Moonlight Ramble - St Louis

[residentgeek]

Anyone going to the Moonlight Ramble (http://www.moonlightramble.com/MoonlightRamble.htm) in St. Louis this year?

This is my first year biking, and for some reason these "riding in the middle of the night with a bunch of people" things really appeal to me. DP won't officially register until she knows exactly what route and what neighborhoods we'll be riding through (she used to work EMS in St. Louis city before she moved out here to the middle of nowhere). I keep telling her it can't be that sketchy if so many people are showing up.

Anyway, if we do end up going - which is probably going to happen - it would be really cool to meet up with some other TE'ers.

We're also doing the Lenexa Midnight Bike Ride (http://www.midnightbikeride.org/) on July 15th.

[wabisabi]

No, I'm not going to St. Louis for this, but, many (many) years ago, when I attended law school there, I remember riding this. I remember that it was such a blast, staying up late into the night and riding, with a great sense of fun and community, kind of an early 'take back the night' event (which they also had).

[bike4ever]

The organizers of the Moonlight Ramble do not release the route until the night of the ride. In the past, there has been plenty of police protection in areas that some might deem sketchy. The down side to this ride this year is the cost. They have raised the price immensely over the past three years.

[farrellcollie]

I have done the St. Louis midnight ramble a couple of times. No problems with neighborhoods (I live in the city - it isn't that bad) = but I caution you to watch for families with young children/riding several people abreast in random motion, middle school aged boys who are unsupervised, and people who have not ridden in years and this is their first time out in a long time etc. In other words - I have found the other people on bikes to be the dangerous part of this ride. As long as you are not bothered by having to really watch for young/medium children - it can be fun. I stopped because I realize it is a family event for a lot of people and I don't particularly have the patience for it.

[Midaken]

I want to tell everybody out there that they should be careful. My Husband is one of the ones that was hit by a car that nobody got a license plate for and got away. Whats more upsetting is the pleople who run the whole moonlight ramble didn't even have a clue the next day that anybody had been hit and 3 were hit even. I think they would want to follow up on this but no they went on VACATION> Be careful cars and bicycles don't mix

[love2bike]

I'm so sorry to hear about your husband, I hope he is going to be alright. Everyone else knew about it, (apparently except Hostelling Int'l) because it was in Monday morning's Post - Dispatch....here's the link if anyone else would like to read about it:

http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/news/stories.nsf/stlouiscitycounty/story/A8CC740DF6263CBE862571CA0012FECA?OpenDocument

It really makes me sick to think that someone would intentionally hit someone on a bike. I do hope they find the a------ who did this. We did not attend this year but, personally, I won't go on another Moonlight Ramble until HI rethinks the locale of the bike route. I know the city very well, and you are asking for trouble if send several thousand people into that area of the city on bikes.