The Late Night Tribes of NYC: The Bike Killas

SATURDAY

8:30 PM The Black Label Bicycle Club’s Bike Kill event is wrapping up with the jousting showdown as hip-hop blasts for drunken, dancing onlookers. At this point, the alley behind the Bed-Stuy Home Depot is straight-up apocalyptic, with trashed bikes forming a mechanical graveyard filled with riled-up crusties in a flour-fight fog. The winner is named, and we linger, hoping for one last stunt. It never happens.

10:30 PM Although the official after party is at The Chicken Hut—the grungey bike-centric party loft with oversized art and a dizzyingly large roof—we head to a smaller house party a couple blocks down. Like a scene out of any bromance fantasy flick, several girls turn the kitchen island into a go-go dancing platform; much tattoo-inflected macking occurs.

11:00 PM For reasons unknown, some dude starts a fight and then corset-wearing jousting contestant Jessica Hicks puts him in a necklock. Other dudes stare in amazement and longing.

12:00 AM After acquiring street pizza and more beer we head to the Hut, where $3 beers, a back room for trippers, and a Ginuwine-fueled dance floor packed with costumed bike fanatics, provide some genuine entertainment.

1:50 AM Though we didn’t witness rolling-around-on-the-floor-naked action, as promised by last year’s Bike Kill afterparty attendees, we’ve seen just enough anti-establishment hedonism for the night and take a cab home.