Another Wednesday – CU Short Track and Prototyping
Held every Wednesday, the CU Short Track is a great way to support the local university team and come together as a cycling community in Boulder. It’s 20 bucks, staffed by volunteers and students, and it’s so low-key they even accept IOUs. I know, because I only brought a credit card last time, which incidentally, they don’t accept.
I went up there yesterday for a dose of leg-burning, nostril-searing, lip-and-nose-tingling masochism. Boulder – where’s everyone at?
Back during the Research Park days there were spectators and announcers and like 40 deep in each field. Now there’s hardly anyone. Whatever the reason, let’s get people back out there!
The race went as well as it could have without regearing the single speed – at 32×20 there’s not much top end speed. Luckily the Corkscrew jumpline was part of the course, benefiting the bike handlers in the pack. As if jump trails on a 29er race bike aren’t hard enough though, the sprinklers automatically turned on during the second lap making the basic act of seeing fairly difficult. There was one sprinkler in particular that would hit me in the face either mid-air or on the landing of this one jump so I’d have to simultaneously close my eyes and set up for a large left-hand berm. Twice I almost rode off the back of said berm by the time the water stopped hitting me in the face and I opened my eyes.
There weren’t many people to race against, but I got second. Afterwards I headed out to George’s place to finish sewing a new prototype we’ve been working on. A couple of his neighbors came by, I got to check out some early 20th-century denim sewing machines, and we did some Wednesday night prototyping. Once we got all the pockets sewn on with appropriate hems it turned out they were a little smaller than I expected, but it was all good because I got to hang out in a garage for a couple hours doing something besides wrenching on bikes. One of the coolest things about doing your own prototyping is the ability to immediately test it, so I’m excited to try the new proto at the Winter Park race this weekend!
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