Artwork by Michael DiMilo
By Geoff Carter
Every year during the last week of July, the Milwaukee Riverwest neighborhood, an eclectic enclave of artists, musicians, families, and working folks, hosts the Riverwest 24, a twenty-four-hour bicycle race that runs along the neighborhood streets. According to the Riverwest 24 website, the event came about because of efforts by various neighborhood block watch groups to create solidarity and is also designed to encourage safe city biking and enhance community camaraderie.
The RW24 is not only a bike race, but also an event which features community involvement and participation. While it is indeed a point-based race counting laps over a 4.6-mile course, entrants are free to ride as far and fast or as leisurely or as casually as they would like. Contestants can compete in teams, by themselves, in convoys (herds), in tandem, in elder or in perfect stranger classes (in which contestants are randomly paired with one other rider).
I happen to live on one of the bike routes, so each year I’m treated to watching bikers cycle through the course from the comfort of my porch (with a nice glass of Gruner Veltliner or another patio pounder in hand). This year, we saw a team in pirate garb, Waldo (of Where’s Waldo fame), a team with a device that left a trail of bubbles behind them, angels, butterflies, and another team dressed head to toe in gold lame and sporting YAY signs. It is beyond entertaining. We saw a variety of vehicles—dirt bikes, mountain bikes, racers, cargo bikes, recumbent bikes, and even a team of unicycles.
A couple of years ago, I was invited to a neighbor’s house on the RW24 route. He had his set up his band, The Tritonics, on the porch and they played all night long. We pulled out our lawn chairs, enjoyed the show, had a few gin and tonics and watched the world go by. Then a group of Hula Hoopers with glow in the dark hoops began performing with the band. Absolutely trippy.
I’ve known for years that the course stretches nearly five miles and that various checkpoints and stops existed along it, but this was the first year that I really discovered the scope of the event. My neighbors have been involved in the race for a couple of years, doing three-hour shifts on their team. I had known the race was point-based, that riders got a certain number of credits for reaching every checkpoint, but I hadn’t heard anything about the bonus points until this year.
Apparently, contestants can earn extra points by performing various tasks like stopping at a local brewery, building a catapult with popsicle sticks and other accessories, and then launching a marshmallow through a ring of fire, and then getting a Smore. And points. Bonus points could also be earned by participating in a Slip ‘n’ Slide, getting a “temporary” RW24 tattoo, doing work in the community garden, painting a park bench, and doing drive-by art. In years past, one of the options “A Little Off the Top” involved getting part of the head shaved.
I also learned that other traditions have sprung up over the years including Twizzler Alley, a narrow run in which spectators hold out Twizzlers to participants, one house that serves bacon on the morning of the event, and another which—near the end—provides adult liquid refreshment.
A number of other bands, including Dead Man’s Carnival, The Mod Violets, Sweet Sheiks, Joseph Huber, XPosed Foreheads, and many others performed at iconic Riverwest venues like Falcon Bowl and The Art bar.
Besides the formal checkpoints, there are various rest stops for riders to stop, refresh or relieve themselves, socialize, and catch their breath. After all, the point of the event is not to win, although that is there, but to strengthen community bonds and demonstrate what a very cool and caring community Riverwest is.
Our neighborhood is one of the most diverse in Milwaukee. We boast Escuela Fratney, a bilingual public school. Our neighborhood was also the site of some of the city’s open housing market marches in the 1960s, and the home of ESHAC, original site of the Outpost co-op, headquarters to Colectivo Café and Roastery, countless restaurants, the unique Art Bar, the Florentine Opera, Kellner’s Greenhouse, Woodland Pattern Bookstore, and many other small businesses.
We are home to families, many of whom have lived here for generations, students, and young professionals. The Friends Quaker Meeting House is one of the gateways to a beautiful, wooded pathway that runs along the Milwaukee River. While Riverwest residents have endured crime, traffic, construction, and other encumbrances of city life, our commitment to each other is unsurpassed. My own block has an annual Block watch Pancake Breakfast in September. Dozens of other groups in the area do block. The RW24 is an organic extension of everything that makes this liittle urban utopia special.
The 2023 RW24 started last Friday at 7:00 pm. As the bikers streamed down Humboldt Boulevard, one erstwhile resident blew a somewhat ragged version of “Call to the Post” on his trumpet and then watched as the pirate team, Waldo (as in Where’s Waldo?), butterflies, bubble blowers, and hard-core competitors streamed by. Down the block, a group of youngsters set up a canopy with a karaoke machine, subjecting the neighborhood to off-key versions of everything from death metal to “Stand by Your Man.”
A light but steady downpour began about dusk but did not deter most of the erstwhile bikers. Then about an hour later, the sky erupted into a magnificent light show as thunderstorms descended. The wind picked up and then the skies suddenly opened into a torrential downpour. At times it seemed as if the rain was falling sideways. Most riders took cover, but a few kept at it, their tires creating wakes through the pools forming on the road. To its credit, the karaoke crew kept at it, even doing a version of Fleetwood Mac’s Dreams (“Oh, thunder only happens when it’s raining…”).
The storm ended around midnight or so and the race continued. That next morning The Riverwest Co-op hosted a breakfast for all participants. The race continued all through Saturday until its conclusion at seven p.m. Winners were crowned—but then everyone, especially the neighborhood itself—won. As suggested in their website, people could enter to compete, to push themselves, or simply to participate. Even as the most casual of spectators, I found myself drawn into the spectacle and the drama of the event.
I’ll be participating (in the senior class) next year and, hopefully, many years after that.