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The adult “footie” pajama business is apparently alive and well. At least in Charm City.
Hundreds of bicyclists took to the streets Friday night in their best — and funniest — pajamas for the Baltimore Bike Party’s November ride. There were couples in matching snow leopard print footies, grown men in dinosaur footies, female bicyclists in full-on bunny footies with ears and cotton tails, a pajama Tony the Tiger look-a-like, and one clown with an airhorn in bright, polka dot footies. (I mean, appeared to be a clown.)
Or maybe that was just his regular nightime wardrobe?
One guy wore a velvet Playboy robe, ala Hugh Heffner, over his animal print PJ’s. Another had Batman PJ’s, complete with cape.
Several parents brought their kids along for the ride. Some rode in PJ’s on their own bikes; the younger ones took in the scene in bike trailers. One bicyclist brought a terrier along in a basket on his bike.
Launched in April with a different theme each month, there's more music it seems at every new Bike Party, too. Depending if you’re upfront, in the pack or pulling up the rear — you might have heard anything from “Folsom Prison Gangstaz,” a remix of Johnny Cash with Easy E, Scissor Sister’s “Take Your Mama,” to Notorius B.I.G., Michael Jackson, Christina Aguilera and even, Huey Lewis and the News.
There were also a couple of bicycle drummers, literally building a small kit atop their handlebars. (Not recommended for everyone.)
This month’s ride went through neighborhoods above Patterson Park and east through Pigtown before wrapping up at the Pratt Street Ale House.
As usual, residents along the route came out to shoot videos, take photos, high-five and occasionally, ask exactly why hundreds of people were making noise and riding down their street at 9 p.m.
“What is this, why ya’ll riding?,” one man asked, leaning out of his SUV while stopped at a traffic light as hundreds of bicyclists hooted and hollered by.
“It’s Baltimore Bike Party!,” came the enthusiastic response from several riders pedaling past.
“Oh, it’s a bike party,” the driver repeated with a smile. And then he turned, and explained — like it should've been perfectly obvious — what was happening to his passenger. “It’s a bike party."
