Re-Scheduling
The folks at CAMBR West were bringing us the Kona Demo Day along with Rapid Transit Cycle’s assistance. This was re-scheduled due to the foul weather, we’ll give you a heads up of when the next date is being scheduled.

It should be a blast considering how awesome the Red Bull Stomping Ground event was. We unfortunately were unable to attend this event due weekends of family travels but we have heard that the event was pretty sweet and it could’ve standed to see a lot more folks come out and enjoy some rad professional stunting. Get a load of some of the action here (and dig the Chicago skyline in the back!):

Settin’ Down Roots
Speaking of kickass events – it’s happening again with the ‘Setting Down Root’s event coming up July 31st from 12:00PM-6:00PM at ‘The Garden’. Race dirt track style, test your skills against other riders, and raise money and awareness for Chicago’s one and only dirt bike park. More details on what is being given away, suredly something from us for you!

Palos Meltdown
Registration Opened up on June 1st for CAMBr members. Non-members registration will open at the end of the month. It’s Race #6 of the Illinois Homegrown Race Series and is absolutely lauded as the World Championships of Trail Racing for Chicago.

Do It In the Dirt as a couple!
The closest thing to dirty hanky panky since Porky’s was released in 1982 – Cyclocross action comes to you super EARLY this year thanks to xXx Racing-AthletiCo at Jackson Park. Only this time – you get to tag a team member in to take on your competitors WWF style. There will be a co-ed event. Who cares what colors you fly – its time to start recruiting up your teammate to put the smackdown on the other duo teams. Speaking of which – who wants to be a Bonebell pardner? We do-si-do as good as the rest of them ya’hear!

Chicago Cyclocross Cup
Of course – with races already being schedule for the CX lovers out there – you should know by now what weekends you are telling your loved ones when they have to hold the slab of bacon and mini-kegs of Pabst for you in the fall. Point them here and ask kindly and ask for forgiveness now before you bring wet smelly sandy ass back home.

Damn – we got a lot going on. We’ll be posting some lengthy articles coming up during a well deserved break to highlight some stuff we’ve been meaning to tell ya about and keep you motivated to keep them knobbies dirty and delighted. Remember we love you when you ride knobbies.

After regrouping with everyone 2 hours later, our crew enjoyed a nice picnic lunch and some conversation to get to know each other better.  On the whole a great day.    A few snapshots of our event below.  If you couldn’t make it out for this ride, we hope to see you on the next one!

By 8:00AM with the help of my neighbor and my impeccable little girl who repeatedly told me ‘Papi, I help find your wallet’ – I was in a state of unbelievable calm and well impressed that my daughter, cared about this stupid piece of leather its contents, only because she saw it was important to me. The first phase of children’s selfless acts to help someone had me in a wonderful frame of mind. At 8:30AM I received an e-mail from the gentlemen who found my wallet and phone – so the day started looking up and karma had begun its revolution. I figured it called for a celebration – and I looked at my 3′2″ sidekick and asked if she wanted to go riding with papi since taking her to daycare after faithfully searching an hour with me was reason enough to stay the day with her – her answer was ‘YES!’. I had thought of hitting up Tati Cycles yesterday evening as well, so I figured, I’d make that the lunch hour destination around 2PM to meet ‘J’ and pick-up some fly colored skewers that I had seen he had in stock. So the girl and I stocked up the Burly trailer, hitched it up to my bike and the journey to 53rd street from 5100 N. began. The weather was absolutely perfect for riding.

We hit up the trusty lakefront bike path – which at noon – is not so bad of a predicament with people on the path, and I’m pulling a trailer with a super cute kid, so I mostly feared the gals on roller blades who would coo over how cute my girl looked in her helmet while almost riding off into the sand or the rear of a jogger ahead of them. I had a couple of pathletes who found the urge to challenge me and my trailer and work their way dangerously and stupidly around me by playing chicken with the commuters and joggers in the wrong lane. My girl enjoyed the show and as she saw people ride past – she wasn’t having any of it and proudly exclaimed ‘Papi, go faster! Go faster!’ – I guess she doesn’t like it when people passed us. So when I found a few wide berths which aren’t many on the path before downtown, I drilled a good hard pace powered by my Led Zeppelin T-Shirt flapping in the breeze and getting heavier with sweat by the minute. By mile 14 – the girl fell asleep in the trailer with a cool breeze blowing about her and her cuddling her favorite green elephant, coincidentally donated to her by a cyclist’s friend’s daughter. I arrived to 53rd street and wind my way through the tree covered historical grounds that is Hyde Park and found the shop easily. I pulled onto the sidewalk and a funny thing happens – the wheel falls of the trailer!

‘J’ is a soft spoken guy with a love of bicycles and all things orange. He has gleaming blue eyes that reveal a very young spirit and even bigger persona as you talk to him in person. His immediate reaction when saw me pull up on the sidewalk was as astounded as I was that a wheel just fell off my trailer and with my daughter still in it no less. Good thing he owns a bike shop! We worked through the problem and thankfully it was resolved if temporary, but we both were confident he fixed it. During the fixing of the wheel, my daughter helped herself to several apples, carbon wheels, and even assisted one of his customers showing her how to use a bike pump. I had been meaning to get to J’s shop for a while now and moreso meet the man behind the ‘Tatitos’. It was great to talk bikes, and life, and realize that we had a lot more in common than just our love of bikes and the cyclocross scene. Karma turned yet another wonderful revolution as he didn’t charge me for the bike fix and I gladly picked up the actual skewers I was looking for and played host to my daughters curious nature about all his colorful inventory in his shop. A friend now known in person and a great visit to the shop that brings us the wooled wonders from Hyde Park. Off I scooted with my newly fixed trailer, and daughter waving goodbye to Hyde Park and its beautiful denizens in great cheer for the happy sun.

I made it past the Aquarium back north when another rider stopped me to tell me that my rear skewer looked loose on the trailer – I looked back and investigated and it turned out the skewer cap was coming loose but the tire was held on tight still. Befuddled, I had no choice but to chance it as I had 11 more miles to home and the daughter is looking weary in the trailer. So we headed off carefully with me constantly looking back to ensure the wheel wouldn’t surprisingly take off. During those awkward moments, by Division and the lakefront, I came across Adam Clark, and old friend, framebuilder, and proprietor of ‘Pedal to the People‘. He was doing exactly that – setting up his portable shop at the lakefront assisting bike riders. I stopped and we exchanged a great conversation on our going ons and he took the skewer once again to review its issues. After a short bit, he concluded the skewer would hold but to definitely get the factory correct skewer to ensure full compatibility and with that vote of confidence the journey began. My daughter had been playing with even more bike tools at this stop and enjoyed the barefoot run around the grass.

We made it home by 4:30PM – my wife was home already for a happy reunion to the great day. At 6PM my wallet was returned while I made pasta with pesto. All in all – reflecting back, I did admittedly miss the dirt trails, but passing up an opportunity to play hooky with my daughter was too good to pass up. And I enjoyed the day greatly, made a new friend, revisited with an old friend and watched the karmic revolution transpire before my eyes. It was a day for cycling, family, friends, and further realization that it exists daily in our fine city.

As far as ‘training’ goes – pulling 70 pounds 42 miles might actually qualify me as the keg puller for this weekend’s Half Acre Gravel Metric Century.

Chicago Athlete
Spectrum Magazine

Dave has also been raising as much awareness as he can for the Climate Cycles organization so that Chicago Public Schools can install solar panels to produce as much clean energy as possible while educating students on the benefits of solar power. Its a win/win for both educators, students, and the environment. If you’d like to assist Nevada Dave in reaching his monetary goal of providing a solar benefit to the public school system – simply visit his page and give what you can. In addition, to the fundraising, Nevada Dave will be riding from the Indiana Dunes to Chicago on May 15th with his crazy team from Trader Joe’s who will be donning pirate costumes for the entire route.

Dave has been riding his heart out in search of friendship from all walks of life from all over this country – if you’ve ever met him you’d know that he is genuinely concerned not only of the environment, bicycle racing, or saving the trails – he’s concerned about everyone not having as much fun as they should and making a difference while they can – on their bikes if possible. Dave Norton – thanks for inspiring us.

Here’s the Climate Cycle video from Dave’s team last year – this year will surely be a great time.

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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