Last night was the Halloween Eve Alleycat. It started late — 8:30pm — so we were riding under the moon and streetlights the entire time. It started at The Mr. Roboto Project in Wilkinsburg, and ended in Oakland. The format was a set order checkpoint race, taking us on a nice tour of the east end of town, visiting two cemetaries, a church, and a monument to the Blessed Virgin Mary (more on that in a bit).

This was going to be my first alleycat riding a brakeless fixie, and I wasn’t nervous — until I got the manifest. The second checkpoint was Calvary cemetary in Greenfield, and the path of least resistance to the next checkpoint (the Jail Trail under the Birmingham Bridge) was a STEEP downhill into Hazelwood. How steep? Steep enough the organizers warned us about it. Gulp. A quick survey of the crowd revealed only two other brakeless riders, one of whom I knew, and knew was a bit crazy.

After the start and a visit to the Smithfield cemetary in Point Breeze, I hooked up with the other brakeless fixie, and we rode to Calvary, trying to decide how we’d get to Hazelwood. He suggested Hazelwood Avenue — it wasn’t terribly steep at the start, and it had a bit of a plateau before the final drop to Hazelwood. So after the stop at Calvary, we started the long descent. The other fixie (Evan, I think) took off, as he had much bigger legs than I, so he could lay down a skid to keep things under control. I was a quite a bit slower down the hill, but never felt out of control, and once I was on Second Avenue, we’re were cruising again into town.

The checkpoint on the Jail Trail was quick (didn’t even have to get off the bike), and a few minutes later we had made the stop at Trinity Cathedral. Nothing left but the slog up Penn Avenue. That hurt. A lot. The ride from Smithfield Cemetary to Calvary was surprising hilly (and unnecessarily so — we should have been on Murray Avenue), but I survived. We picked up a votive candle at Allegheny Cemetary (to be taken to the shrine on Ward Street) and we were off to Oakland.

We floundered around Oakland a bit trying to find the shrine, and we soon disovered that it required a bit of hiking. After a minutes walk from the end of Ward Street, we found the shrine. It is quite literally built into the hillside overlooking the Parkway East. And, based on the number of lit candles, it is well-used by Oakland’s Catholic community. We exchanged the candles for a sticker for the manifest, and it was time to ride a few more blocks to the finish. Evan ran into some mechanical issues on the climb up Ward, snapping his chain. He simply tossed the broken chain in his bag, and pushed along the remaining block like a scooter.

Good times. I finished in the top 30, but I sorta wish the organizers would start a fixie category, because especially on a course like this, we’re at a distinct disadvantage. But, I don’t do these things as races, really, so it doesn’t matter. The new Steamroller handled quite well, and I doubt I’ll put a front brake on it anytime soon. I was also surprised that I survived all the hills running 42×16, especially Penn Avenue at the end of it all. The only I really would have liked was a set of TT bars, just because the climbing position is more comfortable.

Posted on 31 October 2004