More Photos Below!Gallery
Our family had a blast yesterday. It was the MSU Homecoming Parade. And the MSU Bikes commuting umbrella org had a float with any local bikers / commuters invited to join in. It turned out to be the biggest-ever Homecoming parade!
My brother Tim’s MSU bike shop was a key player in our float. There were about a dozen bikes in our entry. 2 of them had nifty BOB-trailer-type yolks at the back set up to pull large rolling signs. One guy had that huge long beam-tube-rack trailer on which he carries a canoe from which hung banners for bike rights. Then we had a Sting-Ray and my daughter and I rode our tandem and my wife kicked our Stride-Glider adult scooter…and a guy in an MSU Bike Team race jersey/shorts rode a HIGHWHEELER! He was a fit-looking fellow, too. Several folks rode their fully-equipped commuter rigs. —The parade lasted over an hour and went a good mile with probably 50,000 people watching. There were maybe 100 floats, a dozen BIG high-school bands. It was GREAT FUN! People loved seeing our bikes. I became somewhat crowd-numb but I kept hearing lots of bike-love. We bikers made continuous loops in our float-space. I only put my foot down once! There was also a green’n’white vintage tandems entry float with 3 alumni couples doing loops. The triathlon club had a good couple dozen hightech riders in an entry, half gals, half guys. WHAT A BLAST! It didn’t hurt that we were close behind the MSU Cheerleading float…
Normally we don’t have anything to do with the Fighting Drunks of Drunkard U. But this parade was a nice chance to go out among the university fan base without seeing the usual pitiful sights. Why? It wasn’t a game-day and it was still daylight. (Education isn’t a bad thing—and worklife can’t be THAT bad for the alums—something else must be going on to cause such suffering that blotto is the only way to cope.)
I think that parades in general are a GREAT opportunity to give a public message for bike fun. And bike coolness.
Next year, I’d really like to have a wider variety of bikes in our float. I want to wow the public.
How about: a recumbent (or 3!), folder, chopper, tallbike, a luscious Riv (calling Steve F!), a trike! a fixie (doing trackstands and going backwards…) Show the public that BIKES IS BIG!
To me, it’s a great chance for INTEGRATION. Every other public message is broadcast in a parade—bikes are freely welcomed—all we’d have to do is get off our butts to be a part of most any parade.
I’ve always wanted to do a bike entry in a parade. I finally did it! (It was a last minute invite, too—I got most of the family together and we dashed down.)
My bro was photographing the parade and said as we went by that he thought the crowd was responding to us better than to most entries. But the pics he took of us were either at the beginning or end of the parade.
Gathering at the pre-parade staging area.
Martha got to captain the Big Rig for awhile after the main parade stretch.
More bikers! …Too bad no pics from the intense crowded portion of the route.
The stingray rig in the staging area…
