Race to the Bottom

For a chaotic group of rebels and misfits, the Dead Baby Bike Club sure gets a lot accomplished.

The perennially raucous Seattle bike club is holding the 12th annual Dead Baby Downhill bike race on Friday August 1. The race, which began as a lark by a bunch of drunk bicyclists in Belltown, has grown into a 4-day festival of competition, bike culture and punk music that draws hundreds of people from up and down the west coast. For the first time, the race begins on the north side of town. Riders of tall bikes, small bikes and assorted dangerous contraptions surrender to gravity at 7:00 PM sharp, from El Chupacabra, high on Phinney Ridge, at 6711 Greenwood Ave N.

In addition to the teetering-on-catastrophic downhill race, the weekend brings a track stand competition, bunny hop limbo, the midnight Huffy heave, and the always popular tall-bike jousting. The group has also arranged 2 screenings of their Dead Baby Short Film Festival on Thursday June 31 at the Central Cinema. The highly entertaining film collection first screened at the Underground Events Center back in May, and has since been picked up by a number of larger venues and festivals across the country.

More info on all of this, including race registration, is at the Dead Baby website.