Big Wheel Racing
I now have a new favorite San Francisco event that suits me to a tee. I just took part in the 7th annual Bring Your Own Big Wheel race down Lombard street (the twisty, curvy, touristy section) on Easter Sunday. It was amazing. There were about 150 big wheel racers, many in excellent costumes, and about another 250 friends and tourists watching the shennanigans. Some of my favorite costumes included Beaker from the muppets (x2), Lego man, Nun for you, and a perennial favorite - a gorilla. I was a little bit costumed out from the Hare-itics Ball the previous night, so I just wore bunny ears with camo pants and a sweatshirt for protection. I still managed to scrape myself up pretty well, and my ankles weren't too well-suited for controlling the slide down the street. The only rules to the event were no rubber wheels. All plastic, baby.
The races were a little bit disorganized, since they jumped from around 30 racers for the last 6 years to 150 this year, but it still worked out. The racers were packed 10 deep at the start. I got there late, so I missed the first race, but this worked out well for me for the second race. I lined up next to Nun for You on the starting line and waited for all the racers to climb up the hill from the bottom. And waited, and waited, and waited. We couldn't believe how many racers kept coming up past us. It was insane.
For my first race, I was gridded on the front row, near the inside. This turned out to be a pretty decent spot, because almost everyone crashed going into the first corner, and every subsequent corner. Big Wheels are not known for their handling abilities, especially on a steep, winding brick road (27% grade), and this meant that most people failed to correctly negotiate the corners. They'd slide past the corner and into the wall, whereupon everyone behind them would crash into the back of them and create a huge pile-up. Thankfully, as a racer I was able to cut tight on the inside of the corner and shoot past this tragedy, gaining innumerable positions. It seemed like the same thing happened every corner, and I was able to get by 4-6 racers per corner. With 8 corners on the street, that's a lot of moving up. After the last corner, I saw one racer dissapear into the crowd across the finish line, and then I was past. After a quick spin to a halt, plus intentional roll-over for the crowd, I looked around and couldn't see any other racers besides the one who finished in front of me. There was no one keeping score, so I could easily be wrong on this, but I think I finished second in that race. Could have been as far back as 5th, though. It was a little chaotic and disorganized.
For the next couple of races, they let people go in waves, sending the first four rows down the hill and letting the next four rows run their own race. This was good, because there's no way you could be competitive starting in row 8 behind a massive pile-up of Big Wheels. The race track was constantly littered with stacks of Big Wheels, with axles, wheels, and seat backs often sliding down the course separated from their racer.
Afterwards, some of the races barrelled down the rest of Lombard to Columbus Ave, which was crazy. It's one thing to go down a steep, curvy street, and it's quite another to bomb straight down a hill, trying not to get hit by the spinning pedals of death right near your knees. Other spectators/racers blocked traffic from the side street so we could race all the way down uninterrupted. The speeds got so high that I saw one guy at the end try to stop by putting his feet down, but his front wheel (girly tricycle with 3 big plastic spokes) exploded into a million pieces as the strain was too much for the spokes. He was okay, though.
Here are some links to photos from the event:
start (me on the far left): http://www.flickr.com/photos/troymccluresf/452639091/
Nun for you and I about to pass a spun out racer: http://www.flickr.com/photos/mark_phillips/451856340/
Nun for you and Tigger: http://www.flickr.com/photos/troymccluresf/452603034/
Article + photo:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/object/article?f=/c/a/2007/04/09/BAGNLP54EC1.DTL&o=1
Great action shot: http://www.flickr.com/photos/jimgoldstein/452183155/
Crash 'n burn: http://www.flickr.com/photos/jeremybrooks/452002611/in/pool-byobw/
Luigi crash: http://www.flickr.com/photos/jeremybrooks/451993324/in/pool-byobw/
Crash victim: http://www.flickr.com/photos/gmh/451961884/in/pool-byobw/
Turn 2: http://www.flickr.com/photos/yorkie/451906594/in/pool-byobw/
Lego Head and friends: http://www.jmg-galleries.com/blog_images/byobw2007_web/
The organizers (me just to the left of the block head): http://www.flickr.com/photos/troymccluresf/452637843/
They also published a photo of me coming into turn 3 in the SF and Peninsula Examiners.
The races were a little bit disorganized, since they jumped from around 30 racers for the last 6 years to 150 this year, but it still worked out. The racers were packed 10 deep at the start. I got there late, so I missed the first race, but this worked out well for me for the second race. I lined up next to Nun for You on the starting line and waited for all the racers to climb up the hill from the bottom. And waited, and waited, and waited. We couldn't believe how many racers kept coming up past us. It was insane.
For my first race, I was gridded on the front row, near the inside. This turned out to be a pretty decent spot, because almost everyone crashed going into the first corner, and every subsequent corner. Big Wheels are not known for their handling abilities, especially on a steep, winding brick road (27% grade), and this meant that most people failed to correctly negotiate the corners. They'd slide past the corner and into the wall, whereupon everyone behind them would crash into the back of them and create a huge pile-up. Thankfully, as a racer I was able to cut tight on the inside of the corner and shoot past this tragedy, gaining innumerable positions. It seemed like the same thing happened every corner, and I was able to get by 4-6 racers per corner. With 8 corners on the street, that's a lot of moving up. After the last corner, I saw one racer dissapear into the crowd across the finish line, and then I was past. After a quick spin to a halt, plus intentional roll-over for the crowd, I looked around and couldn't see any other racers besides the one who finished in front of me. There was no one keeping score, so I could easily be wrong on this, but I think I finished second in that race. Could have been as far back as 5th, though. It was a little chaotic and disorganized.
For the next couple of races, they let people go in waves, sending the first four rows down the hill and letting the next four rows run their own race. This was good, because there's no way you could be competitive starting in row 8 behind a massive pile-up of Big Wheels. The race track was constantly littered with stacks of Big Wheels, with axles, wheels, and seat backs often sliding down the course separated from their racer.
Afterwards, some of the races barrelled down the rest of Lombard to Columbus Ave, which was crazy. It's one thing to go down a steep, curvy street, and it's quite another to bomb straight down a hill, trying not to get hit by the spinning pedals of death right near your knees. Other spectators/racers blocked traffic from the side street so we could race all the way down uninterrupted. The speeds got so high that I saw one guy at the end try to stop by putting his feet down, but his front wheel (girly tricycle with 3 big plastic spokes) exploded into a million pieces as the strain was too much for the spokes. He was okay, though.
Here are some links to photos from the event:
start (me on the far left): http://www.flickr.com/photos/troymccluresf/452639091/
Nun for you and I about to pass a spun out racer: http://www.flickr.com/photos/mark_phillips/451856340/
Nun for you and Tigger: http://www.flickr.com/photos/troymccluresf/452603034/
Article + photo:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/object/article?f=/c/a/2007/04/09/BAGNLP54EC1.DTL&o=1
Great action shot: http://www.flickr.com/photos/jimgoldstein/452183155/
Crash 'n burn: http://www.flickr.com/photos/jeremybrooks/452002611/in/pool-byobw/
Luigi crash: http://www.flickr.com/photos/jeremybrooks/451993324/in/pool-byobw/
Crash victim: http://www.flickr.com/photos/gmh/451961884/in/pool-byobw/
Turn 2: http://www.flickr.com/photos/yorkie/451906594/in/pool-byobw/
Lego Head and friends: http://www.jmg-galleries.com/blog_images/byobw2007_web/
The organizers (me just to the left of the block head): http://www.flickr.com/photos/troymccluresf/452637843/
They also published a photo of me coming into turn 3 in the SF and Peninsula Examiners.
posted by Don at 9:15 PM
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