slow races have a long history!
they were a popular event at race meets in the 1890s as well - and more recently, were a standard feature of mountain bike races in the early/mid 80s... when the slow race and the huffy toss disappearred from the program of off-road races, i knew it was soon to be time for me to leave norba :)
the important rules with slow races, beyond "no dabs", "no leaving your lane" and "no bumping" are:
"forward motion must continue - ie no trackstanding or stopping" and:
"no reverse motion"
great fun. good for laughs, and a much better test of bike-handling skills than people realize...
as for trackstanding, a friend of mine is *still* working on being able to strip naked while trackstanding. she keeps losing it at the pants... :)
backwards figure 8s? fixie bunny hops? (got a friend in dc who can hop a 6' wide median strip on his fixie.. *very* impressive...)... were heading towards artistice cycling!
-joel
>Years ago (never mind...), when I was attending Beloit College*, we
>had the 69-Mile Bike Race every Summer. As part of those
>festivities, we had a "slow race" where two lanes about 24 inches
>wide were marked in chalk on the sidewalk for a distance of maybe
>twenty feet. Heats were held, and the last one across the finish
>line won, no "dabs" and no bumping your competitor or he/she would
>automatically advance. This was always lots of laughs for everyone
>involved, competitors and spectators.
>
>Of course, we also rode Trials around the furniture inside the
>(former) frat houses where we lived, so perhaps don't put too much
>stock in what we did back then - it was the '70s, after all....
>
>Greg Parker
>Ann Arbor, Michigan
>
>*AKA the Yale of the Midwest, or as we used to say, actually Yale is
>the Beloit of the East. We also used to say that "Beloit" was the
>sound a nickel made when you dropped it into the toilet, but that's
>another story....
>
>
>
>Date: Fri, 26 Mar 2004 01:44:11 +0000
>From: themaaslands@comcast.net
>To: Classicrendezvous@bikelist.org (Classic Rendezvous)
>Subject: Re: [CR] trackstand & kilo start(now band-aids)
>
>Regarding John's great description of trackstands, I agree that it is a neat
>feeling to stand still at a traffic light until it is green and then sprinting
>off. I do however differ from John in that I prefer to turn the front wheel
>inwards (like John said, to the center of the road) and then place the outside
>pedal forward (John mentioned that he preferred the inside pedal forward).
>
>Perhaps John would be willing to take on all comers in a track stand challenge
>at le cirque? Who can hold a trackstand longest? What do you say John?
>
>--
>Steven Maasland
>Moorestown, NJ
>_______________________________________________
--
joel metz : magpie@messengers.org : http://www.blackbirdsf.org/
bike messengers worldwide : ifbma : http://www.messengers.org/
po box 191443 san francisco california 94119-1443 usa
==
i know what innocence looks like - and it wasn't there,
after she got that bicycle...