Starts Friday, December 11, 2026. About 14 flat miles from the rainbow crosswalk at Central and Portland, through the places where Phoenix’s queer history happened. One stop, then coffee at the end. Nobody gets dropped.
One stop, seven places
Downtown first, on the route of the first Pride march, then up 3rd Avenue through the old neighborhoods to Melrose, where we stop once. Then the canal path, Coronado, and back along the bars the ride is named for, to coffee three blocks from the start. The stories get told at the start, at the stop and over coffee, for whoever is new that week. Tap a number.
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The crosswalk
Central Ave and Portland St
The city painted this crosswalk in July 2018, one of two, and it was redone in 2024. It marks Roosevelt as Phoenix’s first gayborhood. Half a block south, at 1011 N Central, Cruisin’ Central opened in 1977. You went in through the alley.
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Old City Hall
125 W Washington St
In 1975 Sam Burnett and Tony Secuya got a marriage license here, at the old courthouse and city hall, and married in their apartment at 845 N 2nd Ave. A judge voided it. On October 17, 2014, Arizona’s ban fell, and that weekend hundreds of couples married at Heritage Square, which we rode past a mile back.
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The Capitol
Washington St at 15th Ave
Phoenix’s first Pride week was in June 1977. In 1981 somewhere between 600 and 1,000 people marched from Patriots Square, where CityScape is now, down Washington Street to the Capitol. We ride their route, and turn north two blocks short of it.
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The trans flag
3rd Ave and Indian School Rd
In 1999 Monica Helms, a Navy veteran, designed the transgender pride flag at her home near here, Indian School Road and 3rd Avenue. It flew for the first time at Phoenix Pride in 2000. Phoenix Pride has set up at Steele Indian School Park, half a mile east of this corner, every year since 2003.
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The Curve
7th Ave and Glenrosa Ave
Phoenix is a grid of straight lines. Seventh Avenue bends here, in the Melrose District, which has the most LGBTQ+ bars in the state, and the city painted the second rainbow crosswalk right in the bend. This is the one stop, about 15 minutes. Charlie’s is under a mile up the street: John King and Kenny Cunitz opened it in 1984, a country bar with Arizona’s longest-running drag show.
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The Fruit Loop
Roosevelt, 3rd, Portland and 1st
From the mid-1940s to the mid-1990s these four streets were the Fruit Loop: the bars, the drag stages, the house parties. In 1964 police raided the Eighth Day Coffee House at 915 N 1st St, now an empty lot, and arrested 23 people. The paper printed their names. Around the corner, a plaque at 222 E Roosevelt marks the 307 Lounge, where drag performers got ready across the alley and ran in through the side door.
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Coffee
Three blocks south of the crosswalk
We finish three blocks south of the crosswalk, over coffee. The spot gets named here once it’s set. Stay for one or roll home. Nobody has to buy anything.
A drawing of the loop, not a map to ride by. Robert rides it before the first night, and the route file with every turn goes up here after that.
On the way, without stopping
- Mile 1 Heritage Square, where hundreds married the weekend Arizona’s ban fell in 2014
- Mile 1.7 Patriots Square, now CityScape, where the 1981 march began
- Mile 5 Encanto Park and the quiet streets of Willo
- Mile 8.5 The Grand Canal path, from 7th Avenue to 12th Street: no cars, and lit all night from 7th Street east
- Mile 12 Coronado, where gay men moved in and fixed up the old houses in the 1970s
How it works
- Bring two lights. White on the front, red on the back. From November to January it’s dark when we roll. The law asks for the white light and a red reflector. We ask for the red light too.
- Nobody gets dropped. About 14 to 16 mph, flat. A leader up front sets the pace, and a sweep rides at the back.
- We stop at every red. The front waits on the other side for whoever caught it. Never more than two across.
- Nobody drinks on the bike. Any bike that can do 14 miles, no sign-up. Just come.
Why it’s called the Fruit Loop
From the mid-1940s to the mid-1990s, Phoenix’s gay bars and drag clubs sat on a few blocks of Roosevelt, 3rd Street, Portland and 1st Street, right where this ride starts. People called that circuit the Fruit Loop. Most of it is gone.
Phoenix historian Marshall Shore mapped it as a walking tour, and most of the stories on this ride come from his work. This is the same history at bike speed, after dark.
The basics
- When
- Starts Fri, Dec 11, 2026. Meet 5:30 pm, roll 6:00 pm, coffee about 7:45.
- Where
- It starts at the rainbow crosswalk at Central Ave and Portland St, Phoenix, and finishes three blocks south, over coffee.
- How far
- About 14 miles, flat, about 14 to 16 mph, with one stop. No climbs.
- Who
- Queer and trans riders, and anyone who wants to ride with us.
- Bring
- A bike that can do 14 miles, a white front light, a red rear light, water.
- Host
- Robert Castan, Cycle for Change. Questions: a DM to @cycl_eforchange.
- First group ride?
- It’s flat and it stops a lot, so it’s a good one to start with. First group ride? Start here.
How we roll
Ten things for your first Fruit Loop. It runs 1:24 and has no sound. Watch it before you come, and send it to whoever’s coming with you.
The ten, in words
- Riding at night? Lights on. A front light and a rear light. Both on.
- How do we ride? Two by two. Single file when it’s tight. Never a bunch.
- Riding next to someone? Bars even. It’s a social ride. Chat, don’t race.
- Gap opening up? Close it. Stay about a wheel back. Short groups are easier to pass.
- Want to move up? Not over the line. That lane isn’t ours. Wait for room.
- See something in the road? Point it out. See it, signal it. Riders behind do the same. Hole: point down at it. Slowing: palm down, pat the air. Stopping: hand up, open palm. Single up: one finger up.
- Car coming up behind? Call it up the line. Back rider says it. Everyone passes it forward.
- Red light? Everyone stops. Nobody rolls through. We go on green together.
- Someone falls behind? We wait. Nobody gets dropped. That’s the promise.
- Flat tire? Two stay with you. The rest roll on and regroup ahead. A whole group stopped is a hazard.
The poster
Post it, send it to the group chat, put it up where riders will see it. Tag @cycl_eforchange.
The history is from Marshall Shore’s LGBTQ+ Tour of DTPHX and his Fruit Loop walking tour, Visit Phoenix’s LGBTQ+ history, 12News on the Melrose crosswalk, KTAR on the 2024 repaint and the record of Phoenix Pride, read Oct 22–23, 2026. The light rule is Arizona’s ARS 28-817, read Oct 27, 2026. The canal path’s lighting is from the City of Phoenix’s Grand Canalscape page, read Oct 23, 2026. Ride details are Robert’s, Oct 23, 2026.
The ride in the group-ride list · Group rides in Phoenix
I’d like to say I ride for everyone else. I ride because it changed me.
In 2027 I ride 10,000 miles, all on the bike, and every ride gets written down. The money goes through the orgs’ own rides. It never touches me.