Friday, May 29, 2009

STRAIGHT UP!

Before I go for the summer I want to cobble together what's sure to become an auspicious event, the 1st annual STRAIGHT UP gnarlycat in Salt Lake City!



What's a Gnarlycat, you ask? Well I just made that word up! But this one's simple. Meet at Gallivan (where else?) At 10:30 PM on Wednesday night, May 3rd, and fire the race firecracker at 11:00. First one to the top of city creek canyon and back to Gallivan wins! No prizes, no spokecards, no entry fees, and no sponsors. Single speeds get mad props and are heavily encouraged (like, if you have one... ride it).

This race is tricky, because there are multiple routes to the top, where you'll get checked off, and racing back down you must do your best to not kill any of your friends, the riders still heading up. So lights are pretty much required too.

**edit: I just rode this bad boy last night, there's no way we can race back down, it's too terrifying! I nearly killed 4 deer and keeping a racing pace is insane in the pitch black. So race to the top and then friendly cruise down. And bring a little jacket, it's COLD coming down.

See you there!


.... In other news, I have an absurdly practical bike (by my standards).

cassa-rive-roll

You know what that means don't you? Euro-TRIP! Dave Wood and I are leaving to the olde country for 2 months for some riding around and cheapskating through the summer.

We're flying to Hamburg and biking to Amsterdam, then wending our way through Monk and beer country to Paris. After that we head east into the great unknown. I'll be documenting our trip and using this blog as a vehicle for my ramblings and exploits.

The bike is a 55cm Salsa Cassaroll, Salsa's foray into swiss-army bike territory oriented more towards the road than the Surly Cross-Check. Fairly light double butted Salsa Chromoly tubing with slack geometry and clearance for 32mm tires with fenders makes this bike a sweet chameleon between slugging it out as a fixie in the winter and a very plush tourer-commuter in the summer. I'm hoping it doesn't get stolen in Amsterdam, as it's essentially 2 of my bikes in one. I've got it set up with 32c Schwalbe Marathons and a 20spd SRAM rival grouppo, which I quite like. It's like the worst touring gearing ever by most people's standards, but I'm a singlespeed rider for chrissakes, a 34x23 shouldn't be a problem.

Thanks a ton to Mark at Saturday Cycles for the bike, he's got the coolest taste in bikes in the state. And he's only open on Saturdays.

5 comments:

Esther said...

I'm super stoked to read about your trip! I love your new bike's name, Cassaroll haha.

quakers said...

that is a b-e-a-u-t-iful little bike so much more than just practical!!
tres tres distingue.

quakers said...

wait... MAY 3rd?

psychenaut said...

I'm assuming that you mean June 3rd, this Wednesday? I'm down for going up. Glad you changed it from a death dive back down to the finish to a nice roll after getting to the top! I was really wondering what kind of carnage we'd leave for the predators in the darkness of that canyon!

Davey D said...

yep, everyone's right, June 3rd! I get my months mixed up... :). See you there, whether just for fun or a race to the top!

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