Kalamazoo’s Holiday Lights Ride blends seasonal joy with winter street challenges

Editor’s Note: Photographs throughout this piece were captured by Fran Dwight, Second Wave.

KALAMAZOO, MI — The Holiday Lights Ride to Downtown’s Moonlight Madness sales might sound like madness to some. But what are we going to do, leave the bikes in the back of the garage until March, or May, or whenever we might feel the warmth again in Michigan?

What is that called? I think, “summer?” With the big, bright, hot thing in the sky?

A small but extremely festive group of bike pedalers hit the frozen roads for the Holiday Lights Ride, organized by multimodal transportation advocacy group ModeShift Kalamazoo. They biked from Midtown Fresh to the Kalamazoo Mall’s night of shopping on Friday. 

Some rode from their homes to the grocery store parking lot, some hauled their bikes in on trucks, or in cars. 

It’s been difficult riding in the past couple of weeks. The heavy snow that started around Thanksgiving seemed to have taken the City plows by surprise. My neighborhood of Edison didn’t see plows on residential streets until after drivers had turned the feet of snow into rutted layers of smashed snow and ice.

Plows eventually shoved the heavily packed glaciers to the side. Some thawing last week helped to clear some streets, but piled road crud along the sides of streets and in bike lanes had melted and refroze as temps dropped Friday.

Ride organizer Dustin Black said the ride was still on, but he scrapped the original route that meandered through neighborhoods, from Vine to the Northside. We’d be doing a straight shot down Park Street, go around Bronson Park, get on the bike lane of Michigan Avenue, and hit the Mall.

The mission behind the ride is, he says later, “in part to help people learn how to navigate the city on two wheels, and the Holiday Lights Ride is an especially fun ride we do every year. We get together, festively light up our bikes, turn on some holiday music, and explore the city on bikes.”

But street conditions made this year challenging. “We test rode the route the day prior to the event, and ended up having to cancel over half of the route because of concerns about icy roads being too dangerous. “

Black adds, “It’s an easy pivot when we’re just out having fun on a social ride, but a whole different story if your job is across town and your car won’t start. “

Bad road conditions put a damper on the holiday spirit of all road users, he says. “Traditionally, the holidays are a time when people want to get together and enjoy each other’s company, but when the design and operation of our street network doesn’t support this, it can actually cause deeper divisions in the community as people get frustrated and small businesses suffer. “

“This is something a lot of cities struggle with, but we’ll keep trying because I just can’t think of many things more joyous than listening to Brenda Lee, taking in Christmas lights, and riding bikes with friends under the night sky.”

Put up or shut up

I’d been on their first holiday ride in 2023. The weather was clear, above freezing. There was a huge herd of bikes, Santa Claus, families, lights on every wheel, every frame, every rider. 

I was sad to miss the 2024 ride. “We had a great turnout,” Black says.

This year, I was on the fence. The thermometer was headed to the teens. 

My wife, Jules, took a string of lights from our tree and wrapped them around my neck. I realized, this is the kind of holiday merry-making that demands, either put up or shut up.

Jules dropped me off at the parking lot. I was the first there, and a little worried.

But Scott Jones came riding up. Little ornaments dangling from his beard, an ugly Xmas sweater prominent, he was obviously here to do some serious holiday riding.

Black and his family showed up with huge cargo bikes in the back of a truck. We waited for others to arrive as he put up a small Christmas tree on the front platform, attached a Bluetooth speaker for holiday-appropriate tunes, and festooned everything with garlands and lights.

Jim Ratliff rolled up on a fat tire bike, looking like he was ready to ride to the North Pole. We had a long talk about winter riding dress. 

You need to find that sweet spot where you won’t sweat once you heat up when riding, we agreed. If you’re cold before riding, you’ve probably got it right.

Standing around, waiting for the start, I was freezing. 

More riders showed up. On mountain bikes with studded tires, e-bikes, and cargo bikes, covered in lights and full of children. 

Merry and cold

We streamed forth out of the lot, north on Park, lights a-twinkling, “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree” winter-cheering from Black’s bike leading the way.

We got a “You have a blessed ride!” from the sidewalk, some friendly honks. 

We had to dodge ice and roll outside of the bike lane a few times. Rounding a corner, my tires went up on the edge of a slick ice mound, but I did not fall, did not break my collarbone.

Around the holiday magic of Bronson Park, more people cheering us on, to Michigan Avenue. We patiently waited at the bike traffic signals everyone complains about, but we were too festive to care. John Lennon’s “Happy Xmas (War Is Over),” played from the Bluetooth. 

Under the watchful glare of Downtown’s Giant Santa, we turned onto the Mall. “Where’s the best place for hot chocolate?” Wilson ShaoFei Xu asked me, his bakfiets* full of tots. (*Dutch for “box bike.”)

I had no idea. Jules then appeared on the sidewalk, giving us a ‘WOOOO!” and telling me she’ll be waiting inside with warm food and adult beverages at The Hub.

Second Wave photographer Fran Dwight was Downtown, she tells me later, when she overheard someone say, “Look at all the bikes!” She hustled to chase us down, took photos, as everyone wondered where to dine, drink, and warm up. 

The usual sidewalk crowds for a Moonlight Madness were pretty thin. They seemed to be all packed inside — inside The Hub, anyway. 

While waiting for our photographer, I attempted to do interviews. But my lips, the only part of my body not covered, weren’t working correctly.

I managed to ask Black’s daughter, “Is it too cold to ride a bike?”

“Yeah,” Isla says.

Her father points out, “Look, kids are jumping around, they’re having fun, riding bikes —”

“Daddy? I can’t feel my toes, my ears are hurting,” Isla interrupts.