It wouldn’t be Chicago if we didn’t have a few days to slap us back into the midwest reality of where we really live. There was brief solace and fun had in the few days that the trails were tacky, perfect, and open for riding last week – that obviously was not the story this week. Dirtbagger’s have developed (or should develop) a great sense of buddha like patience to wait for the weather to turn to take their knobbies out for the trail slayin’.

Trail Work Days
We’ll elaborate more on Trail Work Days in an upcoming feature – but the gist for today is that – the trails exist because people build them and maintain them. If anyone believed the trails magically sprouted up in the forest or were the results of magical elves who worked their nightly magic for us to enjoy the morning ride is smoking way too much of ‘yerba buena’. No no no my fine ale swillin’ dirtbags – the trails are man made with an actual plan behind them that allows them to be a maintainable and useful trail for years to come. The actual work to get them done is done by a very loyal few trail workers, and “YOU”. There is no help from Cook County on this endeavor, nor is there any other organization in the entire City of Chicago that does this for CAMBr.

Simply put – if you ride the trails, and you’ve enjoyed it – then give back. A few hours of your time, a few weekends, donations of food and kindness – all makes for more trails for you to ride, a stronger community of dirtbags, and greater notice to this City, that we care about what we do.

We have all the trail work days on our Events page – more information is always found at the CAMBr site. This weekend there is a really cool trail work day at our City’s first Dirt Bike Park. Go introduce yourself, get to know it and get involved. That’s how dirtbags roll.

Premiere of “Follow Me” at the Cobra Lounge
For years, there have been annual vignettes dedicated to the awesomeness of dirtbaggin’ as filmed from around the world by the world’s best riders. Dirtbaggin’ had been traditionally seen as the ‘freeride’ junkie escapism, tackling all terrain, all levels of crazy, on what is nothing more than 30lbs of metal and rubber. Technology has evolved for both film and bikes – and the stunts, the lines, and the gumption have gone to whole new levels of incredible. This years premier of Anthill Films ‘ Follow Me’ is an HD view into the world’s best talent on mountain bikes pulling off the fastest, most beautiful, and awe inspiring riding in the MTB world.

You can see this film on May 23 at the Cobra Lounge, brought to you by CAMBr. You can get your presale tickets for $15.00 online or pay $20 at the door. There is a limited amount of presale tickets so get them while you can to guarantee your spot. The proceeds for this event from ticket sales benefits CAMBr to continue to do their work in providing Chicago dirtbags, a place to ride.

There will also be a swag raffle with prizes donated by various CAMBr supporting shops and yes, us.

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