9th Street Thanksgiving Bicycle Parade

Well, our beloved BikeSnobNYC has decided to take the holiday weekend off, which, once you have acheived superior blogger status, is most certainly a perk.  But we, the struggling bicycle bloggers in the trenches, will continue on, working tirelessly on Thanksgiving to provide cycling-related content to the masses. One wonders if BSNYC might be coasting a bit now that he is attained such a high level of success?And speaking of BSNYC and coasting, in his most recent post, he comments on a new class of fixed gear bike which utilizes coaster brakes, or the kinds of brakes all of our bikes had as little kids.  Of course, to follow suit of the bicycle style names ending with "-ies" (a la "fixies", and "mixtes") these new bikes are called "coasties."  There is now a company actually called Coasties that specializes in  Deep V coasterbrake wheelsets in a variety of styles.  Incidentally, the the Coasties company also just recenly won the 2009 "Most Phallic Company Logo Award".

At any rate, I skipped my annual Thanksgiving ride this morning in favor of a run instead with the COMO CYCO GEEC and dog.  Following the run, we went in search of coffee and ended up on 9th street where we were greeted by a parade of sorts.  And it was the kind of parade I enjoy the most.  No - there were no drunk Shriners in mini-cars, nor beauty queens or fast-food clowns in the backs of convertibles.  In fact, there was no one at all on 9th street.  It was a parade completely devoid of all the typical dipshits, but rife with bicycles. They were all stationary and chained to parking meters and bike racks.  I couldn't help but whip out the cheap camera phone and start taking pictures.

Thus, I bring you the 2009 Thanksgiving Day Riderless 9th Street Bike Parade.

A coffee-colored Surly with a nice Brooks Professional saddle

A Motobecane (I think) fixed gear conversion

A Miyata fixed gear with hot red bull horns and a Klunk sticker.

A sweet, sweet hot pink Peugeot mixte, with front lamp, and bell - again the handiwork of Klunks.

And yet another Klunk Peugeot mixte, this one the male counterpart in blue.

The last one is a bit baffling.  Another Klunk masterpiece, this Panasonic Touring bike comes complete with some interesting flower taped handlebars.

Upon closer inspection, the owner even chose to pierce her handlebars with a safety pin and small bobble comforting us all that punk isn't dead.

Overlooking the parade from the window of the Get Lost! Bookshop was this, complete with a logo of a cyclist experiencing a wicked endo while miraculously, the bicycle remains upright with both wheels on the ground, as if the saddle just suddenly rejected the cyclist and tossed him overboard.  Somehow, this is meant to draw interest to the fact that this is a bicycling law book, but I'm still unclear of the connection since in this illustrated reenactment, the only thing the cyclist could sue would be his own bike.

After taking in the 9th street parade in all of its glory, we were very pleasantly surprised to find Lakota open and serving Pumpkin Pie latte.  The ultra-hipster male barista, wearing his Dark Side of the Moon Pink Floyd concert-T was not nearly as excited as the GEEC and I were to be there, and could have easily been given the "Most Non-Amused Person of the Day" award.

 But after all, he was working on Thanksgiving morning, which sucks, so I'm still giving him (and Lakota) major props for being open this morning and serving up some sweet decadence in a cup.

I also have to give them major credit for NOT playing any holiday music whatsoever, and instead piping in Pink Floyd to match the T-shirt.  I don't think the GEEC was impressed with the Floyd, by "Us and Them" sure sounded good to me.

Now alas, we are off to partake in traditional Thanksgiving Day proceedings.  Here's wishing everyone a great day.  Thanks ever for reading.  Be safe and get out there and ride off those mashed potatoes and pecan pie tomorrow.  It's supposed to be beautiful out!

Pedal on!