been a while, sorry, stories

So i have been busy, working a lot. No Excuse.

Anyway, fun stories that have transpired.

I have been slowly working my way into the Vancouver fixed gear scene. It is actually pretty easy, i just don't have the time. Either way, there are a couple of awesome people that put on this rotating event called Bad Party. It is a monthly bike event that rotates formats (i.e. ally cats, sprints, egg carries). this last month was a short sprint, something around just over 200 meters.

It was awesome.

Bunch of good people, it was a tall boy of beer to enter, winner take all. It was on an out of the way street, beautiful day. They were all head to head affairs, we had been controlling traffic pretty well (like i said out of the way street).

Then the VPD shows up. All beers were immediately jettisoned into the bushes. We all assumed our most innocent faces. The two cops (pigs) exit their vehicle. One is a short cute blond, the other a gingery fellow with a shaved head. The man type cop approaches Cody (one of the organizers) and to every one's surprise address' him by name. Turns out the cop used to run track with Cody at the local college. At this point no one really knows what to do. Everyone was kind of expecting the cops to be mean and break up our fun. But it becomes immediately apparent that that is not what is going to happen, at least at first.

The cute blond turns to the crowd and says "well, can we at least see one race?"

Yes miss police officer, yes you can.

The bracket is consulted and the next race is preped post-hast. Cody counts it off and the sprinters throw down watts like the devil is chasing them (or watching them, cops right?). The VPD seems to like the spirit of the event, and someone from the crowd shouts "the cops should sprint!"

Everyone laughs, except the cute blond cop. Now i don't know what possessed this lady to want to hop on a bike so bad, but she was down. The ginger fellow seemed reticent, but after his female partner called his masculinity into question there was no longer any hesitation.

Bikes were proffered. I gave the ginger cop my bike thinking that if they raced at least we could probably finish the event, and if one of them killed themselves at least we would have time to run away. The lady cop took a trial run. No matter how many times you tell someone that the peddles don't stop moving on a fixed gear there will always be this moment when the rider first realizes "holy shit, these peddles really don't stop moving". Most people have this moment at relatively low speeds. This lady cop was preping for a sprint, She had this realization at somewhere around 25kph. one leg flailing, the other stuck to the peddle (thank god).

They both were undeterred.

Cody counted down and the VPD were off. Peddling for honor and glory on track bikes with combat boots too big for the toe clips. The ginger fellow almost killed himself trying to stop as he had not done a practice run and found out the peddles don't stop moving at closer to 35kph. People (myself included) freaked out that the cops showed up, and instead of breaking up the event, instead decided to go head to head on track bikes.

Much celebration was had, the cops gave a wave, and drove off into the setting Canadian sun. Neve rmind the kids racing without helmets ($29) no front breaks ($109) and one could argue, cycling without due care ($109).