Despite strong headwinds, which at least kept the heat from being too oppressive, it was a good weekend to be a biker in Minneapolis. One highlight was the second annual Open Streets Minneapolis event, which closed 20 blocks of Lyndale Avenue for six hours on Sunday, and drew bigger crowds than last year's overcast inaugural. It's an initiative of the Minneapolis Bicycle Coalition. The event drew walkers, strollers and just about any kind of non-motorized vehicle you could imagine. Besides typical two-wheelers, we spotted recumbents, cargo bikes, bikes with tagalongs and trailers, roller bladers, even roller skiers. Some bikers trailed dogs on leashes; one ferried hers in her handlebar basket. The street was bursting with music and activity. You could watch a breakdance challenge, or compete to ride the slowest or fold your bike the fastest. Music flooded the corridor--pulsing hip-hop, soaring classical, bouncy cover music, and even a music van powered by a solar array. Off- and on-road , Saturday night was dominated by bikes. The all-night Northern Spark art festival created bicycle traffic jams on the Midtown Greenway; Main Street SE and the Stone Arch Bridge were so crowded that cyclists had to walk their bikes, or bolt them to any available surface. It looked as if every available Nice Ride bike was rented as people took advantage of the summer-like night to ride all over the city with a few thousand of their closest friends. The Sabo bike bridge drew groups of loungers. I thought they were there to watch the next cable snap, but the winds were too high to be in the danger zone specified by the city's bridge consultant. Turns out the bridge was ground zero for the parade of lighted bikes that was one of the Spark events. Some bikers participating in the Greenway Glow organized by the greenway's advocacy group stuck to normal white headlights and flashing red taillights, but others garbed themselvess in a series of imaginative costumes looped with ribbons of LEDs. Two nits. One is that some of the Lyndale proved so popular that they caused bike traffic jams as cyclists stopped to watch performers. Organizers might think about pulling them back into parking lots to minimize lane blockage. The second is that roughly half the bikers on Lyndale were helmetless. Yes, it was a car-free street, except for the cross traffic at key intersections. But the time this rider was most grateful for his helmet after a 41 mile per hour over-the-bars flip also was a carless occasion. Down in the greenway, we noticed, a higher percentage of the seasoned bikers kept their crania encased in plastic and foam. Even the mayor, whom we chided not long ago for riding his Nice Ride without a helmet, now sets a better example. (Staff writer James Eli Shiffer also contributed to this item.)