This ride will mark the completion of two years of Bolton Critical Mass. Something extra to celebrate!
The weekend of the ride is Bolton Pride weekend, celebrating diversity, and working against hate crime and hatred in all its forms. The music playlist reflects that.
Of course, everyone riding may have their own theme for the ride; after all, Critical Mass is anarchic – there is no leader.
Weather
The Met Office
The weather forecast is still (9.30am on Friday 28th July) looking great.
A possible Route
As always, this is just a suggestion. Critical Mass is anarchic; there is nobody in charge.
Well, a week after the Summer Solstice, and the day was still very long. Six of us enjoyed a very wet ride; the first time we have got wet in 23 rides over nearly 2 years.
Unusually, this ride coincided with the Ironman weekend in Bolton, and we finished just as the Night Run started at 7.00pm from Victoria Square. The town centre was very busy with traffic, which was squeezed onto a small number of roads.
As always, we had a gentle ride with music and time to chat.
The Route
We followed roughly this route, though we had to divert for road works and some differences in the road closures compared to what was published.
The mayflowers (hawthorne) were out in abundance this year, though we didn’t see any on this ride, but eight of us enjoyed an informal, gentle pootle around Bolton town centre in glorious weather. There was music and friendly chat, and all retired to the Northern Monkey afterwards.
The route we took
This was the route of the ride..
Some pictures
Videos
Setting off
Church Bank
Churchgate
The Free Wilders, Colin and Sadie, joined us on their tandem. Read about their amazing charitable naked tandem-riding adventures on their Free Wilders FB page.
Queen’s Park looking good.
Exiting Queen’s Park – In which Colin and Sadie show us how it’s done.
Unfortunately we do occasionally have a driver being an idiot, including so-called professionals.
Five of us enjoyed a lovely ride in glorious conditions, taking in many of Bolton’s cherry and apple blossom trees.
We enjoyed this playlist during the ride. Other than the cherry tree references, it’s an indulgent one for me this time. Focus because I saw them a couple of weeks ago at Bury Met on their 50th anniversary tour (belated due to Covid), a couple from Bowie’s Aladdin Sane because that was 50 years old last week, and a few from The Zombies because I will be seeing them on Sunday, on the very day that I start to receive my state pension. (Yes, I really am that ancient!)
Pics and Vids
Setting off.
Cherry blossoms and tunes
Riding up Churchgate in the late evening sunshine.
The route we took
Here is the route we took, taking in quite a few cherry blossom trees.
Five of us enjoyed another gentle pootle around Bolton town centre and environs in pleasant conditions. 11 days late for the equinox, but near enough. Because of the way the calendar falls this year, it was in full daylight. There was music, including some Pink Floyd to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the release of Dark Side of the Moon, as well as lots of good cheer and bonhomie as always.
Videos & pictures
Le Mans Crescent looking splendid with all the cars gone
The viaduct over St Peter’s Way provides a creative opportunity.A good driver shows what common human decency looks like. 👍
Spring flowers in Queen’s Park
Crossing the cyclops junction at Trinity Street & Newport Street
The route we took
A relatively quiet route with some off road now that it’s in daylight:
We had a brilliant ride on Friday, in lovely conditions. Only five of us, but enjoyable nonetheless. Traffic levels were quite low, possibly because it was in the school half term holidays, so it was a much more pleasant ride than the January one.
As usual, there was music, chat and bonhomie as we pootled in and around Bolton town centre. This was the last ride in (partial) darkness, so we can hopefully get more people riding in the months to come.
The route we took
We took a route that stayed close to Bolton town centre, including the only 1km of protected cycle route that we have in the Borough.
We also took in Vernon Street, where we stopped briefly to pay our respects to 11 year old Lucas Ashton, who was killed the day before our New Year ride when he was hit by a bus whilst riding his bike. Prince Street and Vernon Street are in a residential area with a 20mph speed limit, so really ought to be safe for people to cycle on.
Pics & Vids
Le Mans Crescent looking great without parked cars!A sad moment when we stopped to pay our respects to young Lucas Ashton, and a stark reminder of one of the reasons why we do this ride each month.
We had no serious problems with bad drivers on this ride, but there was still evidence of the bull in a china shop that is a motor vehicle driven in a town centre. After driving illegally through a bus/cycle/taxi (not private hire) only zone, overtakes through a junction, preventing some of us getting into the right lane, then weaves through us to overtake on the inside up a left turn only lane to go straight ahead.
The first ride of 2023! Four of us blew away those January blues with a gentle, one hour cycle ride around Bolton, with a music playlist that was a bit bluesy and a bit bicycley, and some friendly chat. Then we repaired to the pub, where we were joined by Colin and Sadie, the Freewilders, who would have been on the ride if it weren’t for the poor trains.
Weather conditions were perfect; a little chilly, but we had the right clothes. The drivers were dreadful, though; some insane overtaking into oncoming traffic and selfish close passes. We need that infrastructure yesterday!
Pictures
Apparently, nobody uses the infrastructure, yet here we are using it – poor quality though it is. And there we are waiting at a red light, something most people cycling do; people driving not so much.
There were 5 of us at the start of the 17th monthly Bolton Critical Mass ride, though numbers got up to 7 when a couple of young riders joined us for a bit. The weather was great again, and we enjoyed a Winter and New Year themed playlist of music plus plenty of chat and bonhomie.
Seven of us enjoyed another pleasant ride in perfect conditions, with a jolly winter-themed playlist including a few Christmas ones, albeit a bit early.
We did ride through the new cyclops junction on Manchester Road, but on the road. It looks finished but the barriers are still up.
A nice ride in lovely weather again. Eight participants. Music failed due to human error (mine 🥴) but here is the playlist. An enjoyable time was had by all, including a couple of skeletons, a ghost rider and an actual wizard, followed by a couple of drinks in Northern Monkey afterwards for some.
Pics and Videos
Lots of congenial chatting going on throughout our ride; sometimes riding two and three abreast, perfectly legally, just like the empty seats in most of the cars do:
White Lion Brow. The White Lion pub, facing, disappeared many years ago.
Churchgate, where the 7th Earl of Derby lost his head to the executioner’s axe for his part in “The Bolton Massacre”.
Great Moor Street. There used to be a railway station just on the left of where this video starts.
Victoria Square. A stupid PSPO currently prohibits cycling in this wide open space; no doubt part of the reason why the town centre is completely deserted when nearby Bury would undoubtedly be buzzing with life at this time.
Riding down Nelson Square, past the Northern Monkey bar, where we later retired to enjoy some of their Bolton-brewed beers. (Other drinks are available.)
The Route
This is the route we took. Similar to my proposal, but not quite the same. We even rode across Victoria Square without getting arrested, despite the carnage that we must undoubtedly have caused in this wide open, otherwise completely empty space.
Bolton Critical Mass 