I'm soooo on board and very excited about this race. I pm'd you guys with my thoughts on the race...

care to share your thoughts? are they route-related?

Not so much, more thoughts on what to bring.
From the way the last race went I would recommend having a knife on hand. Last time we had to tie condoms to our bikes and there was a huge crowd around the only knife provided to cut the twine.

As for the course, I won't be surprised if one of the points is on twin peaks or near grace cathedral. Sounds like they are going to be tough. Eat a good breakfast...

sweet. i will bring my boy scout semper paratus kit.

i really hope the checkpoints will not be twin peaks tough. ugh, we're gonna come in last place.... (or leave our last leg stranded for a couple hours!).

anyway, looking forward to meeting you guys. i'll be the asian guy on a orange KHS pursuit.

-Dennis

Are you riding from the start? If so we should ride together. Is your KHS brakeless?
I'll be the guy with the green IRO...

Good luck to you guys, it's likely to be a good race as Joel really knows the city and how to throw a good race. And don't sweat it if you're last cause it's always about having a good time, besides there are usually prizes for DFL too, and they're usually among the best prizes. I sent a few 2002 model bags for them to give as prizes, plus some last years t-shirts. (I'd have sent better stuff considering that it's joels race for his 10th but we plumb run out of new sponsorship stuff for the year)

Well thanks a lot! Hope to win one of your goodies!

Wow, thanks for donating prizes, like 46x17 said, I hope we win some of your stuff.

our "team" hasn't figured out where we're gonna put people yet. i'll post when we figure it out.

khs is brakeless.

We're still figuring out a name...
I'm still debating whether to ride fixed or geared. In the Lucas Brunelle video of an SF alleycat, the guy in the (red) Raleigh jersey is a guy I met at a recent CycloCross race. He won three CX races on a brakeless fixed gear, but he's doing the Alleycat on geared. It may be faster to go geared (if you have a geared bike option that is).

Sam,
Thanks for donating the prizes. Hope to win one but I'll take anything.

I can understand, I'm trying to decide whether to ride brakeless or not. The track bike is very tempting....

Here's some more info, don't forget your toy, just one per team.

begin joel email

just out of the goodness of my heart, ive decided to start accepting early registrations, starting *tommorrow* - thats thursday, december 9.

but with a caveat: IF you pre-reg, have your team *finalized*. i do NOT want to deal with team shuffling post-registration. if you have ANY doubt about your team lineup, dont register early, wait until saturday noontime before the start to take care of it.

catch me during the workday thursday or friday, or at* cassidys friday after work or possibly the toy drive benefit show @ cherry (old cw), also on friday night.

also - the hanx/jaks annual toy drive is scheduled for the same day as the race, at noon in south park - all teams are encouraged to send along a toy or two (or more) with their starting leg rider, cause itd kinda be lame if all these people showed up to south park with nothing for the toy drive. you know?

and remember: one team member at each of the relay checkpoints, ready to race at 1 pm! thats south park (the start), the wave organ at the end of the jetty in the marina, the bridge at the south end of lake merced, and herons head park at the end of cargo. your teammates will never forgive you if youre not ready. if you have questions about where any of these places are, ask me.

and read the blasted rules! https://www.blackbirdsf.org/bcrc.html - theres apparently a number of out-of-towners coming in for this (besides squid and the nyc crew, anyone else? ive been hearing some crazy rumors...), and itd be pretty silly if the locals didnt know what they were doing

it looks like there may be as many as twenty teams, or even more, showing up for this, which is crazy, and will mean cash sum of as much as $400 (or even more!) for the winning team, which i think is nuts.

and also, though im pretty much set for checkpoint workers, i can always use more, cause itd be nice to have at least 2 people at each checkpoint, just to keep each other company for the 3 hours theyll be out there...

spread the word!

-joel

And some more info:

begin Mishka email

Yep, my favorite part!
For those of you racing, not racing, whatever, the party starts at 3 p.m. on Saturday at the Crowbar 401 Broadway @ Montgomery.
See you there!!
-Mishka, S.F.


You fellas have fun racing, safety first!

oh boy oh boy oh boy

now we're talking....

Anyone else riding first-leg? I'm riding first-leg for my team and find that it's nice to have someone else to ride with.

i'll let you know as soon as i get input from my slacker team.

i think i may put a brake on for the race... dunno what that says about my daily brakeless riding if feel the need to put one on for a race. on the other hand, i'm typically not racing when i go from point A to point B.

word. i'm super excited for this. after careful consideration, i'm thinking i'll come in first maaaaybe second place. yeah right!

There will be some long downhills no doubt. Brake might come in handy. I'll be using one - I think.

I'll be at the lake merced bridge. IRO, red bars, bright blue chrome backpack.

c u all there!

yah, anything more than 2x1 gearing and you want a front brake or you'll be walking some of the downhills...or wish you had. If it's long enough to be tiring that is.

well, damn. i guess i have to go find a front brake.

judah- not sure what leg i'll be riding, but probably first.
i'll be on the ghastly apparatus, super-ghetto black letour.

53x17, i think it's going to kill me after all.

see you all there!

I have a bar end lever you could borrow. No calipers though.

thanks, 46x17.
but i'm in santa rosa, and i won't make it down south until tomorrow.
i'll see you there...

weather forecast, according to yahoo: low 57, high 64. no rain. hoo ha.

Well, I'll be riding first-leg on a green IRO with black components, unless weather and manifest look good, in which case I'll be on a brakeless blue track bike that says "Team Issue" on one side of the top tube.

Got a grey chrome bag and will have a black "N-Judah" shirt on, maybe a green jacket if it's cold.

I welcome anyone who wants to ride in a pack with me. Very excited about this race as well...

Edit: Now that I think of it, I'm going to ride the green bike, it's more punk-rock.

i wanna ride!!! next race or next year whatever, i am making time for it next itme around.

Good luck to all you guys!