There’s No Costume too Weird for the Annual Boston Halloween Bike Ride
Greg Hum has mastered the art of wearing an astronaut costume while pedaling his bike—outfitted to resemble a dinosaur—through Boston.
“The trick is, you have to carefully cut the pieces of cardboard for the costume to make moving your legs as easy as possible,” said Hum, cofounder of Boston Bike Party, a monthly meet-up that brings together hundreds of cyclists, and one of the organizers of this year’s annual Boston Halloween Bike Ride.
An event that first started 14 years ago in Jamaica Plain as a community-driven approach to offering an alternative activity for people to enjoy during the spooky holiday, this year’s ride promises to be bigger than ever.
Hum, who teamed up with the founders of the Boston Halloween Bike Ride that began in JP in 2000, said on Friday, October 31, convoys of cyclists will come from neighborhoods all across the city and descend upon Copley Square, decked out in elaborate costumes, to begin a two-hour nighttime tour that will end with a dance party in Allston.
“This started at the Green Street T stop 14 years ago. But for the past two years, the organizers of the original ride have been into rebranding it as a Boston bike ride, rather than just for Jamaica Plain,” said Hum, adding that last year around 500 costumed cycling enthusiast rolled up for the ride. “We have been helping them get the word out about it and pooling our resources. We all worked together to plan a route, and find an after party venue.”
According to event details, once riders in the individual convoys convene in Copley—they will be riding en masse from Somerville, Cambridge, South Boston, Dorchester, Allston, Boston University, and JP—the groups will “slither and crawl” on a to-be-determined route for 10 to 12 miles at a “costume friendly pace.”
At the end of the route, cyclists will park their rides in Allston and enjoy free food that’s been paid for through donations from Bike Safe Boston and the Hub Bicycle Company. Attendees can then cap off the night dancing at WonderBar.
Hum said there aren’t too many rules for the event except for one: “don’t hold back—it’s Halloween.”
“It’s my favorite time of the year because of the costumes, and it’s really the one day that you can get away with whatever you want,” he said. “If that means being an astronaut, then be an astronaut. Or if you want to be a Velociraptor, then be a Velociraptor.”
