Rochester Bicycling Club

RBC members may have read the article in the July issue of the Flower City Cyclist announcing an opportunity to participate in casual daytime weekday rides. Twenty RBC members have indicated their interest, and more are welcome!
Our newly-formed group of “Day Riders” has been enjoying weekly excursions into the countryside and along the Erie Canal. We’ve wandered through Webster, peddled in Penfield, toured along the canal trail to Palmyra, and meandered between Mendon and Honeoye Falls. We’ve stopped along the way at quaint cafés or tailgated with snacks and refreshments upon our return.
These casual, social rides are approximately 25 miles in length with a pace of 12-15 mph. They take place at 10:00 AM on a day of the week when the weather is forecast to be pleasant. Day Riders are notified of the ride details by e-mail several days in advance.
If you are an RBC member who would like to join us, please e-mail me at bchudster@rochester.rr.com.

Barbara Chudanski-Barber

Saturday, August 9, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Sunday, August 10, 12 noon to 5 p.m.

Start your Omnium weekend fun at Strong National Museum of Play.

On Saturday, see artist Nancy Goethel create a colorful bicycling scene made entirely of…balloons! (Her completed work will be on view Sunday.)

On both Saturday and Sunday, cruise over to a special display of bike-related photos, toys, and cycles from the museum’s renowned collections including a 1890s bicycle built for four.

Make a sun visor and a sign to cheer on the bicyclists before you head out to the races.

All activities are included with general museum admission fees. For more information and easy directions visit www.museumofplay.org.

Seasonal Exhibit on Bicycling August 1 to September 30.

The museum has tapped into its world-renowned collections to create a special bicycle display in honor of the Rochester Omnium.

See modern and historic cycles including a four-in-hand (a cycle built for four riders from the 1890s); a 1910 safety bicycle with a skirt guard (designed especially for women); several modern racing bikes; and children’s bikes and tricycles of various eras.

Also on view are historical photos, paper dolls, and paper toys that document the popularity of cycling over the past century.

This exhibit will be on display on the museum’s second floor from August 1 to September 30.

Richard DeSarra

Our Scheduled Open Houses are over for the year, but I’m still being asked about them, so keep checking back here and if I add another Open House, I will post it. Also if you have a small riding group from work or from the gym that is considering joining the club and would like more information, let me know and I could set-up a private meeting with your group. If you are an individual who would like more information, please email me.

At the Open Houses we talk about the types of rides, our ride calendar, member benefits, maintenance classes, maps, social events, loaner equipment available to members, and much more.

Mike Barber
President
bikerochester@rochester.rr.com

20th annual Andrew Spiller Memorial Picnic and Challenge Ride

Saturday July 26th
Farmington Town park
7am -7am the following day

Open to everyone, the only entrance fee is a dish to pass! This is a great chance to push yourself to ride further than ever before.

So, if you are up to it, this is your chance to ride mega miles, or just spend the day socializing. How you spend the day is entirely up to you. Some opt for riding 24 hours, others just part of it, still others just come for the party (no alcohol). This is the club’s annual picnic/ride held at Farmington Town Park in where else?… Farmington. The park sits in the middle of a figure eight loop, with each loop being 25 miles. This way you are never more than 12.5 miles from the start (or finish depending on how tired you are). What better way to challenge yourself to ride farther than you ever have before without getting too far out and wondering how you are going to make it back? After each loop there will always be food, beverages and encouragement waiting.
For night time riding, lights are a must, and reflective gear is recommended as well. For safety reasons, everyone must ride the night loop after dark which is only 12.5 miles. This not only makes it easier to keep track of where everyone is, but the route is set up entirely with right hand turns and only crosses one major intersection. This loop is often used during the day as well for families not wanting to ride the longer loops. All the loops except the night loop can be ridden in either direction.
Riding starts as early as 7am and continues for 24 hours rain or shine if there are willing bodies. We ask that everyone bring a dish to pass (fruit, salads and pasta are nice, and cookies and……you get the idea). Beverages and tableware provided. Although there is food of some sort available all day, the actual “picnic” begins around 11am and lasts until the food is gone.
The ride is not supported, other than with encouragement, except at night when a “chase” car drives the route to make sure everyone is accounted for.
With special permission from the town of Farmington, the event has always been offered as a 24 hour event, except for the year one of our members was killed by a drunk driver while riding north of Albany in an ultra marathon event. In memory of him and his love of ultra marathoning, the event was renamed and is officially known as the Andrew Spiller Memorial Challenge ride.
This event is sponsored by the club every year for its members to enjoy as they please, make it your event by challenging yourself to ride a little more. Andrew would want it that way.

Directions: take Rt 96 east to Rt 332 (north of Canandaigua) take a left
at the light and go to Collett Rd. Another right at Collett Rd, through the
next intersection, over the RR and just past the highway dept garage puts you
amost at the driveway to the park. Another way, is to take Rt 96 eastbound, past the Rt 332 intersection. After turning left at CR #8, a few miles up the road just after crossing the railroad tracks, the park is on the left (corner of Collett and CR #8)

For more information contact ………. Brad 872-4468 bkjensen99@yahoo.com
Simon 872-4518 scooper2@rochester.rr.com

Rochester Bicycling Club’s Open House
July 9th, & July 23rd
7:30pm
Christ the Good Shepherd Church
1000 N. Winton Road
Rochester, New York 14609

We will be hosting a club Open House, open to all interested people wanting to learn more about our club. We will talk about the types of rides, our ride calendar, member benefits, maintenance classes, maps, social events, loaner equipment available to members, and much more.
If you know anyone thinking about joining the club, or if you’re a member already but don’t know all the benefits the club has to offer, this Open House is for you.
Feel free to bring a friend. Refreshments will be served

For more information about the event contact Michael Barber at 585-507-7829

Greetings all! I hope your rides have been pleasant, the wind at your back and the hills are as you like them. July has many great rides on our schedule. You can look those up for your self as there are too many to detail here. I just want to bring to your attention the July 26 Andrew Spiller Memorial Challenge Ride. This is a tremendous event. During the day here are two 25 mile loops and for those inclined towards night time travel there is a 12 mile night time loop. It is a nice set up to put on some challenge miles. You are never more that 12.5 miles from the park where food and refreshments await. Last year I did my personal best of 127 miles at nearly 20 mph. Others rode over 200 miles. So come out and ride or just come out to socialize or better yet do both. You will have a good time.

I certainly could not have done 127 miles at that pace by riding alone. That is the power of pace line riding. I want to use the rest of this space on that topic. Many of us ride in pace lines frequently and readily enjoy the benefit of reduced individual effort with the team approach that is pace line riding. There are many internet resources available and I will post the links here so you can read them for your selves. While there is much to gain from pace line riding there are risks. These risks can be greatly reduced by paying attention to the following things.

1. Never overlap wheels - if the person in front swerves and touches your wheel you will go down.

2. Signal and call out all obstacles (pot holes, debris) and traffic issues (car up, car back, stop ahead). Do so well in advance.

3. The lead rider should look out for entire group when passing through intersections and slowdown appropriately so that each rider can assess the safety of the intersection for themselves. You are responsible for your own safety.

4. Keep your head up, focus on the road ahead, not the wheel ahead.

5. Ride slightly off to one side of the rider ahead so you can see better.

6. When you become the leader don’t accelerate, keep the same pace you had before you took the lead - unless you want to break the group up.

7. Keep a steady pace, keep a steady course.

Remember, pace line riding is a cooperative effort, a team effort to get everyone down the road faster with less effort. Please use common sense when group riding for everyone’s safety. We aren’t racing. We’re riding for fun and fitness. You are responsible for your safety and the safety of those around you. Please take the time to read the resources linked here. They say much more on this topic than I can and are quite interesting and easy to read.

http://www.inlandempirecycling.com/Cycling/group_riding_and_pace_lines.htm

http://3rvs.com/joomla/Cycling/Paceline-Riding-Parts-1-2.html

http://www.sceniccityvelo.com/content.php?id=Training_paceline_riding&format=1111

http://www.active.com/story.cfm?CATEGORY=cycling&CHECKSSO=0&SIDEBAR=21&STORY_ID=8699

http://www.randonneurs.bc.ca/toolbox/paceline.html

http://www.randonneurs.bc.ca/toolbox/paceline-terror.html

http://www.valleybicycle.com/sprocketman_paceline.htm

http://www.ifp.uiuc.edu/~smallik/cycling/Paceline.html

Please let me know if you would be interested in a session to practice these techniques. If there is enough interest I will set something up.

Happy riding,

Otto

I am pleased to announce the Steve Wowkowych will be the ride leader for this ride. If you have the time and are interested in a nice scenic ride near Canandaigua Lake please consider this ride. It is a lot of fun and is one of my favorite routes. This ride also passes the store in Cheshire that has the most fantastic cookies. It’s worth the ride just for those. Make sure to stop there as its location is well noted on the map. So if you have the day off, and you want to ride, get out there and join the group Monday June 30^th at 9:00 AM.

Please note that those traveling to the start from the west on rt. 96 will need to follow a detour around the bridge work on rt. 96 by using Plastermill Rd. to McMahon Rd. When you get back rt. 96 turn left and look for the rides start location at Phoenix Mills Mall on your right. The ride route is unaffected by the detour. See

http://www.victorny.org/data/documents/town/pdf/route96bridge.pdf

for more info.

Updated 6/21/08-Due to a recent accident I will not be able to make the ride on the 30th. If someone else wants to be the ride leader we can have an RBC ride as planned. Ride leaders let me know who you are.

thx

Otto

I have Monday June 30th off from work so I would like to ride that day. I’d like to have you ride too if your free during the day for a 9 AM start time. I have 3 potential rides in mind. Please let me know if there is one you prefer by sending an email to me (ottomg@rochester.rrdotcom) or by leaving a comment on this site. I’ll let you all know the final choice on Wednesday June 25. The rides are,

#74 Avon-Geneseo-Dansville Hilly 60/67

#105 E. Victor-Cheshire Hilly 40

#132 Ionia-Honeoye-Harriet 48 Hilly

I look forward to seeing your thoughts on these rides.

Otto

The RBC web calendar has an error for Saturday June 28 at 9AM. The correct ride is

The PDF format calendar also located on the web site is the master calendar and correctly lists this ride.

Sorry for any confusion,

Otto

On some of the earlier membership CD’s, the 2008 Calendar HTML version shows a RBC Open House on June 23rd. That is incorrect! The next two Open Houses are on July 9th and July 23rd. If you would like more information about the Open Houses, please email me at bikerochester@rochester.rr.com

Mike