Finding yourself in the Tucson Desert, Single Speed Arizona

What could be better? Leave behind your cold snowy home town and flock south like a strange breed of birds to join the single speed love in Tucson Arizona.

(Feb 4-6, 2011) TUCSON, Ariz- Getting onto the airplane in Denver, I was happy to be leaving behind winter for a few weeks. Colorado was dipping into a nasty cold snap, leaving many towns with highs below zero. Upon my arrival to Tucson I was met with a burrito and a tecate, with a side of cold temperatures.

Over night lows ranging in the mid teens and water pipes breaking all over the city. Thankfully the weather for the weekend’s festivities were looking up, back to normal Arizona winter weather. Single Speed Arizona is far from your normal bike event. First of all, this is not a race.

Event organizer Dejay Birtch pointed out at the start, “If you are going fast and finishing first, just remember that the people behind you are probably having way more fun.” When asked why he puts on this event, Dejay replied, “I spend most of my year traveling around to other people’s events. Mountain biking in general, single speeding in particular, brings me happiness, joy and greatness. I just want to give back to everyone else that wants to experience that as well.”

If you were one of the people to not sign up on time, you were placed onto the slacker list, which meant you were required to take a shot of tequila before the neutral roll out. But don’t worry your pretty little heart there cupcake, because the tequila tree was sure to bring everyone onto a level playing field. One thing that was not present for this event were attitudes, even in the time when the riders wished to die. There were times that you wanted to stop and crawl under a cactus, but then all of the sudden a smile would crawl across your face and the pain melted away.

One rider that always seems to be found at any single speed event is Jake Kirkpatrick from Boulder Colorado. When asked what this event left with him, Jake replied, “This event brought a lot of pain and suffering going up the climb, a little sticky mess from side wall tear, lots of techie sections, scraped up skin from all the sharp objects that try and attach you on the side of the trail. You definitely had to channel your inner Hanz Ray descending Milagrosa. And of course a lot of fun!” If you are debating about coming to this event this is certainly one event that you don’t want to miss. It is a great time of year to get out of the snow, come have fun with friends and do some great trail riding. It is a great place to ride that a lot of people know about but don’t get to experience.  A supported group ride with all the comforts of home; beer, tequila, cookies, pickles, M&M’s and much more.

As the riders slowly filtered into the finish area, each and every one was greeted with a burst of cheering, a fresh keg beer and a SSAZ patch. The pain in your legs and back were definitely present, but the joy of completion made that all go numb. And the best part yet? The fun was far from over! A shuttled ride to the Surly Wrench with a line up of four bands. Everyone could cut loose knowing a safe ride was going to be waiting for them to return to home base camp.

“What I hope that everyone gets out of this event is a big smile, a fun time, little bit of hate, a little bit of love, and experience what I look forward to after being on the road all year long,” said Dejay. “I want to see it grow. For more people to be out there having fun with one and other riding their bike and increasing a good time all around.”

From the words of Travis McMaster of Phenix Arizona, “Knowing that the lead group of racers stopped for several minutes together to re-supply means that even if you want to race the event there is a low key environment. That's the beauty. Racers can turn themselves inside out and still have a pull off a beer or slug a shot of Tequila. Nothing beats a race that even top pros come to, crushing singletrack in Arizona in February, signing your name for your finishing order, cookies, beer, Tequila, a short bus, live band, cops and homeless people. God bless SSAZ!”

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Story and photos by Devon Balet