to anyone who has been involved in alleycats, does the issue of liability ever come up? are waivers signed before the race?

I hadn't considered this but a friend of mine is really concerned. Opinions?

..and to keep it on-topic, the races are going to be limited to SS and FG's.

I've signed a sheet saying that I was responsible for anything that happened to me.

But I've only done like 5 alleycats - and they're not very serious.

i wouldn't know the one i organized that was gonna go down this saturday got cancelled due to no one here paying registration fee or even attempting to sound interested. Thats what happens when your entire state has only one messenger service.

I just try not to worry about it. I do what I can to make the races I've thrown as safe as possible, such as avoiding obviously dangerous routes and cutting down on pack-racing with manifest varieties.

Otherwise, I just hope for the best. I figure if someone gets hurt and decides to sue I have a fighting chance in court to show that they knew what they were getting into and the risks involved. The forms in question are pretty useless in court anyhow.

-brad

Liability? On an open course where flaunting traffic control is roundly encouraged? You're kidding right?

I think the best defense against liability for an organizer is to actually be a messenger. No assets = no lawsuits. What are they gonna do, put a lien on your bike?

If you were a messenger, that would really bite.

Speaking as a lawyer (although not one with a lot of experience in this area), this is the key - knowledge of the risks inherent in the activity. Most everyone who parrticipates in alleycats would probably have demonstrable knowledge of such danger. (A signed disclaimer/notice, to the effect that "riding in an alleycat is an activity that exposesparticipants to the risk of serious bodily injury and death," actually wouldn't hurt, and could be helpful in defendning subsequent lawsuits.) Of course, if other people (pedestrians or something) got hurt, the race organizer might have a tougher time in court. The secret to protecting yourself from liability, more than anything else, is to be poor. No one bothers to sue poor people.

Then again, your locality may have criminal laws against organizing or participating in bicycle races on public streets (public nuisance, disorderly conduct, and even illegal gambling statutes might be pressed into service for this purpose), and a big accident is the sort of thing that could bring charges against a race organizer. Seems like every few years, city councillors get all worked up about the bicycle menace and spend some bluster and outrage on it before turning to some other issue; I imagine it's only a matter of time before alleycats become the focus of this silly, passing civic wrath.

thanks for the helpful comment. care to expound?

thanks ya tu sabes. that's the kind of info I was looking for.

+1 for me -- i'm a poor student.

i'm going to ask around and see if anyone's ever done anything like this in gville.

FWIW... the Terror Trials in Chicago simply had a statement at the bottom of the manifest stating something to the effect of... "I won't sue the race organizers if I get f**ked up" with a signature spot underneath. Not sure if that would ever hold up in court, but it may be better than nothing.

Alleycats are illegal races, cept that if it came own to brass tacks it's a ride not a race. You navigate your own course in open traffic and are required (as far as the law is concerned) to observe all yadda yadda as whenever you ride. So if you get into an accident doing something you weren't supposed to it's your own ass in a sling anyway. Police could stop a race(ride) from starting for lack of parade permits or sumsuch if they wanted, but only at the start as it's the only time the racers are packed together, many races start one rider per minute, or with each rider having a completely different manifest, etc to avoid mass starts.
The general rule is if you do something that gets you hurt, you get sympathy. If your involved in a not at fault accident or an at fault during one, you don't know what the hell they're talking about "Alleycat? there were no cats in the road, is he saying he hit me trying to dodge a cat? Check him for crack!"

That might do, might not (depends a lot on state law and such). It's always better to have people sign something that makes clear that they know the dangers involved ("I realize I'm engaging in an activity that exposes me to a high risk of getting f'd up"). Also, organizers generally (that is, anyone providing people with some activity that might get them hurt) can usually get participants to waive liability for normal injuries resulting from the activity, but not for bizarre, unusual injuries that result from the organizer's negligence. For example, a ski mountain can require you to sign away your right to sue for a run-of-the-mill broken leg because you fell; but if the chair falls off the lift while you're on it and your leg gets broken, you can sue because it was clearly their fault (even if you waived your right to sue). I can't really think of how this would apply in an alleycat, unless the organizer supplied the bikes or something.

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What is there to expound upon? You know what an alleycat race is.

By signing a waiver to race in an alleycat, it would probably nullify any insurance or liability coverage anyway, since it would acknowledge participation in an illegal race- making it different than simply getting t-boned in an intersection while running a light, for example.

By definition, can an alleycat even be run on a closed course?

Depends who you ask... Is CMWC an alleycat? It's certainly modeled after them, but obviously lacking certain elements.

no, an alleycat can't be a closed course. the big courier races test skill in navigational routing and such on a closed course to simulate a day at work sans traffic(except other bikers of course) and usually hold a seperate alleycat.

At the alleycat I was in a rider lost control of his bike during a skidding contest and landed on the hood of a parked car, buckling the hood and smashing the taillight of the car parked behind it. The rider was taken to the hospital but he is okay.

The owner of the bike shop who sponsored the race I'm sure did the right thing to make amends with the car owners but I don't know exactly how it turned out since nobody seemed to want to talk about it.