(upbeat music) - [Narrator] In Indianapolis, there is always a party somewhere on a Friday.

(upbeat music) I would also venture to say that you can find people out on bicycles every Friday.

(upbeat music) But on some Fridays people combine the two.

♪ An audience of one like a million times ♪ ♪ That's the net ♪ ♪ Them living like a million legs ♪ - Tonight is Indianapolis bike party.

This is probably one of the bigger ones of the year where like 5,000 people show up and do like a 20 mile course around the city.

- [Narrator] Maybe you've seen it, or maybe you've been held up in traffic by it.

- Some of us have illuminated bikes.

The lights started out as a safety precaution, but then it just became fun.

- [Narrator] Or maybe you are even one of those people that join in on the fun for all ages event.

- What the heck is this called?

- Bike Party Indianapolis.

- Bike Party Indianapolis.

Every time we try to bring the family, every time.

This is a family friendly event.

- [Interviewer] Which do you guys do more?

Do you bike more or party more or party more?

(upbeat music) - Party more.

(wife laughing) - Our little subgroup is the Nap Town Party Riders and we do more of the partying so we don't go far, but we go hard.

(upbeat music) - [Narrator] One thing I noted upon my unplanned arrival at the unplanned meeting spot, this ride is definitely not planned.

(upbeat music) Because if it were planned, well there would be a lot of that red tape stuff.

And really all these folks want to do is have fun.

(upbeat music) (bells ringing) - We're always making new friends.

The organizers are some of the coolest people I've ever met.

- [Interviewer] But the organizers don't exist, right?

- Oh yeah, they're ethereal (laughs).

- [Narrator] To learn more, I tracked down the guy who is not the guy known as the keeper of the lore.

- It's an event, it's a gathering, it's a family, it's all this stuff that has just organically happened for the last eight years?

Just over eight.

- [Narrator] As well as the man who didn't start Bike Party, and the man who is not leading the ride tonight.

- Like we just started a ride and people started showing up and yeah.

- The goal was always to be a non organized organization and we didn't wanna be like a police escorted ride, yeah.

We wanna be a party ride of the streets.

- [Interviewer] It's probably a particular challenge because you guys wanted a route but you couldn't plan a route because that's not what we do.

As you are not leading tonight, why not take on such a mission like that?

- So, I mean we just like, we're just a group of friends riding bikes.

I mean it's a good activity, good fun thing to do.

If other people wanna ride bikes with us too, they might join us, might be, you know, five, six, seven, 800 people sometimes, that sometimes happens, we dunno why, but we just ride bikes and then people follow us.

(bells dinging) (upbeat music) - [Narrator] Tonight is what bike party does not call the Major Taylor ride.

This group may end up at the Indie Cycle Plex, also known as the Velodrome.

- We are at the Indy Cycle Plex which is home of the Major Taylor Velodrome.

It's a pretty historic site in Indianapolis.

It is a a velodrome bike racing facility named after the Great Marshall Major Taylor.

- [Narrator] Here, professional bicyclists compete in races.

- [Commentator] Gonna be Mina Scanado.

- [Narrator] As the bike partiers watch and hang out, show off, and just bask in the glory of not doing something fun.

- [Commentator] Mina Scanado is making a bend (indistinct).

- One of my friends has described it as, "A protest against nothing."

I like that.

(upbeat music) - Bike party is my favorite.

- Whether it's bike party, your first time out, you're on a cruiser bike, you've got the speakers, the lights on your bike or you're racing on the track in the Velodrome at near Olympic level, we share that common passion for cycling and riding a bike.

(people cheering) At the end of the night, they're gonna be able to get down onto the apron and do a couple laps and see what it feels like to be Marshall Major Taylor going around a velodrome.

(upbeat music) - [Narrator] So to anyone watching who might wanna go on the next ride, it definitely doesn't happen every second Friday of the month, rain, snow, or shine.

(upbeat music) (gentle music) - [Promoter] For more across Indiana stories, go to wfyi.org/across Indiana.