I survived my first Punk Bike Enduro. We had great weather. Allthough there was three inches of snow on the ground, the temperature was in the mid 40s. Which of course means no frozen ground, which means sloppy muddy conditions, which resulted in my drivetrain going from "dialed in" before the ride, to "barely shifting" by the end of this thing.
Experiencing this event first hand has blown away any expectations I had. As I've said previously, the
Punk Bike Enduro, is more of a group ride/festival with a little bit of "not so serious racing" involved at different stages of the ride. There were about 200 riders there this year, the largest punk bike ever. Standing in the fire hall parking lot I thought it was a lot of people, but it really hit me when everyone took off down the road towards the first stage. We commanded a standard lane of traffic and our peloton spanned a quarter mile.
As I anticipated, approximately 10% of people race, and the rest just ride the sections as a group between beer stops. There is no vehicle support allowed on this little adventure, the Dirt Rag staff kindly humps all three little pony kegs along on a
cargo bike and coordinates three organized beer stops. I actually got to the first two stops late and the pony kegs had kicked just minutes before my arrival (a lot of people!). I got my share at the third beer stop, they had Troegs Brewery's
Trogenator, a tasty double bock. Matt K. and I had packed in (and packed out) a few cans each of
Dale's Pale Ale, and Shannon, another Dirt Rag Staffer was kind enough to pass around his flask of whiskey just as things were getting cold while waiting for others to arrive at the church.
Matt K.
(my friend and Dirt Rag's Graphic Designer) and I actually marshaled one stage. After everyone went by me with hoots and hollers, my job was done. So I got on my bike and proceeded down the hill to find the group. I came to this one nasty, steep but little downhill and saw Matt K. As soon as I looked up from what I was doing, I lost traction, fell, and slid down the remaining six feet of hill in the mud. Good thing I brought two pairs of gloves!
Punk Bike is also about costumes and mud. I'm sure that you're aware by now, my camera batteries died so I only have limited pictures. For what it's worth I lent a guy a tool who was dressed head to toe in a pink bear costume. I saw a few girls dressed as witches, a few guys dressed as witches too, and a girl with a stuffed horse affixed to her bicycle, making it appear as if she were riding a horse. There was even a guy dressed as Freddy Mercury. Trek offered up a pretty nice bike as a prize for winning the costume contest. That ones in the history books, we took off before the winner was announced.
Here's a shot of a small portion of the group gathered for the Derby:
Who's this guy?
That's me shaving my new fu manchu on Friday night, technically punk bike had not began yet. Let's get a side shot:
Here's a shot of Matt K. hunched over his brake caliper at the magazine doing some pre-ride maintenance:
Did I mention that Dirt Rag's Magazine headquarters is a house, and their basement is awesome? It's chock full of merchandise, tools, bike, wheels, trail building tools, and beer!
All told, I had a great time at the Punk Bike. I'm still trying to decide whether or not I want to race next weekend.. Haven't spent a lot of time training.. But that's going to change soon as January arrives :)
BS
