Bike Partiers: Thanks for making our 4th anniversary simply awesome! People were so excited and in good spirits last night, that it truly was a special ride.
We knew this ride had potential to be huge and it did not let us down. We had 4,100 riders in attendance, our second biggest ride ever. This was due in large part to the weather, which could not have been much better. A nice warm, calm, clear, star filled October night.
Once again our anniversary ride had 4 different starts. Santana Row, Campbell, Berryessa Theaters, and Eastridge. Since so many peeps had different bike party experiences for the first quarter of the ride, there was a lot of “where did you start?” conversations along the main ride. As we joined at the 1st regroup, the riders who got there first saw all these people arrive from different spots and it looked like they were in awe. Likewise, it seemed like their jaws just dropped when those who arrived later saw the Childrens Discovery Museum parking lot completely full.
Food trucks to feed the masses and t-shirt vendors were in abundance at the regroups and music systems were everywhere with a wide variety of sounds. Kudos to those with music!
Coincidentally, “The Rapture” was predicted by Harold Camping, to have taken place last night, hence our ride theme. But since you’re reading this today, his credibility is all but shot!
So who won last night’s battle… good or evil? It looks like there were an equal number of angels and devils out there, so were not exactly sure who won. Some were even dressed up as good and evil in the same costume! Kudos to those who make the effort to dress up!
One thing can be agreed upon though; our volunteers (BIRDs) did a great job directing riders at corners. Several bikers were heard commenting about how they were glad that there were people were directing them where to go. Kudos BIRDs!
There were the usual few red light runners, but the crown in general really stepped up and in comparison to last year’s anniversary ride, was a lot more respectful of our traffic laws. Many cars making lefts or rights were helped by volunteers or clear minded riders.
There was some litter left behind. But once again, our awesome volunteers (nicknamed RAVENS) did an amazing job picking up and leaving our regroups clean. This is something our riders need to improve on.
Lots of minor crashes and bike breakdowns were witnessed, but no major crashes were reported. YAY!!! Even though there were a few detours being taken by some riders, the routes proved to have been well thought out and accommodated everyone nicely. Kudos to those who planned the route (and tested out the routes on Test Rides).
BTW, everyone is welcome to join our TEST RIDES. Info is on our FB page or if you’re on our mailing list you will automatically get updated on when and where they are. See below on how to do this. There are usually at least 40-50 riders of all ages and skill levels and everyone is super friendly. These are a lot of fun!
And if you want to get more involved in Bike Party, there are many other things you can do:
- Join Bullhorn, our SJ Bike Party Email List. You will get updates on upcoming Test Rides and special events.
- Attend one of our monthly volunteer mixer/meetings. If you’re on our mailing list, you will automatically get updated to when and where they are. Meet other great riders just like yourself and see how Bike Party happens.
- Become a BIRD (Bicycle Information Resource Director) volunteer. It’s a lot of fun and you make many, many, new friends.
- Make a music system for your bike, and add to the party with your play list!
All in all it was a great night!! We’re already looking forward to our 5TH ANNIVERSARY RIDE!! Think of how special that will be !!!!
WE look forward to Bike Party continuing to provide great rides like last night and YOU in our great communities continuing to enjoy them.
Long Live San Jose Bike Party!!!
Community Activist
October 22, 2011
It was a great ride – the weather was perfect. I didn’t see any accidents or problems. Re-groups were a bit long, but that’s to be expected with a big crowd. Thanks to all the volunteers for making this happen.
San Jose definitely benefits from SJBP!
Katy
October 22, 2011
Please end the rides earlier and turn the music off or down after 11PM. I support your rides however some of your participants are not nice and it will hurt your efforts to promote bicycling.
Thank you
Darcy
October 22, 2011
Epic ride. I have not been on a ride in almost a year. The riders seem to follow the rules more. SO MUCH MORE PLEASANT!!!!! THANK YOU BIKE PARTY. And thank you everyone who has learned to let cars go, stop at stop lights and stay off the side walks. Such a nice ride! THANK YOU BIRDS
Cameron
October 25, 2011
I saw incredibly fewer salmon and red light losers than a few months ago. Whoever’s been campaigning for how we ride, keep doing what you’re doing, it’s working.
mrrabbit
October 22, 2011
This ride was just as good as last months…weather was almost perfect. Short, laid back, very cool but not cold. Sky was so clear the stars were out.
Finally met up with Rapid Robert – no sooner did it happen – WHAM! some guy goes down taking his girlfriend with him. I saw maybe 7 accidents on the way tonight – once again mostly caused by folks weaving in front of others – or coming to a sudden stop without warning people.
We were better with cars tonight…fewer swarming in front – more moving ahead or tailing behind during turns – yet that didn’t stop one dude from trying to do a right side pass as a car that was turning left and then doing a clearly signalled right into a driveway shortly after leaving Eastridge.
Luckily the dude didn’t get himself killed – and I made sure to tell him that it was his fault – not the car.
Best part of each ride seems to be the folks in the business districts and neighborhoods who come out and cheer us on! “Thanks!” if you are reading.
=8-)
Spliffer
October 22, 2011
Great fun 4th anniversary ride!
Bike Party keeps getting better and better with great routes and a huge positive bicycling community vibe.
I wish the whole planet was like Bike Party.
Peace would break out in every corner of the globe.
The location of the final regroup at SJ City Hall was brilliant.
We energized and fired up all of the “Occupy protesters” by giving them a rousing, outpouring of Bike Party love — enough to keep ‘em going strong for another month.
That was so cool!
Bike Party forever!
frantik
October 22, 2011
w00t.. it was awesome to see Bike Party and Occupy San Jose together.. though most people were like WTF is going on!?
Unfortunately some of y’all left a GIANT puddle of piss right next to the Occupy San Jose site though..
frantik
October 22, 2011
when cops came to bust Occupy San Jose, they ended up standing right in the massive river of Bike Party Piss lol.. you can see it around 7:00 on this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l99NJyBOp8o
SailorGirl
October 22, 2011
Great ride though hella long and very confusing. We got caught in a spread out group after someone weaved in front of me and another girl and we crashed and no one knew where to go or what to do. The four staring points were neat but how about a final finish next time?
Other than the massive bruise and the lost bits it was a blast. The meetups were FUN as usual, loved the fireworks and the Birds were nothing short of friendly.
Keep It Up!!!!!
Cyciumx
October 22, 2011
Fireworks need to go.
There was a “final” stop. It was City Hall….then we head back to where WE individually started. I’m certaintly not starting 20 miles from where im gonna stop for the night.
high cadence
October 23, 2011
fyi – directions for the rides are available within 24 hrs of the ride. printing them out and taking a few minutes to study the map would help a lot of people from getting lost.
frank rizzo
October 22, 2011
great ride. the first regroup parking lot was too small as it was difficult maneuvering through the crowd. crowd yelling “smelly hippies” at the protestors. one kid threw a gatorade bottle filled with pee at the protestors yelling “die hippy” was a bit much.
alberto
October 22, 2011
Anybody see the green bike with the music?? Spaanish bandaa
Interested in. Bike music systems? Let me know
king neptune
October 22, 2011
what a ride haha im glad i completed that ride with my 3 wheeler with the loud system on it. it was difficult riding as evil king neptune with no shoes but i made the whole ride with bleeding feet at the end haha hopefully everyone enjoyed the bike joust and saw me there blowing the horn =] add me on fb to give some ideas for next bike party thanks.
http://www.facebook.com/briansilva408
Rapid Robert
October 23, 2011
This was another fun ride for me too. Started out at Santana Row which was apparently about the first group to arrive at the common regroup spot. There, the location of vendors, set up in the middle of the lot, made it difficult for people to get around the lot. Great vibe though, and especially the fire spinners. Got a hot dog.
Second regroup highlight for me was the fireworks. Keep ‘em coming guys!!! Biggest downer was mixing it up with higher speed traffic on Almaden and the absence of anyone at the turn onto Santa Clara, causing at least a hundred in the group I was following to to pass it by. I turned around at Hedding but many of them kept on going! Bummer. But it’s still every rider’s responsibility to either know the route or ride with someone who does, so that kind of problem isn’t really the fault of the organizers. The maps made available are the only real thing SJBP does. It’s OUR responsibility to use them. BIRDs on corners shouldn’t be necessary.
high cadence
October 23, 2011
4 more years! 4 more years! 4 more years!
as one of the original organizers, i see this special ride awesome on sooo many levels. reflecting back to when it started 4 years ago on this very single month where we started at the campbell water tower in downtown campbell with about an average of 35 riders the following months, to having multiple starts converging at 1 central location with any type of bicycle/unicycle being pedaled that night.
as others have commented, i too had a great time and enjoyed the route – kudos to the organizers! i on the other hand, LOVED whoever brought the fireworks! it was a celebration of the birth of SJBP and in my eyes, absolutely warranted! KA-BOOM! haha.
of course nobody is perfect and we certainly don’t live in a perfect world, so there will be some hiccups along the way.
hats off to everyone! it couldn’t have been done with everyone!
my wishful thinking:
1) “fear the beard” as a theme ride for one of the winter or spring rides
2) recycling old themes ie: mustache, no pants, psychedelic robot
3) shorter rides – even though i personally can muscle long routes, i think it would be a good change for everyone. at or under 20 miles.
i’m looking forward to the winter months – time to start buying those layers
long live SJBP!!!
RideNaked
October 23, 2011
went to my first bikeparty 3 years ago and fell in love… been going since, shred the gnar ya’ll
finally bought a shirt too… best shirt ever
RideNaked
October 23, 2011
LONGER RIDES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Larry Ames
October 23, 2011
from the WGBackfence.net “eList”:
In a message dated 10/23/2011 10:00:47 A.M. Pacific Daylight Time, [someone] writes:
<>
I am sorry someone pee’d on the petunias and played the music too loud — I know I get annoyed at all the folks who have their dogs water my park-strip, and I hate it when the “music cars” drive by cranked up so loud that the windows of our house start to rattle.
I’m sure over 99% of the bike riders were well-behaved, just as over 99% of car-drivers follow the rules, but there were over 4,000 cyclists and so statistically there would be a few who may have misbehaved.
To answer the question about why they (we) ride so late: it’s generally about a four-hour ride: if the ride were to end at, say, 10, it’d have to start at 6 PM: can you imagine what 4,000 cyclists would do to the evening commute?
The ride is just once a month, and the organizers select a different route each time, so it may be many months, perhaps years, before they go down a given street again. (If you would like to help select the route and/or give other suggestions and input, please contact the organizers thru their website, http://www.sjbikeparty.org/. Perhaps you can help them find “regroup sites” that have available restrooms …)
***
As an aside: I’ve been following the Envision 2040 General Plan Update, and it’s been interesting to hear the City Planners describe what goes into making a vibrant city: in part, you need a quantity of free-spirited, free-thinking individuals. SF is thriving in part because of the Burning Man contingent, Oakland has “The Crucible”, and SJ has the Bike Party: it’s what keeps the next generation involved and interested in living in our cities, the future life-blood of the community. You won’t have the nuisance of bike-parties in retirement communities like “Green Valley” or “Sunset City”. And note that cities such as Austin and Boulder are more than willing to entice away our high-spirited residents — and our future.
***
BTW: I recorded part of the ride thru Willow Glen: here’s a link to a 2-minute part of the ride up Lincoln Ave. (The riders were generally quieter on residential streets, noisier when being recorded or watched…)
~Larry (on Willow)
Spliffer
October 28, 2011
Very thoughtful comments and opinion piece Larry.
Your post offers a very broad and deep perspective on the positive roll that SJ Bike Party can play in creating, reinforcing and sustaining a sense of community throughout the very diverse South Bay and beyond.
bikepartier
October 30, 2011
I keep thinking bout leaving to another state for work but then i keep thinking bout bikeparty
Yogicycles
October 24, 2011
Great ride everyone!
The first stop was great. I think the fireworks are a nice touch (I wonder what they looked like from the 280/87? Yes, technically not legal or very safe, but there are a lot worse things happening in life (that don’t look as cool). Also seeing poi spin was fun.
Much respect to the riders who were sharing the road. Lots of people were letting the cars go by (more than I’ve seen before) thanks to the BIRDS who were encouraging safe riding. I think its a bit more fun to party at a light, rather than rush through a yellow anyway.
It seems like there is a decrease in the number of big sound systems, and I was often riding with a quiet group. I love hearing the diversity in music, that reflects the diversity of riders!
I am feeling the motivation for a winter project to convert my old dj system into something a bit more mobile
*Peace
Purple
October 24, 2011
Pics
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.194885293920651.49010.100001975448402&type=1&l=d5dbfe076b
high cadence
October 25, 2011
great pics!!!
scott
October 25, 2011
It looks like a great time had by all… except for the few that have accidents. Hope that you’re all right! Great job everybody
Tian
October 25, 2011
I took pictures of lots of Angels and Devils on the roads for the rapture!
http://tian.greens.org/SanJose/BikeParty/RaptureRide/index.html
Gotta echo all the “great ride” sentiments. Bike Party is AWESOME!
high cadence
October 25, 2011
love your shots!