hey old timers

[Alexi]

did any of you do urban unsanctioned bicycle racing in the 70? kinda like alley cats now?

[BUTCH RIDES]

Hello they were called crits . here .

The Amateur Bicycle League of America was around then
bye

[fiamme red]

Hello they were called crits . here .

The Amateur Bicycle League of America was around then
byeHey BUTCH RIDES, what did you do with Fixed? Just when he was closing in on 10,000 posts... :p

[BUTCH RIDES]

Hey BUTCH RIDES, what did you do with Fixed? Just when he was closing in on 10,000 posts... :p
Hello he was a bad boy we locked him in his room and Gigi is watching him
bye bye

[Alexi]

Hello they were called crits . here .

The Amateur Bicycle League of America was around then
bye


yeah but the crits were in parking lots and sanctioned by the Amateur Bicycle League of America

[BUTCH RIDES]

Hello they were like ally cats it was grass roots thing but still a crit or a r.r here .None of the red light stop sign stuff though .
bye

[fiamme red]

http://www.messmedia.org/alleycats.html

[Alexi]

http://www.messmedia.org/alleycats.html
cool any non messengers do similar stuff?

[Fixed]

By 1985 messengers in Toronto were competing in races that mimicked their work day by delivering to various checkpoints throughout the city in live traffic.
cheers :beer:

[stevep]

cant say i remember anything like that.
dont even remember anything like a bike messenger back then.

when did the bike messenger thing start?
i came in just before the " bike boom" in the mid 70s.

[chrisroph]

Yup, team races.


Also mtn bike races in the early 80's like the infamous reseda to the sea.

[FMS_rider]

I was there: http://www.clantongang.com/oldwest/race.html

[sspielman]

cant say i remember anything like that.
dont even remember anything like a bike messenger back then.

when did the bike messenger thing start?
i came in just before the " bike boom" in the mid 70s.


+1 That sort of thing doesn't have much of a past

[dbrk]

On the Jersey shore in the early '70s we had the sanctioned ABL races but also "Ocean Avenue races," this being the major bit of road that follows the shoreline through Long Branch, Asbury, etc. We'd ride out as the shop team and meet up with others, two other teams as I recall, and then pull and pull team against team, training and racing at once since these weren't really races. We keep it up and finally turn off to go home. I don't recall crits in parking lots then. I was just a kid, riding my 1972 Mondia Special with NR/DA (first generation post-Crane) purchased new with every last nickel I earned in the bike shop. (I still have this bike and am currently building a new wheelset with Campag NR on Fiamme rims...) My brother got me into this, he being nine years my senior and working as a mechanic in the shop while I did the rat and glued tires and got in the way. Gitane, Paris Sport, Dawes, Mondia, Colnago, Peugeot, Raleigh, and the rarest, Masi. Joe Pig had the Masi. Brother David the Molteni Colnago with the drilled out rings and pantographing and this tall, tall, fast kid whose name I forget but his father had a fully chromed Rene Herse. Those were our bikes. A few surfed too, long boards.

dbrk

[Climb01742]

best i can offer is, as a triathlete in nyc in the early 80s, i sometimes "trained" in two unorthodox ways: just follow messengers (as best i could) as they zigzagged through midtown traffic, and on saturday mornings try to hang on the back of the packs in central park races. i was coachless, teamless and yes, basically clueless, but both these methods got your heart rate up.