I accidentally – and happily – ended up at the SF Bike Expo this weekend. I thought I was just going to a cyclocross race at the Cow Palace, but when I got there I discovered the race was only one part of the SF Bike Expo. This is the second year of the SF Bike Expo and Phil Segura, the big boss at Ride SFO, went big. From what I heard, last year’s event was a standard bike swap – cool, but not that much to get excited about. This year was different. Ride SFO brought in some partners and put together an event that had something for everyone. There was a bike swap with all kinds of vendors, a cyclocross race with an inspired course, a jump jam with monster jumps and big name chuckers, a lowrider bike show, and later in the evening there was even a fashion show and a famous DJ mixing records.

Like I said, originally I was just there for the “Cross Palace” race, put together by Bike Monkey Magazine. The Cross Palace race course had everything you could ask for in a good cyclocross course. Hmmmm – now that I think about it, I never saw any barriers. There might have been some, though. I didn’t see the whole course and the stuff I did see more than made up for a lack of barriers. There was plenty of mud due to a huge storm the day before, a maze of tape in a stock pen (the Cow Palace was built for rodeo if I remember right), jumps, a stupid steep downhill section and a sadistic 50-step dirt run-up. It was CX photo heaven. If you know the person or persons responsible buy them a (cheap) beer for me.

next page – SF Bike Expo Continued – Dirt Jumps & More >>

next page – SF Bike Expo Continued – Dirt Jumps & More >>

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