If you were on the roads in East Tampa and Ybor City on Sunday, then you might have seen what looked and felt like at least 200 bikes—some catwalking to no end—rolling by. The All Love crew rode to honor Joe Haskins, a Tampa bike man who kept working class cyclists on the road for six decades until he died on March 20 at the age of 79.
Devon Brady at Crab Devil said it best when he wrote that “Tampa can be a pretty fragmented city some times,” adding that “Joe Haskins worked tirelessly for most of his 79 years to bring it together, and you can feel it out here today. Expressions of pure Tampa joy to celebrate the impact that a life can have.”
Haskins’ family was at Myrtle Hill Memorial Park to meet the riders who gathered to pay their respects, and the family has vowed to keep the shop running so that folks can keep getting to work and getting on the road to blow off some steam.
The ride stopped by Haskins’ shop on the way back before clocking in more miles down Tampa Street, the Riverwalk, West and South Tampa and even downtown.
"The ride was as beautiful and diverse as Tampa itself: young, old, Black, white, fat tires and skinny, all in celebration of a man whose life’s work was getting people riding down the street. That this simple act meant so much to so many was on full display on the smiles of every face pedaling through the city streets into the sunset," Creative Loafing Tampa Bay contributor and local activist Kelly Benjamin wrote.
Another ride organized by Ramon Lopez meets at the shop on Sunday, April 11 at 11 a.m.—Ray Roa
