Allan Appel Photo
Opera singer Amanda Panaccione loves group bike rides and finally was able to cajole her husband Alex to join her on his first ride.
Will the one-year-old marriage survive?
Rommell Noche had just arrived in town to start a job in neurology research. He rented one of the New Haven bike share lime-hued cycles and spent his first evening riding around his new city with 40 new friends.
Wes Wright, who also enjoys nude group bike rides, had his clothes on, including a western hat and boots.
Trumbull music teacher Matt Holmgren, in serape, and Wes Wright pose in a Western manner, before commencing the ride.
Their stories unfolded one recent Friday night at the latest themed group ride organized by a group called New Haven Bike Party. Called the “Wild West Ride,” it attracted 40 cyclists in in various versions of Western costume to a kick-off by the flagpole.
Then, with lights oscillating on helmets and wheels, and sporting sheriff’s badges, serapes, and sombreros, they set out an adventurous ten-mile circular trip to into the Dwight neighborhood, Science Park, Fair Haven, and then back to the Green.
New Haven has a vibrant bike culture including large-scale rides like New Haven Critical Mass and the annual Rock to Rock. (And don’t confuse these folks with the Elm City Party Bike, which has become a venerable mainstay of the city scene.)
New Haven Bike Party has since its creation three years taken a more leisurely and different tack.
Here’s how one of the organizers of the group, Taylor Holdaway, put it: “New Haven Bike Party was started by Coby Zeifman because he saw a need for it in the landscape of group rides in New Haven at the time. That niche is essentially a large casual group ride centered around having fun and being a party that does not require much or any cycling experience other than knowing how to ride a bike. I believe that New Haven Bike Party is still the only ride in New Haven that does this.”
When Zeifman left town, Holdaway, Kurt Weseman, and Kae Addae among others have kept the enterprise going. About 30 to 60 people go on these rides, people of all ages. They cycle casually, waving hello to pedestrians and motorists, playing music, and riding slowly enough to chat with riders on both sides on both sides of the wheeling promenade.
On Friday night one rider had his dog run beside. Nate J. got a lot of attention high atop the “tall bike,” essentially a combo of two bicycles, which he had built himself.
After heading out Chapel to Sherman turning right on Henry, the group stopped at Fussy Coffee in Science Park for joe and a 15 percent discount on all purchases.
Nate J. on his tall bike with fellow party-er Kevin McCarthy, as they took a break at Fussy Coffee in Science Park.
Collaborating with city businesses for such stops is a feature of all the rides. Recent events have included space-themed rides, a ride on Independence day, and a kind cyclist’s beer tour.
What distinguishes the experience is its casualness, its embrace of riders of all abilities and ages, and a generally positive friendly attitude that the hello-ing and waving riders demonstrated all along the route.
“You don’t have to wear Lycra. It’s slow paced so that it promotes fun. It is about biking, but also about fun biking, exploring the city, and you don’t have to worry where you’re going,” said Kai Addae.
Pausing in front of the newly opened L..L. Bean store on the second leg of the ride.
After Taylor had given some brief instructions about good riding habits, Kurt Weseman and others “corked” the intersections — that is, they held off crossing traffic until all the riders passed or made their turn. Addae served as the sweeper, making sure, as was promised, that no rider was left behind.
At Fussy Coffee, half the riders drank and ate with helmets on, the other half with helmets off. Noche said he had no idea where he was in New Haven and yet was having “a blast.” He’d been on group rides in Philadelphia, where he’d recently finished college. Those rides were large. He said he was enjoying the intimacy of New Haven’s Bike Party.
Also notable was the route. Friday’s trip took riders from Chapel to Sherman to Henry Street, skirting the Canal trail, and into Science Park for coffee. The second leg was a loop down through Monterey Place on Ashmun, pedaling fast onto Grand, left-turning onto John Murphy Drive, a thoroughfare little known to many New Haveners, then onto James, then Lombard, Clinton, Peck, around the lamp-lit, rock-strewn median on English Street, and then down to Criscuolo Park, for another break before the return to the Green.
“We meticulously prepare the route,” said Taylor. That task included riding it in advance with an eye to taking riders onto streets and into city neighborhoods they normally might not enter. No two consecutive rides repeat even portions of the previous route, if possible, he added.
What was Alex Panaccione’s review of his first group ride and his first New Haven Bike Party?
“A good ride,” he said. And he had met new people.
The Panacciones.
The following day his wife reported she is going to be among about 20 New Haveners taking their bikes to New York, under the auspices of Elm City Cycling, to participate in a five-borough ride.
Amanda Panaccione said she was looking forward to it but wasn’t sure if she’d settle for the 20-mile ride or try for a longer goal.
Would her husband be going along on that one?
“Oh god, no,” he replied. “This is fun. That’s real riding.”
Click here for the list of upcoming rides, which includes a pirate and maritime-themed ride that will end at Long Wharf, scheduled for Sept. 14, and one of the group’s favorite events, the apocalypse-themed Halloween jaunt on Oct. 12.
Addae also organizes, on a smaller scale, with the city parks and rec bike rides from the Green to the various city parks when they screen family-oriented movies.
