Madison Fixed Gear: Capital Goldsprint Series

Last weekend we had the opportunity to take part in and sponsor the first event of the Capitol Goldsprint Series held by Motorless Motion Bicycles in Madison, WI. If you’ve never heard of Gold Sprints it’s a pretty simple format: Two bikes, Fyxation Eastsides for this event, are set up side by side with the rear wheel on rollers and the fork locked down to the frame of the rollers. The rollers are hooked up to a fancy Goldsprints machine that logs your speed and distance and is hooked up to a monitor so both you and the crowd can watch the progress of the race in real time.

Distances vary based on the host or format but either way, it's a ton of work. The race starts when the gun goes off and you spin your legs as fast as they will go until you win, lose, puke, or both. 

The host for this particular battle of cadence and endurance was Fyxation dealer Motorless Motion Bicycles, located just southwest of the iconic Wisconsin Capitol building on Washington Avenue in Madison, WI. The building is a restored train depot with high ceilings, classic brick construction, and even complete with a few train cars parked outside on the old set of tracks. Next door is the wonderful cafe called “Porter”, serving up delicious specialty coffee drinks and amazing scratch made food. Definitely worth a stop if you’re ever in Madison.  

The night kicked off with some friend vs. friend time trials to determine the best match ups for the elimination bracket. As the beer flowed, the jams bumped, and the crowd grew, the competition started to heat up. The early rounds were close but fairly easily determined. Moving into the later rounds, however, the competition became so close that we even had ties in multiple races. With such a short sprint this made for very exciting races. Getting into the finals we saw record times for the evening and come from behind wins.

Fun times were had by all and a big thanks to Motorless Motion for inviting us up and Third Sign Brewing for providing the libations. Be sure to check out the upcoming races for more fun and bring a friend to race. Check out the Facebook event page for the next 3 exciting nights of Capital Goldspints.