on September 16, 2011

BikeHugger Mobile Social 2011

I rode my bike over to The Sands Convention Center after work, in anticipation of the Mobile Social 2011, sponsored by Bikehugger and New Belgium Brewing. Since Interbike is this week, all kinds of velocipede-crazed types are in town. While there are a bunch of illegal street races going on, I opted to check out a more casual event. The idea here was to get as many bike freaks together as possible, and ride up the Las Vegas Strip together. Sure, there were the mandatory fixie ‘n jean crowd (including myself I suppose), but the real treat was to see people riding kid-sized bikes strung with lights, bikes pulling speaker trailers, an adult-sized hot wheels trike, etc. We signed waivers in case we got run over en route, and in exchange got a token for a tasty beer. Win-win. The crowd started strong at the intersection of Sands and LV Blvd when the police actually stopped traffic to let us start. We visibly thinned out as we approached downtown, separated by traffic lights and aggressive cars. I somehow found myself toward the front, and as I stopped at The Beat Coffeehouse (our final destination) I noticed the pack of riders behind us kept going east on Fremont. Uhhh … maybe they needed a pick-me-up from the Western? They found their way back after about 10 mins, and the party officially started. Since Thursday night is also a meetup night for the Las Vegas Tech community, The Beat was full of bike nerds AND tech nerds. A perfect storm?

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Written by David Hardy

David Hardy grew up in suburban Baltimore. Most of his twenties were spent in bands. He moved to Las Vegas when he lost a bet, but ended up loving it. He is a graphic designer and teacher. He enjoys the many lowbrow activities that this city has to offer.

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