On a Friday evening in June 2019, registration for the Gears and Cheers Bike Crawl opened at 6:15 at The Flying Boat Brewery, 1776 11th Ave N. Riders were set to roll out at 7:15 for Sunset Grill, Flamingo and JWags, with light snacks along the way and drinks for purchase. It was free for members and $5 for everyone else.
Seven years later, the Euclid St. Paul's Neighborhood Association has posted its winter crawl for Saturday, December 5, 2026, from 6 to 10 p.m. The bikes, the string lights and the costumes all return. The stops are the new part. "This year we'll be doing something a little different," the listing reads, "making stops at several porches and front yards throughout the neighborhood." ESPNA calls it "a neighborhood-wide holiday porch party."
For most of its history, Gears & Cheers sent neighbors out of Euclid St. Paul's to spend the evening somewhere else. This December, every stop is on the neighborhood's own blocks.
Where the crawl used to ride
The crawl runs twice a year. ESPNA lists summer and winter bike crawls among its annual events, next to Family Movie Night in March, the garage sale and block party in April, Oktoberfest in September and the Haunted Hike in October. The crawl's own listings, one season after another, show a consistent pattern of where riders ended up.
| Crawl | Start | Stops |
|---|---|---|
| June 14, 2019 | The Flying Boat Brewery, 1776 11th Ave N | Flying Boat, Sunset Grill, Flamingo, JWags |
| June 6, 2025 | Outcast Brewing Company, 1776 11th Ave N | Outcast, Sunset Grille at 2996 Dr. M.L.K. Jr. St N, JWags at 2312 4th St N |
| December 5, 2025 | Neighborhood meet-up spot | "Three festive stops" with food and drinks |
| June 5, 2026 | 1142 12th St N | "Three local establishments" |
| December 5, 2026 | Meet-up spot to be announced | Neighborhood porches and front yards |
The 2025 summer listing invited neighbors on "a bike ride with stops at several of our favorite local establishments, with food and fun at every stop." The holiday version that December promised to "cruise around St Pete together." Both were free for members and $10 for non-members.
The building at 1776 11th Ave N has anchored the crawl under two names. Outcast Brewing Company did not simply rename Flying Boat. Creative Loafing Tampa Bay reported that Outcast was a new company moving into the space Flying Boat and King State's The Brutalist had both used, with a grand opening planned for September 13, 2024. The Outcast taproom page lists the brewery's current opening hours and a tap list.
The boundary the old routes crossed
ESPNA defines Euclid St. Paul's precisely on its About page. The northern edge is the south side of 22nd Avenue North. The southern edge is the north side of 9th Avenue North. On the east, the line is the west side of Dr. M.L.K. Jr. Street North, which is also 9th Street North. On the west, it is the east side of 16th Street North.
Put the old stops on that grid and most of them land outside it. The 1776 address on 11th Avenue North is past 16th Street. Sunset Grille, at 2996 on MLK, is well north of 22nd Avenue. JWags, at 2312 4th St N, is north of 22nd and east of MLK. The crawls started as neighborhood events and spent most of the evening in somebody else's.
Both 2026 crawls have pulled closer to home. The June 5 summer crawl started at 1142 12th St N, inside the boundary. It opened with an abbreviated June General Meeting at 6:00 before the 6:30 ride. The December edition goes further and makes the neighborhood itself the destination.
Porches came before the bikes
The porch format has history here. In 2019, ESPNA ran a monthly porch party, "always the 3rd Friday of the month," described as "a great way to get to know your neighbors and share your hospitality all at the same time," and it asked neighbors to volunteer as hosts.
Porch parties sometimes moved off the porch too. The July 19, 2019 gathering carried the title "'Porch' Party @ Flying Boat," quotation marks included. Green's Pub was reserved from 7 to 10 p.m., and the Grateful Dogs food truck came out. The hosting idea was the constant, and the venue could be a front porch or a brewery.
The December crawl puts the idea back where the name started. Neighbors will host the stops on their own porches and in their own front yards, and riders will go house to house the way the 2019 porch parties were meant to work. The listing describes registration at a neighborhood meet-up spot, still to be announced, before the ride heads out.
Twenty-three Halloweens of practice
Euclid St. Paul's already knows how to stage an evening across its own streets. The 23rd Annual Haunted Hike took place on October 24, starting at 13th Avenue North and 13th Street North. ESPNA billed it as a "spooky tour of Music, Skits, and laughs across Historic Euclid St Paul," with the theme "A Haunted Renaissance." Tickets were marked sold out.
The Hike runs on volunteers. The 2026 listing called on "the Kingdom of Euclid St. Paul" to supply storytellers, crafters and anyone "simply willing to lend a hand." That is the same model the holiday crawl now uses: neighbors set up stops and other neighbors move between them. A neighborhood that has reached its 23rd Haunted Hike and sold it out has plenty of practice hosting an evening on its own blocks. The December crawl brings that approach to bikes.
December, date by date
The holiday crawl sits in the middle of three ESPNA events spread over twelve days. All three take place inside the neighborhood, and two of them depend on what residents put on their own front steps.
Friday, December 4: Holiday Social & Board Elections. Ice cream and hot cocoa start at 6 p.m. The general meeting and board elections follow at 7. The location is still to be determined. ESPNA counts the December annual meeting, with a holiday potluck and elections, among its yearly traditions.
Saturday, December 5: Gears & Cheers: Holiday Edition. The crawl runs 6 to 10 p.m. The listing asks riders to "dress in something jolly and deck your bikes with holiday cheer," and the evening ends on porches and in front yards around the neighborhood.
Tuesday, December 15: Holiday Decorating Contest. Decorations need to be up by 12/15. Judges will tour the neighborhood and pick winners in several categories.
The 2026 contest page does not list categories yet. For a sense of the range, the 2024 contest named six: Best All Around, Most Festive, Character Themed, Children's Favorite, Winter Wonderland and Most Eclectic. Winners that year were scheduled for announcement on December 23.
A porch that hosts a crawl stop on December 5 has ten more days to become a contest entry before the judges come by on the 15th. The lights that make a front yard a good place to stop on a bike are the same lights the judges will see.
Before the first Saturday in December
The December 5 listing does not yet name the meet-up spot or explain how a household signs up to host a porch stop. The ESPNA events page is where those details are posted. Past crawls charged nothing to members and a small fee to everyone else: $5 in 2019 and $10 in 2025. A 2026 household membership through ESPNA costs $20, and a business membership costs $30.
ESPNA describes itself as an all-volunteer organization of residents who live inside the neighborhood's boundaries. The December 5 crawl is one of the clearest examples of that on the calendar, since every stop on the route is a front step one of those volunteers offered.
At Kelli Welch, we pay attention to the details that make a historic neighborhood feel lived-in, from the porches and front yards to the lights that go up in December. If your Euclid St. Paul's home is part of the season this year and you are thinking about how it would present next spring, we would be glad to talk it through. Let's curate your next move.
