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The World's Greatest Bicycle Parade, presented by the Odd Fellows, began at precisely 10:03 AM on Sunday, October 3, 2010. The goal was to set the Guinness World Record for "Longest Single Line of Bicycles". And that goal was achieved — [WWW]Guinness certified the 2010 record, with 916 cyclists. They are planning on trying to beat that record in 2011.
The [WWW]rules included:
All participants must be riding a bicycle, which is defined as a two wheeled vehicle powered by only pedaling. (Sorry no training wheels, unicycles, etc. However, people with disabilities or physical limitations can register for and ride their special vehicles in the parade as long as the vehicles used are commercially available and not "home made.")
All Bicycles must travel minimum two mile route and all bicycles must cross the start line and the finish line (at the Odd Fellows Lodge).
The bicycles must traverse the route in a single line.
Children must be at least 7 years old to participate.
The World's Greatest Bicycle Parade was originally supposed to be an attempt to break the world's record for the Largest Bicycle Parade, under the [WWW]Guinness Rules. The record had been held by Bangkok, Thailand, at 3,515 bikes. Organizers were hoping to get more than 4,000 people to join Davis's effort. Then, [WWW]according to the Davis Enterprise, in August 2010 Davis got a big surprise: Udine, Italy, was confirmed as the new record holder in the 'largest parade of bicycles' category with 48,615 bicycles! Knowing that Davis had very little chance of breaking that, Guinness agreed to create a brand-new World's Record Book category called "Longest Single Line of Bicycles" with a minimum count of 1,000 bikes. However, there seems to be some confusion over which record they were originally trying to break and what the confirmed record was — see below.
Registration for the event was $10; you could register at the website linked above. You had register online before the event to ride in the Parade; registration was only open to the first 1,200 riders, first come, first served. 1200 riders registered well before the event itself, and registration was closed. You could also buy a t-shirt for $10 at the same time, or buy one for $15 on the day of the parade. The [WWW]route started and finished downtown at the Odd Fellows Lodge on 415 2nd Street, going up F Street to 14th Street and the North Davis Elementary School parking lot, where cyclists turned and returned by the same route. The parade was expected to last approximately 20 minutes. There was a "Festival at Central Park" after the Parade. All proceeds from the event benefited the Davis Schools Foundation, "... to raise money for our cash-strapped Davis Schools." " (
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