// Urban Assault Berkeley!
Posted on Tuesday, April 13th, 2010
This is way better than you think it’s going to be…
Normally when I think of urban assault riding, I think of the kind of riding Orion used to do in Madison all the time. He’d ride up or down flights of stairs, jump off various benches, curbs, and public art on the UW campus, and ride around inside campus buildings. He was quite literally assaulting his urban environment.
I’ve never been much for the urban assault riding, myself. For one thing, I don’t like getting tickets, and I generally obey traffic laws while riding my bike. If you’re not supposed to ride on the sidewalks, I’m fairly sure they don’t want you riding in or on the buildings or public art. And I also have a nice scar on my ankle that reminds me of the time I had a little liquid courage and tried to ride Orion’s bike up some outdoor stairs in Madison. I bled a little bit when I fell, and when I dropped the bike, I bent Orion’s derailleur hanger. So anyway, I wasn’t super excited about the Urban Assault Berkeley event that I found out about yesterday, that is, until I actually followed the link. (Do it! Follow the link!)
If you didn’t follow the link, I’ll give you the lowdown:
Basically, this event has nothing to do with doing stupid things on your bike. It has to do with being smart and speedy and getting from one checkpoint to another before the other teams. There’s two people per team, and as a team, you check in at pre-determined points (one of them is Clif Bar in Berkeley, for example). At these points, you have to do something wacky–the website mentions a slip-n-slide– and then you move on to the next checkpoint.
And if fun weren’t enough of a reason to partake in such a glorious event, how about schwag? According to the site (I told you to follow the link. It’s not to late! Here: link!) there’s going to be plenty of freebies from sponsors like New Belgium and Specialized. And some of the entry fee is a charity donation. You can’t really beat that. I think Orion and I may check this event out…I’ll keep you all posted!