Since the 1970s, when locals started retrofitting old Schwinn paperboy bikes with multiple gears, Crested Butte has helped write the history of mountain biking and is home to the Mountain Bike Hall of Fame. This June 24-28, Crested Butte will host the world’s oldest mountain bike festival, the 29th annual Fat Tire Bike Week. Read More »

It’s on–the 29th Annual Fat Tire Bike Week is set for June 24-28. There will be lots of swag and giveaways for volunteers. The Chamber is looking for at least 20 people to volunteer by May 1. Please contact Scott at 349-6438 for more information.

Cliggett found guilty on three counts in fatal bicycle accident

Sentencing scheduled for January

By Mark Reaman and Katherine Nettles

Crested Butte resident Charles “Chuck” Cliggett was found guilty by a jury on Thursday, November 2 of three counts related to an accident that resulted in the death of local bicyclist 71-year-old Mitch Hoffman. Cliggett was driving south on Highway 135 near Crested Butte South on November 7, 2022 when he struck Hoffman who was on a road bike also heading south.

Jury deliberation started Wednesday afternoon following three days of trial proceedings. The jury reconvened on Thursday morning and deliberated for a total of six hours before reaching their unanimous verdict, according to Gunnison County court clerks.

The 73-year-old Cliggett sat quietly in the courtroom as Judge Deborah Grohs read the verdicts shortly after 1 o’clock. He was found not guilty of vehicular homicide, but the jury found him guilty of careless driving resulting in death, improperly overtaking a bicycle on the left, and criminally negligent homicide. At the request of the defense attorney, the jury was polled, and all answered that that was what they had voted.

A pre-sentence investigation was ordered and a sentencing date of Monday, January 8, 2024 at 8:30 a.m. in Gunnison County court. We will have more information in the next edition of the Crested Butte News.

Court hearing set for January 24

[  By Mark Reaman  ]

A Crested Butte man is scheduled to go to court later this month in connection with an incident that occurred last November and resulted in the tragic death of a local bicycle rider. 

According to chief deputy district attorney Jessica Waggoner of the Seventh Judicial District, Chuck Cliggett has been charged with Careless Driving Resulting in Death and Passing a Bicycle on the Left Improperly. 

Waggoner said the DA’s office has not yet received the final investigation report from the Colorado State Patrol (CSP), but it is expected this week.

In the original CSP incident report, it was reported that 71-year-old Mitch Hoffman of Crested Butte was riding a road bike on Highway 135 near mile marker 21 about 12:30 p.m. when he was struck by a 2019 Honda SUV heading south and being driven by the 73-year-old Cliggett. The report indicated Hoffman was riding on the shoulder of the road when the SUV travelled into the shoulder lane and struck the bike, throwing Hoffman. 

Cliggett’s first court date is set for January 24 at 1:30 p.m.

The Crested Butte Mountain Bike Association held its fifth annual Fat Bike World Championships this past weekend.

Costumes galore at the Chainless and Bridges of the Butte

by Dawne Belloise

Summer is finally upon us, we hope, and to kick it off is one of Crested Butte’s favorite events: Crested Butte Bike Week.

The craziest and most anticipated race event of the weekend is the notorious Chainless World Championship Bike Race, which screams down from the top of Kebler Pass into the heart of town and is immediately followed by a celebratory party. Seven miles of gravitationally challenging dirt road that drops into the top of Elk Avenue takes place this Friday, June 28, with racers screaming down the dusty descent beginning at the traditional 4:20 p.m. This is the oldest mountain bike festival in the world and undeniably the best. Originally dubbed Fat Tire Bike Week before its name change several years ago, it highlights Crested Butte as the legendary home of not only mountain biking, but also of costuming.

Most Crested Butte competitions and events involve costuming up and Buttians take their costume creating seriously. In fact, many start creating their themes and get-ups months in advance, even as they cross the finish line they’ve got next year’s costumes already materializing in their heads. From teams to individuals, they are pros leaning to the theatrical extreme and they shine in the Chainless Race.

Through the years, the costumes have gotten more elaborate, complex and comical. Boat bikes, gorilla and chicken suits, Vikings, several Darth Vaders and Star Wars characters, pirates and disco glitterati, even real-life brides and grooms in their wedding garb, and on a variety of contraptions.

In past races, Mike Arbaney’s front end, loose pivot point bike named the Gambler that can bend itself in two was always amusing to watch. Racers do it for the prestige and the glory, the fun and of course, the bragging rights.

There are prizes for the best bike, best costume and an assortment of other funky awards in addition to the more tough first, second and third arriving at the bottom in one piece. The no guts/no-glory race is also famous for its carnage as racers descend the final hill trying to avoid the side slide right turn onto Elk Avenue from old Kebler Road into screaming throngs of fans.

The Crested Butte/Mt. Crested Butte Chamber of Commerce now hosts the weekend event. Executive director Ashley UpChurch recalls her favorite costumes from years past, “There was the Beatles-themed Yellow Submarine,” a life-sized, bright yellow sub captained by Rick Murray and crew in full Sgt. Pepper garb, from the 1967 album and 1968 animated film. It was a 3-D sculpture on bike frames sailing down the pass and the subject of bar conversations for many months afterwards.

Another best-loved theme was the family team costumed up as the Mario Brothers video game, complete with a daring chariot that sported their toddler dressed up as the Toad character. “It was like a racing Mario game,” UpChurch laughs, “Not that I condone putting young children in the Chainless. The costumes are my favorite part of the Chainless, and the Chainless is the most fun.”

The Chainless race began when a gaggle of locals decided to pedal their klunkers up a mountain, disconnect their chains and fly down the pass just to see what would happen. If you go with a coaster brake bike you don’t have brakes when you take the chain off. In the old days, they were ballsy, using only their feet, so they’d wear heavy boots to brake. The participants use zip ties to bind up the chains now, which allows them to be able to brake but not pedal. It’s a true celebration of the townie klunker bike, although all bikes are welcome, and there is an eclectic assortment of handmade bikes, art bikes and all the crafty sculptures that people now take up Kebler Road.

Nod to Matty Robb

Crested Butte lost one of its own much loved locals recently, an avid Chainless contestant, Matty Robb, and in honor of Matty, his friends have also organized an after party at the Big Mine Ice Rink with live music, and the typical local fare and fun. Donations for the pig roast will be accepted and appreciated and the shindig celebration will go until the sky gets darkish.

There’s a big nod to the also celebrated and never forgotten Andy Bamberg, who was a huge inspiration to Matty. The teal-colored, three-person bike that Andy built, now called the Bamberg and bequeathed to Matty when Andy passed, was ridden by Matty and Andy in what was purportedly the first Chainless, which legend has it, was not on Kebler but off Baldy mountain and down to the Slate River in the late 1990s when a small band of local wahoos got together for Buttian craziness and decided they could ride without chains, and possibly without brakes. Matty rode that bike in every Chainless since. Watch for the Bamberg bike in the race this Friday.

UpChurch notes that only 300 racers are allowed in the Chainless because any more than that, she says, gets a little out of hand, although she adds, “It’s not a strict cap.”

Racers drop off their bikes Friday at the Four-Way Stop, behind the chamber of commerce, beginning at 9 a.m. until the deadline at noon, but the earlier the better, and UpChurch advises not to wait until the last minute.

The shuttle to schlep the racers to Kebler Pass summit starts hauling at 2:30 p.m. until the last bus up at 3:30 p.m. and if that last shuttle is full, you’re on your own to get to the summit. The chamber reminds participants to wear a helmet and sign the waiver.

The Chainless World Championship Bike Race official after-party is still at the First Street and Elk Avenue parking lot. Local brewers, Irwin Brewing is sponsoring so there’ll be beer (yay!) at all the weekend events.

Bridges!

The Chainless isn’t the only event that features insane costumes. The annual Bridges of the Butte 24-Hour Townie Tour starts Saturday, high noon at the Town Park, and is a benefit fundraiser for the Adaptive Sports Center.

Everyone shows up to loop through the streets of town and over every bridge, riding into the wee hours of the night for 24 solid hours—it’s an ongoing pedal party with lots of time to socialize. From ballerina faeries to aliens, psychedelic squid to super heroes, decked out cycles with bells and whistles that will go nuclear with disco mirror balls, flashing LEDs and glow in the dark spokes when the night falls because when the sun goes down, the aurora borealis of Crested Butte kicks in as the riders get to show off their snazzy bike lights. Some participants’ metal steeds are an all-out light show. It’s a tour, not a race, so everyone can participate and ride as much, or as little, as they feel—families, individuals, businesses who drum up their own teams, everyone from little kids to grandparents.

New this year is Adaptive’s goal to have 100 people raise $100 each and if you raise that, you’re entered to win one of the many donated awesome prizes that will be announced at the after party at noon Sunday at the Town Park base camp. If you raise over $250, you’ll get the chance to win a townie bike. Those who are ambitious and raise over $500 can win a Crested Butte Mountain Resort ski pass for the 2019-2010 season. Someone’s going to be real happy.

Last year saw the registration limit of 300 participants sign up. Registration is online at adaptivesports.org/events until 5 p.m. on Friday or until they sell out, whichever comes first, and it usually sells out, so get registered.

The tour was the brainchild of a couple of instructors, created specifically as a fundraiser for their Argentina program for training instructors and volunteers. Now, the money that’s raised from Bridges of the Butte goes for Adaptive’s general scholarship fund because all their activities are subsidized and accessible to as many people as possible. Bridges of the Butte Townie Tour helps to give hope to those who don’t have access to the same recreation others have, Adaptive helps those who have lost some of their abilities.

UpChurch says she’s really looking forward to the weekend’s events. “Bike Week is a favorite event and I just love any event that rings in the summer. I hope people come out and costume up, party, ride bikes and drink beer.”

Registration and a full schedule of events for Crested Butte Bike Week is online at cbbikeweek.com. You can also browse page 60 of this issue to see the schedule.

Adaptive Sports Center, a non-profit organization located in Crested Butte provides life-enhancing year-round recreation activities for people with disabilities and their families. Info and events can be found at adaptivesports.org.

The Fat Bike World Championships took place in Crested Butte last weekend and included some fat flight fun.

Ochs repeats, Willoford spends hours in the saddle and courses put the wood to enduro racers

by Than Acuff

Crested Butte Bike Week started 38 years ago. It was a time when the Fourth of July parade was more than just a line of local business advertisements and Gunnison hosted the Open Mining Championships.

Since then it appeared to have seen its heyday in the mid- to late 1990s when people started to realize mountain biking is hard and interest faded. Technology soon took hold, wheels got bigger, shocks traveled more and clothes got cooler and, thanks to the aforementioned miners, we have the materials to create the bikes used at the annual festival of all things biking, Thursday through Sunday, June 21-24.

While the week has seen some down years, it has turned into another showcase of talent and insanity with the Chainless World Championships. The Fat Tire 40 cross country race, the Big Mountain Enduro, the Junior Wildflower race and the Bridges of the Butte 24-hour ride, were all part of the celebration this past weekend, put on by the Crested Butte/Mt. Crested Butte Chamber of Commerce.

The racing started on Friday, June 22 with Dave Ochs defending his Chainless World title against a handful of heavy hitters, including Jordan Willoford on his tiny bike and speedsuit, while more than 350 other riders just casually coasted down Kebler Pass road on a variety of bikes, both factory-made and backyard-fabricated. The entire race was a testament to the spirit and creativity of both the locals and visitors.

Saturday morning more than 100 bikers lined up for the Fat Tire 40 cross country race as athletes of all ages and a variety of abilities, including Jordan Willoford, tackled a 41.8-mile course of mostly singletrack touring the north end of the valley. While a majority of cross country bike races these days happen on or near ski resorts and include a lot of double track, the Fat Tire 40 is a pure cross country mountain bike race.

Meanwhile, close to 250 athletes were busy humping their bikes up Roaring Judy to charge down Cement Mountain Trail and Rosebud only to head back up to the top of Doctors Park to charge down that as well in the first two stages of the Big Mountain Enduro.

Once he finished with his Fat Tire 40 race, Willoford joined a huge collection of individuals to participate in the 24-hour Bridges of the Butte to raise money for the Adaptive Sports Center. Suffice it to say, Willoford spent the most time on a bike of anyone this weekend.

On Sunday the celebration of biking came to a close. The Bridges wrapped up at noon, the Enduro riders finished with Reno Ridge to Deadman’s and then back up to Double Top to hang on as they descended down Warm Springs. In the end, enduro riders climbed 10,000 feet over two days and rode 45 miles of trails—an experience that had several Europeans here for the event a couple of years ago asking “Where are zee lifts and where is zee oxygen?” The young guns also got a taste of the bike racing in CB Devo’s Junior Wildflower Race.

In the end, Crested Butte Bike Week returned to what it once was and has turned it up a notch, if not two.

Keep the rubber side down, volunteers needed

by Stan Cola

 The Crested Butte/Mt. Crested Butte Chamber of Commerce is at it again with the 38th annual Crested Butte Bike Week, Thursday through Sunday, June 21-24.

Along with Marin and Cupertino in California, Crested Butte is one of the first places in the world where people started taking their bikes off roads and into the mountains for fun. And, being Crested Butte, we came up with one of the most fun ways to get into the mountains: Crested Butte Bike Week. Filled with races, shenanigans, and more, the history of bike week is one of a mountain community bringing the best mountain bikers in the world to the home of mountain biking.

Furthermore, Crested Butte Bike Week is getting a major lift this year as the Big Mountain Enduro series event in Crested Butte was moved up in the summer to this weekend to coincide with the annual bike week festivities.

The schedule follows. For more information/details check out cbchamber.com.

Thursday

—Big Mountain Enduro Course Practice, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Shuttles leave from Town Park Vendor Village.

—Colo. Backcountry Washington Gulch Guided Ride, 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. Meet at Town Park Vendor Village. $40.

—Irwin Guides Skills Clinic, 4 p.m. Town Park Vendor Village. Free. One to two hours with option to go on a short ride afterwards. Call (970) 349-5430 to reserve your spot.

—Bike Movie Night: The Rider and the Wolf, 8 p.m. at the Crested Butte Library. The Rider and the Wolf is a 2015 documentary about the life and mysterious disappearance of Mountain Bike Hall of Fame cyclist Mike Rust. It’s free.

Friday

—Big Mountain Enduro Packet Pick-Up, 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Town Park Vendor Village.

—Big Mountain Enduro Course Practice, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.

—Colo. Backcountry Teocalli Ridge Guided Ride, 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. Meet at Town Park Vendor Village. $50.

—Chainless World Championships Registration/Bike Drop Off, 9 a.m. to noon. Meet at the Four-way Stop parking lot (behind the Crested Butte Visitors Center). $35 day-of; online registration until June 21 is only $30. You can register in person day-of from 9 a.m. to noon. You must drop off your bike by noon or you will have to take it to the top of Kebler Pass yourself. Bikes will not be allowed on the participant shuttles at 2:30 p.m.

—Obstacles Clinic with Backcountry Bike Academy, 10 a.m. to noon Four-way Stop parking lot (behind the Crested Butte Visitors Center). Price: $1 to $1,000,000—all donations tiny and gigantic are welcome and will go to CBMBA. Join BetterRide certified coach Andy Shabo and our team of instructors for a morning of dialing in your technique. From never-ever to pro-race: all ages and abilities welcome! Please sign up online.

—Discounted Evolution DH Bike Lesson,
10 a.m. Evolution Bike Shop and Park. $50 (normally $70) for a two-hour lesson (rental and lift ticket not included). Take a lift-served two-hour downhill lesson with Evolution Bike Park guides starting at 10 a.m. Discounted lift tickets are available for all Crested Butte Bike Week participants for $22 through the chamber of commerce or at the clinic check-in (must have proof of entry to a Crested Butte Bike Week event).

—Chainless World Championships Participant Shuttle, 2:30 to 3:30 p.m. At the Four-way Stop parking lot (behind the Crested Butte Visitors Center). You must drop off your bike by noon—bikes will not be allowed on the participant shuttles. Registration closes at noon (or when we sell out, which happened by 11 a.m. last year). Arrive as early as possible; do not wait until the last minute. The last shuttle will be at 3:30 p.m., and if it is full, you may not make it to the top of Kebler!

—Crested Butte Devo Strider Cup and Slow Race Championships,
3 p.m. Corner parking lot at 1st and Elk Ave. Free. First, race your Strider down Elk Avenue. Then, how slow can you go!? Test your inner turtle and be the last to cross the line! Kids of all ages are encouraged to inch their way to the finish line and take home the gold. Lots of prizes, too!

—Chainless World Championships, 4:20 p.m. Participants at top of Kebler Pass; spectators at corner of 1st and Elk Avenue. The Chainless World Championships are like no other! Race your fastest townie chainless seven miles down Kebler Pass to a killer party in the heart of downtown Crested Butte. Do not forget to wear your finest costume and a helmet and remove that chain!

—Crested Butte Devo High School Race Team. $10 for U18; $15. At the Majestic Theater The featured movie is Filmed by Bike and there will be a super awesome drawing with all proceeds benefitting our high school race program. Movie will start at approximately 5:45 p.m.

—Big Mountain Enduro Racers Meeting, 7:30 p.m. Town Park Vendor Village.

Saturday

—Fat Tire 40 Check-In/Packet Pick-Up, 7 a.m. Town Park Vendor Village.

—Big Mountain Enduro, Shuttles at 7 a.m. and 8 a.m.

—Fat Tire 40 Racer Meeting, 7:30 a.m. Town Park Vendor Village.

—Fat Tire 40 Race, 8 a.m. race start, Town Park Vendor Village. $75. Registration closes at 8 p.m. on Friday, June 22. The Fat Tire 40 is a serious mountain bike race. Forty miles, and it’s almost all on singletrack. It’s the signature event of Bike Week. The $75 fee includes the race, food and beer. We have men’s and women’s categories, both with Amateur/Pro Categories. $3,000 cash purse split between Men and Women’s Pro Categories! Group Divisions: u-19, 20-29, 30-39, 40-49, 50+.

—Colo. Backcountry Cement Creek Guided Ride, 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. Meet at Town Park Vendor Village. $50.

—Crested Butte Devo Skills Clinic, 10 a.m., Crested Butte Community School, $20., These will be held at CBCS parking lot, and we’ll also have clinics for you parents with IMBA-certified instructor Phil Ott, who is absolutely amazing! No matter how old you are, there’s always something to learn.

—Adaptive Sports Center Bridges of the Butte, 12 p.m. Saturday to 12 p.m. Sunday, in Town Park Vendor Village. Each summer, we come together for 24 hours with one purpose: to raise money to empower people with disabilities and their families to experience the life-changing facts of our program. The 300 riders raise funds for the ASC by completing laps through Crested Butte to earn pledges. All ages are encouraged to participate and riders can participate as individuals or as a team. Contact Emily Girdwood, emily@adaptivesports.org, (970) 349-5075.

—Bikes and Brews with Irwin Guides, 12:30 p.m. Town Park Vendor Village. $65. Guided ride of the Dyke Trail; first beer at the brewery is on us after the ride! Call (970) 349-5430 today to reserve your spot!

—PBJ Expo at Crested Butte Bike Park, 2 to 4 p.m. Crested Butte Bike Park (behind CBCS). Free. The Pumps, Jumps and Bumps Expo will be at the Crested Butte Bike Park with a ribbon-cutting ceremony in conjunction with the town of Crested Butte.

—Fat Tire 40 Awards, 2:30 p.m. Town Park Vendor Village. Free. Join us to crown the Fat Tire 40 2018 winners!

—Jr. Wildflower Classic Pizza, Ice Cream and Racer Meeting, 5 p.m. Totem Pole Park. Price included in registration; $10 suggested donation for all others. Pizza and Ice Cream Party followed by the pre-race meeting for the Crested Butte Junior Wildflower Classic at Totem Pole Park (located on Maroon Avenue across from the fire station) with Brick Oven pizza, Big B’s drinks and Third Bowl Ice Cream—racers and fans welcome!

Sunday

—Big Mountain Enduro. Shuttles at 7 a.m. and 8 a.m.

—Colo. Backcountry Flag/Bear/Doctor Guided Ride, 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. Meet at Town Park Vendor Village. $75.

—3rd Annual Crested Butte Junior Wildflower Classic, 9 a.m. Tommy V Field. $30 to $45. Awards at 12 p.m.

—Cornering Clinic with Backcountry Bike Academy, 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. Four-way Stop parking lot. $1 to $1,000,000—all donations tiny and gigantic are welcome and will go to CBMBA! Join BetterRide certified coach Andy Shabo and our team of instructors for a clinic specifically designed to help you experience the pure euphoria of railing corners. From never-ever to pro-race: all ages and abilities welcome! Please sign up online so we know how many people to expect.

—Adaptive Sports Center Bridges of the Butte Awards Party, 12 p.m. Town Park Vendor Village. Included in registration (participants and volunteers only).

—Big Mountain Enduro Awards Party, 5 p.m. Town Park Vendor Village. Free and open to the public.

by Dawne Belloise

Summer is finally upon us and to kick it off is one of Crested Butte’s favorite events: Bike Week.

The craziest and most anticipated race event of the weekend is the notorious Chainless World Championship Bike Race, which screams down from the top of Kebler Pass into the heart of town and is immediately followed by a celebratory party.

Seven miles of gravitationally challenging dirt road that drops into the top of Elk Avenue takes place this Friday, June 22, with racers cruising down the dusty descent. The race from the top of the pass traditionally starts at 4:20 p.m.

It’s the oldest mountain bike festival in the world and undeniably the best. Originally dubbed Fat Tire Bike Week before its name change several years ago, it highlights Crested Butte as the legendary home of not only mountain biking, but also of costuming.

Most Crested Butte competitions and events involve costuming up and Buttians take their costume creating seriously. In fact, many start creating their themes and get-ups months in advance, and even as they cross the finish line they’ve got next year’s costumes already materializing in their heads.

From teams to individuals, they are pros leaning to the theatrical extreme and they shine in the Chainless Race in creative costuming and in innovative bike contraptions. Through the years, the costumes have gotten more elaborate, complex and comical. Boat bikes, gorilla and chicken suits, Vikings, several Darth Vaders and Star Wars characters, pirates and disco glitterati, even real life brides and grooms in their wedding garb.

Favorite costumes from years past include the Beatles-themed Yellow Submarine, a life-sized, bright-yellow sub captained by Rick Murray and crew in full Sgt. Pepper garb, from the 1967 album and 1968 animated film. It was a 3-D sculpture on bike frames sailing down the pass and the subject of bar conversations for many months afterwards.

Another best-loved theme was the family team costumed up as the Mario Brothers video game, complete with a daring chariot that sported the family’s toddler dressed up as the Toad character, a full-on racing Mario game.

The costumes are everyone’s favorite part of the Chainless, along with the variety of contraptions. Mike Arbaney’s front-end, loose-pivot point bike named the Gambler can bend itself in two and is always amusing to watch.

Participants risk scraped knees and bruises—they do it for the prestige and the glory, the fun, the cummunity comradeship and, of course, the bragging rights.

There are prizes for the best bike and the best costume and an assortment of other funky awards in addition to the more tough first, second and third arriving at the bottom intact and in one piece. The no guts/no glory race is also famous for its carnage, as racers descend the final hill trying to avoid the side-slide into cheering throngs of fans right turn onto Elk Avenue from old Kebler Road.

The Crested Butte/Mt. Crested Butte Chamber of Commerce hosts the weekend event that originally started 38 years ago.

The Chainless race began when a gaggle of locals decided to pedal their klunkers up Kebler Road, disconnect their chains and fly down the pass just to see what would happen. If you go with a coaster brake bike you don’t have brakes when you take the chain off. In the old days, they were ballsy, using only their feet, so they’d wear heavy boots to brake. Nowadays, participants use zip ties to bind up the chains, which allows them to be able to brake but not pedal. It’s a true celebration of the townie klunker bike, although all bikes are welcome, and there is an ecclectic assortment of handmade bikes, art bikes, and all the crafty sculptures that people take up there.

The race is capped at 300 racers because any more than that would become unmanageble, although apparently, it’s not a strict cap. Racers drop off their bikes at the Four-way Stop parking lot, behind the chamber of commerce building, from at 9 a.m. to noon, but the earlier the better, so don’t wait until the last minute as all bikes must be dropped off by the noon deadline or you’ll have to transport your bike up the pass yourself since no bikes will be allowed on the passenger shuttles.

Registration is $35 for the day of the race, and you can register in person, or you can register online until June 21 at cbchamber.com.

The shuttle to schlep the racers to Kebler Pass summit starts hauling at 2:30 p.m. and runs until 3:30 p.m. and the chamber notes that if the last shuttle is full, participants will be turned away.

The Chainless World Championship Bike Race after-party is still at the First Street and Elk Avenue parking lot.

The Chainless isn’t the only event that features insane costumes. The annual Bridges of the Butte 24-Hour Townie Tour starts Saturday, June 23, at high noon at the Town Park, and is a benefit fundraiser for the Adaptive Sports Center.

Everyone shows up to loop through the streets of town and over every bridge, riding into the wee hours of the night for 24 solid hours—it’s an ongoing pedal party with lots of time to socialize.

From ballerina fairies to aliens, psychedelic squid to super heroes, decked-out cycles with bells and whistles that will go nuclear with disco mirror balls, flashing LEDs and glow-in-the-dark spokes when the night falls because when the sun goes down, the aurora borealis of Crested Butte kicks in as the riders get to show off their snazzy bike lights. Some participants’ metal steeds are an all-out light show.

It’s a tour, not a race, so everyone can participate and ride as much, or as little, as they like—families, individuals, businesses who drum up their own teams, everyone from little kids to grandparents. The registration is capped at 300 participants.

The Tour was the brainchild of a couple of Adaptive instructors, created specifically as a fundraiser for Adaptive’s Argentina program for training instructors and volunteers. Now, the money that’s raised from Bridges of the Butte goes for Adaptive’s general scholarship fund because all the activities they do are subsidized and accessible to as many people as possible. Bridges of the Butte Townie Tour helps give hope to those who don’t have access to the same recreation others have and Adaptive helps those who have lost some of their abilities.

It’s a fabulous weekend with an array of fun-filled races, events and, of course, beer, so grab yourself a klunker bike or find that best viewing spot and get out to the best and oldest bike celebration.

Registration and a full schedule of events for Crested Butte Bike Week is online at cbbikeweek.com or cbchamber.com

Adaptive Sports Center, a non-profit organization located in Crested Butte provides life-enhancing year-round recreation activities for people with disabilities and their families. Information and events can be found at adaptivesports.org