It’s not a gang, it’s a club," goes the old outlaw biker joke.
But when the Thursday Night Cruise rambles out to Waikiki, the saying should go, "It’s not a pack, it’s a parade."
The slow-riding, often low-riding group of bicyclists who pedal their way from the Ala Moana or Ward Centers parking lots to the beach make sure the excursion is about fun, camaraderie, exercise and safety. In just two years the rides have grown from an outing among a small group of friends to a wave of two-wheelers.
"There’s something about Thursday night," said Brannan Kajitani, a 30-year-old auto shop worker from Nuuanu who is one of the originators of the Waikiki rides. "There’s not as much traffic, but there’s still a lot of action going on. I guess people can’t wait for the weekend."
Anywhere from 50 to 100 bikers regularly make the ride, which typically begins around 9 p.m. and takes in the Ala Wai marina and beach area behind the Ilikai Hotel and Fort DeRussy Beach Park before heading out to Kalakaua Avenue and the heart of Waikiki. Other informal bike groups have popped up around the island, with a Monday night ride in Kaneohe, a Tuesday night ride in Pearl City and a Wednesday night ride in Ewa. Another group is expected to hit the streets in Kailua soon.
Kajitani said exercise is one reason many of the riders give for getting into cycling — a 150-pound person riding at a leisurely pace for an hour burns off about 250 calories. But on a recent Thursday evening at Ala Moana Center, where bikers gathered before the ride, it was obvious admiration for the machine and pride of ownership are also driving forces behind the street excursions.
Jeffrey Manuel’s lowrider captured the attention of fellow cyclists and shoppers the moment he unloaded it from his vehicle. It began life on the road as a $500 FnR Stretch Cruiser, and he spent an additional $3,500 customizing it with chrome handlebars and spokes that are twisted like antelope horns, curved chrome lowrider forks and an airbrushed, flaming orange paint job with skulls on its midsection. It even has a matching cup holder.
"It’s won about eight shows already," said Manuel, 32, who is especially proud of the bike because "I accomplished something I love doing."
"This is my first time taking it out on this ride. Back in the ’90s we used to ride, but they stopped. Now they started again so we started riding again."
A different sense of history was conveyed by Bruce Stewart, a retired attorney who collects vintage Schwinn bicycles. On this night he rode a 1952 Red Phantom, which had a working horn, a built-in lock and mudflaps.
"This is a totally original condition, original paint, original bike," he said.
He further equipped it with an original 1952 Honolulu bike license, authentic mirrors, American flags and a hula dancer doll on the handlebars. It even had little hooks to hold a newspaper delivery boy’s bags.
"This was Schwinn’s top-of-the-line bike in 1952, and in 1952 dollars this would have been close to five weeks’ wages for the average working guy," Stewart said.
While Manuel’s bike drew admirers for its mod design and Stewart’s for its vintage styling, bicycle envy is not the byword of this crowd. Danny Yamamoto, a 50-year-old dentist, was happy to show off what might best be described as a "Frankenbike" — a 1930s-era frame he found at Ala Moana Beach Park and re-equipped with "whatever I had in my closet." It features a fake "fuel tank" bought online and knobby white tires.
Yamamoto said riding on the Thursday Night Cruise, which also is referred to as the 808 Lowriders or the Waikiki Lowriders, is "reaffirmation that I’m not that crazy because there’s crazier guys out there. I can tell my wife, ‘I’m not that crazy. Look at this guy!’"
Like age, size doesn’t matter when it comes to bikes. Justice Walker, a tall, gangly teenager from Kalihi, dwarfed his miniature lowrider bike but was happy to tool around on it. "It’s easier," he said. "Everybody else takes big turns. I can take real small turns and can swerve around the potholes."
While the great majority of the riders on this night were male, there’s no gender discrimination. Kristina Lacno of Hawaii Kai rides frequently in the Cruise as well as in serious road races. Her first ride was on the last Thursday of the month, when all the bike groups from around Oahu join together for the Waikiki ride. The monthly events are sometimes used to raise funds or awareness about community issues.
"It was like a huge crowd, like over 200 bikes," she said. "I didn’t know there was a huge community like this, and it was super cool."
Kajitani said it’s an "amazing" feeling to be part of something that has grown so quickly and is so inclusive.
"When we used to ride bikes when I was younger, it was always cliques," he said. "We’d go to Ala Moana Beach Park, there’d be 20 or 30 of us. Other guys would come down but we wouldn’t ride together. … But now it’s become like a family thing. You’ve got kids 6, 7 years old riding, up to guys in their 60s and 70s. We’ve got husband and wives. It’s a totally different thing."
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The Thursday Night Cruise is on Facebook. Visit goo.gl/k3QZE.
