Paul, owner of Atomic Cycles in Van Nuys & organizer of epic bike parties in the San Fernando Valley, is hosting another Coaster Brake Challenge this month (the third he’s organized to date). In the last go-round, “Team Flying Pigeon” came in 6th overall under the hard-charging DJ Chicken Leather – part-time videographer of the cycling movement, part-time volunteer for lost causes and artistic endeavors, and full-time rider of the detritus of the last half-century’s worth of department store clunkers and broken spare parts lashed together with carpenter’s hacks and guile.
The bike we supplied DJ Chicken Leather with was a prototype of our Flying Pigeon Racer – and he pushed the bike past it’s breaking point in the last CBC, losing his chain in every race. We learned a bit more about how these older style frames (pre-WWII roadster frames) respond to the brutal jackhammering the Coaster Brake Challenge metes out. This time we have supplied not one, but two, Flying Pigeon Racers for this season’s Coaster Brake Challenge.
DJ Chicken Leather is still with us, riding a customized Flying Pigeon Racer. He put in a respectable finish in CBC Race 2, but was shocked by our newest Team Flying Pigeon rider.
Our new rider, Charlie (a Cypress Park kid who is the closest thing to a superman I’ve ever met) took DJ Chicken Leather’s old, tuned-up, Racer and has done a mind-meld with the thing – riding reams and reams of miles around NELA in preparation. His raw athletic ability and fearlessness put him in the lead during Coaster Brake Challenge Race 2, but he couldn’t figure out which turn to take halfway around the track and lost his lead finishing 2nd in the race.
The next Coaster Brake Challenge race is set for this coming Sunday, January 17, 2010. You can find more information at the Atomic Cycles page for the Coaster Brake Challenge. Taunts, race info, random hipster troll posts, and funny pictures can be found on the forum post for CBC Series 3 on Midnight Ridazz.