May 3, 2011
SF Weekend/Red Bull Ride+Style Recap
This past weekend was a lot of fun. The Red Bull Ride+Style event brought a lot of cool people from all over the world to San Francisco. Lot’s of parties, races, and riding.
We left LA bright and early on Friday morning. I packed 2 bags, one with clothes and the other one with bike parts: 2 pairs of shoes, 2 pairs of pedals, some tools, 2 kits, a tubular wheel set and my helmet. Met up with Mike Martin while he was setting up his new shop and borrowed a rear wheel, I needed a 17 tooth cog for the Macaframa Race, “Walton’s Race”. My friend Steven Tortorelli texted me where the checkpoints were gonna be, since it was the same race as the Macaframa Benefit Race which happened the week before. I bought a map and tried to map it out, but I didn’t even know where to start so I just went for plan B, chase after the guy in front of you. The race started at One Post, we got our manifest and everyone there looked very confident about where they were gonna go, including Walton Brush, who won the same race the week before. They make us line up across the street and we go. I was holding on to the front pack for a while until we get to the first checkpoint. By the time I checked Walton, Kell and Portland Kyle were gone. I’m left NYC Crihs, who later on grabbed onto a car and said goodbye as he went up a hill. Once I was officially lost, I pulled out my map and rode to the next checkpoint where I waited for another racer to show up and be my tour guide the rest of the race. Crihs got 1st place and took the Macraframa Raleigh frame set back to New York with him. Someone got hit, and everyone thought I got hit until they saw me cross the finish line. I got 11th place.
Saturday was the big day. Really technical, really sketchy. We had to use quarter pipes as berms and watch out for curbs and a slippery floor. Riding it solo was sketchy, racing against someone else in it was ridiculous. Gnarly dudes from all over were invited, the best from the best. So yeah, it was intimidating standing next to fast guys who are twice your size ready to knock you off your bike in order to take the front spot. I placed 8th on the time trial, which qualified me to the final 16 were we raced head to head. Lots of crashes, Robin Song from Oakland broke his collar bone and Walton Brush re-broke his wrist in the semi-finals. Austin Horse, Chas Christianson and Walton Brush had the best times in the qualifications, but Kell McEnzie and Jayson Clary were racing head to head in the final. Jayson won and went home with $1000.
On Sunday Mike Martin opened the doors of the MASH SF Shop, and what better way to celebrate it than a torturous race up and down 14th st as many times as you can in 30 minutes. The top 10 contestants of each category advanced to the final which was a race up to Twin Peaks and down. Portland Kyle won the fixed race and Chris Phipps won the Road category, they went home with some really big trophies, an Incase bag, and $500 in Cash each. I finished 4th and walked away with nothing (not really, Mike hooked me up with some tires, T-shirts and Cliff bars).
Awesome weekend over all. I would’ve liked to go home with a win but I knew that would be really hard to achieve. I hope Red Bull decides to keep these events happening.
ClaryVs. Kell in the Final
After you crossed the finish line you would have to skid all the way to a wall with a bunch of Red Bull pads. A bunch of racers couldn't make it to a complete stop before it ended.
Walton re-broke his wrist
Some dude from Japan did a Backflip on a Fixed Mountain bike.
Hurting at the MASH race.
Where are these Dutch Bike Zealots, with their blogs, who believe that the 50-lb sort is the ultimate bike for everything everywhere? I haven’t met any, is all. Are they made of straw, perhaps? I’m a confirmed fan of these bikes, alongside others. They’re enjoyable on rides over 20 miles, too, not necessarily flat, with or without a load. Not as fast, sure, but plenty comfortable and relaxing. Not for everybody, all the time, of course!
Comment by todd — May 1, 2011 @ 6:50 pm
Copenhagenize and Amsterdamize, for two. I’ve gone back and forth with them on their blogs on the issue and could dig up their exact quotes, if you like..
People can ride what they like, but the constant prescriptions a few folks keep writing for the whole world gets pretty tiresome.
No straw men; I don’t play that game, so citations are available upon request.
I’ve ridden Gazelle, Kronans, Batavus, some others, some for extended tests. You know that, because you’ve read them on my site.
Ride them here for a few weeks. My bikes, by the way, are transport, fixed or not. I’ve never raced nor ever been interested in racing in any way.
Comment by Richard Risemberg — May 1, 2011 @ 7:02 pm
I know Copenhagenize better than Amsterdamize, but I’ve never seen either suggest that classic Dutch (or Danish?) transport bikes are ideal for much besides short-hop urban transport. Mikael at Copenhagenize in particular seems to me almost proud of not caring about the bikes per se, frequently mocking any attention to bike tech as beside the point. Mostly I think Mikael enjoys skewering any sort of tribal “bicycle culture” bound to specific genres of bike, be they hipster/fixie or lycra/carbon… Got URLs to posts where these sorts of bikes are prescribed inappropriately?
This guy, I think, is who you’re aiming for: http://www.bikebiz.com/news/read/upright-is-right-says-strida-designer . I don’t agree with him entirely, but to the limited extent that he’s right, well, he is. :-)
Comment by todd — May 1, 2011 @ 7:21 pm
Lots of people drive very short distances in the USA. Glorious sit up and wave to people bikes are great for a substitution for a car for this kind of journey, especially if equipped with a big frame-mounted front rack and a full chain case, plus a rear rack for passengers — all missing on that mixte.
If people just get one bike, a bike like this makes sense since it can do so much. It is perhaps easier to cycle the occasional long distance on a heavy bike with cargo and wear what you like capability then it is to pick up a case of beer on a mixte.
Ever notice how lots of people like to ride no hands on a mountain bike? I think it is because many would prefer to be upright.
It is true that Dutch and other cities have lots of good collective public transport, and when L.A. gets better in this regard we can assume bike tastes will change as well.
And I hope that people consider having multiple bikes instead of other possessions because certain having a lighter more aggressive bike as a second bike is a good thing… and a road bike, and a touring bike, and a tandem… why not? There is no perfect bike, BUT there is a perfect bike for a primary use which can be okay for secondary uses.
Comment by Todd Edelman — May 1, 2011 @ 8:09 pm
I see we’re back to the Dutch bike as a standard, with everything else as “and other.”
Try it here, Todd. I’ll ride along with you. Just accompany on my weekly rounds–mostly rides to meetings and shopping. It won’t work on a Dutchie.
My good friend Josef sells them, loves them–but they don’t work for him for crosstown riding either.
Of course, one local Dutch bike fan’s “solution” (stated overtly at a meeting of Better biek Beverly Hills) was that people should just never leave their neighborhoods. But I don’t feel like giving up my living and most of my friends to satisfy someone else’s obsession with Dutch bikes.
In much of the world, if your only choice is a Dutch bike, then you will probably drive a car for most of your travel. No thanks; I don’t feel like being boxed in. Don’t want a backache either.
Why this necessity to convert? That’s a tendency that has caused so much human grief.
Comment by Richard Risemberg — May 1, 2011 @ 8:26 pm
Richard, you are asking me to defend an assertion that I don’t make. I don’t know what your meetings/shopping runs entail. Somehow I expect that I could in fact accomplish it on my 60-lb Omafiets (now with NuVinci), but I’ll take your word for it that would be a relatively poor choice of equipment, especially if I were trying to keep up with you on a road bike. You sound to me like a man hemmed in by zealots challenging your choice of bike, making outlandish assertions about the blank superiority of Dutch (style) bikes. Does this one guy/gal in Beverly Hills really have so many like-minded friends?
I’ll also take your word for it that sitting upright causes you pain. I will assert, however, that riding with any sort of forward lean causes far more people far more pain than upright bikes typically do. I hear about this all day long, every day. I myself ride both kinds of bikes. In general, the greater intensity of effort I want to or must expend, the more likely I will favor a forward lean. When the terrain of my daily rounds required me to ride sporty bikes all the time (San Francisco, 20-mi daily commute), I was in almost constant pain of one kind or another from my ass to my neck. I didn’t complain; I paid for massages, chiropracty, lots of beer, and endorphins took care of the rest.
Comment by todd — May 1, 2011 @ 9:37 pm
Bike fit has a lot to do with it. I am a good bike fitter myself, and I have no back pain, nor any other kind, from riding–not with a radical forward lean, but a modest 45 degree angle. I’m also 58 years old and ride around 600 miles a month. In fact my back feels better after a long ride on my fixie.
This is why I recommend (in the article above) dealing with a conscientious shop that interviews you as to your riding style and can fit you to your bike, whatever kind of bike it is. In Amsterdam a Dutch bike makes sense. Here in La it would be torture, although I would consider a light roadster, such as the Public bikes, for strictly local jaunts.
My wife has two bikes, a roadish randonneuse and the mixte mentioned above, and uses one or the other as appropriate. Neither one is appropriate for everything. Nor are Dutch bikes.
Xtracycle fans get all evangelical too, sometimes. I have no room for that. Not even from people who ride bikes like mine.
For the open-minded, here’s a link to my main ride (and yes, I carry stuff on it almost every every, and ride in regular clothes and in the rain–supposedly impossible, to hear some folks talk): The Bambina
Comment by Richard Risemberg — May 1, 2011 @ 10:07 pm
It sounds like we agree far more than disagree. I am probably a bit defensive as a rider (and seller) of Dutch bikes who naturally doesn’t want to be associated with any fanatical points of view, even if they are on “my side.” “My side” is in fact a tiny minority niche in the US bike market, not the supposedly consequential crowd of closed-minded Dutch bikemongers that inspire your criticism here.
I was pretty fanatically attentive to issues of fit while on road bikes in SF. Practically my whole “education” in bike mechanics came from swapping parts, comparing, adjusting, and swapping again. I don’t believe in the one true fit: horses for courses. And sometimes, a certain amount of pain is an unavoidable consequence of intense riding. For my body, I know that a forward lean + time = some discomfort. Doesn’t mean the bikes that produce this result are “wrong.”
I can’t brook statements like “Dutch roadsters are substitutes for walking, not for driving” even in Holland. For some, sure, but why make the distinction if not to counter imaginary claims that, say, nobody drives in Holland? And it’s a “secret” that Dutch and Danish people use road bikes on the weekends for sport and fun? As if there were a conspiracy to conceal the truth that different bikes suit different purposes! Who really questions this?
Here’s a mixte we (a “dutch” shop) set up recently resembling your wife’s superficially: http://clevercycles.com/2011/04/20/linus-mixte-8-as-family-utility-bike/ . We swapped the bars for ones with less sweep for more forward lean, appropriate to increase power and stabilize the steering with the rear child seat + front basket. But 80% of the time, we find that people want to be more, not less upright.
Comment by todd — May 1, 2011 @ 11:07 pm
This is an interesting debate or more accurately a circular argument. Todd seems to not see the forest for the trees. Even though this is a blog entry contributed by a vigorous bike advocate, Risemberg should be able to employ a few rhetorical devices (hyperbole, anyone?) in the interests of his greater point, buying a bike which suits your particular needs at a dedicated LBS. On the other hand, I believe (and this opinion is based on being a dedicated reader of Richard’s blogs) that Richard is being somewhat disingenuous and not completely forthright. He contributes to Flying Pigeons blog and he fails to mention that for the most part, they are “dutch” bike zealots. He gently points out the association in one of his responses; however, I think the disclosure would be easily dismissed by a casual reader.
Comment by Albert — May 5, 2011 @ 10:38 am
This is partly true, but Flying Pigeon LA is not a Dutch bikes only shop by any means. Nor, as I pointed out in the actual post, does Orange 20 exclude Dutch bikes.
The folks I allude to–and they did not include Todd’s Clever Cycles in Portland, which sells some of the products I design–are rather strident promoters of Dutch bikes uber alles.
But why a disclosure that I also write for Flying Pigeon in a blog post some seem to see as dissing Dutch bikes if they are Dutch bike sellers?
I write about cycling, not commercial, issues–and arbitrarily narrowing people’s perception of the breadth of bike choices (from either side) is a cycling issue. I will certainly mention the blog sponsor when that is contextually appropriate. I won’t mention shop A on shop B’s blog, though, That’s only polite. They know I work for both.
Comment by Richard Risemberg — May 5, 2011 @ 11:00 am