World's Greatest Bicycle Parade

The World's Greatest Bicycle Parade, presented by the Odd Fellows, has the goal of setting the Guinness World Record for "Longest Single Line of Bicycles".

The rules include:

• All participants must be riding a bicycle, which is defined as a two wheeled vehicle powered by only pedaling. (Sorry no training wheels, unicycles, etc. However, people with disabilities or physical limitations can register for and ride their special vehicles in the parade as long as the vehicles used are commercially available and not "home made.")
• All Bicycles must travel minimum two mile route and all bicycles must cross the start line and the finish line (at the Odd Fellows Lodge).
• The bicycles must traverse the route in a single line.
• Children must be at least 7 years old to participate.

2011

The parade will start at 10:02 AM sharp on October 2, 2011. Afterward (from about 11 AM - 2:30 PM) there will be a festival in Central Park. They are still seeking volunteers and bicycle riders; see the websites for details.

Media

• Celebrate bike parade at family festival

2010

The 2010 attempt began at precisely 10:03 AM on Sunday, October 3, 2010. The goal was achieved — Guinness certified the 2010 record, with 916 cyclists. They are planning on trying to beat that record in 2011.

The World's Greatest Bicycle Parade was originally supposed to be an attempt to break the world's record for the Largest Bicycle Parade, under the Guinness Rules. The record had been held by Bangkok, Thailand, at 3,515 bikes. Organizers were hoping to get more than 4,000 people to join Davis's effort. Then, according to the Davis Enterprise, in August 2010 Davis got a big surprise: Udine, Italy, was confirmed as the new record holder in the 'largest parade of bicycles' category with 48,615 bicycles! Knowing that Davis had very little chance of breaking that, Guinness agreed to create a brand-new World's Record Book category called "Longest Single Line of Bicycles" with a minimum count of 1,000 bikes. However, there seems to be some confusion over which record they were originally trying to break and what the confirmed record was — see below.

Registration for the event was $10; you could register at the website linked above. You had to register online before the event to ride in the Parade; registration was only open to the first 1,200 riders, first come, first served. 1200 riders registered well before the event itself, and registration was closed. You could also buy a t-shirt for $10 at the same time, or buy one for $15 on the day of the parade. The route started and finished downtown at the Odd Fellows Lodge on 415 2nd Street, going up F Street to 14th Street and the North Davis Elementary School parking lot, where cyclists turned and returned by the same route. The parade was expected to last approximately 20 minutes. There was a "Festival at Central Park" after the Parade. All proceeds from the event benefited the Davis Schools Foundation, "... to raise money for our cash-strapped Davis Schools."

They also sought dozens of volunteers to help with the parade and festival, as well as sponsors (sponsors were recognized on event T-shirts and in publicity). The Sponsor Chairman is Stewart Savage; you can email him at [email protected].

Media

• SacBee Article from 2010-06-22
• Aggie Article from 2010-08-23
• CBS 13 video of the event
• Odd Fellows Press Release, with results

Information on current world records

Records and categories of records are a confusing business (how many fathers have "World's Best Dad" mugs?). While Guinness has created some different categories to try and confirm various specific world records, even they seem to publish contrary numbers in some cases. Here are some of the claims made:

• For "Largest Parade of Bicycles": The record had been claimed by Bangkok, Thailand, at 3,515 bikes. However, it is not on the Guinness Website. (link)
• For "Largest Parade of Bicycles": "The record for the largest parade of bicycles is 1,901 and was organised by Volvic (Taiwan) in Taipei City, Taiwan on July 21, 2007." ((Guinness Website)
• For "Largest Cycling Event": While organizing the 2010 parade, Davis got a big surprise in August: Udine, Italy, was confirmed as the new record holder in the 'largest cycling event' category with 48,615 bicycles. This is listed in the Guinness Book of World Records 2010, however the event itself happened in 2000. (Guinness Book for World Records 2010)

In other words, there is some confusion on this matter. The current record (that anybody can confirm) for "Largest Parade of Bicycles" still remains at 1,901 as stated on the official Guinness website. The record of 3,515 would be difficult to beat, but not impossible, and maybe not even necessary as this number is not yet listed on the Guinness website. The record of 48,615 bicycles is for the "Largest Cycling Event" - not the "Largest Bicycle Parade" - see Google Book link above. It seems that the 3,515 number is real, however until somebody confirms that with the Guinness organization, it's unconfirmed. The Davis Odd Fellows mentioned it here so they probably got it directly from Guinness, so it's most likely accurate, however it is still unconfirmed.

2010-06-22 12:05:14   Sounds a lot like the World's Largest Bicycle Parade from a few years ago. —JasonAller

2010-09-12 21:36:34   I'm all for supporting schools or whatever, but won't charging $10 deter the entire student population of Davis? —ElisaHough

2010-09-24 07:52:52   Longest single line of bikes? What a cop out! Unless the folks in Italy were riding more than 12 abreast, (not likely on Italian streets) they will still have the longest bike pack record if only the projected 4000 riders show up here. If the organizers had any clue, they would drop the registration fee altogether, ask for donations and look for sponsors. They would probably raise a lot more money and stand a chance at breaking a REAL record that way. —Chuckles

2010-09-29 14:13:43   They got a new category added just for the world record, they charge $10 for some reason I don't understand (thereby eliminating 1000's of people who might otherwise come from all over the state), who knows where the $10 is actually going (Davis yuppie schools are already better off than almost any other schools in California - give it to some kids who actually need it, do we really need to buy bigger computer screens for their office workers for god sakes?). They don't list the time of 10:03am on the Poster OR on the Homepage - wow. They are doing this on a football Sunday - thereby eliminating 1000's of more people who might have otherwise come. They are just shooting themselves in the foot left and right. —GarrettGallegos

• Perhaps you were not aware of all the Davis teachers and staff members who have been "pink slipped" in recent years. Davis' schools may be doing better than some, but they are very much in need of funds. —[JoePomidor], originally by CovertProfessor

2010-09-29 15:06:14   Last comment for today: I adjusted the page above to reflect what I can find on Google as the current records along with their correct categories. Either I am completely confused, or the parade's organizers along with Guinness are completely confused. According to the official information that my wicked research skills found (Thanks Google!), we only need to beat the record of 1,901 bicycles - not 3,515 and not 48,615. If I am wrong on this, I would VERY HAPPILY welcome the corrected information to be placed above on this page. This target number is a JOKE - Davis can beat 1,901 at lunchtime at the Silo. "Knowing that Davis had very little chance of breaking that" - are you kidding? It's only 4,000 bikes. Davis should try - and try again - every year until we beat that. At least having a target to beat 3,515 would be a good goal. If we can't beat this, we don't belong in the record book for ANY category - let alone a category created just for us (PS: expect Udine or Taipei to break whatever record we set anyway). This is Davis, there are [sarcastically] 4,000 bikes on my street alone. An effectively advertised event (with no stupid $10 entry fee) could beat 4k no problem. At the very least, aim for beating 3,515 every year until we actually beat it! Don't just put your tail between your legs and create a new category (with a maximum limit of 1200 people, less than any of the other records mentioned on this page). We might as well just create the Davis Book of World Records if we going to do it this way. Only a regular annual event that grows a bit each year could get enough people to break any of the records - even though this isn't Davis' first bike parade, they need to decide on a freakin' day for every year. —GarrettGallegos

• The information, including the 48,615 number, was taken from the Davis Enterprise, here (requires login). See also here. Search on bike parade for more. We are no longer trying for the greatest # of bicycles. (For what it's worth, though, I share your opinion of the silliness of creating a category just for us). —CovertProfessor
• Professor, if you read above I know full well that number is confirmed by Guinness, however it is NOT for the "Largest Bicycle Parade" category - it's for the "Largest Cycling Event" category. In other words, we should have stuck with the "Largest Bicycle Parade" category. PS: I don't think spending an hour of my time correcting the blatantly wrong information on this wiki is making a "mess" of this page. I have kept my personal opinions in the comments, and have clarified the absolutely incorrect details previously listed here. Regardless, I took an extra minute to move my "current records" mess to it's own sub-section, hopefully this will make it look nicer.

2010-09-29 16:40:05   It looks like the Davis Odd Fellows may have been the one to publish the 3,515 stat originally. See here. Here is a link to the event itself. It looks like it just happened in May of 2010, and here is the *supposed* certificate. Still wondering why it's not on their website - Until I see Guinness acknowledge this somewhere publicly, I'm leaving above as "Unconfirmed". —GarrettGallegos

2010-09-29 16:42:41   PS: it's been 5 months since that event, if it's real - the Guinness people are really slow (do they update their website annually along with the book perhaps?). I still think 4,000 bikes is a good target for Davis, why they didn't shoot for that anyway I do not know, new category doesn't mean you should lower your goals also. —GarrettGallegos