Big Bike Parade…Small Street Parade
One of the funnest things about a big picnic we threw this past weekend was the Bike Ride the day after for folks who spent the nite.
Over the years Martha and I have acquired enuf bikes to equip a fleet. A nice great variety.
So 12 folks went out a-ridin’! All on very different types of bikes. Very little overlap of bike-style. A real parade! We hit the lonesome country one-lane and had a great time. Only one guy brought his own bike. The riders were very different from each other, too. All sizes and stripes! Just about the best thing about having a big bike fleet.
Here’s what we rode, let your imagination do the rest:
2 Bridgestone MTB’s (80’s)
Trek touring bike (sus-post and sus-stem, priest-bars) 1983
Vision R-40 recumbent 1988
Brompton folder 1980
Sears folder (60’s)
Schwinn Wasp (60’s)
Schwinn SuperSport (70’s)
Nashbar tandem 1990
Cannondale (upright bars) 1987
RobinHood 3-speed (alloy wheels, 50’s)
(I wish someone would’ve grabbed my old Team Miyata tho so I could say that ALL my bikes were on the road that day!)
We must not let our parade go idle in the garage! Wow the village. Parades must not fall into the hands of the indigent. So many are lame nowadays. Revival! Get everyone you know going up and down the road…not just bikies. No helmets! Dresses! No message either. (No Critical Mass for this parade.)
It’s SOOOOO nice seeing a peloton of bikes which aren’t bikie-dude bikes being ridden by people who aren’t bikie-dudes! A real breath of fresh air.
Reduces the guilt of bikeaholism, too.
Small Street Parade
Basically our same gang of folks threw an actual parade two years running some years ago in Ann Arbor called the Small Street Parade. Everyone would make costumes based on a theme (#1 the Sea, and #2 Outer Space) and we’d march up and down all the small streets in town. About a 3-mile parade in all. There are some very tiny streets to connect up. People came out and watched. Kids went ape. No permit. Music. They were the best parades there ever I’m sure!
