San Jose Bike Party Celebrates its 100th Ride

This Friday, January 15, San Jose Bike Party (SJBP) will ride for the 100th time since October 2007. With a simple mission of building community through bicycling, SJBP has made a tremendous impact in increasing bicycle use among people of all ages and backgrounds. They have also collaborated with city leaders and groups like SVBC to promote bike-friendly programs and advocate for better bike infrastructure in San Jose.Mark Hirsch, SJBP Organizer, GiDM Co-Founder, and SVBC member, shares with us his thoughts on SJBP's 100th ride. We have come a long way from our humble beginnings as a fun group ride from the Campbell Water Tower, and then Dick’s Center on Bascom Avenue. We have covered a great deal of miles and spread the joy of Bike Party throughout the South Bay. Our style of social ride as a more rule-abiding group than Critical Mass has helped to spread this format around the U.S. and beyond to different countries.Over the last few years we have attracted riders of all kinds. We have our road cyclists in lycra, our every day commuters, BMX riders, Fixie Riders, Stretch Cruisers & OBC’s, and our beloved Music Bikes. Bike Party is the one time where riders of all kinds come together to celebrate not only the joys of cycling, but to also come together as a community at least once a month. We hear the same story repeated over and over again about people’s experience with San Jose Bike Party. They get pulled into this event by a friend or they see us riding by. After a while, the joy of riding in a large welcoming group becomes a regular part of their lives and they find themselves able to ride further and further distances. We hear it again and again from people that Bike Party put them back on a bicycle and changed their lives for the betterWe have evolved in these last few years to be a more sustainable event. We have formalized our organization to provide potential liability protection for our volunteers, as well as to take responsibility for cleaning up after our event with our Raven team. Last year we also started our #LightMeUp initiative, which was created after yet another cyclist was killed in San Jose last year. This program seeks to put lights on our at-risk riders in San Jose by bringing the lights to them each month to an event they want to attend.In addition to our large group ride every 3rd Friday (rain or shine), we also have 3 or more test rides each month, and have other cycling events as well. These include our San Jose Kidz Bike Party rides, Groovin’ on a Sunday Rides, Bike the Limits 100 Mile Annual ride, as well as our Annual Ladies Ride.Many of our volunteers are also active members of SVBC, and we enjoy a good working relationship with SVBC and the extended cycling community. If you have not ridden with us yet, we hope that you will soon! The following is one of the testimonials submitted for our 100th ride. You can see them all at: www.sjbikeparty.org/testimonials“My boys and I ride our bikes intermittently together. After a few years of short rides, we were ready for longer, more interesting rides. I tried out other bike meetup groups, but they didn't have the inclusive attitude SJBP has. Some required a certain bike, some required a certain level of biking skill. SJBP works for me and my sons because it caters to cyclists of all ages and skills and bike ownership. There is a sense of community in the way the volunteers look out for the safety of the participants (as much as it is possible) by insisting on safe cycling practices, by organizing rides of various skill levels during various times and days to accommodate as many folks as possible, by looking out for ride stragglers, by posting folks at corners during rides to direct the ride flow, and by volunteering for various community bike events. This is the type of cycling organization I want to be a part of and support because it's good for the community, not just myself and my family. I hope it continues for another successful 100 rides and more.” Keren B, SJBP RiderCongrats SJBP on your 100th ride this Friday! The route has been announced, and wheels hit the streets at 8pm. Click here for the facebook event page; we'll see you there!