:Dead Baby Bikes Downhill
{{Short description|American bicycle race}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=August 2024}}
Dead Baby Bikes Downhill, also known as Dead Baby Bike Race or Dead Baby Downhill or RaceDay, is an annual Seattle-based bicycle race and street party that occurs on the first Saturday of August. {{cite news |last1=Lacitis |first1=Erik |title=Dead Baby Bikes Downhill brings 'gleeful mayhem' to Seattle streets |url=https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/road-warrior-on-steroids-dead-baby-bikes-downhill-brings-gleeful-mayhem-to-seattle-streets/ |accessdate=March 30, 2020 |work=The Seattle Times |date=August 3, 2019}} The bicycle race often has no defined route, just an origin and an ending point, and has historically not been permitted, even though the accompanying street party has been permitted.
File:Neil finishes! (1023692066).jpg
Over the years, the event has grown from attracting hundreds to now thousands of people to various Seattle neighborhoods, lately in Georgetown mostly (but not always, nor originally, please).{{Cite web|url=https://www.seattlepi.com/seattlenews/slideshow/Dead-Baby-Downhill-bike-party-in-Georgetown-67510.php|last=Trujillo|first=Joshua|publisher=Seattle Post-Intelligencer|date=August 3, 2013|access-date=April 26, 2020|title='Dead Baby Downhill' bike party in Georgetown}}{{Cite news |title=Bombing Downhill with the Dead Baby Bike Club |url=https://www.thestranger.com/play-date/2023/08/10/79115087/bombing-downhill-with-the-dead-baby-bike-club |last=Graham |first=Nathalie |date=August 10, 2023 |access-date=August 8, 2024 |work=The Stranger}}
The street party at times features carnival rides made of bicycle parts, as well as bicycle jousting.{{cite news |last1=Galvin |first1=Sarah |title=Thank You for Being a Friend: 12 Years With the Dead Baby Bike Club |url=https://queerspacemagazine.com/thank-you-for-being-a-friend-12-years-with-the-dead-baby-bike-club |accessdate=March 30, 2020 |work=Queerspace Magazine |date=June 6, 2016}}
File:Lucia on Cyclecide (1023697964).jpg]]
The event was featured in a 2005 episode of the television show Grey's Anatomy.
History
The event was given their best try in 1997 by the members of Dead Baby Bikes (perhaps due to the most enthusiastic Critical Mass in Seattle history? Jun271997 [they rode on the viaduct!]), a Seattle bicycle club (named for a doll which had been nailed to the wall of the roll-up door of the bike repair shop in which the club was meeting) in existence many years before inklings of a race; founder Dave Ranstrom has admitted that if he had known the event would draw media attention, he would have chosen a different name.
[https://www.seattlepi.com/local/article/It-s-a-wild-ride-at-Dead-Baby-Bikes-Downhill-and-1151174.php It's a wild ride at Dead Baby Bikes' Downhill and Messenger Challenge], by Mike Lewis, at the Seattle Post-Intelligencer; published August 8, 2004; retrieved April 26, 2020
References
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