In the morning I did my frame alignment check and had it almost perfect but Gary came over and cranked on my stay and misaligned it a bit more. Steve (another instructor) came over to help and was being very helpful though was doing some of the adjustments for me which I didn't like. It's sometimes hard being the only woman in the class because men don't always understand that you actually want to do it yourself and just want them to guide you. Still they are very helpful. At this point I couldn't get my frame realigned so I took a break and went outside to have my daily meltdown. Once I went back in it was all business. I fixed the frame and went for the round chainstays which were simpler than the ovals and would still look ok. We learned how to make bridges, add braze ons and water bottle bosses, etc. to complete our frame. By the end of the day I got my seat stays going and my bike looks pretty cool so far. Below you can see how far I have come on my frame up to this point! :)
After class I went home to change because Ariel had organized an "Alley Cat" race for 6:30pm tonight. This is a type of Urban Bike race where you race all over the city and get a clue at each stop to find out where to ride to next. First you must have your "manifest" signed and do a task. The first one to get to the finish line wins. She did a great job organizing it and even got prizes. Races of this type are held in cities all over the country but are relatively underground because they are not sanctioned, do not provide insurance, etc. Basically it is all at your own risk. This was my first ever Alley Cat and I have only recently heard of them but the appeal of riding a bike and solving clues is sort of like a version of the Amazing Race! Seven students from the bike school started at the Siskiyou Pub where Ariel read us a clue leading us to the Library. Luckily I had driven by a couple days before and knew how to get there. We were off sprinting up Main St. and 4 of us got there are approximately the same time. We had to write down 3 cycling references on our paper before moving on. I got on my bike first and the next clue led me to the local bike shop about a mile away where we had to perform a track stand for several seconds (sitting on your bike in a stopped position without falling off). I had to do this 4 times before I got to move on and the boys all passed me. The next clue led us to the reservoir I had been to on Sunday. The advantage to this was that it was all uphill for a couple miles and I knew I could climb the hill fast. I got there first and the task was to run into the water to waist deep!! It wasn't as cold and I just did it and then blew down the hill as fast as I could back to the hostel which was the next checkpoint. We had to run up the stairs with our bikes like in a cyclocross race and down the other side of the stairs. At this point Ed passed me and I wondered how he had caught me so fast. I later found out he cheated and never went to the 2nd checkpoint! Our next destination was an intersection between 2 streets and my map had fallen apart from going into the water. Ed left and appeared to know where he was going so I followed however I thought this might be a bad idea and stopped to ask some people for directions. They pointed me uphill and I caught Ed. He asked if I wanted to work with him and I said "no, this isn't Survivor" and ditched him going up hill. It was awesome. So I rode around a while and ended up getting sort of lost but climbed a huge ass hill and found the corner of Fork and Vista where I had to calculate my gear ratio with this formula. The final clue led me to the public pool and when I got there I wasted 10 minutes riding around before realizing the finish line was across the street. I was first!!!! It was really fun and exciting and surprising too. This 17 year old kid on a fixed gear with no brakes was only a minute behind me! Good thing I was on it and saw the finish line in time. It took about 30 minutes for everyone to come in with one guy dropping out and one guy getting stopped by the cops and issued $300 worth of tickets for running red lights and speeding!! Crazy. I won $20 to the local bike shop and we all went out for pizza later to celebrate! A great ending to a fun day and a good workout to boot! :) I would love to do another Alley Cat race in a big city sometime just for the challenge.
The Alley Cat crew--L-R: Me (1st), Little Mike (2nd), Killian (helping), Izzy (4th), Ed (5th), Big Mike (3rd) and Ariel--the organizer! :)
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