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Goldsprint

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A Goldsprint is a bicycle rollers racing and social event. Riders on stationary bikes compete against each other in front of a crowd of cheering friends.

While roller racing in general can use any type of bicycle and there are variations on the set-up depending on the type of rollers used and whether the front wheel is engaged or fixed, goldsprints generally use one form of setup. As with roller racing in general, the rollers are in turn attached to a device that measures distance and can display the progress of the riders. Goldsprints also feature modern 2D and 3D visualizations.

Roller racing has a long history going back to the beginning of cycling, however Goldsprints are closely related to bicycle messenger culture. It began in Zurich, Switzerland. The name and the event was founded in 1997 by Adrien Weber who is a passionate cyclist and owner of the only brewery Turbinenbräu in Zurich. The event is named after their beer brand "Gold-Sprint".

Technology

The Goldsprints systems currently in use are integrated by the event operators from existing, mostly purchased, technology.

There are two varieties of Goldsprints system:

  • Mechanical
    • The system is driven mechanically by belts and pulleys,and drives a physical clock face or other display which shows rider progress.
    • These systems are large, heavy, and were the only systems prior to the spread of affordable microcomputers.
    • A system of this type was debuted in Portland by Rapha in mid-2008
  • Electronic
    • The system is driven electronically, utilizing a tachometer sensor (typically a reed switch or hall effect sensor), and visualizations are projected on a screen.
    • These systems are smaller and easier to set up, and considerably cheaper/less time-consuming to build than mechanical systems.
    • There are no complete commercially available Goldsprints systems, but various groups have assembled kits of HW and SW which can be combined with rollers and bikes to create a complete system.
    • The Opensprints project is an open source (GPL) project which aims to democratize roller racing hardware for homebrew construction and customization.

Various groups run commercial events throughout the US and UK, generally using electronic systems.

Gallery of various classic and modern roller racing machines.

Cities

Many cities have goldsprints systems:

  • Seattle
  • Houston
  • Boston
  • New York
  • Toronto
  • Salt Lake City
  • Chicago
  • Cincinnati
  • Minneapolis
  • London
  • San Francisco
  • Bozeman
  • New Orleans

Operators

United States:

  • NYC Goldsprints debuted their current set up at 2005's Cycle Messenger World Championships in New York, and have run events in six US cities.
  • West Coast Roller Racing debuted a similar system in 2006 and has run events in many cities in the western half of the US.
  • Opensprints systems have been run in several US cities by various hobbyist groups.

UK:

  • Rollapaluza operates races in schools and at other events in the UK

See also

External links

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