After your first day of cycling, one dream is inevitable. A memory of motion lingers in the muscles of your legs, and round and round they seem to go. You ride through Dreamland on wonderful dream bicycles that change and grow. -- H.G. Wells, The Wheels of Chance
RECYCLERS WEEKLY BULLETIN: 20, September 2006
HI FOLKS (Paul Shragg coming at you this week, yet again, filling in for Marty Weiss),
GENERAL INFO: Howdy folks. Good to be back reporting for the SD Recyclers' Bicycle Club once again. It's been a while. I had a bit of a nagging injury, so I missed a number of our more recent rides, consequently, I've been unable to do any first hand reporting. I'm happy to say, however, and you guys lose here, I'm BACK! So let's get on with the business at hand.
The "Ride of Remembrance": The ride took place, as advertised, Sunday, Sept 10th. Unfortunately, it didn't attract as many people as we would have liked. In my estimation, it attracted only about 50-75 riders. The media, however, did show up, and reported on the event that evening. The only Bicycle Club to show was our very own, THE RECYCLERS! Our presence was appreciated, I'm sure, by the San Diego County Bicycle Coalition (SDCBC), one of the promoters/sponsors of the "unsponsored" event. We must have represented almost half of the attendees. The ride up to the demonstration was very enjoyable, and we picked up a number of "tag a longs". That, too, was fun. We started at the Mission Bay Visitors' Center, as planned, and Neil Schneider led us on the ride up Linda Vista Road and to our ultimate destination. The day was delightful. Warm, but not too warm, and the company was great, as always. Regarding the event itself, our very own Phil Erdelsky, who is very active with the coalition, and Bill Spearling, both made the evening news that day. Great interviews guys! A number of our Jerseys made the news as well, as footage was shown of some of us riding the suggested "circuit". When we left, a number of folks said, "thank you, Recyclers". So we should feel good about our PR efforts, and about making the effort to help promote better biking conditions in San Diego. My hope for next year is that SDCBC really spend some time promoting the event, or one similar, and hope that they will think about holding it somewhere other than that dangerous part of the highway where we lost a rider two years ago. It, in my opinion, should be promoted more as a day to push for safe motoring and biking (good infra structure, more and better bike paths, and the like), rather than emphasizing the memorial aspect of it. The memorial aspect, of course, could be a part of it, but only a part of it. I think we could get a very good number of San Diegans to come out for an event to push safer motoring, biking, etc. So, I'm going to make that suggestion to Kathy Keehan, Executive Director of the San Diego County Bicycle Coalition. I do appreciate what the coalition does for us, and our biking interests, and plan on contributing some of my time, $$$, and effort to that organization. I've been looking for a way to become more involved in civic matters, and that seems like a pretty darn good way. For those of you interested in seeing what the SDCBC is doing currently, or want to more actively participate, their website is http://www.sdcbc.org/.
New news: Our very own Greta Larson is leaving Wed, October 4th for Melbourne, Australia, She's going to participate in a ride, Oct 15th, called "Around the Bay in a Day". It's a 210 km around Port Phillip Bay which is just south of Melbourne. The largest number of cyclists in Australia are said to participate in this event. About shorter routes, 4 different loops for the 210km distance. I'm assuming that she'll ride with us the Sunday before, Oct 1st , so maybe you'll want to make a special effort to come out that day to wish her luck. Pressures on Greta, you now have to show Oct 1st (ha ha). BTW, thanks for all the great pictures.
More new news: Bob Groff has written a brief history of the Recyclers which we've forwarded to Neil Schneider to post on our page, so look for it soon http://www.sdcrecyclers.org/history.
Last Saturday's Ride: (Written by Marty Weiss) We had a pretty a good turnout for a Saturday alternative ride. Six folks showed up: me, Greta (who rode from Lakeside), Don Williams, Mac McGill, Carol Sawaya and a friend of hers, and Dave, whose training with her for the MS Ride. We didn't let the fact that a slice of bread and cup of coffee at Charlie's Best Breads increased from 75 cent to a dollar put a damper on our ride. Riding over Ingram St. bridge in Mission Bay, we got a good view of some of the Thunder Boats being launched and getting ready to go out for their practice runs. Return ride would have been uneventful except for a chain problem on Carol's bike and a flat tire for yours truly. Other than that, it was an enjoyable ride. Here's the group picture (Courtesy of Greta, of course!)
Last Sunday's Ride: (Shragg's Account): Sunday's ride was well attended (11 of us). We started off in Old Town and rode out to OB on our way to the Cabrillo monument. We modified our normal route for this one. Dr. Michael Ziegler joined us for this ride and led us on a route through OB that included a ride down Sunset Cliffs Blvd. We got a great view of the ocean. Michael wanted to check the surf. It really was a nice route. A bit of a hill going over to Catalina St., but not too bad! After catching Catalina, we were back on the familiar "Recycler" route. Out to the monument, then started back on Catalina, down El Canon (I think it is) into, and around, Shelter and Harbor Islands, and then into downtown. From downtown, we rode up Second St., with a brief detour on First Ave (then back onto second) to Washington and into Mission Hills, where we, naturally, stopped for coffee/etc. and Espresso Mio. A short respite, and then down through Presidio Park and back into Old Town. Not flats, no broken chains, and, more importantly, Jim Scudder, no broken bones! Andf here's the pic! We lost a few on the way.
De Ride: This Sunday's ride will be the Tour de Campus Ride (So named by Marty Weiss). A delightful ride starting in the Mission Bay parking lot just north of the Hilton,over to the bike trail, up Gillman Dr, through UCSD to the top of the Torrey Pine Grade, back down into La Jolla, over to PB and OB and then back to the bay. Should be a blast. Meet at 8:00am, Sunday, Sept. 24th.
Final Tid Bit: OK, OK, I'll stop. I can just hear Nunez now (except, he probably stopped reading long ago). I hope everyone can make Sunday's ride.
Stay Well Friends, and RIDE SAFE, and, oh Yeah, Move em up and head em out (or something like that!!!)