Come on...all the cool kids are doing it.

So recently, I had a few friends up from Denver. They had all come from an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting, and thus were absolutely appalled when I suggested that we go on one of Boulder's famous (or infamous) Thursday night cruiser rides.

"Isn't everybody who goes on those things just totally wasted?" they asked me. The answer is no. Although there is an official bar-hopping ride, the more popular ride (which now departs from Wahoo's Fish Taco on 28th and Pearl) is different.

This ride, originally leaving from Scott Carpenter Park-also known as the "Rocket Ship Park" on account of a large red rocket-shaped structure in the playground- was organized by a bunch of hardcore old guys, who then changed the starting location on account of there being too many drunken college kids.

This is one of the larger and better-organized rides in Boulder. I am a frequent participant, and what I saw last week was proof that it's not cool anymore to get trashed and ruin the fun for everyone else.

During the middle of the ride, some moron flew by me out of nowhere and nearly took out a few riders. He hit his brakes and attempted a sharp turn, showboating a bit, and went down hard. He happened to be riding next to an older guy with one of the coolest bikes I've ever laid eyes on. It was black and low, with huge wheels and flames painted along the frame, with massive chopper bars. That guy was riding in style, and clearly knew it. He used his super-rad bike authority to promptly shout obscenities at the drunken fool, yelling about how stupid he was making himself look...not to mention how he had endangered literally hundreds of other riders, who cheered on the old guy. We left the only clearly-intoxicated loser in our dust as we all rode off into the sunset together.

That was when I officially realized that it's not part of our bike culture in Boulder to ride with disrespect, or behave like, well, a wasted college kid. Go, Boulder.