Strength in Numbers

Some of the Malatya Bike Club members just got back from a 240 km 3-day ride to Mount Nemrut. This ride included bikers from across Turkey including a very famous Turkish biker/retros 70's hippee/ rider/film maker whose picture you'll see in this post. In honor of their return, and because of the possibility of television coverage, a pack of us road through the night time rainy streets two or three abreast and completely taking up the one lane of traffic, to the mall, down the fast food/night time club street and back to a famous ice cream stand for an ice cream cone.

I liked this short but exhilarating ride because we were a "presence". The drivers, who are generally very rude and follow no traffic laws that I've ever learned, had to look out for the 20 or more of us. I felt like we were one of those Youtube videos where the bike riders ride in circles in the middle of an intersection and complete stop the traffic. The only difference was, we could "flow" as fast or faster than the traffic, so we didn't slow things down. We just made ourselves the width of a car so they couldn't push us into the opening doors of the cars lining the sides of the streets. I just hope that rides like these help open the drivers' eyes to bikers.

Although there is strength in numbers, my complete lack of trust on the part of the drivers still dictates that I ride in the middle of the pack.