Wheelies, Helmets Abound At Kick-off Bike Block Party

As Vanessa Wilson and her son Omarhie crossed Ivy Street on their way to pick up food for breakfast, they stumbled upon a treasure trove of biking goodies: a bicycle repair station, a pop-up bike lane, a table full of seat covers and reflectors, and plenty of tips on how to bike safely in New Haven.

By the time they resumed their grocery shopping trip a half hour later, the Newhallville mother and son were the proud owners of two new bicycle helmets, and were already looking forward to their next family bike trip up the Farmington Canal.

“This is wonderful,” Vanessa said. ​“I take the kids on the bike trail all the time, and I was just talking with Omarhie about his bike because his light recently fell off.” Omarhie, who is in second grade at Lincoln-Bassett School, looked up with a smile, tugging lightly at his new brain-patterned headgear.

Vanessa and Omarhie Wilson were two of dozens of New Haveners who came out to Ivy Street between Shelton Avenue and Butler Street on Saturday morning to participate in Open Streets: Newhallville Block Party, the first of four flagship neighborhood events organized by this year’s New Haven Bike Month.

Now in its third year, New Haven Bike Month is a grant-funded, volunteer-powered organization that celebrates bike culture in New Haven by hosting a variety of programs, from bike tours to tire repair clinics to educational events, that take place throughout the city during the month of May.

Working in collaboration with the city’s parks department, transportation department, and a slew of other local bike advocacy organizations, New Haven Bike Month closed off a one-block stretch of Ivy Street from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Saturday to offer a range of free biked-related services, entertainment, and support.

John Martin and other volunteers from the Bradley Street Bicycle Co-Op and The Devil’s Gear Bike Shop manned the repair station, where they tended to a steady stream of punctured innertubes, loose brakes, and worn tires.

New Haven Bike Month organizer Caroline Smith welcomed Newhallville neighbors to the information tent, where she was handing out free helmets to both children and their parents. Some of the helmets, which were donated by Safe Kids Connecticut, Bikes for Kids Connecticut, and several other bike advocacy organizations, were designed to look like brains, painted pink with black crenelations snaking across the top. New Haven Bike Month gave out 40 free helmets over the course of the day’s event.

Transportation planner Anna Stokes led the creation of a pop-up bike lane down Ivy Street, mixing corn starch and water to make the paint, and using official bicycle and arrow stencils lent to New Haven Bike Month by the city’s transportation department.

“This bike lane will only last until the next time it rains, which should be tomorrow,” Stokes said. ​“But we’re just trying to show the neighborhood what it would be like for this street to have a bike lane.”

GoNewHavengo Program Manager Krysia Solheim brought a sample bike from New Haven’s recently-approved bike share program for neighbors to test ride.

CT Transit operator Robert Mozak, who has been driving buses in New Haven for 27 years, took a break from his usual route driving on the Q line to give demonstrations on how to properly load and secure a bicycle to a CT Transit bus’s front rack.

Meanwhile, across the street in the park in front of Lincoln-Basset, parks department employee Jeremy Powers played DJ for the afternoon, blasting pop, hip hop, and dance music across the block; a group of Hillhouse High School seniors working with the Youth Services department helped serve free food; and Hillhouse High School assistant principal John Tarka offered free face-painting to anyone looking to ornament their cheeks.

At noon, nationally accomplished stunt rider and current Westville resident Mike Steidley acted as the day’s main attraction. The two dozen neighbors, students, and bike month volunteers in attendance gathered at the intersection of Ivy Street and Butler Street to watch Steidley perform some of the acrobatic mainstays that have helped earn him 12 national championships in mountain bike trials.

“Many of these tricks I’m about to do I first learned as a kid, just biking around the curb in front of my house,” he said before launching into his vertiginous routine of wheelies, bunny hops, and side hops across a range of narrow home-made platforms (see video below).

Steidley has performed at each of the past two New Haven Bike Months, and Smith was excited to have him back on this year’s line up for the Newhallville block party.

“There are a ton of kids in this neighborhood who ride BMX bikes,” Smith said. ​“Let’s give them another hero.”

You can find a complete calendar of New Haven Bike Month events here.