The recent Bikezilla Mass Ride happened on 12 July 2025. A happy occasion that reminiscent on many Bikezilla Mass Rides that came before. We were blessed with an early morning rain that fizzled out by 8 am and the good weather that followed held itself well throughout the rest of the morning! The wet start did indeed dampened some participants’ will power to get out of bed that morning but turnout was still sizeable when we flagged off. This ride meant a lot to us. It brought back lots of fond memories. The last mass ride happened in October 2022, nearly a 3 year gap. Bikezilla Mass Rides’ frequency had really spaced itself out over the past few years. While we are sure that we would always be around to keep the bike life and culture alive, we have to admit that we are indeed affected by market forces in the cycling sport industry. Our editor shares his views on this community tradition event and what the future might hold for it.
BIKEZILLA MASS RIDE
The concept of Bikezilla Mass Ride came about nearly 10 years ago (Jan 2016) when the then-Bikezilla crew agreed that we needed a platform to promote mountain biking to new riders and celebrate riding friendship with the trail regulars. The idea was that simple. It started out wanting to share the joy of mountain biking and street riding.
All riders are welcome! All bikes are welcome! (But from our first ride, we never overlook the essentials of every ride: (1) Some form of takeaways at the end of each ride, (2) safety for all riders and (3) Thankful that we were blessed with good riding conditions.)
THE FIRST FEW BABY STEPS
With our editor’s experience in editorial, creative and event works, it gradually came into shape with a program framework that aimed to benefit the cycling population and the industry movers – a win-win relationship. In short, every Bikezilla Mass Ride would be organised free-of-charge to the participants and the event would be funded by sponsors who are industry business leaders or organizations with an interest in sports or healthy lifestyle. The ride would serve as a opportunity platform for information sharing, skill education, product demonstrations while also sharing their goodwill with the cycling community. The culture and “language” for our mass rides are catered for mountain biking and street riding.
The initial mass rides turned out to be partially self funded by Bikezilla. That’s money well spent, in our opinion. It contributed to shaping our local riding culture. While the sport of mountain biking evolves over the years, Bikezilla hopes to keep the Mass Rides up-to-date yet true to the fun-centric culture that started it all. We hope to do this for as long as we can.
THE BIKEZILLA T-SHIRT
One of the main attractions of Bikezilla Mass Rides is the BMR Event t-shirt! Each event features a newly designed t-shirt that would have only ONE print run in small quantity. That’s makes it a collectible t-Shirt! Over the years, the Bikezilla Mass Ride t-shirts have carried a consistency that stayed true to the local mountain bike and street riding culture. As they are given to real target users, these t-shirts joined in the small list of regularly-seen apparels at our local riding spots. this made these t-shirts a valuable “long-term mobile marketing reinforcement tool” for our sponsors’ brands and products.
GAME PRIZES AND FREEBIES
Another well-known feature of Bikezilla Mass Rides is the Game Prizes and freebies.
While we are thrilled by the competitive aspects of cycling sport, we enjoy the simple things that made cycling a lifestyle even more – it’s fun factor. Bike games and prizes had since became an integral part of our events. We believe that playing any game together enhance sociable behaviours and speed up bonding between people. From our experience, riders who had just met would be calling each other by first name as early as in the middle of the games.
THE ECOSYSTEM BEHIND IT
The evolution of Bikezilla Mass Ride over the years had made it a well thought out event platform for our local cycling community. We bring the needs of various stakeholders together to create a multi-win relationship. The riding community benefits from this event in terms of (1) a wholesome and fun socializing platform, (2) an avenue to promote the sport to new entrants and (3) a chance to sample the products & services the sponsors have to offer. On the other hand, it gives the sponsors a platform to reach their target market in an interactive social setting.
While every Bikezilla Mass Ride aims to have a small group of participants of 30 to 60 participants, the real impact of the event is the pre-event and post event social media reach. Every Bikezilla Mass Ride is accompanied by a small team of photographers/videographers and relevant editorial that would serve the objectives of the sponsors. These contents lead to short period of social media spikes that could be leveraged further by the sponsors.
WHY DO WE DO IT?
Are all these efforts financially profitable for Bikezilla? No.
Initial years of mass rides were partially self-funded, and it improved at covering the event cost over the years. Of course, it would have been more lucrative if we gather more sponsors, charge a small fee or offer other revenue generating services. But for now, we do not want to do that. While we’d like to call Bikezilla Mass Ride “a program framework that aimed to benefit the cycling population and the industry movers – a win-win relationship“, the priority to make it a free event for riders take precedence.
As such, Bikezilla Mass Ride will remain simple and basic for now.
LOOKING FORWARD
For us, mountain biking and street riding is a lifestyle. Different folks would interpret this statement differently. We can be different, but we can all be great riding buddies. We will continue the promotion of an up-to-date riding culture for mountain biking and street riding that is non-bureaucratic and fun-centric. See you at the next ride!
PS: We welcome like-minded, talented individuals and organizations to come forward to collaborate with us.
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Story by Bikezilla
Photos by Ernie Fatzy Rider and Crixholic
Special thanks to Raw Epics, Berm Cycle Bike Suite and G3Cycles for the recent Bikezilla Mass Ride. Let’s ride again soon!