#fig4all NELA Holiday Parade Ride, Sunday, December 1, 2013 #bikela invited

Aktive and Chicken Leather in the 67th NELA Holiday Parade
Figure 1. Example from previous, slightly skeevier, bike entry.

The Flying Pigeon LA bike shop, LACBC’s Ride Figueroa, Stan’s Bike Shop, East Side Bike Club, the Bike Oven, Crank LA, and lots of other local groups, lone wolves, and friends are going to ride bikes together in the NELA Holiday Parade taking place in Highland Park this coming Sunday, December 1, 2013.

Want to join in the fun? Kids and non-kids are 100% welcome. Be nice to others and keep things G-rated so as not to scare the MOM Ridaz. The “ride” is a 10 block, downhill, coast. Wave, smile, ring your bell.

WHERE & WHEN
We are all gathering behind Twinkle Toes Academy (located at 5917 N. Figueroa Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90042) at 1 p.m. on Sunday, December 1, 2013. The parade officially starts at 1 p.m. but we don’t have to be lined up until half way through the program.

Bring your helping hands! We need help decorating our bikes, your bike, and our cargo/specialty bikes! More on helping below.

CLOTHES/COSTUMES and HOW WE ROLL (see Figure 2 below)
We had a vote and the colors RED/WHITE/SILVER were voted as our colors. So, if you have clothes that match one or all of these colors try and wear them (you can also be a lazy-pants and just ride in whatever you woke up in, but come on! This is a parade, people!). Exceptions to this RED/WHITE/SILVER thing are as follows (depending on your mental age):

KIDZ (anyone under 15?): we have 20 Lil’ Reindeer antlers. First 20 kids not screaming at their grown-ups get to be official Kiddie Bike Reindeer Adventurer Parade Ambassadors and don the sacred Lil’ Reindeer antlers. If your Lil’ Reindeer Ambassador wants to be a Hanukkah Spiderman or a Rainbow Dash X-Mas Elf that is cool too.

Please refer to Figure 2 to figure out where you belong in the Figueroa For All NELA Holiday Parade Ride. Hint: anyone under 15 & their grown-ups should be behind the bubble machine bike and in front of bakfiets Santa.

NON-KIDZ (anyone over 15!): no reindeer antlers for you! No, but if you want to opt out of RED/WHITE/SILVER outfits we are open to tasteful holiday-themed attire.

Tasteful Holiday Themed Outfits:

  • Fixed Gear Jesus
  • La Virgen on Wheels
  • Festivus Pole Angelopes
  • Trenway Trumpet-eers
  • Eggnog Ovarian Psycos
  • Three Wolfpack Kings
  • Tall Bike Trees
  • You get the idea. You don’t have to keep it Judeo-Christian either – robed Saturnalia-ists, Festivus pole bearers, Hanukkah Ridazz, Crampus-istas, Unitarians, Kwanzaa revelers, etc. Don’t scare any of the kids/MOM Ridaz and we’re cool.

Please refer to Figure 2 to figure out where you belong in the Figuero For All NELA Holiday Parade Ride. Hint: anyone over 15 who should be in the Holiday Circle of Death unless riding the pictured cargo bikes or holding our banner.

A group of volunteers have requisitioned a bolt of fabric that will be used to create shoulder sashes and pennants with “FIGUEROA FOR ALL” screen printed on them. These are going to handed out on a first-come, first-served, basis – we’d like to get them back at the end of the ride (so we can use them at future events).

NELA-Holiday-Parade-DRAFT
Figure 2. Parade reference.

DON’T HAVE A BIKE?
Please! This is no excuse! Flying Pigeon LA is going to bring 10+ single speed beach cruisers to the rear of Twinkle Toes. Anyone not want to deal with the major PITA of hauling their kid(s) or simply their own living corpse AND a bike to the parade can borrow a bike from us for the parade. Fo’ free! Just bring it back to Twinkle Toes at the end of the parade and don’t do too many wheelies.

WANT TO HELP OUT?
We are gathering at Twinkle Toes Academy the day before the parade to go crazy on multiple cargo bikes, swatches of fabric, etc. to prepare them for the parade. Come by at 2 p.m. on Saturday, November 30, 2013 and we can get busy making this the BEST holiday bike entry in a parade EVER!

There is a Facebook group where those signed up for the NSA’s monitoring program can coordinate their involvement in this parade entry in real-time.

There is a Facebook Event for this ride.

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One Comment

  1. Posted November 26, 2013 at 2:44 am | Permalink

    This looks like a real fun ride. Unfortunately, I’ll be out of town so I won’t be able to participate.

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