one gear & good beer

woke up early yesterday morning to head up to philly for the annual one gear and good beer singlespeed rally... drove over to ricky's house where we met up with butch, our ride up to philly, and then the 3 of us hit the road. we managed to get up to philly early, rode around the art museam area and found a subway to grab a quick lunch, then back to the car to pick up our entry-fees - a six-pack of good beer - out of the cooler.

after picking up the beer we rode over to the art museam to hang out and wait for the rally to start. we started the ride by parading over to the top secret rally location and stashing the beer in coolers. the park was a bit crowded at the start of the rally, so instead starting with cross-country, after everyone had a beer - or two, the day started with the jackass trials - a short trials course set up at the rally site. not everyone rode the trails course, but ricky and joe made both made it look way to easy, cleaning it multiple times when everyone else was having trouble getting one clean ride. i spent most the trials event taking pictures and didn't take a shot at the course.

after the trials, we rode the rally course, some a few more times than others, with a beer stops between laps. i took one lap, then backtracked around the course to take a few more pictures. after the xc and some more time hanging out we ventured out into the field for the log pull.

everyone who wanted took turns pulling a log - attached to your bike by a length of chain and strapping - up a hill. i'm not sure who won, but there were a lot of very impressive pulls... the singlespeed outlaw and ricky both good pulls - joe held the lead for a while. i took one pull, but counldn't get my left foot clipped in and only managed 20 or 30 feet. i knew leaving the older 536 pedals on my bike would come back to haunt me.

once everyone was done trying at the log pull, the rally king and queen were picked and the event moved to a bar further up the river in manayunk for dinner and more refreshments. this was my first one gear good beer rally and it was a lot of fun - cool people, good beer, singlespeed bikes, and a great way to spend a september saturday afternoon... like most singlespeed events it was very low-key, everyone hung out and had fun... three cheers for the rally master.

I spent most of the afternoon taking pictures, they're posted here...