We had 23 riders take on the nice weather, and a great ride around South Mountain. We started off in a very calm manner, and even stayed under warp speed, at least until we got to the first regroup. After everyone was accounted for, we were off, making our way with a little tail wind and dogging the other riders doing the same route.

After our first regroup, we pretty much stayed together, leveraging everyone to pull against the wind. Our little hill climb on Estrella was a fast and furious sprint, with Gene deciding to leap off the front with Randy and Tim closely following. Luckily, I used them all to pull me up the hill until the very end, that was very nice of them, eh....After we turned on Dobbins we were treated to a little head wind. Everyone made it to the regroup, and we decided to take the bike path instead of Baseline, which wasn't bad at all, something we might consider for the future. One last sprint up the hill by Rustlers Roost, and off to Breakfast.

Even Patty joined us for breakfast today, to bad she didn't buy, we'll have to educate her on the new person buying everyone else breakfast......Overall, a good ride and a good day.

Ride Schedule

Sunday 4/6 - 7:00 AM - NOTE TIME CHANGE - We'll do the McKellupe Loop since we were able to do it last time. Mileage of 34, 39 or 50, mostly flat with a couple of slight hills, and a chance of wind... Breakfast at Crackers - by request of Ron. (hopefully he can be ride leader again, since I'm out)

Sunday 4/13 7:00 AM Tour de Lehi - off to the town of Lehi, mileage of 35 or 40 miles, all mostly flat with one slight climb. Breakfast at Neighbors Cafe.

Other Info

Jerseys!! Our long anticipated new club jerseys will be arriving the second week of April. They will be distributed at Saturday Cycling and Spin Cycle for a couple of weekends, then if we miss anybody, we'll drop the remainder in the mail. Note, the club did over-order only a few extras. If you did not order a jersey previously, the extras will be offered up on a cash basis, first come, no reservations. If we have enough interest we will make another order in May, to be delivered in July.

Road trip! Pen this date onto your calendar. Saturday May 17th is our club's 2nd annual Tour de Payson. We hope to relocate the entire Saturday pack to Payson for that day's ride. Pick up a registration form any Saturday morning. Ride fee is $15 which gets you some great support stops and post ride lunch. Ride start time is 8am (registration will open at 7am) so you can drive up that morning if you want instead of staying the night. We are going to be arranging some carpools and bike transports-- so if you want in on the adventure, we'll find a way to get you there! Pine trees, cool breezes, views of the rim-- definitely an excellent way to start the summer.

Hi All!

The balmy spring weather brought out a pack of 74 riders to the park this morning. Considering there were only 70 maps, this brought back into play a club rule from last summer-- "those who arrive last are doomed to be lost". Actually, since we were headed to the Ahwatukee Foothills, where everybody kinda makes their own route, we could have handed out maps of downtown Ajo and it would of still been all good! Off we rolled to the first regroup where the standard riders (and a few spies from the express train) chatted up how to ride a paceline. We progressed to Pecos Road to practice our newly learned line skills-- only to be confronted by our friend, the wind. All still did great with the line work, though. What a team!

Coming up...

Saturday 4/5/03 7:00am Kiwanis Park. NOTE THE TIME CHANGE!! The pack takes on South Mountain with route options of 28 miles, 40 miles, or 42 miles, varying degrees of climbing. Breakfast is 5&Diner, on Priest northwest of Baseline.

Saturday 4/12/03 7:00am Kiwanis Park. If you are not headed off to the Tour de Phoenix, come join us for the Tour de Greenbelt. We'll follow the Rio Salado multi-use path across Tempe and then north into Scottsdale on the Greenbelt. One route, 29 miles, no climbing. This will be a moderate paced ride-- so leave those aero bars at home. Breakfast at Bruegger's Bagels, Mill & 11th in Tempe.

Saturday 4/19/03 7:00am Kiwanis Park. Awhile back our prez Bob Beane created a new route for us, the MummyBack Loop. This a beautiful course taking us by both Camelback and Mummy Mountain, and new enough that we can all get lost together. Route options 29 miles or 34 miles, both with some moderate climbing (plus one honking straight up the side of a hill option on the long route). Breakfast at Pete's 19th Tee, Rolling Hills Golf Course, on Mill north of Curry.

Tid bits...

Jerseys!! Our long anticipated new club jerseys will be arriving the second week of April. They will be distributed at Saturday Cycling and Spin Cycle for a couple of weekends, then if we miss anybody, we'll drop the remainder in the mail. Note, the club did over-order only a few extras. If you did not order a jersey previously, the extras will be offered up on a cash basis, first come, no reservations. If we have enough interest we will make another order in May, to be delivered in July.

Road trip! Pen this date onto your calendar. Saturday May 17th is our club's 2nd annual Tour de Payson. We hope to relocate the entire Saturday pack to Payson for that day's ride. Pick up a registration form any Saturday morning. Ride fee is $15 which gets you some great support stops and post ride lunch. Ride start time is 8am (registration will open at 7am) so you can drive up that morning if you want instead of staying the night. We are going to be arranging some carpools and bike transports-- so if you want in on the adventure, we'll find a way to get you there! Pine trees, cool breezes, views of the rim-- definitely an excellent way to start the summer.

And to Ralph Heins, we wish you a safe and enjoyable journey. Our Ralph heads off Friday for a two month bike trek, from Arizona to New Hampshire, to attend his 50th class reunion! He is setting up a website so we can all check in on this travels, site address to follow later.

Ride safe.

Well, it's been two weeks since our last report, looks like the weather halted the trip from last week, however a few of our riders had a new name for our stand-in ride leader. Knowing the "G" rated audience we have, I'll just let you know that Carter has volunteered for the next ride leadership (turnaround is fair play). We had 16 riders take in the perfect weather today. Overall, a great day to ride.

Nothing too exciting happened today, everyone was well behaved, which is a first for this group. We all managed to give Roger a bad time with his Kid bike, but after he took off after the first re-group, he left the group cheering. Even though I mentioned a moderate 23 mph pace, I don't think we ever maintained it. A little pep talk after the second re-group on how to accelerate from a stop sign without making the people in the back of the paceline do start and stop sprints was in order. After that, chaos broke out (actually, we did have a few smooth transitions - maybe this group is capable of learning).

Breakfast at Ripe Tomato was ripe at times, but I'll leave that for your imagination. You'll just have to be there for the next fun filled adventure.

Ride Schedule

Sunday 3/30 - 7:30 Around the mountain. Go around South Mountain - mileage of 45 or 45, all mostly flat. Several regroups, breakfast at Bagel Nosh...

Sunday 4/6 - 7:00 AM - NOTE TIME CHANGE - We'll do the McKellupe loop since we were able to do it last week. Mileage of 34, 39 or 50, mostly flat with a couple of slight hills, and a chance of wind... Breakfast at Crackers - by request of Ron. (hopefully he can be ride leader again, since I'm out.)

Sunday 4/13 - 7:00 AM Tour de Lehi - off to the town of Lehi, mileage of 35 or 40 miles, all mostly flat with one slight climb. Breakfast at Neighbors Cafe.

Hi All!

Ah, the siren call of free food. We had 71 riders head out of the park today, actually 72 if you count the one nameless rider who STILL didn't catch the concept of our time change to 7:30am. Most made their way around the route without incident, except two who appeared in one of our local bike shops for some minor mechanical work. (Hey, Tom Culp, sorry you were workin' at the shop today, but thanks for helping out with our riders!) The rest of the group descended on Daley Park just in time to be joined by about 10 riders from the Sun Lakes gang, and all jumped into the feeding frenzy, while president Bob Beane tried to make himself heard over the sounds of bagel noshing. Thanks to Muriel for helping with breakfast set up and clean up.

Coming up...

Saturday 3/29/03 7:30am Kiwanis Park. We head to Ahwatukee, with mileage options of 24 miles with no climbing or 34 miles with some moderate climbing. While the express train riders are off strutting their stuff in the hills, the mid-level riders are going to have a clinic on paceline riding, then we'll do a slow motion line down Pecos so that all can learn the dance. Breakfast is Perkins at Chandler Blvd and 54th St.

Saturday 4/5/03 7:00am Kiwanis Park. NOTE THE TIME CHANGE!! Do you know the Center Line Rule? Though it's a racing term, we'll talk about how it applies to you as a recreational rider. To put our knowledge to the test, the pack takes on South Mountain with route options of 28 miles, 40 miles, or 42 miles, varying degrees of climbing. Breakfast is 5&Diner, on Priest northwest of Baseline.

Saturday 4/12/03 7:00am Kiwanis Park. While our hard driven mileage dogs take on the Tour de Phoenix, the rest of us will take the Tour de Greenbelt. We'll be taking in the Rio Salado multi-use path and then north into Scottsdale on the Greenbelt path. This is a beautiful, relaxed riding kinda thing, lots of lakes, ducks, and skater babes (uh, "babes" would be either guys or gals, depending on your perspective). One route, 29 miles, no climbing. Breakfast at Bruegger's Bagels, Mill & 11th in Tempe.

Tid bits...

We recently had a rider receive an injury during one of our rides who needed medical attention. Since then, a number of our newer members expressed surprise at how quickly and efficiently we organized what was needed. We can do that because of the wonder of cellphones. If you ride in our Saturday group and carry a cellphone with a memory, please ask the ride leader for their cellphone number put it into your phone.

Now, the reverse works, too. If you carry a cellphone (that you actually leave turned on!) when you ride with us on Saturday mornings and would like us to be able to reach you, zip a note to this address giving your name and cellphone number. Take the time to record the numbers of your friends that you hang with in the pack.

And, a reminder of an item we have talked about before but needs refreshing. If you ride with our group and you have a medical condition, get "tagged". Most bike and running magazines advertise companies that will for a few dollars make you a dog-tag that you can wear on a chain, on a shoe, or as bracelet. Put on it anything we would need to know if you are not able to tell us.

Ride safe.

Hi All!

We ended up with about 42 riders in the pack this morning-- a large number of which appeared after our 7:30am start time. (Should we start reminding you now that we switch to 7am for April/May??) With Brenda safely located mid pack we managed to eventually get rolling out of the park in the correct direction. With most of the advanced riders off doing the Mountain Climbing Challenge, er, that is the Mining Country Challenge and the TBC (stage race in Tucson) we had some new legs leading out the fast pack. Lehi was beautiful as always, lotsa flowers and chickens and what not. The cruise back thru Tempe gave up some interesting people watching due to the music festival taking place by the lake later today. (Yes, black leather is very versatile.) Our breakfast table conversation was getting a little intense with a discussion of the current event issues going on in our world-- until Leo Rogers distracted the crowd by reaching up to adjust a contact lens with fingers that had just handled Tabasco sauce. Never a dull moment with this group.

Coming up...

Saturday 3/22/03 7:30am Kiwanis Park. FREE BREAKFAST!! Our spring PMBC/GABA ride/breakfast/meeting. First, a pedal to the northeast, on the McKellips Loop backwards. On the way back, breakfast is served up at Daley Park, on College southeast of Apache. Eats will start at 9:30am, the meeting will start shortly after. Mileage options are 26 miles or 36 miles, a little gentle climbing on each. Breakfast is free for PMBC/GABA members, $4 for non-members.

Saturday 3/29/03 7:30am Kiwanis Park. We have had some riders in the standard pack ask about learning to paceline, which is kinda hard to do if you can't maintain the speed needed to ride with the express train. We head to Ahwatukee, giving us the opportunity to pedal on Pecos. The standard riders will have a clinic mid-route to talk about pacelining and then we'll do a slo-mo version of a line on Pecos to put those skills into practice. Mileage options 24 miles with no climbing or 34 miles with some moderate climbing. Breakfast Perkins at Chandler Blvd and 54th St.

Saturday 4/5/03 7:00am Kiwanis Park. NOTE THE TIME CHANGE!! Training for Tour de Phoenix? Come build your power up with a journey to the Towers at South Mountain. Route options 28 miles, 40 miles, or 42 miles. That would be a little bit of climbing, a moderate amount of climbing, or "yikes". Breakfast is 5&Diner, on Priest northwest of Baseline.

Tid bits...

In response to requests for our group to have someplace on line to continue our breakfast conversations, we are in the midst of setting up a chat room. If you would like to join in, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/pmbcaz/.

If you are a member of PMBC/GABA just log yourself in to the site. Once set up, click on CHAT (not Message) and there you are. Note this is a real time chat room, so there needs to be somebody else there for you to chat with (but that doesn't seem to deter some riders in our group, so maybe this is not an issue!)

Bike Week approacheth! Bike to Work and School Day is scheduled for Wed 4/9. The city of Tempe is offering no less than 4 locations this year for cyclists to pick up free breakfast and t-shirts that morning, just for being out and about on a bike. Pick up a flyer at SatCycling next weekend for details on times and places. Of course, us cyclists can smell a free breakfast from quite a distance, so maybe the location directions are not needed?

Ride safe.

You can tell the weather got nicer, as we had 23 riders take off today. We had a couple of new riders join us (Stuart and Darren - welcome), and a visitor from Kansas - Randy. It must be very nice weather in Kansas, or he does a lot of indoor training as he kicked our butts today...We tried a new route for the day, which was overall a good ride, hardly any lights and stop signs and little traffic. However, instead of Milk Run I might rename it to Choices, as there are soo many choices to choose from and even with all those options, we still got off track (I wouldn't call it lost), oh well, Map by Brail works for me.

Nothing too exciting today to report, I did win the over hill sprint bonus over Riggs, but that was because Randy didn't know (good thing.....). He took the final sprint, just playing with us and clearly asking, where is this sprint to???? Breakfast at Wildflower was great, actually any food at that time would have been great, but that is another story.

Ride Schedule

Sunday 3/16 - 7:30 am The McKellupe Loop - McKellips & Guadalupe, mileage of 34, 39 or 50, mostly flat with a couple of slight hills, and a chance of wind... Breakfast at Neighbors Cafe. I believe I talked Ron into leading the ride next Sunday while I'm in Mexico killing a few brain cells, take it easy on him...

Sunday 3/23 - 7:30 Germannlupe - Germann to Higley or Lindsay, then to Guadalupe. Mileage of 33 or 42 miles, all flat. Breakfast at Ripe Tomatoes.

Sunday 3/30 - 7:30 Around the mountain. Go around South mountain - mileage of 45 or 45, all mostly flat. Several regroups, breakfast at Bagel Nosh.

Tips:

I would like to make a plea to all of our riders, especially when we are in big groups, to please use the bike lanes. This is more important on busy streets. We have on a few occasions (especially in large groups) taken more than our fair share, and I ask that you be aware of this situation and utilize the lane when possible.

Thanks - Ride Safe...

Glen

Hi All!

Well, it was... an adventurous morning. Our pack of 58 riders was entertained before we even left today by the sounds of Val hootin' and hollerin' when she went for a joy ride around the parking lot on the back of Tim Kjellberg's new Double Vision recumbent tandem. (Yes, it is kinda like riding a recliner chair!) We then get ourselves aligned into a tightly organized riding group, with Brenda leading the charge out onto the route-- going in the wrong direction. Proving that cyclists are truly descended from lemmings, the entire pack of course followed Brenda unquestioningly out of the park in the wrong direction. Within a block a few silly riders glanced at their maps and the group managed to get itself flipped around and the ride was finally on. Our split between advanced riders and standard riders got a little fuzzy today, with the group breaking down into about 5 groups seemingly based on who they wanted to socialize with as opposed to ability level. Those that managed to stay on the mapped route (sometimes a challenge with the Mummy Mountain route) were treated to the sight on LaFayette of the most gloriously toilet-paper bedecked house ever seen. Ya know, if we could just harness the energy of the kids that did that, we could solve the problems of the world! After much scenic wondering aboot on various translations of the route, most of the pack found their way to either bagels or pancakes or the park.

Coming up...

Saturday 3/15/03 7:30am Kiwanis Park. We head to the gentle roads of Lehi, to check out the flowers and chickens and what not. Route options 27 miles or 35 miles, no climbing. Breakfast at IHOP, southwest corner Apache & College.

Saturday 3/22/03 7:30am Kiwanis Park. FREE BREAKFAST!! Oh, and a bike ride. Our spring PMBC/GABA ride/breakfast/meeting. The route takes us to the northeast, on the McKellips loop backwards. (Yes, Buddy, that does mean lots of left turns.) Breakfast will be served up at Daley Park, which is on College just south of Apache, on the east side of the road. Breakfast will start being served at 9:30am, the meeting will start when our president gets done eating. Mileage options on the route are 26 miles or 36 miles, a little gentle climbing on each. Breakfast is free for PMBC/GABA members, $4 for non-members.

Saturday 3/29/03 7:30am Kiwanis Park. Back to the Foothills of Ahwatukee we go. Mileage options 24 miles with no climbing or 34 miles with some moderate climbing. Breakfast Perkins at Chandler Blvd and 54th St.

Tid bits...

Our president Bob Beane says:

We are looking for a couple of volunteers for Sunday, April 13 to pump tires and help with minor fixits at the starting point for "Bike to BOB". Participants will get a free ticket to the D'Backs vs. Milwaukee Brewers that afternoon at 1:35. Riders will begin registering at 9:30, and Landis Cyclery will be doing bike safety checks. Start point is Margaret Hance Park in Downtown Phoenix. Contact Bob Beane if you can assist.

Ride safe.

We had 12 riders today, the rest must have been afraid of the potential rain that never fell or slept in and forgot about the March 7:30 start time (especially you Carter - we had this ride just because of you). Well, our small in number but great in mass (not sure if that sounded right) made our way to South Mountain taking Southern instead of Baseline, which I believe everyone enjoyed. We had a couple of new riders join Sunday - Tom and Joe for the first time, welcome....

Nothing too exciting happened until we got to the Ramada just before the climb. That is when RiderX decided to tell me something that I'm not sure I even want to know, but knowing it, I have to share it with all. Seems that the men's bathroom main toilet handle was a little loose, and after RiderX was done doing what he was doing, he went to use the handle, but it fell off in the toilet. Being the good cycling citizen that he is, he spent a few minutes fishing it out of the toilet (with toilet paper - he wanted to make sure I understood that), which he was able to retrieve and then properly "flush". Thanks for sharing RiderX....Oh my, the things that I write.....(I'm sure our webmaster Terry is going to have fun with this one)......

(Webmaster's Note: After about a half hour of trying to figure out how to handle this crazy story, I decided it was classic Spin Cycle and it shouldn't be edited out. However, do to the wide scope of the internet, I have changed the name of the "good cycling citizen" to protect RiderX from international embarrassment. Although, those who receive this ride report directly by email will already know the true identity of RiderX.)

We then made our way up the mountain (without shaking RiderX's hand I might add), with Roger taking King of the Hill while I took King of the Downhill....We then made our way to breakfast where the conversation took on even stranger twist (that's hard to believe with this group). Roger decided to tell us about his latest doctors visit and while I can't remember the exact name of the procedure, his nurse told him he had good muscle reflexes (oh my :-o) Other than that, another quiet day on the road.....

Ride Schedule

Sunday 3/9 - 7:30 am The Milk Run....I found a new map. A ride of 40, 38, or 36 miles, all mostly flat. Out on 56th to Riggs, then to Hunt and either taking Cooper, Gilbert, or out to Greenfield. Breakfast at Wildflower at the mall.

Sunday 3/16 - 7:30 am The McKellupe Loop - Mckellips & Guadalupe, mileage of 34, 39 or 50, mostly flat with a couple of slight hills, and a chance of wind... Breakfast at Neighbors Cafe. If you have ever wanted to be ride leader, here is your chance. I'll be out this day, so if you are interested in leading the herd, let me know, I have the map.

Sunday 3/23 - 7:30 Germannlupe - Germann to Higley or Lindsey, then to Guadalupe.Mileage of 33 or 42 miles, all flat. Breakfast at Ripe Tomatoes.

Sunday 3/30 - 7:30 Around the mountain. Go around South mountain - mileage of 45 or 45, all mostly flat. Several regroups, breakfast at Bagel Nosh...

Hi All!

The rain from last night gave way to a gorgeous "red sky at morning" sunrise for us today-- that would be the 33 us who didn't let a few clouds deter us from cycling. Actually, it was 33 riders as we left the park but we picked up a couple more in route, which would be the calendar-challenged who didn't realize today was the first day of March and our first Saturday back to a 7:30am start! The fast pack took a few miles to sort out just who would lead the train today, but eventually Connie and Andy got them kicked up and on their way. We had a good sized second group that took on the long route at a conversational pace who upheld the theory that cyclists NEVER run out of things to talk about. Perkins was welcoming as always and a couple of the guys learned why most of us select half-orders of pancakes or French toast at that place!

Coming up...

Saturday 3/8/03 7:30am Kiwanis Park. We offer up two routes to (or around) Mummy Mountain. Route options 27 miles with some moderate climbing, or 40 miles with a little more climbing. Breakfast at Bruegger's Bagels, northwest of Mill & 11th.

Saturday 3/15/03 7:30am Kiwanis Park. The Tour de Lehi takes us to the Zen road through Lehi. Route options 27 miles or 35 miles, no climbing. Breakfast at IHOP, southwest corner Apache & College.

Saturday 3/22/03 7:30am Kiwanis Park. It's time for our quarterly membership ride/breakfast/meeting. Ya know what that means? FREE FOOD! Oh yeah, you do have to listen to our officers yak for a few minutes, but you can eat while they're talking, so it's not too bad. Due to Kiwanis Park already being booked up for that date, we will be relocating to another spot for the breakfast stop-- details are still being sorted out. Once that is figured out, we'll pick a route for the ride. Stay tuned. Breakfast is free for PMBC/GABA members, $4 for non-members.

Tid bits...

If you have not joined PMBC/GABA yet, hop in by March 22nd and take advantage of the club hosted breakfast. You can pick up an application any Saturday morning or click here.

The $15 annual membership gets you 4 free breakfasts a year, a monthly newsletter, insurance, discounts on major organized rides, etc.

And speaking of organized rides, Connie says she is still in need of some worker bees for the Mining Country Challenge ride on Saturday March 15th in Superior. If you can assist, zip her a note at conniew@semico.com.

Ride safe.