Marshawn Lynch goes BMX Mode, leads riders through downtown Seattle

If you were traveling through downtown Seattle during rush hour Wednesday evening, your eyes were not playing tricks on you.

That was really Marshawn Lynch riding his BMX bike with hundreds of others in tow. The former Seahawks running back was in BMX mode riding his signature “Beast Mode Ripper” from SE Bikes.

Philadelphia-based SE Bikes, which has made BMX bikes since the sport’s infancy in the 1970s, routinely organizes rides in U.S. cities as a means to showcase its bikes and team riders. The event attracted BMX enthusiasts from around the Pacific Northwest and drew a crowd of about 200 at its peak.

Riders from SE Bikes rode through the group popping wheelies and doing tricks on the route, which began at the Space Needle and snaked through downtown, along the waterfront, and eventually ended up back at Seattle Center.

Lynch, who retired from football this year, has his own signature line of bikes through SE, with the latest unveiled Wednesday evening. He picked a prime time to showcase it, as his Beast Mode Store is blocks from CenturyLink Field where the Raiders and the Seahawks square off at 7 p.m. Thursday for the last exhibition game.