18 Miles Per Hour

18 MilesPerHour is about riding through the world instead of just passing it by.
NEO-KLUNKING Let me take you back to a couple years ago, around this time. I’m rolling, half asleep, up dirt Mulholland fire road in the first mile or so of an uneventful ride. I see an old pickup parked in the middle of the fire road with several gallons of water on the tailgate. I ask the moustachioed guy loitering next to the truck “hey, what’s going on?” “Nothin.” I ride by him…and then I see it. Well, first I see a cloud of dust coming toward me. Then I see what’s causing it. A pack of about 30 guys in jeans and t-shirts, rambling and bouncing down the fire road on all manner of ancient, beaten-up bikes. All with coaster brakes. All with old-school, paper-plate number plates. One guy hits a rut and somersaults into the bushes, not to emerge for a few minutes. They fly by me, circle around the truck, some grab a swig of water, then head back up where they came. I’d stumbled into the middle of the Coaster Brake Challenge. Fast as hell, unpretentious and fun. And only about 20% hipster. Exactly the kind of unsanctioned, ridiculous racing that I didn’t believe still existed but hoped it did. It’s repack, 2011. This year, if I stumble upon the race it may not be a mistake. 

NEO-KLUNKING

Let me take you back to a couple years ago, around this time.

I’m rolling, half asleep, up dirt Mulholland fire road in the first mile or so of an uneventful ride. I see an old pickup parked in the middle of the fire road with several gallons of water on the tailgate. I ask the moustachioed guy loitering next to the truck “hey, what’s going on?”

“Nothin.”

I ride by him…and then I see it.

Well, first I see a cloud of dust coming toward me. Then I see what’s causing it. A pack of about 30 guys in jeans and t-shirts, rambling and bouncing down the fire road on all manner of ancient, beaten-up bikes. All with coaster brakes. All with old-school, paper-plate number plates. One guy hits a rut and somersaults into the bushes, not to emerge for a few minutes.

They fly by me, circle around the truck, some grab a swig of water, then head back up where they came.

I’d stumbled into the middle of the Coaster Brake Challenge.

Fast as hell, unpretentious and fun. And only about 20% hipster.

Exactly the kind of unsanctioned, ridiculous racing that I didn’t believe still existed but hoped it did.

It’s repack, 2011.

This year, if I stumble upon the race it may not be a mistake. 

  1. 18milesperhour posted this