and clearly “then would you all mind, please, clearing the junction to allow traffic to pass.” I don’t remember the wording exactly, but mentions of the Roas Traffic Act (1988) occurred. In my opinion, rightly so. More derision, more profanity, more jeering.
At this point, I left, hearing a couple of choice words slung at my disappearing back by other riders (enter People’s Front of Judea joke here), for frankly, I was embarrassed to be part of it.
I tried again a year-or-so later, because I was still passionate and pee’d off with drivers, and much the same happened, save for the criticism of my bike. Again, after some frankly borderline illegal (and if not illegal, then just plain rude/stupid) actions by those ostensibly but not confessedly leading the ride, I again left shortly after a police van showed up. I was expecting the profanity by this point, but the blog comment spotted by a mate a couple of days later saying “and if that < exp.del > on the purple mountain bike turns up and < exp.del > ‘s off at the first sign of trouble again, I’ll < exp.del > him myself” came as a bit of a surprise.
Draw what conclusions you like from that account. The ones I drew were that CM in Leeds were a bunch of trouble-courting cowards, who banded together to annoy people, but hid behind the lack of structure in the “organisation” to avoid ever having to take responsibility for their collective actions. I won’t be going back, and I inform my friends of this when a couple of them have suggested going on CM rides. They’re free to go and make up their own minds, but so fast the only one who has, on one of the London rides, came back with the comment of “See what you mean. Won’t be doing that again…”
