Brompton Urban Challenge NYC 2015

This summer (pronoun alert) I Participated in the 2015 Brompton Urban Challenge in NYC on Sunday, August 15 to complete my own personal treble (Brompton US Championship 2013, Brompton World Championship 2014, and Brompton Urban Challenge NYC 2015).

The day started with all Bromptoneers assembling at the Brompton Cafe at Rough Trade in Williamsburg. I was a solo registrant and was paired with a rider from Washington D.C. and Brazil. Our hastily minted team was creatively dubbed Team 3.

The format for the event was a scavenger hunt travailing the 5 boroughs of NYC (for the really, really ambitious). Each team was provided an initial clue set and there were three to collect in total.

The clue sets included one or two tasks and four or five clues. In addition, there were three checkpoint challenges at Redbeard Bikes, NYCeWheels via Columbus Circle, and Bicycle Habitat. The challenges weren’t revealed on the clue sets and tested your mettle in areas like balancing, folding (blindfolded), and parts recognition.

One of the clues (Lights, camera, action!) challenged us to recreate a scene from a well-known New York film. We staged a scene* from the French Connection.

The event ended back at Rough Trade for a slideshow of all the photos (cleverly curated using social media), awards, and beer. We were the overall Challenge Champions (awarded to the team with the best overall score for the day’s checkpoint challenges) and were presented with a beautiful set of tea cups. My teammate also participated in and WON the folding competition.

Related
Official Video (YouTube)
Clue Sets (Coming Soon)

*This fulfilled a life-long ambition of paying tribute to Gene Hackman and Four Roses Single Barrel Bourbon.

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