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General Category >> Ride Reports >> Heart of Texas Catrike Rally
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Message started by texpug on Apr 20^th, 2010, 10:40pm

Title: Heart of Texas Catrike Rally
Post by texpug on Apr 20^th, 2010, 10:40pm

April 16-18 the Texas Catrike Rally was held in Austin. It was one big party! Easy Street Recumbents was the host, and they painted the town red for us.

Easy Street gave each registered rider a free check up. They found some MAJOR problems in some of the trikes, and fixed every single one up for us. Mark from Big Cats in Florida was there to help. That alone made the trip to Austin worth it for several of the riders.

We had rain on Saturday, so the much anticipated Time Trials didn't happen. Drat. I know we had some super fast Catrikes there ready to show their stuff. Next year.....

We all rode to dinner in Austin at the super fun Phara's restraurant. It rained once we got there, but all the riders and their trikes were safe and sound in a great big tent. Food and entertainment were GREAT (complete with a belly dancer).

Mike at Easy Street gavc the BEST information session on the care and feeding of our Catrikes. I learned SO MUCH really helpful things.

We all got t shirts to match our trikes, as well as water bottles to match the trikes! Super useful goody bags were given with lots of neat little things we always wish we had on us.

Sunday morning the riders rode through downtown Austin -- through UT campus, past the capitol, down to the Stevie Ray Vaughan Memorial. The event ended with the annual Bent event -- a celebration of ALL recumbents. It had music and food and a real mixture of all things bent.

I know several of the Dallas area Cats won some really NICE door prizes. A $200 chain, a complete set of your choice schwalbe tires, a Catrike Jersey -- LOTS of really nice stuff.

Thanks so much to Easy Street Recumbents for hosting thisx incredible event.

Title: Re: Heart of Texas Catrike Rally
Post by Patti on Apr 25^th, 2010, 2:50pm

Here is my expanded ride report on the HOT Rally. We had an excellent event last weekend in Austin. Started the weekend on Friday afternoon with check-in at Easy Street Recumbents who graciously hosted the event. After check-in (with great goody bags plus t-shirts and water bottles that matched the individual trikes) Mike, Kansas Chuck and Sam took the trikes and did a complete inspection of each one, correcting any and all problems that they found. Mark Egeland from Big Cat also joined us for the weekend and helped the guys get everyone tuned up and ready to ride. That evening, we had a happy hour/get acquainted dinner at a local seafood restaurant.

Time Trials were scheduled for Saturday morning but the weather had other plans. We traveled out to the Austin Veloway and got part way around the first warm-up lap before the deluge began. The ride turned into an aquacade so we missed out on the time trials for this year. Enthusiasm remained undampened and that afternoon we had a presentation by Bike Texas, an Info session (basic care and feeding of your Cat) and raffle. Prizes were outstanding with such items as Terracycle idlers, custom bash guard, a full set of wheels, a full set of Schwalbe tires (your choice) and a set of three KMC X9SL gold chains among the items won. This was followed by an evening dinner ride to Phara's restaurant. Dinner was a buffet, set up in a tent in their outdoor garden area. Another thunderstorm roared through in the middle of dinner but all the trikes were moved inside so no one had a wet seat. after dinner, we were entertained by a belly dancer who inticed several members of the audience to participate with her. My son was terrified at the prospect and hid so she wouldn't make him dance with her. When he is a few years older, he will be kicking himself for that missed opportunity. The ride back to shop looked like a bizarre parade with an amazing assortment of waving flags, flashing lights and reflective tape.

Sunday, we departed the shop and rode through Austin neighborhoods, the University of Texas campus and downtown before reaching the trail along Town Lake. We rode to the Stevie Ray Vaughn memorial and stopped for a photo op. Then we circled back on a little different route to avoid climbing back up some of the downhill slopes we had enjoyed that morning. Upon returning to the shop, their annual Bent Event was underway with food, live music and all the bikes and trikes you wanted to try out. An incredibly fun weekend with great people. Can't wait for next year! Here's some video:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=cVRQznYAr7U

Title: Re: Heart of Texas Catrike Rally
Post by aikigreg on Apr 25^th, 2010, 8:47pm

sounds like it's worth riding a trike just to go to the rally!

Title: Re: Heart of Texas Catrike Rally
Post by Patti on Apr 26^th, 2010, 9:54am

aikigreg wrote:

sounds like it's worth riding a trike just to go to the rally!

Certainly, I think it is MORE FUN on a trike, but you could have joined us on any bike. My husband took his new hybrid and my daughter rode her Schwinn. Everyone was very accepting and tolerant of their differences. We all know they will come around, eventually. ;)