By Kailyn Gaines, News Correspondent
On Tuesday Sept. 24, the Boston Bike Party upheld its reputation for being, in the words of co-founder and organizer Greg Hum, “the most fun you’ll ever have riding a bike with your friends.” This week’s Back to School party is the 5th ride in the bike party series that began in May.
In keeping with the Back to School theme, riders earned up to one hundred points on their “report card” for completing items on the “syllabus,” like having front and rear bike lights, dressing in school colors and bringing along a college ID. More points were awarded for bringing friends, adding favorite songs to the Spotify playlist to be blasted through speaker systems throughout the ride, and “pimping their ride” with everything from bike bells to disco balls.
For Elodie Garcia, a member of the team of organizers and a co-founder of the event, the goal of the bike party was to help students begin their lives in Boston.
“[We wanted to] reach more students who don’t really know the city,” Garcia said. “We thought it’d be a good event to socialize and discover the city of Boston.”
A former participant in the D.C. Bike Party series, Garcia, who moved to Boston six months ago, tried to duplicate the experience she had in D.C.
“[I wanted to recreate] the whole friendly atmosphere and community spirit where everyone just wants to spread the fun and be safe on their bikes and see the city from another angle,” Garcia said.
The Back to School party kicked off right outside South Station in Dewey Square, with all natural treats provided by Unreal Candy and beverages by Life Force Juice, a local company that delivers juice to customers via bike messenger.
At 8 p.m., the riders, equipped with two homemade sound systems, neon flashing lights and drum sets attached to their handlebars began their 10.2 mile bike ride through Chinatown, down Huntington Avenue, past Fenway, along the Charles River Esplanade, over the bridge and down Massachusetts Avenue to Cambridge.
“There’s an art in making it hit all the cool spots and keeping it short and fun and safe,” said Hum. “For instance, tonight’s ride is kind of a tour of Boston’s colleges and universities, we kind of planned a fun night around that.”
Without straying from its slogan, “a party on wheels,” the Boston Bike Party continually emphasizes the importance of bike safety. Their website’s “How We Ride” page describes the bike party as a “social ride at a casual pace,” and enumerates rules like staying in the right lane off the sidewalks, never riding against traffic, stopping at red lights, riding straight and predictably, not riding while drinking, reminding others to be safe and sticking together.
“We promote a fun, friendly atmosphere while still promoting things like bike safety and having a good time,” said Hum.
The Back to School Ride was the first Bike Party event for Terry MacCormack, a junior political science major at Northeastern, who has been biking in the city for about two years.
“It was really interesting just seeing tons of people with all different perspectives and meeting all sorts of different people,” MacCormack said. “The cycling community is huge and diverse, and especially where we are it’s such a young city, so it was cool to ride with people who had lived here for years and years.”
Hum, who’s been in Boston since he started college at Boston University in 2006, echoed this idea.
“It’s a fun way to explore the city and meet lots of people that I wouldn’t have met otherwise. Biking was kind of my gateway to meeting people outside of my BU bubble and I love the idea of kind of being the person to help make that happen now,” Hum said.
Though the ride ended at Harvard Square with an afterparty hosted by Charlie’s Kitchen in Cambridge, the riders were motivated by more than the beer garden awaiting them at the finish line.
“I’m excited to pass by all these colleges and universities with all these people and passing by all these students who are just coming back to college and seeing all these people having a good time on bikes,” Hum said. “And there’s nothing that excites me more than like getting people excited about things that I like, so that’s really exciting to me.”
The Boston Bike Party will continue hosting free rides monthly throughout the fall. First time partier MacCormack aims to return next month.
“I definitely recommend people going and checking it out,” MacCormack said.
For more information on the next ride, like the Boston Bike Party page on Facebook or visit their website at bostonbikeparty.com.
