July Bike Party Photos

Posted on July 17, 2010 by .
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I had other plans tonight but had about an hour free so I hit the start of tonight’s San Jose Bike Party.

Of the 50 photos I uploaded tonight, I think this one of the little boy with his dad is my favorite.


Boy on Bike

We didn’t just take the lane on El Camino Real – Bike Party took over all three lanes of southbound ECR in Santa Clara. A couple of BIRDs (Bicycle Information Resource Director) tried vainly to heard Bike Party out of the left lane and leave it open so faster vehicles (e.g. cars and buses) could safely pass. There seemed to be a number of newcomers to the ride who didn’t know (or didn’t care) to stay to the right to let other vehicles pass. One of the aims of Bike Party is to foster some cooperation on the road, and, well, there were several people who didn’t do a good job of that. The cyclists I saw did do a pretty good job of stopping at red lights, more or less.

The crowd seemed a little less rowdy than the June “Hoolgians” ride. I smelled only a little herbal essence, and there seemed to be more families with small children on this ride. The atmosphere was downright relaxed, and it was very nice that we had so many lanes to spread out at the ride start.


May God Bless Fr Paul Locatelli

One downside: Bike Party disrupted the funeral mass of Father Paul “Papa Loc” Locatelli at the Santa Clara University chapel. Locatelli was Chancellor of the Jesuit school and passed away from pancreatic cancer last Monday. It didn’t help that some twit with a semi truck kept randomly blasting his horn at the bike party. Bike Party organizers were notified of the funeral just a couple of hours before the Bike Party start. Some of the guys towing the big audio systems kept their volume down until we got out to ECR.

The Jesuit priest and educator was known as a crusader for social justice. When his friends in high places (and he had many, including current CIA director Leon Panetta) complained of his incessant reminders of their obligations to help their fellow man, Locatelli’s response was always, “Tough.” He sounds like he was a pretty cool dude, even if he did advocate to extend BART to the South Bay.


Pink Cruiser

The thing I like about Bike Party is the diversity of the participants — BMX kids; a few people who fit the ‘avid cyclist’ label; the fixed gear riders in their skater pants; Latinos with their chopper bicycles; and safety nerds with their flags, helmets and vests. The vast majority of bike party riders, though, are just people with cheap bikes — the kind of folks that a lot of us bike snobs might mock as unwashed newbies, but the Bike Party organizers have done a tremendous job encouraging all kinds of normal people to come out and go on crazy bike rides in the suburbs of Silicon Valley. I see a good cross section of the South Bay at Bike Party – Caucasians, African Americans, Latinos, and East Asians of all ages show up in large numbers at Bike Party, with a good gender mix as well. The only demographic I haven’t really seen are South Asians, Pacific Islander, and Middle Eastern — there are large numbers of all of these groups in Silicon Valley, but they seem under-represented at Bike Party.


Bike Party pink woman

A shout out to Dan Goldwater (MIT Media Lab genius, co-founder of Instructables, proprietor of MonkeyLectric bike lights, bike audio columnist for Momentum Magazine, and all around bike nerd) who joined Bike Party representing the East Bay Bike Party. I tried to get his photo but then I was distracted by the dude with the bagpipes.

Hello also to Greg McPheeter of Santa Cruz, who brought his couch trailer to San Jose Bike Party for the first time. Greets as well to long time Bike Party friends Ian and Carlos.

You can view the full set at Flickr by clicking through the photos and reading my personal notes, or you can just look at the pretty pictures by viewing it as a slideshow.



See also:

  1. San Jose Bike Party photos
  2. San Jose Bike Party photos
  3. San Jose Bike Party: Beach Party Ride!
  4. Bike Snob & San Jose Bike Party photos


  • http://www.facebook.com/psmithsf Peter Smith

    i chilled at the beginning of the ride for a bit — this one girl passed by (I always see so many shaky beginner riders) talking to her friends just up ahead, “If you leave me, I'm gonna cry! I'm serious!” so funny.

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  • Share the Road

    Great post, pics, etc… thank you! Btw, not sure if anything was disrupted at the funeral service, but traffic sure was on many streets (def need to work on that!) Rec'd one complaint about the funeral service (unclear if the person was there or not) and the rest were a few people “piling on” about the noise… which was one truck (not two as has been mentioned) honking his horn in support of the bike riders.

  • http://www.cyclelicio.us/ Cyclelicious

    Thanks Share – I learned later the horn honking was in support of the ride. I only learned about the funeral disruption later (and 4th or 5th hand!) so I really don't know. Overall still a great and fun ride, though.

  • Guest

    I was at the funeral. We could definitely hear voices, horns and music so much so that at one point the speaker had to speak louder to be heard. What's the crack about BART being extended to the South Bay? Providing mass transportation and access to higher education to citizens of Alameda County was the aim behind that push.

  • http://www.cyclelicio.us/ Cyclelicious

    Regarding BART to South Bay: I was a supporter of the proposed Caltrain Metro East and Dumbarton Rail, wihch would provide better & faster service sooner and at a third of the cost of the planned BART line. Fast commuter rail to East Bay are unlikely to happen now with VTA going full speed ahead on BART to South Bay.

  • Guest

    Caltrain to the East Bay would have been another great way to extend the reach of SCU to students and residents in the East Bay and I'm sure that would also have been looked upon favorably. BART to the South Bay was just that much closer to being a reality since the funding existed.