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Oaktown Bike Fest

By Carl Fisher

August 4^th, 2015

Pedal power

I recently made the trek up to Oakland to immerse myself in all things bike. It was not a trivial journey, even though I was only in the South Bay. Since it was a bike fest, I felt obligated to ride to it. At least part of the way. So I crammed by bike into the back of my car and headed to the closest BART station, which was in Freemont. Once parked, I made my way up to the platform and waited. And waited. And waited. There seemed to be some repair work going on over the weekend. How inconvenient for me. I could have just driven there and arrived already. But I was trying to keep with the spirit of the event. I persevered. About forty minutes later I ascended from the Lake Merrit stop in Oakland. Almost there. I was finally able to put my bike to some use. Fortunately, it took only a few minutes to hit Jack London Square. They had valet bike parking. Sweet! It was time to wander.

Startin young with the offensive riding skills

Santa's got to do something in the off season. Not sure what he's doing here.

Bikes far as the eye could see

This was one of the few places where people didn’t give you nasty looks for riding on the sidewalk. There were some real funky bikes, some too funked up for my camera, but I did snap a sampling for your enjoyment.

Statement

One bike showed off its owner’s pride in the recent exploits of the local BBall team, while at the same time making not so subtle statement about the injustices suffered by those less fortunate.

Tricky, tricky, tricky

It wouldn’t be a bike fest without some obligatory bike stunts. I’m not a big BMX fan, but I don’t mind watching guys who’ve spent countless hours trying to figure out how not to wipe out, do their stuff. The crowd was justifiably impressed.

Caffeination

Needed a little perk me up so dropped into Bicycle Coffee, just around the corner from the much more ballyhooed Blue Bottle Coffee Roastery. It’s not nearly as fancy, but the coffee is decent and they sell cool t-shirts and mugs. Works for me.

Pedal Power

The entertainment was reggae-infused and pedal powered. It was a novel way to demonstrate the power of the people (literally). If they wanted to be entertained, they’d better pedal. It could just be America’s salvation. Freedom from dependence on foreign hydrocarbons to meet our energy needs. And we’d all have nice booties to boot. I have a dream….