Alt Bike Culture - St. Patrick's Day Parade, Dallas

A couple of weeks ago, there was an ad in Craigslist wanting to know how to get a bike into the parade, as there were other unusual bikes in the parade. So I thought I'd just head down and see what was there. Attached photos are basically everything unusual in the way of bikes, although there were a few other cyclists on fairly normal bikes.

http://i192.photobucket.com/albums/z172/stephenhazelton/StPattricksDayParade/Bike1.jpg

http://i192.photobucket.com/albums/z172/stephenhazelton/StPattricksDayParade/Bike2.jpg
A while back, there was an ad in either Craigslist or Ebay for one of these bikes at an unreasonable price, saying it had been a display in a bike store window.

http://i192.photobucket.com/albums/z172/stephenhazelton/StPattricksDayParade/Bike3.jpg

http://i192.photobucket.com/albums/z172/stephenhazelton/StPattricksDayParade/Bike4.jpg
There was a post in "recumbents" a while back asking about a trike with more-upright sitting position, and this could be one of them.

http://i192.photobucket.com/albums/z172/stephenhazelton/StPattricksDayParade/Bike5.jpg

http://i192.photobucket.com/albums/z172/stephenhazelton/StPattricksDayParade/Bike6.jpg

http://i192.photobucket.com/albums/z172/stephenhazelton/StPattricksDayParade/Bike7.jpg
This man wasn't in the parade, just delivering stuff. I nearly missed him. I'd like to get one of these trikes someday just for fun. It's as funky as anything that was in the parade (they are [U]not[U] common here in Dallas)

http://i192.photobucket.com/albums/z172/stephenhazelton/StPattricksDayParade/Bike8.jpg
Both this guy and the guy on the high-wheeler rode by before the parade started and I missed them. This is another item I would like to get sometime.

Way to go in Dallas. Those are great pics. I hope that parade riding becomes a more and more popular way to have fun on bikes. There were about 7 cyclists in this years St. Patrick's Day parade here in Little Rock. Several on tall bikes. My Bacchetta Giro was festooned with green garlands. I also saw a unicyclist and something similar to a rhodes car.

And riding it back home after the parade, I was surprised at how many people recognized me from the parade.

I've ridden in 3 parades since December. It's fun. There are no motorists telling you to get off the street and it projects a positive image of bicycling. Some will just ride along waving to the crowd, some weave and do circles in the street, some stop to hand out candy, or temporary tattoos.

Its easy to join for most parades. Do a little googling and find their website and sign up. And after your first year, many of the parade organizers will contact you just to make sure you will be there again.

Evidently, for this parade, it was something like $150 to register. I think that was for a group, and the ad in Craigslist was from someone trying to get in as part of the group, rather than having to pay as an individual. I don't know how many people there are in this area with tallbikes or anything. (I've not seen any, but that doesn't mean much). Most of the ones in these pictures are storebought bikes, although uncommon. I'm not sure if the unicyclist and the highwheeler were in the same group as the others. A large number of the floats in this parade were throwing out beads Mardi-Gras-style. I think it would be cool to have the bikes just set up to promote cycling. It occurs to me that this would be an ideal application for a bicycle-billboard.

Something else not obvious in the photos is that it was very windy, so perhaps a little extra work for the unicyclist and highwheeler to stay upright. The highwheeler guy didn't seem to have any problem riding that thing very slowly, though, walking speeds or less.

I like the way the spectators were reaching out to the unicyclist...they were obviously enjoying his presence.

Thanks for the photos, Stephen!

East Hill

AHHHH!!!!!!!!! I went to the St. Patty's in NYC today (yes I cut school) and I was fantasying about getting 2 or 3 bike gangs down there and watching 40 guys spray painted green white and orange riding around on 6ft bikes

Evidently, for this parade, it was something like $150 to register. I think that was for a group.

In Little Rock, the worst I've had to pay was $25.00 because we missed the registration deadline. Otherwise it would have been free.

That was wise of him to find a group to go with. We like to have as many cyclists as possible. In the last Holiday parade, I even saw a couple of cyclists on the sidewalk and invited them to ride with us, which they did. Its good to have bicyclists in a parade. :) the parade watchers go home feeling better about bicycling.