SLC Underground Bike Racing
Grab your bike but forget your brakes
In the dead of Salt Lake City's winter, the local fixed gear community is thriving. Scurrying to the bottom level of parking garages, this group holds unofficial and undergroud crit races with a simple set of rules.
- One Gear
- Drop bars
- No Freehub/Freewheel
- No Brakes
When I first started racing in these events the group size was roughly eight or ten riders with people of all different abilities. They have since grown to a field of twenty or so riders mashing around the course trying to best their previous lap.
The course
These courses are short, less than 400m, and usually take roughly one minute to complete a lap. Unlike typical road crits, the turns on these courses are usually a lot more technical and abrupt. With this many people, who all have different levels of riding abillity, on such a short course, things can get spread out quickly. As time passes so must the leaders of the group! Lapping other riders begins to add to the fun (or whatever you might call it) of these events and in my opinion there's a strong comparison to be drawn between dodging people in a crit and the OG fixie culture of dodging cars in traffic.
The Fans
Turns out that short-course bicycle racing is pretty fun to spectate because you can see the entire track the whole time. Fixed gear racing is especially fun to watch due to the uniqueness of the bikes but even more so, the uniqueness that each rider brings to the event. This culture is known to bring some interesting characters. The spectators are known to get just as rowdy as the riders wether it be screaming for their favorite rider, making signs, ringing cowbells, and there's even been some who start their own prime laps by holding out dollar bills to the passing riders. Another thing we are lucky to have in this group of spectators is a plethora of film photographers. Fixies and film cameras, it's one of those cliche stereotypes that is very true and I don't think anyone is upset about it.
The Creators
The people who put this together have been riding track bikes for a long time and understand the culture/history. They put on thes events as well as many others that bring everyone together and help deepen the community. I'm not sure how they do it, but they are somehow able to host a competitive event where people are trying their best, racing hard, and wanting to win but at the end of the race, no matter the results, everyone is smiling and making jokes with eachother. Perhaps its due to the strong foundation of this community, or the simplicity of fixies, or maybe the nostalgia of getting together with your friends and riding bikes. Either way it's clear this is a strong community and these bikes have a special place in SLC.
