im - 9/19/2006 09:43:00 PM

Two great tastes that taste great together. There was still beer in the keg when the All City Championship Alley Cat post-race gathering, in back of One On One Bike Studio, was shut down by the fuzz on Saturday night. It was decided that the party should move on down the road a piece. My rig…the FreeRad Instigator Stokemonkey Hack…the FISH…was best suited for keg-moving detail, so the keg was loaded onto the sidehack, with the tap still on, and lashed down with ¼” nylon rope and parachute cord. ROPE ROCKS! I always carry rope. Bungies generally suck for holding down any cargo of considerable size or mass. Rope will help make a shelter, a belt, a splint for bike or body, or a pack strap. Get some. I rolled, with a group of 7 or 8, to a familiar firepit along the tracks outside of downtown Minneapolis. The FISH loves ballast. It helps to keep the outrigger wheel on the ground when turning corners. Considering the nature of the load, my rig was pretty darned stable. I don't know how much beer was in the keg, but I'd estimate it added an additional 40kg to my ride. I used the Stokemonkey motor assist to get up to speed and let the inertia of the beer/FISH/jockey to move me along smoothly down the streets and bike paths. I used the motor to power up the corkscrew ramp to the bridge. And, while walking on the left side of the FISH, I used the motor to crawl over rocks that threatened progress toward the fire pit. When we reached the pit area, the keg just stayed on the hack. It was at a good height for pouring a beer. Within minutes, Swervy got his mobile tune system set up and rockin'. One of the pyromaniacs got a sweet fire blazing, and dozens of cyclists on all types of bikes rolled in to keep the party going until the wee hours. Nobody realized that a storm, 40km northwest of us, was knocking down houses and tearing apart beige neighborhoods. We only knew that it was a great night to be drinking Surly beer in the woods by a fire with fellow bike geeks. Blissful ignorance. -----