The Wednesday evening of February 4th at Eastwood Brewing Company is the first go at a new level of bicycle silliness for the bicycling scene in Syracuse!

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I first ever experienced roller sprints like these at SSCXWC in Philly.. They are super fun.

Word to the wise: Don’t try and coast… (haha!) My limited sphere of bicycle influence has very little fixed gear bicycle presence.. I don’t know if bicycle aficionados in the area, especially the average road racer, will be more aware of their surroundings than I… But if you go sprint hard on a fixie and start to think about coasting… It is a very very bad idea.

Information provided on their FB Event page (as of 1/9/15):

Wednesday, February 4 at 6:00pm – 10:00pm
Eastwood Brewing Company
108 Walter Dr, Syracuse, New York 13206

Welcome to Vagabond Cycling’s, Emerald City Roller Sprints – Syracuse’s first ever roller-racing event! This is the ultimate bike party and February just got a whole lot more fun in Syracuse.

No, you don’t have to ride – although you may feel left out – and no, you don’t have to drink – but YES you will have fun cheering on your friends and heckling your foes, and YES you can help us support a local organization dedicated to getting kids off the streets and on bikes.

Categories:
Men/Women (fork-mounted riders)
Feature Event: Men/Women roller riders (limited to 10 total)
Best dress-up / costume (please make sure your costumes won’t get caught in the rear wheel)

Cost: $15 to ride. No cover for spectators. Proceeds go to support a local youth bike organization.

Event Format:
Qualification rides followed by single-elimination format

Questions you may have:

Q: So what are roller sprints anyways?
A: Two participants duel it out on a pair of custom equipped bike-rollers, connected to a digital timing system, over a distance of 500 meters. The first person to complete the distance win. And between rides you can can go drink a beer and hang out and have fun – it’s that cool!

Anyone can join in on the friendly competition. The important thing is that when the crowd counts down “three, two, one” and yells “GO!” whoever’s on those bikes better be darn ready to sprint as hard as they can approximately 20 seconds! Emerald City Roller Sprints are meant to be fun and not serious training or racing.

Q: Do I need to know how to ride rollers?
A: NO. ABSOLUTELY NOT. Our bikes are connected to the rollers via a fork-mounted system, thus making it possible for anyone to ride.

Q: What do I wear to ride
A: Wear whatever you want

They also posted a little video of the typical scenario of Roller Races to getchya up to speed…

Back in December there was a similar event launched by Bike Loft East which I am bummed that I missed. I haven’t heard how it went but they too posted fun videos to give folks the idea of what it’s all about like this one from Velo Cult…