The Sopo Bicycle Cooperative is hosting its eighth annual Broken Hearts and Bicycle Parts fundraiser the weekend of March 30th. This event will be particularly special as it is the last weekend that Sopo will be operating out of it’s current shop in East Atlanta Village. Broken hearts and Bicycle Parts is the longest running alleycat in Atlanta but over the years has evolved into a weekend celebrating the growth of the tight knit cycling community in Atlanta.
This year there will be three days of bicycle racing featuring a few different ways for participants to compete. The main event every year is an alleycat on Saturday but this year we have added a gold sprints event Friday night during the opening reception as well as an alleycross race on Sunday to push racers a little harder on their last day in town.
On Friday night, March 30th, there will be an opening cookout with refreshments provided by Pabst Blue Ribbon, Red Brick Brewing, and Terrapin Beer Company for those of age. Sopo will have grills and smokers running cooking burgers, brats, portabellas, eggplant and more. DJ Soundwave will be providing musical entertainment to get the crowd pumped up for the gold sprints event inside. Gold sprints is an exciting type of bicycle racing that involves two racers competing in a sprint event, but on stationary track bikes.
Alleycat participants will be meeting at Sopo’s current shop in East Atlanta Village before heading out around town. As this event focuses more on fun and friendship, rather than a manifest, participating teams will receive a Choose-Your-Own-Adventure style pamphlet with directions to checkpoints and time bonuses. The scavenger hunt will take teams all over Atlanta before finally ending at the Elliot St. Pub in Castleberry Hill. Prizes will be awarded based on the originality of participant costumes, creativity and good spirit in completing checkpoint tasks, as well as overall time for completion.
Saturday night will feature a Skids and Tricks competition outside Elliot St. Pub and a benefit concert downstairs at The 51, a venue located in their basement. Sopo always likes to feature local bands that are active in the cycling community and this year Night Court, Indyana Jonz, Ghost Bikini, and Bad Mammals will be performing.
To close the weekend out, Sopo will hosting a vegan brunch Sunday morning at the Brownwood Recreation Center and all are welcome to come out. Volunteers will be cooking organic and vegan breakfast foods while screening the favorite television shows of your childhood. The brunch will be a good way to load up for the final cycling event of the weekend: The Alleycross.
This is another brand new addition to the Broken Hearts weekend and will take racers on a brutal course along some of the local rail trails and pot-hole stricken East Atlanta roads.
2012 Broken Hearts and Bicycle Parts Sponsors include Red Brick Brewing, Cognition Caps, Shaun Deller Designs, Alter Portables, Gorilla Sacks, Loose Nuts Cycles, Harlot Wear, Freight Baggage, CST Tires, Mer Bags, Synchro Nutritionals, Seagull Bags, Sevananda, Vaya Bags, Pabst Blue Ribbon, Red Brick Brewing, and Terrapin Beer Company.
Event details can be found at www.sopobikes.org.
RSVP on Facebook here: http://on.fb.me/bhbp8
