April's Critical Mass started and ended cop free as over four hundred bikers, choppers, bmxers pedicabs and other assortments of freaks on wheels took to the streets promoting non-motorized, multi-modal transportation and preaching against foreign dependency on oil to fuel gas-inefficient vehicles. Accompanied by the sounds of Cypress Hill, Michael Jackson's "Billie Jean", Beck and Black Sabbath, the ride made it way down into the East Village, then headed west into the West Village and back up 6th avenue. The sounds were provided by a rider on a three -wheeled bicycle with a wagon on the back with 2 huge woofers and a stack and were a delight to the onlookers and (themselves) as riders belted out "Billie Jean is not my lover..." The ride continued north past Radio City and then rolled into the corporate-consumerist bastion of fake sunlight: Times Square, where the mass stopped and hung around for a while, lifting their bikes over their heads in the "traditional" fashion amidst snapping cameras and cheers. Five minutes later we left and ended at Tompkins Square Park where some milled about and ate while others played badminton. Critical Mass meets on the last Friday of every month in more than 325 cities on 6 continents. CM NYC meets at 7pm in Union Square North. One of the mainstays of the ride was the overwhelming support of the double bikes: a regular bike with another welded on top, pedaling 8 to 10 feet above the ground. Many of them already were on previous rides but many more came out from San Francisco as part of the San Francisco Bike Rodeo, out on a national tour and they will be in our area Sunday, April 27. See them for free (donations accepted) at the Madagascar Institute, 217 Butler Street between Nevins and Bond Sts. Subway: F or G to Bergen. www.madhattersimc.org