Via Community News Service, a University of Vermont journalism internship
Look closely outside a few haunts in Winooski and you might notice a line of bicycles, each resting with a helmet strung across its handlebars. It’s the telltale sign of a gang that does its business purely on two wheels.
That was the scene at Pho Dang restaurant on a recent afternoon, as crinkled smiles and giddy laughter filtered out of the group who had gathered to narrate the tale of the Winooski Bike Gang. It’s a cycling crew that organizes bike rides around the city from mid-April to the end of September, and about a dozen of its members were standing in a circle and jumping off of each other’s stories.
“It is a miracle. We’ve got up to 70 people now riding for six months out of the year,” said Peter Burns, a volunteer ambassador for the group who has been there since the start.
In April 2021, a trio of cycling enthusiasts kicked off the group, coursing through the city with around seven other bike-riders.
Neatly sectioned bike lanes flow through the city of Winooski. The gang meets outside of Winooski Wheels, a store owned by a friend of group member Kristine Harootunian, and they follow those paths, zipping through the city with their feet gripped to their pedals from spring to fall.
“A sense of community is crucial to what we do,” said Harootunian, one of the gang’s founders.
Throughout this year’s season, the group members biked up Vermont’s mountains and around its ponds. They searched for treasure, collecting points as they went in what the group calls Scavenger Hunt Rides. They enjoyed cookouts, ice cream and swims post-ride. Cows and ducks, bridges and fields — you name it, the Winooski Bike Gang pedaled past it.
After each ride, some members linger in downtown Winooski sipping on beer from Four Quarters Brewery, which sponsors the group, discussing their trip and future plans. As the group has grown, bringing in new riders ranging from older retired people to younger college students, organizers have split their rides into three groups.
For an intense zoom through Winooski there is the Business Ride — a ride strictly devoted to speed and distance. Those outings are longer and include higher elevation. Burns leads Party Rides, which maintain a moderate pace and no drops allowing bikers to chat as they ride.
“Some people bring music around. It’s shorter and less intense,” Burns said.
“It’s always a party!” another voice from the group chimed in.
Then there is the happy medium: the Business Casual Ride. People complained of the Party Ride being too slow and the Business Ride being too fast, making room for an approach with a consistent medium speed and distance.
The group has an Instagram page organized by Harootunian that is littered with pictures of group smiles and new bike trails. Larger rides are publicized on the page for its over 1,000 followers. On WhatsApp, members can hear about spontaneous rides or find GPS routes to easily follow along.
The group’s growth also led members to switch their meeting place from the Monkey House to Winooski Wheels to avoid crowding the street. With the change in size also came a change in the organization: Ambassadors learned to address the crowd loudly and decided to place an organizer in the back of the group on every trip for riders’ safety.
The gang’s growth has come in the form of creativity too. Members designed t-shirts that are sold at Winooski Wheels, a zine filled with artwork and biking-themed quotes, not to mention the countless goofy pictures the group strings together on Instagram.
“One member who just moved to Vermont said that every city should have a bike gang like ours,” Harootunian said.