One of the cool things this weekend was the number of people I talked to and the amount of enthusiasm so many had for more weekly rides. Talking to all these different people generated a lot of feedback regarding the Black Cat Hustle in addition to other rides during the rest of the week. For starters, some people expressed interest in creating two groups on Tuesday nights; one for the faster more experienced riders and another for those not wanting to push it the way the BC Crew does. This was brought up by a few folks who wanted to ride but where afraid they could not keep up with the faster pace. This is completely understandable but honestly, would be hard for us to organize since all of us are running in the faster group. Keep in mind that the main spirit of the ride was modeled after the Wolf Pack Hustle in LA, and as a result the pace is going to be fast. Those that can't keep up just continue and we will all meet up at the end point eventually. Moving forward this is still how we plan on running this ride but if someone else wants to organize a "slower" group on the same night, then got for it! Keep in mind these are not highly organized rides, there is no hierarchy of "leaders" that decide who gets to ride and when. We're just a bunch of guys who like to haul ass every so often. This ride was developed for the faster riders and will continue to stay that way but as I mentioned, we are not opposed to another group meeting up on the same night at the same locale running the same route at a different pace. We just don't have time to organize it is all..
Other ideas thrown around this weekend consisted of different rides for different types of riding. For instance, Justin told me a small group was meeting up on Thursdays to do more of a free ride / trick oriented ride around downtown. I am totally down with something like this as I'm usually pretty tired after the BC Hustle on Tuesday nights to get my trickery on. Again, this would be geared towards peeps who are down with the trick aspect of fixed gear riding and will not necessarily be a fast ride. Another idea proposed consisted of a night where we do timed sprints on a friendly competition level. Howard Middle School on Summerlin and Robinson has a track and field area that is not gated up we could use for a night of sprints. If not there, there are other potential places we could hit to do something along these lines. Friday was proposed as a potential night for something like this. Seeing how the spot in question is so close to downtown, we could then transition to any number of bars for refreshments...
Use this post as a soundboard; sound off and let us know if there would be any interest in doing some nights like this and lets get this shit going! I'm personally down with the free ride / trick night as well as the sprints...
ez!
8 months ago
4 comments:
i would love to see more organized rides downtown. i will be the first to say i am not the strongest rider downtown, but i know the only way to get stronger is to get out there as much as possible. you will only get the skids down if you are skidding, and you will only get fast if you ride fast.
the BC hustle is a ton of fun and i would like to work out a few more routes to post and have people learn so we don't get into a rut with the same exact ride every tuesday (maybe a 4 week rotation?)
when people (like me) fall out of the pack if they know the route they can finish the ride and then judge their progress against how long they hung with the pack.
if there are some people who want a slower ride, a second pack could run the same black cat route at their pace. they should still push themselves a bit as that will just help them get stronger and maybe able to hang with the hustle.
Hugh, what do you think of some of the other ideas for nights? I would love to do a sprint night..
Think about it; sprinting up parking garages for instance?
ez!
i love sprints, i find i am more competitive with sprints than distance... i think it is the beer and cigarettes mixed with 20 something years of inactivity...
the only problem i have with garages is if we do that on the regular we are asking for trespassing violations... garage owners in this town are dicks and i got a few pieces of paper with OPD signatures on them to prove it. for sprints maybe we should do a bar/coffee shop crawl where there are 4 or 5 checkpoints followed by a few rounds of drag/track racing on a nice smooth spot. -- maybe drag races from jesus saves up to bumby, that is up hill the whole way... i also like the howard track idea, also the loop on bumby around lake como circle would be a good place to hold sprints... if we make it a weekly we could always mix it up.
also, a week or two ago i did an afternoon ride through paramore with nick and jill. that was a fun ride, and it would be nice to have longer a ride during daylight hours. daylight hours would require a weekend ride, the 8-5 prevents weekday rides when it is light out. weekends are tough though cause most people have things they put off all week piled up to take care of on those two short days.
i am interested in a "free ride" but i would like to find some good spots to work on some style, right now i got nothing.
Those are all great ideas hugh and I'm down with all of them.. In particular I'm feeling the sprint around the Lake Como Circle. I could see some stickiness with Howard Middle School after dark but this loop around the lake could work out really nice.. We just have to watch for traffic..
As far as the parking garages go, I know what you mean.. I've been stoped and questioned by the police when sprinting up garages before. When asked by the Po-niner what I was doing I said some crap excuse about getting ready for a trip to San Fran and I was using the garages as a way to train for the hilly environment I would encounter. He didn't by it but at least he didn't give me a trespassing charge either. So yeah let's skip the parking garages for now even though they are fun as hell to come down.. :)
anyone else have any thoughts?
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