Every third Friday of the month, San Jose hosts a bike party where you and hundreds of local bicyclists cram together in a 20-mile loop. The city’s infrastructure is built more for personal motor vehicles than bicycles, buses, and foot traffic, so whoever started it all was probably a textbook example of willpower and stubbornness.
The ride itself is a masterclass in organized chaos. Bicyclists take over three lanes on main roads, then squeeze into a tiny bike lane within the same minute. (Roads are not blocked off, you just occupy it). You’ll see customized bikes with flashing LED lights, oversized handlebars, and portable boomboxes. If the boombox is too big to carry, people will place it inside an attachable sidecar or baby carriage.
Funny when you have multiple boomboxes in one area and the sounds get jumbled up. Tori brought hers along and I got an education in all the musical hits from the 90s. (see: Mariah Carey’s “Fantasy“)
Gather your friends and stay close, but fear not if you get separated from the group. There are people along the way to guide you along the right path, so you won’t have to memorize the route entirely. This is the kind of event where it would be wise to lose yourself to the herd.
We started downtown near the Children’s Discovery Museum, rode close to my old high school, then back towards the San Jose airport. Along the way we made a stop at some burrito trucks parked in an empty grocery store parking lot, and again some sketchy dance party along the Guadalupe River Trail, where it’s pitch-black except for the glowing bicycles.
No public party is complete without the usual neighborhood hustlers: people selling shots of vodka and whiskey, and homemade colorful cocktails inside plastic bottles. Five bucks for any of the red, blue, and green ones. Tempting, but I passed this time.
One tip for success: be your own hype person! “Bike party” is pronounced “BIKE PART-AYYY” when you’re riding. Shout it whenever you want, and you can hype up your fellow bicyclists and anybody else cheering from the sidewalk. You can even do it at the stoplight and get friendly honks from the people unfortunate enough to be crossing your path.
Special thanks to Tori, Eric, and Josh for hosting!