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Bicycling

Oakland’s Pedalfest: Celebrating All Things Bicycle

12:06 PM PDT on July 25, 2016

On Saturday, Bike East Bay's annual Pedalfest at Jack London Square in Oakland brought out bicyclists of all shapes, sizes, ages, and colors to celebrate what makes bikes wonderful. Below are some the day's highlights. All photos by Melanie Curry.

Rock the Bike offered live music, powered by audience members on stationary bikes.
Rock the Bike offered live music, powered by audience members pedaling stationary bikes.
The ping pong bike brought games to anyone who wanted to play.
The PingPong Bike brought games to anyone who wanted to play.
Testing out the handmade cycle contraptions. She wants to be the driver.
Testing out the handmade cycle contraptions.
The Karaoke Bike's mobile entertainment of varying quality.
The Karaoke Bike offered mobile entertainment of varying quality, enthusiastically delivered.
Bike East Bay's Robert Prinz grades a contestant's bike locking skills.
Bike East Bay's Robert Prinz grades bike locking skills in a contest to see if participants could safely secure a bike against theft.
One way to lock a bike--which probably wouldn't pass get a good grade.
A different--not recommended--way to lock a bike.
BMX
The BMX tricks did not fail to thrill.
A homemade mini penny farthing.
A homemade mini penny-farthing?
A giant quadricycle penny farthing.
A giant quadricycle penny-farthing?
There were lots of bike contraptions to try.
There were lots of bike contraptions to try.
Yes, this is a bicycle.
Yes, this is a bicycle.

One of the day's thrills was the amphibious bike race, which required participants to ride into the estuary, make their way out around a buoy and back, and then ride onto land again. The short videos below show how a few hardy souls rose to the challenge.

Here the winner emerges from the water and rides away while his competition is still adapting their bike for land.

Melanie Curry

Streetsblog California editor Melanie Curry has been thinking about transportation, and how to improve conditions for bicyclists, since her early days commuting by bike to UCLA long ago. She was Managing Editor at the East Bay Express, and edited Access Magazine for the University of California Transportation Center. She also earned her Masters in City Planning from UC Berkeley.

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