We Love a Bike Parade at Bunchland

Give summer a proper sendoff with a neighbourhood bike parade

At Camp Bunchland, we believe summer should end with a bang, not with a whimper. Rather than focus on the fact that days are getting shorter and Labour Day is looming, commit to squeezing every last drop out of the season while you still can.

One way to accomplish this is rounding up a ragtag group of kiddie cyclists on your block and having a bike parade! The fun lies in decking your bikes out to the nines and creating a mini-spectacle for your neighbours for an hour or so.

Choose a parade route

Temporarily designate a strip of road as a “no-car zone” using sidewalk chalk, streamers strung between lamp posts and/or balloons. You could even spray paint the road in wild colours using a temporary product like Krylon Marking Chalk. A pair of grownups can be stationed at the start and end points of the route to ensure safe parading.

Don’t stop at bikes

Sure, it’s called a bike parade, but anyone with wheels can partake. Kids can roll along on skateboards, scooters or those wacky sneakers with wheels on them. Heck, paraders can even strap on some rollerskates (or those newfangled “Rollerblades”) and cruise alongside the bikers. Pets could be pulled in wagons. Babies could be pushed by their parents in strollers. Things could get insane. And that’s kind of the point.

Pimp your ride

While a fleet of unfettered bikes coasting along the street is still cool, if you really want to blow people’s minds you can get down to business decorating your bikes with anything you can get your hands on. When it comes to blinging your bike, trust us when we say the sky’s the limit.

Remember how you used to trick out your spokes with those colourful plastic doodads? Yeah, those still exist. But you can heighten the drama by decorating every inch of your bike with cheap or recyled materials. Set up a bike decorating booth stocked with art supplies so each kid has a chance to go nuts before parade time. Materials for the booth could include:

Crepe streamers

Sparkly handlebar streamers (so old-school)

Dollar-store plastic flowers (perfect for purdying up a bike basket)

Stickers

Washable finger paint

Balloons

Funky fabric and tape for covering bike seats

You could even raise the stakes by awarding prizes to the best-decorated bikes, or have subcategories for Most Colourful Bike or Weirdest Decorations.