Tales from the 2010 Urban Assault Ride season

After every event, there are always folks that come up and say "Do you travel around with the Urban Assault Ride? That has to be the coolest jobs ever! How did you get into this?"

Well - yes indeed - it has to be one of the coolest jobs. But - it is a crazy amount of work - most of which folks don't see. Here's a couple stories that we experience behind the scenes:

1. After party hijinks... we all enjoy the New Belgium beer at the after parties. Some more than others. In Fort Collins this year, we had just about 500 riders. We went through about 17 kegs. There are 120 beers in a keg. That means 2040 beers. That works out to an average of over 4 beers/rider. Now - we all know that not everybody had 4 beers - some had way more than their fair share. How do we know? Well...we were informed that as riders were leaving, they decided it was appropriate to take a souvenir UAR 3' x 8' vinyl banner with them. I had to approach a shirtless, jean short, and mulleted rider with a banner under his arm. I said, "Hey man - I noticed that you cut down one of our banners and have it under your arm." His response..."oh yeah...um...well...I saw a trash can over by the banner so I thought it was trash." The said banner was attached by 6 zip ties to a steel fence and neatly framed the entrance to our venue. I said, "well actually we use those banners at all the UARs across the country. If you'd like to take that one with you it will cost us $160 to replace it. Would you like to buy one?" To which replied, "Naw man - that's cool - you can have it back." Silly rabbit. I suppose that it's flattering that he tried to steal the banner of the UAR since he had such a good time. Or maybe he had plans to repurpose it and make it into a tote bag. One can hope, right?

2. Speaking of thieves... Last year in Chicago, following our checkpoint manager meeting, we returned to the UAR truck to find the window broken out. After some quick investigation, we found that the thief stole our GPS, camera (a cool waterproof Olympus)...and my personal Timbuk 2 Checkpoint. I was not really too upset until I realized they stole my personal luggage. Luckily they left 3 messenger bags - each with a laptop in it.
The next day, I was thinking...they probably won't want my clothes and they'll just toss the bag. So, we went back to the scene of the crime, split up and walked down some alleys. Sure enough...we found it. They left pretty much everything (toiletries -including my glasses, shoes,and almost all of my clothes). BUT - they took one outfit: a Swobo wool collared polo, my favorite pair of Chrome knickers, and a pair of UAR socks. Somewhere in Chicago, there's a stylin' dude who has some good cycling fashion sense. Keep an eye out. A couple of lessons learned:
1. if you have a GPS, clean the ring on the window from the suction cup - this is what they apparantly look for.
2. If your insurance offers a glass break coverage - get it. This has no deductible and it was fixed the next morning.

And speaking of cycling fashion sense - here's a Honda commercial form down under:


Been doing some hikes with the doggies


Also getting in some solid rides lately. I hit the Jamestown trails with Boups today. It was hot and fun and we rode new trails. Good times.

Ok - that's all for now. Best of rides, y'all!