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Guest writer Teddy Leshnick often rides with the part-time fun, part-time rebellion group Crank Mob. Last Saturday, he and photographer Nathan Nowack took to the streets on the ride and took note of what they observed.
A typical CRANK is a party on wheels, where the participants visit various parks and supermarkets around West L.A. downing booze and causing a ruckus.
Last Saturday was the monthly bike mob, where hardcore commuter cyclists on tall bikes, two frames welded on top of each other, led a group of around 800 people around the Hollywood area. Mind you, the mob hit Hollywood Boulevard at around midnight when clubbers were out in full force.
“If this isn’t the last crank mob ever, it might as well be the last,” a mobber said while cop sirens wailed and angry drivers honked around the mass of cyclists.
This mob was different than others because of its disjointed start points. Usually, the everyone meets at Sawtelle and La Grange, and like the CRANK Mob website advertises, rides strictly around West L.A. Because of January’s large size, the mob’s council of elders decided to split into four start points, ranging from Los Feliz to Culver City. This set the mood for a hectic, disorganized and dangerous ride.
The four mini-mobs all merged at Pan Pacific Park, near Park La Brea. As the small group of around 100 riders from Westwood were cruising to Pan Pacific, the cops starting harassing the group because of its small size.
Around the Beverly Center, a young man ran a red light along with a group of bikers and was singled out because of his strange attire; he looked like a raver. A cop car sped up beside him. The officer in the passenger seat reached out the window and pulled him off his bike and on to the pavement. Bradley Russell and Darron Ravenborg, two college-aged riders, witnessed this act.
If most of the other cops on patrol that night felt the same way about the mob, it explained the vindictive and nasty actions of the cops.
For the next two hours, it felt like the police were herding the group around. They would speed along side the ride, to make sure everyone was in the right lane with sirens blaring.
On the way out of Hollywood a police cruiser clipped a young woman. Luckily, she didn’t fall as the cop car purposely jutted in and out of the bike stream. After hitting her, the cop did a fish tail burn out and sped away.
When ride approached Griffith Park, a police helicopter was shining its search light upon the mob.
In the police’s defense, some were very helpful by blocking major intersections and directing traffic. Unfortunately, this didn’t stop all the accidents. On the way back to Pan Pacific Park, where the ride officially ended, a girl got hit by a cabbie then yelled at by on-looking pedestrians.
After talking to more people, more horror stories of people getting hit emerged through conversation. The worst was a silver Porsche speeding through an intersection that hit a mobber and sent him to the hospital (see photo #2 above).
Riding around Hollywood on a Saturday night was not a wise idea. It’s fun when everyone keeps a good pace around the empty streets of the Westside, but a cohesive mob can’t gather amongst the screams and protests of angry night clubbers.
A solid roll couldn’t start because there were too many cars breaking the mob into pieces. As the mob became more dissipated more people were making dangerous solo dashes across busy intersections. Thus, people getting hit.
Out of the five past CRANK mobs, this was the most dangerous. CRANK mob can be fun under certain circumstances. The ride has to have a single start point and ride through West L.A.
After 11 p.m. the Westside is practically deserted. This means, no angry drivers and more importantly no angry cops corralling the ride. It was stupid planning the ride through a crowded part of town on a Saturday night. Keep it on the Westside and keep it safe.
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Perfect headline that sums up why you'll never find this Hold Most Everything Back, Non-Screaming, Non-Drinking, Non-Smoking, Trying To Respectfully Get Along Bike Rider will never be caught dead doing things like CRANK Mob.
crank mob is a shame.
do other smaller rides with less adolescents.
+1 with what Will Campbell said.
You know a ride = fail as the kids say when even the Shifting Gears Cycling Club could mock the 10 foot buffer zone between riders in the first pic. Way to not make use of Santa Monica Blvd's perfectly good bike lane.
do this shit somewhere else.
ironic fat chicks and kooks on bikes be damned.
go back to midwest and write your lame screenplays in the safety of your wheat and corn fields and walmarts.
Great idea riders, go way out of your way to piss off drivers and cops all in the name of getting respect for cyclists. Haven't we learned anything from the mess Critical mass has become?
ven_nm +1.
this shit is lame. Cork my block and you're getting an airsoft m-16 to the grill.
Haven't we learned anything from the mess Critical mass has become?
Gawd how I loathed those in San Francisco.
Nothing but a mob of assholes.
*shakes fist*
Damn pigs!
"Yeah, Damn Pigs! I'm drunk on a bike endangering others by running red lights with 500 of my closest friends and you want to give me a ticket? Everybody, Cops hate all cyclists!!"
Sigh, I remember when Crank Mob was fun, one of the most creative rides around and despite always being fairly wild, it didn't used to be so disruptive. The turning point was when really young teens started showing up who didn't want to listen to anybody and just use group riding as a way to say F you to everyone. It grew too big too fast and many of the new riders just plain don't give a damn about anybody. I was hoping some of the negative element growing within the ride would fade out or lose interest, but sadly it's become a monster of it's former self.
NOTE to Crank Mob: if you're running around being dickholes to everyone you see, negative reactions provoked by your dickholish behavior, even if coming from the coppers, is not "vindictive". That dickholish behavior, on the other hand...
Although Crank Mob was deserving of some police attention this past Saturday, I wish the police would actually give legitimate citations to people breaking laws. They don't ticket kids running a red light, they detain people waiting at the light like they are supposed to and then make up a reason to cite them, like the bike license infraction that isn't even supposed to be a citeable offense. They also searched a kids bag who was waiting at a light, and because they hand cuffed him before removing the bag it was difficult to get off, so they just cut the straps of the bag ruining it, and making it difficult to ride home with afterward.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/garyseven/3376485520/
I don't blame the cops for showing up, people were out of hand, but I think they could handle these things a lot differently, and perhaps maybe legally. Most of the citations given out will be probably be dropped in court easily, just creating a waste of time.
What a giant waste of time for everyone.
Don't jam up Hollywood with thousands of bicycles. Leave the area to the hundreds of thousands of 2000lbs polluting vehicles, with their alcohol-drenched drivers and passengers. Though the California Vehicle Code gives bicyclists the right. (not the privilege like a car driver, but the goddamn right) to ride the streets anywhere they please, it has been common practice to relegate bicyclists to second-class status. To send them to the back of the bus, sit them in a separate section (preferably near the kitchen), make them drink from separate water fountains and when the Man in the car comes driving down the street, you better pull your bike off the road and let him pass with your head lowered in deference. That’s right Crank Mob, know your place in our society. On the deserted streets of the industrial areas of West LA. Don’t be coming into places you don’t belong.
skd,
It is easier to make that point when you're not in a pack of dumb, wasted, out-of-town college and high-school age brats who clearly don't care about your "cause".
People will let you get a way with all kinds of stupid shit, but intentionally trying to cause havoc for "F.U.N." will not win you any supporters.
I've been on massive rides, on Friday or Saturday night, down Hollywood Blvd. with hundreds of people - and it wasn't that bad of a clusterfuck. It doesn't have to be stupid chaos, but clearly something is wrong with the jokers who put this ride on.
ubrayj02,
While I agree with part of your sentiment, I disagree it's something inherently wrong with the people putting it on. I've seen CRANK Mob since it's early days, and what has changed to make it so unruly is more to do with who is showing up now than the organizing. If anything the organizing has been going more out of the way to promote a safe ride than before, lots of safety messages, tieing safe behavior to earning spoke cards, clean mob crews, and more things of that nature than many social rides I've been on. However the wanna be rebel teens showing up now don't care what anyone has to say and they have grown at such a rapid rate it's now the bulk of the people showing up. The ratio of riders who care to those who care about nothing is out of wack and now it's gotten out of control. Crank Mob didn't used to be this disruptive at all, and for a while really was a lot of fun and my favorite ride. If you took all the 16 year olds showing up and riding all over everywhere and causing general chaos and screaming with their shrill not finished with puberty voices out of the picture, I doubt this would have ever come up as issue.
I love riding and I love the concept behind the Mob...but it's true; when groups start getting that big, the percentage of unruly, selfish pricks within it starts going up. Just because you're biking doesn't give you the right to act holier-than-thou simply because you're not polluting, etc (SKD). It's naive to think that way.
Last Saturday's ride was embarrassing, in my opinion. From the way so many people were behaving, I wasn't at all surprised the cops were bearing down on us. I talked to some of them, as well as the firefighters at the station near 3rd and La Brea and heard about the robbery, the accidents...and later saw the shit-ton of trash we left behind at that rite-aid in Hollywood. Considering how only 2 people were given (admittedly) bogus citations, I'm surprised there weren't more hefty and legitimate fines being thrown down.
Don't get me wrong, I want the rides to continue and to have big turn outs, but realistically, how are we supposed to spread a good word if so many of us get away with acting like new-age douchebags? We can't turn a blind eye to it, but we can't easily control individual behavior in a crowd of 500+ people. It's...a conundrum.
If you were to personify this comment thread it would be someone's grandpa waving his cane yelling "Get off my lawn!"
More like "Don't ride your bike in the middle of fucking Olympic, dipshit."
I'm really amazed that people don't die from getting hit during these things, because the way they ride is just begging for an accident.
I don't even like to be standing up when I'm drinking and smoking, let alone riding a bicycle.
these assholes are nothing but a group of disrespectful thugs. i've been cycling for over 20 years (both club riding and semi-professionally) and have never seen a more dangerous (for both riders and motorists) display of stupidity in my life. i was once stuck in the middle of a long line of these cyclist and they were kicking my car, throwing water bottles and threatening me with, "hey motherfucker, get out of your car!" -- all for trying to drive through an intersection when the light changed. i'm no lover of the police (especially the LAPD) but i say ticket every single one of these assholes or lock everyone of them up and throw away the key!! there is absolutely NOTHING good that comes from this. this type of stupid riding is one reason so many motorists hate cyclists... great idea guys!! and Teddy Leshnick... i hope you're the first one thrown in jail.
Alright old man....Don't let "those damn kids" get to you.
I love CRANK MOB.
In a city where it's hard to step outside the front door without opening your wallet, the mob is there for those of us without trust funds and Audi's. I can't think of anything LA has to offer that is less elitist and more fun than CRANK MOB.
P.s we are the band!
http://www.myspace.com/professorcalculus
I've been on a lot of raucous bike rides through every part of the city. I've been on big rides and small rides though hollywood, santa monica, and east l.a. Its not the size, or structure, or location(s) of this ride that caused the problems, in and of themselves. It seems more like a convergence of a lot of things combined with the fact that the CRANK Mob demographic tends to be a bit younger and bit wilder. Combine that with some nasty cops, nasty traffic, and fractured leadership and things can get messy really quick.
CRANK Mob is the wilder younger sibling of Midnight Ridazz and its not that MR has been without problems, but in its 5 years, lots of people have dedicated themselves to looking out for MR and are willing provide informal leadership.
In the end ... CRANK MOB will continue on, providing people fun on bikes, as long as the organizers keep at it.
Those who who like their free fun more sane and less chaotic will find something else to do, factors like that will cause the numbers of CRANK MOB to naturally eb and flow.
As for the bitchy drivers stuck in hollywood traffic they will find somebody else to be angry at next week as they sit in traffic and look for parking that is under $20 per car.