25 in '25: Keith Ramsey keeps bicycling fun during his group's Monday night rides
In 2017 Keith Ramsey was a year removed from losing his job as a graphic designer. He was piecing projects together, trying to make his way as a professional artist – drawn to found-object sculpture that frequently incorporated bikes and bike parts. That’s when his friend Rita Shiang gave Ramsey a gift that would change his life and change the face of Richmond’s bike scene nearly a decade later.
“Rita said, ‘I got this bike for you, but you better not cut this up. You better ride it,’” Ramsey remembers. “So, I called up my friend Haywood Bennett and said, ‘Let’s go for a bike ride.”
His sales pitch to Bennett was simple but powerful: “Why did we stop riding bikes when were kids? It was fun. Why did we stop doing fun (stuff)?”
That was all their friend Shannon Shaw needed to hear, too, but he could only ride on Mondays due to work commitments. Bennett punched out at 4:30 on Mondays, and Ramsey had an artist’s flexibility built into his schedule. Thus was born Bike Monday Bros.
Ramsey, Shaw and Bennett were soon joined by another long-time friend, JohnJason “Jay” Cecil, who went to Morehouse College, but knew the others from frequent visits to see friends at VCU.
“It was more sociable than anything else,” Cecil said of the early rides. “[It was] a way for friends to maintain their friendship. Get together. Ride bikes. Piddle and be together.”
A few others came and went from Bike Monday Bros, but it stayed small. There was no larger purpose. Reclaiming that feeling of freedom and joy from childhood was purpose enough.
Then 2020 came along, and, as Ramsey remembers, “the world falls apart. Covid, George Floyd, statues…everybody is going nuts.”
Ramsey and rest of the Bike Monday Bros saw an opportunity. They didn’t shy away from politics. These were four Black men, all in their 50s now, who grew up in Virginia. They felt the death of George Floyd more keenly than most. But their instinct wasn’t toward anger.
“I’m watching s— go on,” said Ramsey, “and I’m like, what can we do in this moment to chill people out? How can we turn this into making things a little better for people and also get people together to feel like we’re not being torn apart?”
They told everyone they knew: Come to Monroe Park on June 15, 2020 at 5:30. They called it a “unity ride.” It would cover 8.46 miles, a reference to how long – 8 minutes and 46 seconds – that it took for George Floyd to suffocate. They blasted it out on social media with a bikemondaybros hashtag.
“We did it as a demonstration, not a protest,” Cecil said. “A demonstration that people could come together with a common interest. There are multiple ways to get your point across. I have no problem pulling down Confederate statues. Civil unrest is just as American as apple pie. But there’s something to be said for actively trying to be a unifying force.”
That was the goal on June 15, 2020. They had no idea how it would be received.
Ramsey and the Bike Monday Bros wore matching t-shirts to identify themselves. It was just them when they arrived at Monroe Park. “I turned around to do something to my bike,” Ramsey remembered, “then I turned back around and there was a mob of people coming from two different directions. I was like, ‘holy s—!’ The whole time me and Jay were up front, I was looking back, like, do you see what we just did? Are you believing this? You would turn the corner and still see people turning the corner when you were way down the block. It was amazing.”
It turns out, on that day in Richmond, with all the swirling context of Covid and street protests and everything else going on in the world, over 300 people needed a bike ride together. Five years later, many still do.
Bike Monday Bros has been a weekly occurrence ever since. Ramsey is the ride lead. He sets the route, to the extent there is one. Depending on the weather, anywhere from 40-90 riders meet at the Starbucks in the Fan and ride for a couple of hours. The pace, to borrow from Cecil, remains a “piddle.” No one gets dropped for any reason. Everyone is welcome. More than politics or recreation or exercise, community is the point.
Photos from a recent Bike Monday Bros ride.
Just ask Tom Watterson. He moved here a year ago from Austin, Texas.
“The guys at the local bike shop gave me an Instagram list to get into the bike scene,” he said. “Bike Monday Bros was the first one I rode with. I’ll be straight up, every single person that I know in Richmond now a year later I met through that group. They have just been the most inclusive and welcoming. It’s like family.”
“Bike Monday Bros has made my move to Richmond…” he trails off, trying to find the perfect words. “I can’t even describe… and it’s all about Keith. He’s a prince.”