"Bikies of Madison" Dear Group,
Let me explain my view of the "bicycle culture" as I have observed it in my area during the past thirty years: First let me say that as children we all rode the fat tired "Schwin-type" bicycles and in the mid-1950s English bikes were "re-introduced" to America. But there was NO adult bicycle riding in the villages and towns of Wisconsin except possibly a few factory workers with lunch pails. In the late 1970s a form of professional sanctioned bicycling for young adults appeared in a highly organized form. Bicycles costing thousands of dollars put us in awe wondering how each screw might cost hundreds? These were the Italian bicycles and the riders traveled to towns like Ripon on prearranged circuits of criterium riding. This was the time of the Eric Heidens and what seemed an aristocratic form of "sanctioned" riding. Our local papers never explained the rules or if this form of riding was open to anybody local. But the Ripon "service clubs" donated their time and streets were closed and local businesses donated much prize money. Riders came with vans equipped for servicing riders as though it were the Tour de France and in actuality was as distant in concept to Ripon as the "Tour" itself. Eventually an evening riding group formed in Ripon and was well attended once a week by an adult group. But this group was well equipped. And their conversation was continually about newer and lighter equipment. Our primary surgeon killed himself by riding up our area's steepest hill with a heart condition. But here also there was hardly a bicycle worth less than a thousand dollars. I bought Gregg LeMond's book and took up his training methods and wanted to race at some level on a personal basis. But there were no races that I could find. There were touring "centuries" and their were a few "charity races." I raced in one expensive race and did well only to find the organizers say they didn't bother to keep time on those over thirty years of age! How could an adult find a goal in their bicycle training--a goal of speed and endurance and not merely of "touring miles?" In fact a person could not even train on the adult Ripon weekly club rides because the weekly course was never disclosed --even as we "started out into the wind." It was made clear that speed would not be tolerated and that "group touring" was the only goal. So, sixteen years ago I determined that I must create a type of race for "individuals" of any age who might ride on ANY FORM OF BICYCLE. I had known about a Ripon Champion from the days of "League of American Wheelmen" in the "First bicycle craze" of the 1890s. Twice champion, "Louis Reed", a Ripon College student was champion when the State Bicycle Championships were held on a horse track in Ripon. There is now a municipal park where that horse track stood. The following year I organized the "Louis Reed Ten Mile Time Trial Race" starting on the site of the 1890s races. I determined the race would be free, carefully timed, open to all ages riding on any equipment. A personal racer competed with himself year after year. I found volunteers for all the corners on the ten miles heading off toward Fairwater and back in a loop. The Athletic Director of Ripon College has volunteered as time keeper all these years and my other volunteers have continued. Unfortunately, there does not seem much of a need for this form of race. Nobody from Madison has ever appeared. A professional rider from Wauwatosa, though, has come up each year since the beginning and has called this race refreshing since it is not about money--and he has done this even when our race gets under way about quarter after eight on the second Sunday in July. This year the date will be----Sunday, July 8 at Barlow Park at the South edge of Ripon. We have always been listed on "Silent Sport"'s calendar but in some years we have fewer riders than our "volunteers!" This declining and specialized high priced interest in the bicycle is the SYSTEMIC PROBLEM. We have "aristocratic adult sports." Triathletes need thousands and spend thousands on their sport. Even runners don't dare running without hundred dollar shoes for their foot protection. No wonder the average motorist thinks the bicycle is not for the common man! The sport's only promotion is done by bicycle makers and bicycle stores. And the events are most likely organized around some disease and, once again, an average family cannot afford such a charity donation. Only the upper middle class associates with the bicycle in Wisconsin. I say Wisconsin because I saw a different circumstance in Seattle this Christmas. In the "Louis Reed Ten Mile Time Trial" in 2006, there was a fellow riding a mountain bike and aged over sixty who averaged better than twenty miles per hour over the course! And the first four miles is upgrade and most often into the SW wind on those Sunday mornings. The bike should be for everybody. Those with money and Treck triathlon bikes have a place as do children and the middle aged desiring a degree of fitness for life and who are not concerned about equipment. But I fear that my "volunteers" for the LOUIS REED annual race in Ripon will finally toss in the sponge when they see the decline of interest in our truly free "race for everybody." Eric Westhagen _______________________________________________ Bikies mailing list [email protected] http://www.danenet.org/mailman/listinfo/bikies
