Idea’s have a tendency to pop up at the same time in very different geographical locations. In cycling circles, the debate as to who first thought of taking bikes off road (Mountain Bike style) has been raging for years. Was it Gary Fisher or Mulga Bill who first coined the notion? Personally, I don’t think any one person can claim it. I feel the concept of Mountain Biking was an idea that evolved as riders in different regions pushed their bike love into new arena’s.. So where am I going with this? TRACKLOCROSS.
I stumbled across this website today http://tracklocross.blogspot.com/ It’s a website devoted to the discipline of riding trackbikes on grass-tracks.. Whilst the term ‘tracklocross’ is new, the idea is not unique.. Across the other side of the globe in Hobart, we have been talking for months about doing a trackbike grass-track event, blissfully unaware of events in NYC and assuming our idea was fairly original. I’m pretty stoked to discover that there are likeminded bike nuts coming up with what are practically ‘stupid’ ideas independantly of one another on opposite sides of the planet. Now.. can anyone point me in the direction of an FX-MX blog?
But hold on, isn’t it just another attack of the retrophiles? Grass track racing used to be done all over the place back in the day. You can’t re-invent the wheel.
FXMX riders on the other hand, they’re really pushing the envelope. Fixed-cross? That’s ingenuity!
I take it back. I read the website and that shit looks freakin’ awesome.
How about combining a 100km audax, on the grass track, at night? I just can’t think of a suitable track.
I wonder if they’d let us race the botanical gardens?
Or more importantly, I wonder how long we could race the botanical gardens before getting kicked out?
hey. tracklocross organizer here. check out some pictures fromour first event, Sludgement Day, on flickr – courtesy of jonny stiles.
we’re having a blast with this idea. the winner of the 16mi mudfest rode a mountain bike, but we’re still encouraging the dominant use of track bikes off road.
some people have asked us why we don’t do real cyclocross. we shrug and just say that we like to do things that we put together, not just pay money and try to get a ride out into the suburbs, i guess.
whatever. we’re having a blast with this race series. thanks for the attention!