alright losers. the terror trials will be crackin off at the north avenue beach, on october 9th(saturday) at 6pm. there will be a main race, skids, stands, sprints, backwards circles, and polo on sunday. brakeless bikes only. if you win the race on a brakeless freewheel i'll give you head. reserve your number and pre-reg with matt kins anytime between now and then. its 10 bucks and you get a t shirt with that, and some free beer too. email me at trackbiketerror@hotmail.com or look for the nuclear green and blue track bike.
matt

where?

chicago illinois

My calendar is marked!

Shoot...I'll put my freewheel on and race if there's head involved.

Need any volunteers?

Crusty's back! Long time no read.

yeah, too busy riding, training, riding, training, working, school, blah blah blah..

Hey crusty,

How's the movie going?

if you want to volunteer email me at trackbiketerror@Hotmail.com

I'm gathering more and more footage these days. I figured I'll need at least a 100:1 shoot:finished ratio. meaning, I'll need at ton of footage for a little bit of cut material. Won't be finished until next year, hopefully christmas time.

bump, as a reminder, and cause i'll be there watching and getting served.

who's up for it?

Pictures! I had to work, so I need to live retroactively and vicariously through the photographs of others.

I went, but for the bazillionth time in a row, I forgot a camera. Damn. I talked to one of the organizers and he said a friend of his would be posting pics she was taking all night, dunno which site though. Maybe crustedfish knows. Awesome times, simultaneously my first time riding brakeless in real city traffic (took my brake off yesterday) and my first alleycat. Drove to Hyde Park, met Paraleisure, rode up to North Ave. beach. Skitbra and 165 ditched out minutes before the race started, Paraleisure and I had to represent the DCC alone. Long but cool main race, skid competition (oh. my. god. some really nice stuff.), trackstands. I left when polo was kicking off (this was a while later), the party after the main race was at a warehouse and most other stuff went on around there. It was late, I was tired and sore, and still had to ride from Kedzie and Carroll to 55th and the Lakefront.

Riding along the lakefront path alone at night was just... great. Very quiet, clear sky, I just stopped and sat on some rocks for a while and looked at the stars. A great end to a fun night.

Damn, sounds fun. I eagerly await a link to pictures.

Nice ending to your evening, sounds like. Who ended up winning? Did Marcus ever show? Was there any casualties? Come on! Lazy people who went to drink beer and eat are dying to know!

OK, I didn't know the people who won the main race. One guy went down in the skids pretty hard and was down for a little while, but nothing too serious. The guy in the green wool jersey who had the bullet-belt and was skidding around before the race went down on the first bridge (metal grating) that we crossed, but I didn't see it. He then either won the skid competition or got 2nd. A heavier black guy on an unknown fixie with tri-spoke rear was his main competitor for skids. This guy was ridiculous, I was trying to ask him some questions about the bike, like - is that an actual track hub on the wheel, is that 3/16 chain you are running (looked huge) - drew the response "I dunno, I just bought it like that. I asked Marcus what I should get." Well, at least he asked Marcus. Who DID show by the way, he was at checkpoint #7 (last before the finish) and then at the party. He commented on my brake hoods, it sounded vaguely like he was mocking me, but I just shrugged it off, I don't know the guy that well. Also, one guy did a one-footed skid with one leg over the bars for about 1/2 block. Nice.
The trackstand competition was two-handed for a while (1-2 mins) then one handed, then no-handed, then one foot and no hands. Only two guys made it to one foot, the guy that won had straight bars on a blue bike and used his right foot on his front tire.
Prizes given out were sweet - a bunch of nice bags, some tires to the skidders, stuff like that. "1st place posenger" division got a red and pink Timbuk2.
Damn, my knees are achey, and my achilles tendons sore. Time to take a break from riding [hard] for a little while, methinks.

Thanks for the postmordum.

Wait, I was first place posenger. When did they give out that bag?

Damn! I THOUGHT I heard your name being called, but it was right after you left. I figured they were talking about the other Ian that was there though (dumpstervegan) so I didn't even think about it. I guess on the plus side, the color scheme wouldn't be very becoming on you. Sorry dude, if I had known you were 1st place, I would've spoken up for you. Congrats on getting 1st though, I didn't know you did! Nice!

By the by, how did those patches hold up?

nice work guys. sorry we bailed.

You guys see Tim and the others from Minneapolis out there? Is there a posting of the results somewhere? I won't get their account until next week...

The patch was messed up because the hole in the wheel was too big - the patch was bulging through and I figured it was going to blow in like 10 min so I bought a new tire. Thanks for all the help though! The patch on the tube is holding up great.

Damn, I look so hot in pink/red. Oh well - I don't need a bag to know what a great posenger I am.

List of checkpoints and approximate addresses for your personal pleasure....

Race Start:
North Avenue Beach (1600N)

Checkpoint 1:
Sears Tower (300S and 500W)

Checkpoint 2:
Adler Planetarium (1300S Lake Shore Drive)

Checkpoint 3:
U.S. Cellular Field (3500S and 500W)

Checkpoint 4:
1900 W. 21st Street (2100S and 1900W)

Checkpoint 5:
Division, Ashland, Milwaukee (1200N and 1600W)

Checkpoint 6:
Blummer Chocolate Factory, (Milwaukee and Desplaines), (400N and 600W)

Checkpoint 7:
Lake and Ashland (300N and 1600W)

Race Finish:
3100 Block of W. Carroll

Race started at the light at La Salle / Lake Shore Drive just off of North Avenue Beach. 63 registered entries. At 7 on the dot we busted out onto La Salle southbound toward the Tower. For a good two miles we held a pretty tight paceline down La Salle, 15-20 trackbikes, busting reds and passing cars. Turned west onto Jackson or Adams by the CBOT/CME, and south a block to the Tower. Got our manifests signed, and then shot out south and east to the Planetarium.

Jackson west bound to Wabash, Wabash south to Roosevelt eastbound. We were slowed a bit by some temporary fencing along Roosevelt, due to the marathon the next morning. Easy fix...we slammed into the fencing at a joint, and squeezed our way through one at a time. East all the way to Lake Shore Drive. LSD? Yep. Fastest way to the planetarium was to bust the red at Roosevelt and LSD, ride northbound a a few meters, dismount, hop the shoulder and the retaining wall, and run cross style down a 45degree embankment with rose bushes (ouch!) to the bike path below. Up the lake path to the aquarium, and east down Solidarity Drive to the planetarium.

At the drop we got our manifests signed and had to get our picture taken with the skyline in the background. Thanks to Erin W, 60's roomie for the pics!

Shooting westbound on Solidarity toward LSD, off to Sox Park. After battling the peds around Soldier Field and the ped underpass at LSD, me and two other out of towners took turns pulling southbound Mich Ave, all the way to 35th. Right at the intersection we caught up to all the cats that took the lake path down from the Planetarium. Gate 4 was the drop, and we were off west to Halsted. Halsted north to 31st Cermak, and headed West and north to 21st Street and 1900W.

At this drop, we all had to chug a red bull before our manifests could be signed. I picked up some time at the drop after my skirmish with the peds at Soldier Field. Damen northbound all the way to Division, where Aaron B and I took turns pulling. Division east to Ashland and Milwaukee, where we were greeted by three girls at the checkpoint in full Zombie costume screaming at the top of their lungs. Nice.

Straight south down Milwaukee to the chocolate factory, where unbelievably the checkpoint girls were all dressed in brown! Get it?

Up the Desplaines overpass and west on Fulton before cutting over to Lake, heading west to Ashland. Some close calls with cabbies and hipsters through the meat packing district. Marcus et al was at the last checkpoint at lake and ashland. Northbound Ashland, then, west to Western, and then I missed the left turn onto Carroll. Cost me about 10 minutes, as I ended up at Chicago and Sacramento, by the auto impound yard, before doubling back to Carroll.

Overall the race took around 75 minutes. Around 23miles. James took first, and was rewarded with a twisted spoke wheelset, Pauls laced to Mavic 33's.... Tim from Minnie took first outta town, and went home with a hot 10-9 Terror Trials Dank bag. First place posenger was supposed to be Ian, NOT dumpstervegan, as he started last week as a part-time messenger. Posenger was supposed to get a pretty hideous pink and red Timbuk2 bag. First woman was Morgan, followed closely by Sara(h).

Skid comp should have gone to Tony (afro) from Chicago, green track with trispokes. Zach from Pittsburgh did have a longer skid, but started past the start line. I think it did go to Tony...

Trackstands...I forgot his name....close one between James and the winner...

Didnt stay for the after party.

Skitbra and 165? You bailed? That sucks. oh well.

Thanks 60 and 95 for a great event. We owe ya.

Big thanks to the Dayton Boys. Jon, Elton, Brian, Ross, Lee, and Eric..you guys rock..c u soon..everybody visit www.gaansari.com and support those guys.

Tim and your two (I forgot your name) pals from Minnie, great to see you again, see you for sure at the Stupor Bowl. Thanks for stopping by Polo on Sunday...

And finally, I'm out. for good. c u on the muthafunkin streets of ....