TCR

I live in SoCal (the northern end of), been racing 4 years, and have been on a team the last two. I'm a CAT4 (35+) for life with dreams of maybe winning a race just once.

I'm not particularly excited about the team I'm currently on so I'm seriously thinking about going unattached next year. I don't really want to but it seems like the thing to do. The problem is I live too far from any racing clubs/teams. The closest teams are an hour drive or more and that's just not going to work for training rides. If you don't train with the guys you don't get the comradery and then you don't go to races together and ultimately you're out there riding by yourself. Then I thought maybe I should just join a team for the perks. What perks? Save a few bucks on tires and maybe an energy drink? Do it so I don't have to pay the stupid "unattached" fee? I don't think so.

I'm even considering going with the "unattached" kit just so I'm not wearing some boring plain red jersey all next year. But then again I'm not sure I want to wear some boring black/white kit either.



I really need to start my own team, design my own kit, and con all my slow riding buddies into joining. We may suck at the local races but at least we'll look good and have fun doing it.

waterrockets 

I haven't decided yet. There's only one local team with a presence in M35+, and they're really exclusive. All the other big masters squads are in San Antonio, Houston, or Dallas.

The problem is that the teams really hand you your donkey in M35+ races around here.

substructure

Exactly.

I'll be moving up to cat4 early next year (35+). I have no clue if I'll do well enough to win anything or move up to cat3. But I really want to enjoy myself - and hopefully look good doing it.

ldesfor1@ithaca

Funny you say that about making your own team...

Initiated by my buddy, a googlegroup formed which was named: Team Breakaway Boston. Quickly this became the name under which we raced, unofficially of course. We are all in our 20's and the 3 of us catted up to 4 after our first 3 months of racing (some through better results than others). We've pulled 2 new riders in who are going to need to put in a monster spring and cat up ASAP and hopefully we will pick up 2 other strong riders (need to get going on that) to make it an unofficial team of 7.

We too were hoping to design and order team kits through the Championsystems clothing company. Unill one of us gets on their horse, this will not happen and we may just find a cool jersey to all wear (lame, but easy). The only other unifying piece of kit is argyle socks (not slipstream pastels, old man browns and greys) which seemed to draw good reviews from other riders.

Lastly, I'm thinking about trying to get my company (a fitness facility) to sponsor our team and hopefully get our kit and team registration for free. (anyone have any tips on getting sponsorship??)

unnatached is fine, but having teammates (officially or otherwise) is great when the going gets tough in racing as well as training.

Good luck,

Leo

urbanknight

Liquid Cycling is trying to build up a strong Cat 4 team in So Cal. Many BF members have already signed up and at least 2 of them will be racing next season, along with a number of Cat 4 racers already affiliated with the team.

www.liquidcycling.com

blonduathlongrl

TCR, you'd look good in that kit! hehe

Im going to have the same problem, races are 1 to 2 hours away and training rides are one hour away.

that's going to be tough to fit in my schedule, the series of races i want to do are once a week, an hour and half away.
I can do that, but to travel again an hour or more to train with them is going to be tough since business will be busy that time of year as well.
ill have to wait and see how to juggle it all.

daytonian

You can definitely win unattached. I think unattached is taken less seriously by teams and have seen twice unattached riders allowed off the front never to be seen again FTW.
Two of my teamates live within six blocks of my house. We often ride to our training ride Tues/Thurs in Summer.

carpediemracing 

+1, especially when one or two big teams dominate the tactical scene.

Having said that, I LOVE that unattached kit. Reminds me of the generic food in Repo Man ("beer" "food" etc). lol.

(mostly) lone wolf,
cdr

Homebrew01

I'm currently unattached for racing purposes, although I joined a club and ride with them on the weekend quite often. Not sure about 2008.

celticfrost

Repo Man quotes: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0087995/quotes
Love that movie.

I priced one of those kits @ unattachedrider.com and they were pretty pricey. I'm not sure if the price would go down if there were some sort of "group buy" or not.

wanders

Best movie ever.

"There's room to move as a fry cook, man. You know I could be manager in two years? King! God!"

Kevin - The original Napolean Dynamite

caloso

Yeah, I don't know. I've never been on a team, although I'd really like to. I have a good friend who's on a team and I think he could get me in but they seem to be really focused on the 1/2's. 40 year old Cat 4's? Not so much. At least that's the vibe I'm getting.

Treefox

I've already made a profit from my club (having paid dues in October). Though it took their paying for my taxi back from the hospital to do that...

I like the subsidised & free kit from both the teams I race with.

TCR

$138 for bib shorts and jersey is reasonable.

TCR

Hmm, sounds interesting. Who are the members on the forum? Is there a thread somewhere?

carpediemracing 

Repo Man - I'm disappointed that whenever Emilio Estevez comes out with a new movie his credits don't include that one.

teams, imo, are a bit overrated, especially the selective ones. It's some of those which have the most animosity between teammates - all wearing the same outfit but chasing each other down etc.

I prefer a more laid back style of team. More club like. After all, I'm just a Cat 3. Who am I kidding? I want to go to a race, hang out with the guys, try and influence the race, then grin and laugh afterwards. None of the totally serious stuff I see here and there, no arguments about who should have done what. That's just not fun. One of my "teammates" is a guy on a different team who is an arch rival at my own race series. But anywhere else I'll work for him - he's a good guy, we know each other's style, and we offer each other help whenever we think we're not going to be sprinting well. Just happens that he has an agenda regarding his team which doesn't match mine.

Teams (not clubs) should be free. Maybe you get a jersey - and your membership fee = cost of jersey. Should involve everyone, not one poor guy running around like a chicken with its head cut off. Everyone should pitch in on something - uniform order, design, distribution, team meetings, pizza nights, group rides, anything but nothing. Everyone should have a chance to be the leader, even if they're not the best finisher or time trialer or whatever. It's very illuminating to be a designated leader for the day if you've never been one.

Numbers help - five racers in a field is nice, 10 is even nicer, esp if people aren't selfish with their work. A bunch of Cat 3s and 4s can even shut down a national level racer if there are enough of the 3s and 4s and they're willing to sacrifice (it took 18 guys to do it but it worked).

I have my own team. I use it to promote my races and I also tried to avoid picking a shop in my former area since I'm supposed to be a bit detached as a CT rep. But I'm seriously rethinking that plan - I may join one of two clubs if they'll have me. I'll keep the name of the team regardless (Carpe Diem Racing - go figure) and the promotion organization (Carpe Diem Promotions of course). A few guys across the country use the team now and then and at least one guy will use the team on his license (he lives/rides in CO) in 2008. I'll have to decide in the next month or so.

btw If any of you unattached racers (Cat 3-5) want to put down Carpe Diem Racing (it's in the online drop down menu when you apply for a license), go ahead. Save some unattached fees on me. When you join a "real" team just update your profile so that team and its sponsors get proper credit. If you're a Cat 3-5, you don't have to wear your team kit (Cat 1s and 2s do). Wear something generic so you won't get in trouble (you can't misrepresent which team you're on, so you can't wear Team B's kit if you belong to Team A).

cdr

carpediemracing 

+1

You can go to Champion System's site to get actual pricing on jerseys and shorts.
https://www.champ-sys.com/

Price for printed clothing:
Jersey: $45
Bib shorts: $60

$105. $33 for artwork, shipping costs from champ sys to unattached.com, etc is reasonable to me. Or a 30% mark up.

Since I did three big-for-me orders from them ($1000-$2500 each), I know shipping is about 10% of a big order, artwork can cost a bundle if you have to pay someone to do it (we got a "friends" discount and it was $1500 I think over two years).

And yeah, I still own something like 1/3 of all that clothing I ordered

cdr

Speedee

In my last crit of the season, I guy in a plain white jersey went off the front for a prime. We held our pace figuring he'd blow and drop back. We never did catch him. Had it been someone in a team kit, I'm sure he would have been chased down.

celticfrost

Hmmm... you're right. I could've swore they were more expensive before.

There's more in the works at: https://www.unattachedrider.com/sneak.htm

Dubbayoo

I like that one. I'd order that.

patentcad

I would never stoop to ride for any team that would have me as a member.

Pcad has spoken.

nygirl777

celticfrost

Unattached? Team? Only time will tell. In the meantime this is more my style:

michaelmc

Steak Taco, the BF member who's behind the Unattached Rider kits, has been riding with my club in Philly (and ironically, also joined, I think), and showed up one day with one of these kits. They look TOTALLY BOSS. Seriously, it's a great looking kit, even better in person than in design.

zzzwillzzz

glad to see some repo man fans, i thought i was the only one...

i like the poseur jersey, there's room in the white area for an 'ocp' logo and one on the sleeve for good measure