The Yawp Company - The Anti-Team
Yawp Cyclery
We here at Yawp have a love/hate relationship with traditional cycling teams, so we're going to form the kind of team that we'd want to join. This will probably take a longer explanation than we'd like. We want to keep this simple, but even we have a lot of questions about what, exactly, we intend to do. So let's start by doing away with the term "team."
team
noun
1. a group of people who compete in a sport, game, etc., against another group.
Well, what we're out to do has nothing to do with competition. We won't be attending races. (If you want to race in your Yawp kit, that's fantastic! The Bailey Hundo and other races are fun and do good things for the cycling community. However, races are outside of our ambitions.) In the Yawp Company, the riders in the front have to carry the beer for the riders in the back--that's about all the attention we'll pay to how fast people ride. So, instead of a "team," we're going to be a company.
company
noun
1. companions, associates <know a person by the company she keeps>
Why would anyone want to do this? Here's our rationale. We've tried racing, and while there are some valuable things about it, it's not quite a fit for us.
What we don't like about racing: we don't care about winning, and we certainly don't like when people who do care about winning throw elbows at us. We don't like riding in the angry centipede for the first five miles of a race. We don't like paying to ride our bikes.
What we do like about racing: the ride! Yeah! Twenty-five to one hundred miles of Colorado singletrack! Yes please! Also, races force us to go ride these amazing rides. Signing up months in advance and plunking down $100 basically ensures that we'll actually get our gear together and gas up the car and go do what we said we were going to do: ride bikes. Races also provide a very good environment to try new things. It's scary to attempt a long ride alone in unfamiliar territory, especially if you're going somewhere you've never been. Riding with a group provides support, and it's fun.
So we're going to try to take all the good parts from our racing experiences, omit all of the bad parts, and save a little money while we're at it. If that sounds good to you, then yours is the kind of company we want to keep.
What we plan to do: there will be six Company trips--one per month from May through October. We look to keep driving time to a minimum, and probably won't go any further than Fruita (although Phil's World may be a possibility). We'll ride the snot out of our bikes for two days, sit around a campfire, and drink some beer.
Fancy Clothes: Yup, we're getting some. We're planning to order wool jerseys. We're getting nice stuff, too, so you don't hate wearing it. We'll post some designs as soon as we have them.
Must I Buy the Fancy Clothes? No, you don't.
Women's Fancy Clothes: Ladies, cycling is much better with you than without. We hope you also enjoy these wool jerseys. We understand that "unisex" often means something that men enjoy and that you have to put up with. However, the feedback we've heard about these wool jerseys is that they are enjoyable for everyone. We hope that's true. If not, please speak up.
Dues: We have no dues. We believe riding bikes should be free (see above).
What's Provided: An organizational framework, a good time, and not much else. We'll secure the camping and reserve shuttles if we need them. We'll provide short and long route options. We'll do everything we can to make this rad for everyone, but we aren't going to cook for you (and you wouldn't want us to).
What is required of me? Please have a current COMBA/IMBA.
Is this just for mountain bikers? Roadies are people, too. If you want to camp with us and ride your road bike/unicycle instead, please do.
If you're interested, sign up below. We'll have our annual spring meeting on March 1st, 2018 at 7:00pm. Yeah!
Here are the reports from our 2015 trips:
Fruita | Eagle | Crested Butte | Bikepacking with Surly | Salida | Grand Junction | Moab
