Dereka Hendon had asked the legendary Hayden Hester to lead a ride to Westbury. Hayden said that he would and decided to ask the Ride Ya Bike crew to join him. If anybody knows anything about Hayden, it’s when Hayden asks for something, he gets it! When I arrived, there was already a large contingent of riders from both clubs who had answered the call. We all met at Grand Army Plaza and took photos. I asked Grant to get a count of bikes as we left out. The count was 23 cyclists. As we rode through Brooklyn and then through Queens, we picked up riders along the way that were waiting for us to come by. My unofficial count had the group at 50 bikes. For most of the riders, it was a reunion. Many guys hadn’t seen or rode with each other in quite some time.
What was funny, was that there were no female riders on the ride as we started out. Then we turned right on Union Turnpike, I heard what I thought was a women’s voice. At first, I thought that one of the guys was clearing his throat and his voice became a little high. Then I heard the voice again. I turned to see that Bijou V. had joined us. She had jumped in the group with her partner Jerry and proceeded to have a great ride. It helps that she did the NYCC Sig series this past spring. Then she and Jerry where baptized under fire to become official Iron Riders when they did the Apple Orchard Ride. They both showed me their scars from that ride..(Just kidding)
Hayden took the big group to the second Seven Eleven, while a smaller group stopped at the first one. The ride was expertly led by Hayden. The route he chose allowed the group to burn some rubber in certain places and then regroup.
To my knowledge everyone made it home safely and everyone had a blast! Thanks Dwight Heusner for leading my group home. If this many cyclist showed up for a Westbury Ride, look out for the Montauk Ride. That ride may set a record for participation.
One last point. You can’t make this stuff up. As we were riding through Brooklyn, an older man is riding towards us on the opposite side of the street. He sees the big group coming his way and makes a u-turn right in the middle of our group. He proceeds to ride with us in street clothes on a small red beat up huffy bike through Brooklyn and part of Queens blowing his whistle to alert traffic that we were coming through. And I thought that I had seen everything in my many years of riding. LOL
