Illegal in the sense that racing on city streets is against the law. This is done in live traffic, not a closed course.
What they're doing is Street Racing, which carries a hefty fine and immediate impoundment of the vehicle (at least for cars - don't know if they can do for bikes). If a cyclist is stopped for a traffic infraction (as one was during this race - twice!) one ~never~ admits they are racing. Ever. That's one of the reasons that these things are not advertised with (for instance) posters. Don't want to be tipping anyone off to give the authorities the chance to shut us down. Thanks for the kind words, Bruce, and thanks to all those who looked and commented. Cheers, frank --- Original Message --- From: Bruce Walker <bruce.wal...@gmail.com> Sent: December 23, 2012 12/23/12 To: "Pentax-Discuss Mail List" <pdml@pdml.net> Subject: Re: PESO - Shop 'Til You Drop - the culprits (caution: messenger content) Looks like a fine souvenir of the event, Frank. But I have to ask: in what sense "illegal"? Should you not have blacked-out their eyes or something? :-) On Fri, Dec 21, 2012 at 10:59 PM, knarftheria...@gmail.com <knarftheria...@gmail.com> wrote: > Last peso I mentioned our messenger holiday dinner. Before the dinner we had > a charity alleycat called Shop 'til You Drop. I think this is the third year > we've done it. > > So: an alleycat is an illegal messenger race. You pay a small registration > fee and various messenger-friendly businesses (bike shops and coffee shops > mostly) donate prizes, the registration fee goes into a pot for the winner > and we all have fun. > > The way the races are done is that there are between six and ten checkpoints. > At each checkpoint you get your manifest signed by the checkpoint guys and > the finishers must show a completed manifest. > > Routing is up to each rider, all that matters is that you hit all the > checkpoints in any order you want. > > And that's an alleycat. We do about ten a year. > > For the alleycat before the holiday dinner there was no entrance fee. Instead > of checkpoints the competitors were given a list of non-perishable foods and > a list of grocery stores. You had to buy all the stuff on the list and > instead of a signed manifest one had to show receipts from the specific > stores. > > The foodstuffs cost about twenty dollars. > > Last Sunday was rainy so only about ten intrepid folks raced. After > everything was tallied up, receipts pored over and winners declared, the food > went back into the messenger bags and we went to the local firehall to donate > the stuff for their Christmas drive. About a hundred pounds of > non-perishables were donated. > > All this long-winded explanation finally brings us to the peso, in which a > group photo of racers and organizers was taken: > > > http://knarfinthecity.blogspot.ca/2012/12/shop-til-your-drop-post-race.html?m=0 > > The light was horrible and the K10D only goes up to ISO 1600 so image quality > wasn't great. However I think it has sort of a vintage gangster-era look to > it. In any event it was all in fun and the guys had fun mugging. > > Hope you enjoy. Comments always welcome. > > Cheers, > frank > > "If the world were clear, art would not exist." -- Albert Camus > -- > PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List > PDML@pdml.net > http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net > to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow > the directions. -- -bmw -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List PDML@pdml.net http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions. -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List PDML@pdml.net http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions.
