Although I hate to admit it, @iEmilie and I left our precious cruisers out in a recent Texas storm.  Unlike the hood of my car, these beauties survived without too much damage!  I’ve never spent $50 in a better way!

Check out this picture from the Austin-American Statesman:

I immediately thought people must be streaking. YES! I never catch people streaking.

I run up the stairs to street level as though I just heard the Ice Cream Man song. But it wasn’t streakers. It was a pack of midnight bike riders. Like 100 of them.

I felt an overwhelming desire to run back downstairs and grab my Huffy cruiser. I wanted to ride with these magical midnight riders. But who were they and would they let a pip squeak like me ride in my PJs?

I started google-ing first thing next morning and I found this on the events listing on BicycleAustin.info:

It was the Annual Moonlight Cruise. It happens once a year on a full moon in September, drawing anywhere between 300 and-1000 cyclists. They don’t give an exact date so you have to find out about it through local bikes shops or from a random citing of a flyer.

Perhaps the Rosedale Riders will make the Midnight Ride next year.

Emilie and I first picked out sweet bike lights known as Night Riders.  These were a great deal.  Then, we moved on to the helmets.  I tried on a half-dozen adult size pieces of protective headgear before I realized that my cranium was abnormally small.  I had to settle for a child’s size helmet (see image below).  Should I be concerned or happy that I get to cruise around the Live Music Capital of the World rockin’ pink guitars!?!

First stop: Draught House on 42^nd and Medical. Great for a cruise stop; very bike friendly. Everyone is camped out in the parking lot, gracefully loitering, while they sip fancy draft beer. We rode up and felt like family.

Next stop: The Triangle.  We needed some grub so we headed to where Guadalupe and Lamar converge and 45^th street makes the base of an isosceles triangle (HOORAY GEOMETRY!). This area would be hit-or-miss for our bike gang. It’s got some cool laid back restaurants, but the people there sometime be a little too “Dallas” for my taste. But we were a hit. We rode up to Flying Saucer and everyone was checking our bike gang out. We parked the bikes in front and lined the bikes in a row, just like Harleys, It was sweet. We felt like a real bike gang.

After a few hours, it was dusk and we headed out. We were still getting compliments as rolled one-by-one past the drunken 20-somethings. One guy, who looked like he probably had a chopper of his own (leather jacket and all), called out, “Sweet rides.”

“Live to ride, ride to live,” Lin’s nonchalantly responded.

Damn, we were so cool.

It was beautiful.  Not since I was 8 years old have gone exploring through my neighborhood with a group of random strangers.  There was a sense of unparalleled, innocent freedom mixed in with pure fun.

This night was also the start of our gang — the Rosedale Riders.

Think you can hang with this crew?  Comment on this post and we’ll setup a time to see your mad wheelie skillz.

In high school, I went through a strange Talking Heads phase. No, I didn’t burn down any houses.  But senior year at my prestigious (ha) all-girls school in the Deep South, I decided to make “Wild Wild Life” my theme song.  Filled with teenage-angst, I would roam the halls singing about fur pajamas and pieces of cake.

At SXSW 2007, I was lucky enough to meet the legendary singer of this amazing band, David Byrne, who has influenced current cult favorites like Radiohead, Widespread Panic, Phish, U2 and the String Cheese Incident.  His performance with Brazil’s Forro in the Dark at the trendy San Jose Hotel in Austin was a highlight of my minor infatuation with him….until now.

Today, I read this article in The New York Times about Byrne’s newest project.  The NYC Department of Transportation, in partnership with the art gallery PaceWildenstein, installed nine temporary bike racks designed by the musician and (new to my knowledge) biking enthusiast, David Byrne!

I would love to see this project copied here.  Keep Austin Weird and Riding!

Unpacking the two Huffy cruiser bikes from my car was like unwrapping presents under the Christmas tree. Unlike exercising the diligence we had in placing the bikes in the car, we yanked those babies out, lickety split. It was time to ride.

We decided our first trek would be a leisurely ride to Jo’s Coffee on 2^nd and Lavaca. About 10 minutes into the ride we realized it was 11:30 on a hot Saturday morning. It wasn’t long after that we realized we hadn’t eaten or even drank anything since we woke up. We were just two zealous kids who wanted to ride their bikes on Christmas morning in the middle of July.

A hot, humid, 103⁰F, snakes on a mother f-ing plane, morning.

Deirdre started fading on Lamar and 15^th.

Keep in mind D has told me horror stories of how she’s passed out at many an ACL Fest. She gets overheated faster than my family’s old 86′ Volvo station wagon in the middle of an Arizona Interstate Highway.

On the corner of 11^th and West, Deirdre pulls over and collapses on the ground. Amidst our leisurely bike ride, I’m compelled to call 911. We have no water and her world is spinning.

Deirdre has me call Kirby, her best friend, instead. They’ve been friends through thick and thicker and I assume he’s an expert in these situations. Kirby talks her through it and by the time they hang up, Deirdre is feeling a bit better, at least to the point where I can leave her by herself and make a mad dash to get some water. (Whew, that was a close one. Thanks Kirby.)

Whole Foods was the closest store, so I brought back premium, electrolyte-enhanced, fancy water. Mmm, electrolytes. Feel the Hydration (to the tune of the MarkyMark and the Funky bunch song).

It was clear we weren’t going to make it to Jo’s for Iced Turbos. We didn’t want to press our luck. So we turned around; we walked our bikes most of the way home.

This quest was partly inspired from a recent play we saw at the Blue Theater called ”Kidnapped by Craigslist.” This production, which had a motified script from the successful NYC play, was based on real postings in the Austin section of Craigslist.  It referenced UT parking stickers, Round Rock Donuts and of course SXSW.

Play - Kidnapped by Craigslist

Mmmm. Turbos. They have good ice.

So we manage to walk all the way to the back of the warehouse where we spoke with Jim. This middle aged man (who looks like tomorrow’s Santa Claus) showed us the Townie from Electra and told us all about flat foot technology. Sounds weird at first but then starts sounding really comfortable.

Let’s give it a spin, right? I see a wince from Jim. We’re told we have to come back when we don’t have skirts on. Turns out the Bicycle Sport Shop exhibits tactics similar to the panty liners you see when you try on underwear; keeping crotchal regions sanitary I guess.

No worries, we stopped at University Cyclery on the way home.  They let us have a “free ride” with skirts on. This time we tried a Giant, another sorta-cruiser bike. Only, this cruiser was a one-speed.

Lesson learned about one-speeds: they say you never forget how to ride a bike but you might forget how to stop on a one-speed. I saw Deirdre pull a Fred Flinstone by dragging her heels just in time to avoid putting a good ding in a Ford Focus. No hand brakes? It takes a bit getting used to.

We still weren’t ready to buy. Fork over $380 to ride around a one-speed bike in a somewhat hilly Austin? I live at the apex of a rather steep hill; that’s going to be tough without gears. (Yes, I said apex. I’m an engineer and proud of my geeky vernacular.)