Beer Bike, 1961

I’ve been hearing a lot of chatter lately about possible changes to Beer Bike, about which I honestly have no opinion. It’s striking as a historical matter, though, how complicated the thing has gotten over the years. It really was an inspired idea and in the beginning was  both much simpler and more dangerous. Here’s a look at 1961:

If you don’t have anything else to do, zoom in and check out the outfits on the crowd. There’s some great stuff, especially footwear.

Bonus:

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4 Responses to Beer Bike, 1961

  1. Owlcop says:

    Loafers and collared shirts. Definitely not current Beer Bike fashion.

  2. Jerry Outlaw says:

    Having the races in the parking lot is certainly safer, but also certainly has caused the loss of a lot of the spectator appeal and drama of racing around the quad.

  3. There is a photo in the 1966 Campanile of the first moment of a bike crash in the race. The rear wheel is sliding out on the corner and you can see that the sew-up tire has rolled off the rim. The rider is still trying to control it, but he’s going down. One girl in the crowd is reacting. It is a great photo.

  4. radbob48 says:

    Speaking of 1966. My roomie and I discovered an unlocked gate at the stadium and decided racing around the course at 10 o’clock would be great practice for the Hanszen bike team

    Turns out it wasn’t a great idea. Rice PD showed up. No way could he catch on our racing bikes. But he could and did lock the gate. My roomie, now a lawyer in Austin, negotiated our release

    Didn’t come close to making the team. No where near making the team

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