Photo by Rafter
Truly, this rally was broad in scope and character. We planned ourselves to the bone. Some people hardly came up for breath, such was their submersion in rally planning and creating. It wa to be a free rally, but nothing is really free. It was just free to our guests. We chipped in and bought, we pooled and gathered and scrounged. We sewed and cut and wrenched our ways in a full blown rally, the first Creature Rally ever. It went off with not a small bang, but a long drawn out roar of two-strokes and cheers.
"Trick or Treat 2006: A Creatures of the Loin Rally" was a halloween themed weekend, in September, replete with candy, trickortreating pillowcases, a costume party, pumpkins, and jack-o-lanterns. Every attendee got a screenprinted/spay painted pillowcases emblazoned with our logo to take home and snuggle up with. It was chock full of goodies, too. Free, hand silk screened t-shirt, with Limited Edition intern sewed "COTL" tags. A bandanna, cut from a bedsheet and logo'ed, trading cards, bearing the likeness and stats of our members, complete with stick of gum.
My house was the epicenter of Friday, with a huge garage sidewalk party that built up while riders got into town and put their bikes together. We kept them happy with free beer and sparks, however, i think we made the neighbors progressively less happy each our. moped riders, blocking your driveway, while drinking and spilling oil, do not ingratiate themselves on you. The police would stop by my house about six times over the course of the weekend, but that's later. Once it got dark, we tore off into the city in search of naan n' curry, returning to the roots of the creatures and the location of the first meeting. There were abour 45-55 bikes that night, with a similar number of people. There was much eating of spicy food and breads, some food fights broke out, much drinking, on then on into the night. I actually missed the Friday night ride, as I attempted to ride my Honda 90 while a neighbor rode the Blue Line. I would leave my backpack on the corner of Franklin and Geary for about 30 mins, before I relaize it is missing and rush back to get it. Much to my surprise, it is untouched. I make it home, find berths for ten Mosquitos, change into PJs, and turn in.
i am drug out of bed five minutes later by the doorbell, it is, to my surprise the Puddle Cutters! I quickly bundle them inside and put them up in my room.
That morning Brennen says to Erin(they're both from Portland and sleeping in my room) Erin I had a dream that you were really mad at me and being very mean. We all laugh, and the next morning we ask him if Erin was mad at him again. He says "no, instead I had a dream that Graham was really mad at me." I think all his dreams are like this.
Saturday morning me meet for coffee and bagels and rally packs. Everyone flips over the trading cards, and furious trading ensues. I foolishly trade a Travis for a Bret. Everyones really excited for the rally, and there are lots of people meting for the first time. My puch wins 1st and most spectacular breakdown when the swingarm snaps and the chain holes the side of the crankcase in one fell swoop. Sea la vie.
We ride into the city up around twin peaks to the hill race on Duncan street. The hill is so steep, and my brakes so bad that i can't even stop until i'm at the bottom, which is a long ways down. The pack is treated to the spectacle of BrettW crashing into Creature jordan, bodyslamming him into a mail truck nearby. We get yelled up by the cops for "breaking the law" which we are, told to follow the rules like everyone else. Fortunately, A giant moped swarm is a administrative nightmare. There's no way a cop even has that many tickets. This is a conitnuing theme for all rallies, but anyway, onto the race.
The idea is to get a three block head start and tear ass up Duncan as fast as you can, in two divisions: Stock and kitted. For stock bikes, it's pedalling from 3/4 way up, and for kitted bikes it all about hitting the bottom as fast as you can and holding your powerband all the way up the hill. I ran the kitted race on my 50cc Motobecane, and was 15 feet behind Newport the whole way up the hill, to finish second about four feet in front of Shaw from LA. Fun. The stock race went to a guy on a puch magnum, with elliot's motobecane and Sam's Peugeot not far behind. The french bikes failed to represent in the hill climb, but we'll get them next year.
After the race we ditched and rode through most of the downtown SF districts, including both tunnels. There is nothing like riding a moped gang through a tunnel. If you were out in SF that weekend, you heard/saw/smelled us.
The ride culminated at Chrissy Field for a Askew Grill cook out and general lolly gagging. There was large format polaroids taken of all the attending gangs, some impromptu pumpkin tossing and free stuff thrown into a crowd. Pretty much eveyone had a creature pendant.
We left by way of the Presidio, swathed in fog, and headed back to the haight for disco naps and last minute costume preperations. The @lpha bar on 3rd adn Geary hosted our private halloween party, and it was fully decorated and dj'ed by Sam and Danny White, with Officer Down blasting our eardrums off(but in a good way) to start things out. Let me just say that $1 drinks, of everything on the bar, makes for a good party, and that Danny White never fails to get people jumping on the dance floor. It was a great time, and after a 3am mission of mercy back to the bar with a replacement moby belt, the last i saw of the party was Graham and lee wrestling in the street.
needless to say, we were all a little slow to gather for the ride on sunday. We slowly got it together, and met at the abandoned Mental Hospital in the base of the Presidio for our 80 person, 80 mile ride through the trecherous hill countries to the north. All the way across the Golden Gate bridge to Fairfax, then West to bolinas for dinner and south along the 1 back home for a bonfire on Ocean Beach. I haven't ever really seen something like this at a rally. We left eh city and were gone all day, travelling through small towns, highways, bridges, mountains, twisty downhills, dams, sheer cliffsides, beaches, with glorious shining sun, greenery, cranes, angry cops, bemused cyclists, gawking motorcycle groups, and happy restaurant owners. There were mishaps with the support vans routes, and maps, and few crashes, notably Shaw's little trip over the cliff on the Fairfax bolinas road, but most everyone came out okay, with only about a 8-10% breakdown rate, which considering the Herculean route is very respectable. There was a lot of towing and pedalling and pushing up the hills, but the riders were in good spirits. This trip is what made the rally epic.
We attempted to bonfire on Ocean Beach, but were driven out by the cops for trying to burn Pallets, and using paper. He threatened to arrest me and charge us with $5000 in fines, but instead just kicked us out. But we woldn't let one little mishap ruin our awesome day, so it was backt o the haight to regroup, then burittos and party at Elliot's house. I waited around the house with the stragglers to make sure everything was okay, and sat around and talked about the day with The Puddle Cutters and jessica.
Favorite quotes from that day:
mike outside after the ride(drunk) I brought this pizza for everyone "and If the cheese tastes wierd its because i feel down once onthe way here"
Mike again "Ori, you are my three second girlfriend"
Jessica, "Oh my god they bought so much beer" at the three cases of beer supplied to those riding in the support truck, all 11 of them.
Intern Sylvia, after kissing a boy on the cheek and being mistaken for a second for a boy "No, its great. All weekend it's been 'Boobies, boobies, boobies', and then you thought I was a boy."
Monday, we were almost out of awseomeness, and we just rode downtown to the embarcadero to harrass tourists, get in&out, hang out in the park and chill. We had some energy built up by the end of the night, so they tore ass across the bridge to Treasure Island and broke into the abandoned gymnasium(Full of Asbestos, apparently).
I went home and went to sleep, and tried to drag myself through the next day when i returned to work.
In Summation:
Sidewalks parties
a dozen cop stops over the weekend
50 person indian food
awesome rally packs
delicious bbq
spontaneous fun
Drunkeness
booty shaking party
epic 80 person 80 mile ride through wild territory.
huge enthusiasm.
lots of new faces, the Future of the Moped Army.
But don't take my word for it, see for yourself:
Photos by Landsquid Chance:
Sambulance
CraigBBQ
TravisRaider
Tha Park
KevinGas
RafterHill
KevinTuckered
GGIntern
G-Marin
SwarmSaus
CoolCoop
The101
MotardShanti
FairfaxCops
AlpineBridgeSwarm
Hangin Out
ChrissyHall
Photos by BrettW:
Fisherman'sW
panorama Chrissy
Photos by Travis:
Catch
TBS
Treats
ScoobyDo
Bend
PuddleCutters
MF
LA
Pumpkin
Creatures
Cuddle
9AM
Crows
Burn