Edmonton Tron Ride (Warning! Contains terrible nighttime photography)

Ah, Tron. An 80’s SF gem. Great visual style, the introduction of big screen computer graphics and a tolerable story (a point where so many SF movies stumble and hit their head on the coffee table). I can’t remember if the movie even played in the small town theater nearest to my rural home but I do know that I didn’t get to see it. This crushing pre-teen disappointment was slightly mitigated by reading the novel based on the movie. That’s kind of pathetic, I know. Fortunately, I was later able to see the movie through the miracle of VHS.  Even if you haven’t seen the movie you are likely aware of the famous light cycle scene.  It’s  memorable and even though they’re some form of motorbike rather than bicycle it’s still fantastic two-wheeled fun. A Tron themed  night ride could only be a good thing.

The Tron ride came at the end of a stupidly busy Saturday. I filled in at Bikeworks North for a couple of hours and then raced off to busk the incoming crowd of the football game. After that I had to scurry home to adorn my bike and helmet with glowsticks and stuff a quick bite of food in my face. To go on the ride I had to skip busking the outgoing crowd at the game, a decision that had caused me no little agonizing on the previous days. Oh, the lost busking dollars!

Still, dusk found me at the North Shop with about a dozen other riders. Glowsticks were much in evidence. Chris was riding his famous and dazzling electrified light bike and pulling a glowing trailer equipped with a sound system. We made quite a spectacle as we cruised through the city. Our rambling tour took us past the crazy traffic around the football stadium, through residential neighbourhoods and into the river valley trails. There was a stop at the legislature, some zippy downtown riding with a little parkade excursion, culminating in a stop at the new building that had inspired the ride in the first place. We had shed a few riders by this point. Too bad for those who missed the blazingly electric setting. I was disappointed that nobody wanted to go back to BWN for the planned screening of the movie and 80’s video games. C’mon people! It was only 10:30PM on a Saturday! In any case, it was a great ride and many thanks to Coreen for organizing and leading it.

My humble effort.

My helmet may not have been true to the movie but it was pretty light-tacular.

A beacon amongst bikes.

I sensed the ominous presence of the Master Control Program when we arrived at the legislature grounds.

The end of the ride. Very Tron. Or maybe Max Headroom.

Just ridin’ my light-cycle. No big deal.

The final few.