brendan rocks

okay, so i'm keen to get some started in montreal, but don't quite know how they work... lil help / advice?

nme

Set out a few traps with some food in it and place them in an alley. When the Alley cats become trapped in the cages take them to an abandoned warehouse. Attach a dead mouse to a string set the cages infront of the mouse. Take bets on the cats and let them loose.

naisme

Here in the Minni Apple we use a little swab of Ben Gay daubed to the anus of said Alley Cat. Now that's running! We tried setting their tails on fire, but that's too smelly.

Son of ronex

if i was in montreal i wouldnt worry about putting on an alleycat . what you need to do is hook up with the cohf boys and get yourself some gangbang facial action . if that fails then go and check out alexisonfire .

tjfix

There are already plenty of alleycats in Montreal. The Course des Morts has been running for years.

Hook up with the MBMA and they will likely help you out.

Old Breadbutt

we just decided on a charity and then started calling sponsors for prizes. you don't NEED a charity or prizes, I'm going to throw some winner takes all races later in the summer, but for now I wanted to have some nice **** to give away and I'm poor. the thing about having a charity is that companies are much more likely to send you merch for prizes. plus we got a really cool charity that teaches kids about bikes and bike repair. after you have some kind of prize (money or whatever) you just have to get the word out and find people to man the checkpoints if you're going to have any. I just passed out about 400 flyers at San Francisco Critical Mass, probably only 1/4 of those people will show, but whatever. I'm going to drop some off at every bike shop in San Francisco, Oakland and Berkeley too.
if people know there's some good prizes, and you tell enough of them, you'll have a race. if you want to make it all "bike messengers only" or whatever, I guess go to all the local messeging companies and put up some posters.

and post it on the internet, like this.
oaklandscrape.com

helvetica

Hipsters dont eat food... place boom boxes with crappy music like greenday, creed, white stripes etc.

Old Breadbutt

nobody listens to greenday, creed, or the white stripes.

ImOnCrank

Exactly, the irrepressable need to ***** about other people's music will inevitably draw them out of their hiding places in order to display their best irked faces and pasty flesh.

eyefloater

Hook line and sinker on that one.

MrCjolsen

I tell my first graders they are all alleycats.

They instantly start meowing.

Then I tell them to go outside and race eachother at recess.

They do so, whilst meowing.

crushkilldstroy

best bet for getting sponsors is to hit them earrrrrlllllyyyy. i was talking to places back in january for the june 6th race. unless you're doing one of the winner takes all $5 buy in types of races, preparation is key.

find volunteers for checkpoints. bribe with beer if necessary. if you can't find volunteers, different colored stencils at the points works pretty nicely as long as you trust your riders not to cheat.

have a good flyer. believe it or not, i've actually found that better looking flyers attract more participants. a witty name or a fun theme is somewhat important, but not absolutely necessary. which would you be more likely to go to, an event called "bike race" or an event called "2nd annual moustache ride?"

all in all, it's really pretty simple. if you go the sponsorship route, prepare to send out a few emails. make sure that you get good and drunk during the event. hell, make sure you get good and drunk whenever possible.

crushkilldstroy

one more thing. i'm not sure if everyone else does this, but have the riders sign "not responsible for death/injury/etc" waivers. i'm sure that it isn't necessary, but i just like to keep all of my bases covered.

keevohn