For six years many in the Richmond paddling community have gathered every December to hang out, swap stories from the past year of paddling and watch each other’s homemade movies. Retro Movie Night, as it’s been dubbed, has become a popular event — this year it was held at The Camel — one that galvanizes that band of James River lovers.

Crossroads Coffee will the site of a bike-in movie night on March 26th.

Now one of the guys who helped get Retro Movie Night off the ground, wants to create a similar event (or series of events) for bike lovers.

Hunter Davis loves a good bike ride almost as much as he loves paddling the James, and with the success of Retro Movie Night, he figured might enjoy a similar excuse to gather, talk about past and upcoming two-wheeled adventures and watch related movies. Thus next Wednesday (March 26th) at Crossroads Coffee and Ice Cream at 7 p.m. will be born the first Bike-In Theater Night.

“My dad is an avid bike rider and we were just talking,” the Richmond native said. “He mentioned how it would be neat to do something similar to the Retro Video Night — showing movies and pulling out the biking community…We thought it’d be cool to do something like a drive-in movie theater but for bikers. So when they finish their bike ride, they could just all end up in one spot and talk about their bike ride and the adventures they had been on and then also have some biking flicks on a professional looking screen.”

So, on Wednesday, that’s exactly what Crossroads will host.

“I feel like Crossroads is pretty much the post-outdoor place to go,” Davis said. “If I get off the river, I usually go grab a beer at Crossroads, or a lot of times I’ll end my bike ride there and get a beer. I feel like they’ve always catered to the outdoor community and with the trails being right there and Riverside Drive…it just seemed like a natural fit for a place to be doing bike-in theater.”

Mountain biking in Forest Hill Park. Credit: Phil Riggan

Davis said there will be a couple of short movies made about the biking scene locally. Then they’ll also have a bike-related feature film (I suggested Rad).

The hope is that this will become a once-every-few-months event. “It’s just something to have fun with,” Davis said.