Good news regarding the incident that occured during Julys CM ride in NYC...

Body slammed cyclist acquitted
By SAMUEL MAULL, Associated Press

NEW YORK (AP) — A judge dismissed charges Friday against the bicyclist who was body-checked and knocked to the pavement by a police officer in a widely viewed YouTube video.

At the prosecution’s request, Criminal Court Judge James Burke dropped a charge of resisting arrest against Christopher Long, 29, of Hoboken, N.J.

Long was arrested July 25 during a Critical Mass bicycle ride through Times Square. The monthly bike rides are held around the world to draw attention to alternatives to motor vehicles.

Police said Long was arrested because he was obstructing traffic and deliberately steered his bicycle into an officer.

After the video emerged showing the policeman knocking Long to the ground, the officer, Patrick Pogan, was stripped of his badge and gun and assigned to desk duty. Police said Friday they were still investigating.

The video had been viewed some 1.5 million times since it was posted on YouTube. It shows Pogan shoving Long off his bike near Times Square as Long tried to steer out of the way.

As he left court, Long said he was happy not to be prosecuted and to have the case behind him. As for Pogan’s account of events in the criminal complaint, he said, "The video speaks for itself."

Long’s lawyer, David B. Rankin, said, "We’re just very lucky this videotape surfaced, and we’re very thankful the DA’s office did the right thing in dropping these charges."

"This was a case where the officer’s sworn testimony was contradicted by the videotape," Rankin said. "It raises serious questions about other cases that don’t have the luxury of a videotape."

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Here's the video in case you missed it




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Timelapse of last weekends CM Ride...

Critical Mass. Orlando. 8.29.08 from Northern Lights on Vimeo.

Tip of the hat to Cole for the linkage....


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Orlando Critical Mass & Boiled Peanuts...

As Southern as it gets.........

Cajun s0n, cajun!

Later on that night...

Jenny K surrounded by Wolves @ Stardust


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Critical Mass 8-29-08

(pic by bulius)

Meet up is at the same time, same place (5:00pm Loch Haven Park), Mass leaves at 5:30pm. Word on the street is that the end point is going to be at Studio 808. I hear some bands will be playing and some brew a flowing for the post ride shenanigans...

Also, according to info posted on the Chain Gang UCF film professor Lisa Mills and her crew will be scouting the ride in preparation of a planned film shoot of CM next month. From what I read it's for a documentary she is filming but check out the post for the full info...

Lets make this one of the biggest to hit Orlando!


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my monthly nothing to do with bikes post...

A tribute to John Carpenter by Simon Gesrel and Xavier Ehretsmann set to the music of Zombie Zombie. Not only did they recreate one of my favorite movies via stop motion animation but they used GI Joe's as the principle actors...


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broke-bike mountain... of parts.

snapped the hub axle on my ellipse rear. makes me feel kinda tough but i'm screwed. (no back up back wheel!) anyone have a mavic hub tool and or a 120 X 9 hub axle? get at me.

2,865 bicycles?!

The New York Times reports on the ultimate bike thief...

European Cycle Messenger Championship Videos

ECMC Bike Events




ECMC Bike Polo

Ouch!

FAIL! from ZLOG on Vimeo.

A ride through the Fashion Square Mall...

Wonder where that fat ass security guard who always gives me grief was?



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photographer spotlight...

So I keep coming across some sweet photos on Flickr and as a result, I've decided to start a some what semi regular feature spotlighting different photographers on the local, national and international level. It's not anything that will be on a weekly basis or anything but rather just a spotlight on a photographers work I happen to like...

So lets start it off with Kyle Johnson aka kjten22. Some of you will no doubt recognize his work from Fast Fridays not to mention its been featured on tons of blogs like Trackosaurus. The links point to his Bikes photo set but make sure you also check out some of the work contained in the modeling and music photo sets as well...

enjoi!














Check him out!


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For those of you dealing with shitty motorists on the roadways....

I doubt anyone will try a damn thing when you have your sawed off resting on this piece of 100% American ingenuity... BOOYA!!! :)

Buy a gun rack for your bike.


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APB on another stolen bike...

Posted by mooj in the comments section:

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My bike got stolen from Chris's house (in east orlando) around 2:00 am friday night - the 15th.

Its a fixie:
black 53cm SOMA, pake fork, yancopads black and red stripes pad, red deep-V wheels, black origin8 stem, red oury grips, black seat post, bianchi black with leopard spot seat, crappy crankset, mks sylvan track pedals, red chain, red tire in the front (continental ultra sports), black tire in the back - spoke cards: yancopads, east orlando race, burry your bones

if you see anyone on this bike stop them or call me quick - 386 383 7757 -
You'll get a huge REWARD!!
post this wide please - i’d do it for you in a heart beat

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make the call if you see it around town...


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Pensacola Cra-Cra-Crazy Eights

Orlando, Tallahasse, Gainesville, and New Orleans joined Pensacola last weekend for 3 days of bicycle mayhem.

Friday night (8-8-08...get it?) was the race. It started at 10pm. I can't say much about the race, because "diarrea really had a hold on me." I have never had to pull over so much in my entire life. We showed up just as the race was ending at this weird frat boy pizza place downtown. I was so mad that an uncontrollable bodily function had cost my entire posse to miss the race.
WINNERS: 1st (mini Fortune), 2nd (little Butts) and 3rd (Woozy/Brooks/Chuck) 

After the race, the whole crew headed to Sluggos (god bless it) to have a little post-race fun. We played foot-down. Now I don't know what was going on, but people were ripping around so fast, it was like foot down with turbo jets, which means you fall a lot harder. A man who looked like Rod Stewart on a tall bike won. 

A group of guys from New Orleans had brought their sprint machines to have a tournament at Sluggos on Saturday night. The rollers were hooked up to a laptop that projected the two competitors progress with red and blue bars on a big screen behind them. So the crowd could go wild as they watched the bars shoot out from each other, while the sprinters couldn't see who was winning. The tournament lasted for about 3 hours. Which meant that a lot of people were a little "3 sheets" by the time they got called up to sprint. Willie from New Orleans won overall for sprints. And our very own Birdie Bird tried to whoop this greasy drunk shirtless man in overalls with one strap off.

Later on, Big Pete beat Sweaty Overalls (or should I say, "Famous Sal's")

Sunday was the most beautiful day in a long, long time. We played polo at the beach for about 5 hours. There were 6 teams. Round robin with a semi final and a final game. My team was named Dirty Sanchez, after the grease smudge I unknowingly wore on my mustache for a hot minute. The hockey rink was smooth as a baby's and Pensacola knows their polo. Team Board Shorts won the championship (real funny name guys, i hate boardshorts). This is a piece of evidence of AB taking out Tony:


The Crazy Eights weekend ended with a very rowdy show at Sluggos. 
Best Friends Forever, Jenny K.(represent), and Bone Weather.

Pro Pix: http://www.flickr.com/photos/matttakesphotos
More Pix: http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v21/saucecherry/?start=120