anyone up for helping me do this? thinking along the lines of the nycs annual 'cranksgiving' cat. The basic idea is the checkpoints are all shops located round the city, which you have to purchase items of food at. KEEP YOUR RECEIPTS as proof you've been there. The purchases are then given to a charity. I'm not 100% sure about doing this one being an atheist but it seems a nice idea? Anyone got any ideas for charities that wouldn't be Religous but would sent the gifts out to poor kids/ people who need food/ etc?

Uhm seriously though could be a good idea.

Just make sure you speak to the shops first and get us to get useful stuff, no point getting us to give our hard earned to cnuts for crap (IE harrods for ice cream, though I would like to see 20 drunk racers bum rush the door there) Maybe arrange wholesale at friendly shops innit, makes it more effective.

Also have a drop point central so we don't have to carry well overloaded bags all race (alleycats shouldn't be too much like work) and can be more generous if we feel like it.. and put how much to budget on the flyer.

How about getting winos to do the checkpoints? You gotta buy a Big Issue or get em a Special Brew for a sig? Cut out the charities, go direct to the needy...

uh the charitable, jp has a point screw the charities we all know and see those faces on the streets week in week out, the bums in the park and the husstlers down east, chatting it up for some change. sould get them all involved give them something to talk about over the new year, more direct to the point.
have em doing check points or something incorporate them in or do a best dressed some thing prizes being handed out getting pics droping of goodies to em or something ? sere some ones got a good idea rattling round in there brain.

and then in with jankey's ideaology or a good drunken piss up with whose ever in in.
dunking in the new year.

should be able to help out some where count me in what ever it ends out being..

Hey Sirheadlenick, Im not sure about the "hustlers down east", I was talking about funding good english ale and those in need, not some hackney crackfest... But yeah, im sure theres be queues all over london waiting for express deliverly super strength... Checkpoints sorted, more racers...

Yeah maynot be free but will certainly be cheap. Gonna give the shops a heads up, may even release manifest before hand. May have a drop off point (or two?) but considering something like a championship main race, cept obviously you won't be droping stuff to the actual shops. Gonna see. Could do with some organising help but trying to keep the number of marshalls down so as the make it easier to cover. Anyone who wants to help whisper and if you don't have contact details for me, give me yours?

manNHATTan you should email me anyways!

I like Josh's suggestion best!

Buffolo Bill. The man with the facts/ resident creative couriers wikipedia addict.

its not gonna be for homeless... they make more money that us if I remember your story. I can just imagine them sat around under some bridge talking with their special brews "Yeaaahh Dave I made a ton again today on oxford st..."

I agree with the sentiment Nhatt.

There is a huge homeless problem in London, and Crisis is one of the charities that tries to do something to help. So if you guys were looking for an organisation deserving of some help then I would suggest Crisis.

Check their Crisis Open Christmas page here. If you look here, there's an Xmas wish-list, some of which we could easily buy in the Xmas alleycat.

Moving Target will be happy to provide the DFL prize for this race, if it goes ahead.

A little correction: Bike Polo was played here in the UK for years before messengers picked it up again (go and have a look at all the rusting polo bikes at HHV if you don't believe me).

And as an englishman (ok, half an englishman) let me be the first to say that it was the scots that invented the bicycle, tarmac and pneumatic tyres, as well as being the finest manufacturers of messenger t-shirts in the western world. (Xander, is that good enough to keep my discount?)

one more recommendation-

the one thing that I found disheartening about the race here is that it went only to chain stores, places that I wouldn't normally ever shop in. Although I think Josh might have a GREAT idea by putting harrods on the list as a bonus checkpoint...(Idon't know entirely what your thinking, twitch, but I know there is an extra prize for the person that goes beyond the call of duty in the NYC race)

twitch I'll wisper you some shops that my mates (who are bike crazy) work at/own, that might be worth talking to. I know that normally neither the charity that gets the food at the end nor the shops are contacted, kinda for the surprise element and also because you never know if your going to show up with three hundred pounds of food or with three cans of cranberry sauce.

The reason that it's free here is so that people arn't thinking about how much they're spending while they race (it works out about even) and so that you don't have to involve the stores, which is another annoying step in the organisational process.

good luck!


See if you can get a printer or a company to print up the flyers and spoke cards for free. Like the printing company above scream, for example.

Sounds like a good idea the FGSS people are throwing a Roller Race on the 15th...

We do throw a Cranksgiving in LA, and a toy ride in December.

A little correction: (I'm pretendiong to be Bill) Roller Racing has been continually practised in London for over 100 years

there's a printer near Condor who always seems to give couriers cheap prices...

can we please import some of this from accross the pond for our alleycat and specially to keep wookie warm this christmas

see xmas is cancelled