Stupor Bowl: An invitation

I've never been to London. Rome, yes; Paris, yes, Barcelona, yes. New York, never want to go there. But I've never been to London. I've been given to understand it's just a fantastic city, though the weather tends toward the dreary. Might drive everyone to take laudanum just to stay sane, and give rise to all sorts of Shakespearean ailments such as dropsy, ague, consumption and the pox.

So this winter, why not shake off the doldrums by coming to Minneapolis, Minnesota USA for The Greatest Alleycat Race On The Continent ©®™-- the annual Stupor Bowl? Come slip the surly bonds of fog and snow for cold clean clear air that's substantially below zero! Come ride like a madman over unfamiliar roads, dodging ignorant fat American drivers in ignorant fat American cars! Drink lots and lots of really good beer (seriously, Minneapolis has some of the best beer brewed anywhere. Even by British beer-drinkers standards.) and then ride like a madman( etc.), drunk!!

Sound like a good time? Okay, now that I've scared off the lightweights, here's what's happening: The race will be run on February 6th, 2010. It's the day before the Super Bowl, the American football championship event. Pre-race briefings take place in bars for most of the week previously. I'm sure any visitors, regardless of gender, will find many friendly tour guides willing to familiarize them with the town. The town itself is laid out, roughly, as two grids at an angle to each other, with the Mississippi River bisecting them. It's easy to get around in, even for visitors.

As to the race itself: Fixie/SS is the weapon of choice (though of course anything on two wheels is welcome), and the race is about 20-30 miles with some 15-25 checkpoints. One year, there was a checkpoint in a treehouse and another on the ice in the middle of a frozen lake. The checkpoints are usually fairly straightforward though there is talk of including something difficult for someone deep in oxygen debt, such as factoring an equation, finding Waldo (Willie, as I think you lot call the fella in the red-and-white striped shirt buried in the crowd) or one of those 3-D Magic Eye puzzles.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stupor_Bowl.

Freewheel Bike Shop, does rentals if you don't want to fly with your fixie

Minneapolis Bike Love forum, now welcoming new members!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q61GCdRE_y8
Kinda windy but gives an idea what the course is like, check out "related videos" for other SB events

Minneapolis is second only to Portland Oregon as a bicycle-friendly city, and there are those (myself among them) who would argue that the winters here add a dimension that puts us head and shoulders above the rest. If you've the time and money, hop the pond. Do some drinking. Have a ball.

edited 12-07-09 because of gender politics and my lack of desire for more confrontation in my life

i've been to minnesota. it's cold. the beers are good. minneapolis is just next door.

i'll swap silly cold crisp air for rainy 10 degrees any day, but that said, weather here ain't that bad. A lot of people seem to think so but if you compare it to sweden it's costa del sol over here

Wally. Not Willie.

Jesus.

I struggle to ride 20 miles when sober, in the summer.

Wow. Chicks somewhere dig English 'Limey' guys? Who'd ha' thunk it.

Have fun in February you guys and girls.

Wally. Not Willie.

Jesus.

If you want to find Jesus here, you have definitely walked into the wrong shop, brother.

In my life I have done many things of which I am not proud but I am content in the knowledge that going to Minneapolis is not among them.

i should point out, Prince is from minneapolis.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N-8b04w6Y6Y

It is the home of Soul Asylum, Gear Daddies, Prince (and please accept my apologies for Under the Cherry Moon), Husker Du, The Replacements, Surly bicycles and Surly Brewing. It is the finest place in the USA to live, and if anyone from London wishes to join in, I will make sure you have a place to stay either free or very reasonably priced and have a bicycle that fits you to ride while you're here. I'll probably get you drunk, and put you in proximity to any number of tight-bodied young things (we're not all fat).

Can't say fairer than that.

Carlsberg don't organise AlleyCats, but if they did....

i kinda want to go....
i miss usa.

if any wants a hook up to go, then i can sort you out at work - lemme know zahir.browne@statravel.co.uk

i should point out, Prince is from minneapolis.

And The Replacements...

see post #10.

.

Well, if Cap'n Blighty didn't think we were a bunch of dicks on this forum I'd say he does now.

i bet he thinks we're exhibiting the same standards on this thread as we do throughout the forum.

True dat. Consistency is to be applauded.

Well, if Cap'n Blighty didn't think we were a bunch of dicks on this forum I'd say he does now.
Oh, no, not at all. I just close my eyes and remember that we kicked your asses out of our part of the world in 1778 and then did it again in 1814. And then had to pull your fat out of the fire in 1917 and again in 1942. Anything said kind of pales in comparison....

LOLs

And then had to pull your fat out of the fire in 1917 and again in 1942.

Late to the party, as ever...

:-/

Lolz to the fucking max!

Try this sucker for an explanation of America's eventual (late) participation in WW1 and a tidy little explanation of their possible (likely) precipitation of the next mofo: [ame="http://www.amazon.com/1914-1918-History-First-World-Allen/dp/0713992085/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1259874853&sr=1-1"]Amazon.com: 1914-1918: The History of the First World War (Allen Lane History) (9780713992083): David Stevenson: Books[/ame]

Sorry if it's a bit boring for the first three quarters, not much aymerican action there.

A to the mother-fuckin' K!

Thanks for the book recommendation, and I really shouldn't be making light of the British soldiery. My God, whole villages decimated or worse of their young men in the trenches in Belgium (Wilfred Owen was right) and then what you lot went through in first Dunkirk and the Battle of Britain, and the Battle of the Atlantic-- it would bring tears to a glass eye.

SNNFF damned allergies....

One thing: For anyone who wishes to come play in the snow with me and my friends, and brings their own bike, give some thought to mudguards. It's always a toss-up toward having them, with the extra weight accumulating as snow packs in then starts rubbing on the tires... It's very tiring.

Also, the wind can be something otherworldly here. At zero degrees F (Hey! It's zero, no temperature out there at all!), in a 12-mph wind, wind chill makes it feel like about 17 below. It's very common to have to use ski goggles that your tears not freeze in your sideburns.

I'm really not doing a very good job of selling this thing, am I? Hmmm...

One thing: For anyone who wishes to come play in the snow with me and my friends, and brings their own bike, give some thought to mudguards. It's always a toss-up toward having them, with the extra weight accumulating as snow packs in then starts rubbing on the tyres... It's very tyring.

Also, the wind can be something otherworldly here. At zero degrees F (Hey! It's zero, no temperature out there at all!), in a 12-mph wind, wind chill makes it feel like about 17 below. It's very common to have to use ski goggles so that your tears don't freeze in your sideburns.

I'm really not doing a very good job of selling this thing, am I? Hmmm...

No, you're doing fine, it'll be a good thing for some forumengers to HTFU.

Spelling fixed. ;)