The promise of rain couldn’t keep Bike Party from happening last night. Approximately 1,200 riders were counted right after the Winchester Movie Domes.  What could have been a down pour in spots, turned out to be a fantastic ride!  Honestly, the weather couldn’t have turned out nicer.  Many thanks for all the volunteers who posted up on corners and worked many hours behind the scenes to pull off this ride.  And yes fellow riders, we love that you made it out this month!

Highlights included the high energy levels that everyone brought as we rolled past neighborhoods and all over this town.  Music trailers and more systems on individual bikes kept the vibe going.  The Mary Street foot bridge remains an amazing image in my mind.  Seeing a taco truck at the rest stops was truly a bike party first.  And when the occasional spill happened, people stopped to help their fellow riders get back on the bicycle, simply amazing.   We truly hope that Bike Party is able to foster a sense of positive behavior as we hit the streets, meet new people, make friends, and continue to explore the community we are all part of.

Share your reflections here in the comments – if we see any recurring themes, we’ll add to this post.

Please post & share photo/media links!

What a glorious bunch of holiday lights tonight!  Tonight’s ride might not have too many superlatives for it – it certainly wasn’t our longest or shortest in distance, it was neither the best-attended or sparsest (around 950 counted at Central & Westfield), BUT it was quite possibly the best received!  Sidewalk observers and passers-by were in fine form tonight, with holiday cheer shared amongst all.  Our ride encountered literally hundreds of amazing holiday decoration displays, including one on Glen Eyrie that included an entire brass band!  Neighbors didn’t seem to mind the traffic jam for this impromptu block party – this was a piece of San Jose community at its best.

Thanks to the incredibly thoughtful route planners and the many, many BIRDs who helped to direct cyclists at complicated turns.  Tonight seemed to prove that perhaps being a BIRD isn’t a patch or a qualification, but a job anyone can step into at any time.  Thanks to those who jumped right in where needed and helped make the ride great – THAT is the down-home Bike Party community spirit.

One reminder:  bike lights make an excellent holiday gift for casual cyclists and regular riders alike, and if tonight’s ride is any sign, this valley’s cyclists could use a LOT more bike lighting.  Remember, be safe, follow the law, and ride confidently!

Another wonderful ride has carried us to our bedtimes, and asleep with pleasant memories of gliding down gentle grades we go.

Tonight’s ride harkened back to days past in Bike Party lore, with a ridership count of around 600, approximately a sixth of October’s ride and a number we haven’t seen since April.  Apparently the rumors that San Joseans are too weak for drippy or cool weather remain true – we’ll have to find a way around that before we manage to steal Portland’s throne as biking mecca of the West.

The highlights of our ride tonight showed off some of the things we’ve all come to love about Bike Party – the wonderful soundsystems, the mix of new and experienced riders, the many pre-rides and dedicated volunteer work to put up signs and stage a food drive, the parking garage fun, and the wonderful remark on the return trip up Almaden Expressway:  “I smell ham!”  (It really did smell like ham, and some riders really were excited.)  In short, it was the Bike Party many of us love most – zany, personal, communal, friendly, diverse, inclusive, participatory, and unpredictable.

Post your stories and comments!

It’s that time again!  Time to remark on the ups and downs of another amazing ride.

First, the stats:  17.25mi, 1,535 riders (counted around 10:30pm at the Mabury overpass of I-680, since it narrowed and slowed us there).  It’s almost uninteresting to remark that 1500 riders is an all-time record for us, since we’ve been growing at 50% a month for several months now, meaning we’re twice as big as we were two months ago and FIVE times larger than we were in January.  Wild.  We have more riders each month than the ride that started so many rides in so many cities, San Francisco’s Critical Mass.  Go San Jose!

But with all of this impressive growth come some staggering problems.  Enormous numbers of people earn red-light violation tickets  each month (average cost = $300ish), plenty of people wipe out unnecessarily as a result of reckless riding, and littered trash is rampant at all of our stops and even along our route.  This is not sustainable.

What can we do to clean up the ride, both literally and figuratively?  We all want to see the ride continue – many of us think it’s the best thing to happen in this city in years.  It’s not going to happen on its own.  Plenty of people stepped up tonight to become BIRDs – Bike Information Resource Directors, the volunteers who keep our ride together.  These people are true heroes, and we need more of you to join this cause.  But that is not and will not be enough.  What can we do?

Hit your comments – for the purposes of this discussion, please avoid any “people should” or “you all should” comments – stick to the “I will” sort of comment and tell us what YOU will do to help our ride, not what someone else should do.  Also, of course feel free to mention tales and experiences from the ride, and photo links.

Ride on!

Wow, what a night!  1,000 riders, by two separate counts, in two separate places, even!  So many good thoughts and good times…this really is what it is all about.

Major props go to the many, many volunteers that make the rides flow – many people who go unnamed, who help in all those little ways that are really so hugely important:  all of you who helped remind someone to stay on the route; all of you who reminded someone to check their behavior; all of you who helped make rest stops “work” by making sure we all moved in deep to make room and helped get us moving again when it was time; all of you who towed music trailers, couches, and sidecars; all of you who thanked the cops; really just ALL of us, for being so positive and wonderful, showing this valley how to really roll.

A special shout-out to both Santa Clara County Sheriffs and De Anza-Foothill Community College Police, who together blocked off traffic (corked) for us at one of the nastiest intersections – Stevens Creek and Stelling, then Stevens Creek and De Anza.  That was wonderful – thank you, thank you, thank you!

I remember saying at our 1-year anniversary in October:  we happily reached 200 riders in a year, and hoped to see 1,000 riders in 5 years.  That vision has come to pass over 3 years early, and it’s awe-inspiring.  Remember to keep it positive, keep it creative, keep it hopeful – we will turn this valley into a Bike City yet!

As usual, please share your (polite & appropriate) relections on this ride in the comments below!  Stories, thoughts, reactions, links to pictures or videos, tales of encounters from the ride are all welcome!

March’s Psychedelic Robot Ride just finished, and what a night it was!  We broke the record for attendance once again – over 500 riders after a year and a half of rides (unofficially counted on Lincoln right after Regroup #1).  In fact, given that January brought 315, February 380, and this past ride over 500, we’re still seeing 20-25% growth per month. You heard that right, Bike Party is the only thing still growing in this economy!

Volunteers worked double-time to keep such a large ride on route and together, and the efforts paid off in spades.  More to come on that soon…  The police were fantastically helpful tonight, courteously helping to block traffic and guide the route from time to time.  Councilman Oliverio (SJ District 6, Willow Glen & West SJ) came out to ride and lend support, giving a hint that some in city government might really be serious about their pro-bike “green vision.”

Watching the sea of red blinking lights ride up the crest of Almaden Rd under the train tracks, this rider couldn’t help but think that it was a glimpse into the future – this town really is headed in great directions.  Riding home, encountering Bike Partiers on their way everywhere I rolled, I knew it was true:  this really is a cyclists’ town.

So give props where props are due (*ahem* Thanks to the SJPD and Mr. Oliverio), give a holler and a “Bike Party!” yell to the friends you pass in your commute in the next month, and perhaps most fun of all, share your comments and reflections on the ride in the comments below! All near-topic and civil comments welcomed…