Times covers Midnight Ridazz; Estimates 500 Participants

Sunday, June 12, 2005, at 05:11AM

By Eric Richardson

There's an article on the Midnight Ridazz in today's LA Times.

There were at least 500 of them, wearing angel wings, rubber tentacles, Girl Scout uniforms and other costumes. But in a city where freakish exhibitionism is as about as original as saying you're working on a screenplay, the more startling sight was seeing everyone pedaling a bicycle.

The cyclists commandeered three westbound lanes on Sunset Boulevard in Silver Lake late Friday night, forming a convoy a quarter-mile long.

The absurdity of the scene drew people out of bars, restaurants and even a hookah parlor. For a moment, it was as though the electricity had been shut off in Los Angeles and the streets had come alive with people wondering where the cars had gone.

I went on the ride Friday night, pedaling over to Echo Park to meet up with everyone. It was nuts. I'm definitely going back next month. The trip was a bit over ten miles each way, but it was a really relaxed ride, so it would have been easy for any level of cyclist to keep up. There was a photographer from the Times with us the whole way, but the pictures aren't online. I guess I'll be stopping to try and pick up a paper copy. Or maybe I'll get lucky and find one on the train again. Pictures posted to the Bike Summer site are here. I took a few, but haven't uploaded them to see how they turned out yet.