LexRides

politicalhero · Posted: Tue May 20, 2008 3:43 pm Post subject: Fourth of July Parade

Fourth of July Parade!!!

Here are the details from Dave Cooper

Hey alleycats,

The Sierra Club has again reserved a spot in the Lexington 4th of July
parade (Friday July 4) and we invite all Lexington Alleycats and other
cyclists, especially families and kids to ride in the parade. Last
year was a lot of fun, we had over 60 cyclists and some really cool
bikes, this year we are shooting for over 100.

So decorate your favorite bike however you'd like with old junk and
stuffed animals, strangers and little kids will cheer for you, its
great.

We will meet at 1:00 Friday July 4 in front of the Lexington Herald
Leader building.

elzie5000 · cutter Joined: 25 Oct 2007 Posts: 1177

If it goes off the same as last year I don't see a reason not to ride with Sierra.

Alex: start practicing or we're going to have an intervention*.

* ie Kyle said he's going to steal the tall bike and ride it himself

Christopher · Posted: Mon Jun 02, 2008 8:10 am Post subject:

The city's Fourth of July site has a page for the parade that indicates a start time of 2:00 pm (and features the picture below.) So I'm guessing the lineup will be start sometime after noon and the parade lasts, what, an hour? Two?

_________________
http://www.lexingtonbikeracecalendar.com

elzie5000 · cutter Joined: 25 Oct 2007 Posts: 1177

Freakbikes and decorations ahoy.

roller · d'oh! Joined: 17 May 2008 Posts: 294 Location: duncan park

elzie5000, i'll try to ride my niece's bike upside down in the parade, but if i can't, I'll just be a lemming... a tripped-out freaky lemming of course.

elzie5000 · cutter Joined: 25 Oct 2007 Posts: 1177

Rock on.

I just read Bruce Burris's article about the parade in last week's Ace yesterday. It was hilarious.

He said (paraphrasing) "the parade sucks, it always sucks, and dealing with the organizers sucks, but you should still be in it because it is awesome".

He's a character.

brokebike · cutter Joined: 21 Oct 2007 Posts: 2434 Location: local

bruce is funny... I've seen him just about rip someone a new asshole. I certainly wouldn't want to get into a verbal sparring match with him, but he's a person who's very dedicated to whatever he's working for.

elzie5000 · cutter Joined: 25 Oct 2007 Posts: 1177

He is interesting. It is great to have someone like him in our community as an advocate and activist.

But it has been a little bizarre to hear someone be as politically correct about some things, using outlandishly inclusive language for minority groups for example, and totally un-politic about other things, like advocating direct actions that aren't necessarily legal in front of representatives from the state.

politicalhero · Posted: Thu Jun 12, 2008 10:30 am Post subject:

I have not read the article yet but I know I went to a few citizen's parade committee meetings (we were all self appointed) and tried to work with the organizers on making the parade better (cleaner, more citizen based, greener, etc).

They took all of our recommendations, reversed the route last year and said they listened to the input and called the change a huge success.

I think the interesting part was we were willing to secure the funding for more citizens to create actual floats and even hose workshops and had building space provided...still nothing.

The parade does suck because it is hot, too many cars, too many businesses, etc. However, at least the bikes were in the front last year and we could just ride until we had enough and then pull out.

brokebike · cutter Joined: 21 Oct 2007 Posts: 2434 Location: local

elzie5000 · cutter Joined: 25 Oct 2007 Posts: 1177

Of course. I'm not saying it is a negative at all, just that it made for some interesting meetings. Including the state person kind of covering her ears and saying "lalala didn't hear that".

Btw, nice article about you guys in the current Chevy Chaser.

brokebike · cutter Joined: 21 Oct 2007 Posts: 2434 Location: local

thanks!

elzie5000 · cutter Joined: 25 Oct 2007 Posts: 1177

Ten days and counting...

Plenty of time for Alex to make excuses for not riding the tallbike...plenty of time for someone at PTP to get the penny-farthing rideable...plenty of time to make yourself a pixie...unicycle learning...chariot building...you get the picture.

If there's any need for pre-stage, parking, building or sitting around drinking before the parade, our usual pre-parade area is available in my office parking lot on Midland Pl.

politicalhero · Posted: Tue Jun 24, 2008 9:11 am Post subject: Build Day

Would folks be interested in having a build day this saturday to build some pull behind floats, tallish bikes, freak bikes, etc?

We can work from Wildcat Wheels and Shane said we can store all that we build in their storage area. This would be a good opportunity to build some things that we could use for the fourth but also for all the other parades throughout the year.

Thoughts?

elzie5000 · cutter Joined: 25 Oct 2007 Posts: 1177

I'm down like Charlie Brown.