We had 37 riders last week. Thanks to Neal for leading the group. After a rocky start (no pun intended), I heard the majority of the group had a nice rotating paceline. Also, Ron and Tyler get flat head awards, they will do anything to get their name in the newsletter. Below is the ride schedule for the month.

REMEMBER - STARTING THIS SUNDAY WE MOVE OUR START TIME TO 7:00AM

Ride Schedule

9/2 - Tour de Scottsdale. Mileage options of 40 or 44 miles, all flat. Breakfast at Einstein Bagels on Rural & Ray.

9/9 - Tempe Mountains. See the mountains in Tempe. Mileage options of 38 with little climbing of 45 with more. Breakfast at Soma Cafe on Chandler Blvd & Kyrene.

9/16 - Tour Around Mummy with the original added in for spice. Mileage options of 35 with minor climbing, 40 with gentle climbs and 50 with a lot of climbing. Breakfast at Einstein's on Rural & Ray.

9/23 - South Mountain. Roads are closed to traffic, so we'll head on up. Mileage options of 30 with minor climbing, 42 with gentle climbing and 50 with a lot of climbing. Breakfast at Arizona Bread Company on Elliot & Kyrene.

9/30 - Tour de Mesa. Mileage options of 35 flat or 45 with gentle climbs. Breakfast at Maui Wowi on Ray & Price.

Lastly, you can view our monthly newsletter for September's edition on the the PMBC website.

Hi All!

A river ran through it. Complete with white caps. And lightening popped over it. That would be the parking lot in Kiwanis Park shortly before start time today. A heavy thurnderstorm lingering over the east valley at sunrise this morning resulted in a rare weather cancel of our Saturday morning romp. Rain we'll take on, but riding with bazillion mega watt bolts zapping around you tends to deter most riders. A few drove through to view the newly formed Kiwanis Rapids, with a handful then going on to breakfast at USEgg. The rest went on to do what ever people do with their Saturdays if they don't ride bicycles.

Coming up...

Saturday 9/1/07 7:00am Kiwanis Park. NOTE THE TIME CHANGE! We move up our start time to avoid the morning chill (?) and celebrate the start of our fall season with the Mummy Mountain route. Options of 27 miles with moderate climbing or 40 miles with a few extra hills. Breakfast at Brueggers, northwest corner of Mill & 11th.

Monday 9/3/07 7:00am Kiwanis Park. Buddy's brigade invites all to join in Pylant's Pedal. On Sunday mornings, you could often find Buddy Pylant romping in the Ahwatukee area, following a course favored by him and the rest of his thugs. If you are off for the holiday, come join us on a joy filled jaunt in memory of Buddy. One route of approximately 30 miles, which will be a mix of our original Ahwatukee route with a bit of the Wednesday nighter's romp tossed in. Breakfast at the southwest corner of Ray & 54th, at either 5&Diner or Paradise Bakery. Excessive and loud talking will be required.

Saturday 9/8/07 7:00am Kiwanis Park. The Tour de Mesa takes on a loop to the northeast and back in thru down town Mesa, for a view of the ever changing public art to be found there. Options of 29 miles or 39 miles, no climbing. Breakfast at Einsteins, northwest corner Guadalupe and McClintock.

Tid bits

Two bits. This first issue we talked about earlier this year, but will keep bringing it up until everybody learns the dance steps. When you get on your bike, whether to go to the corner store or to ride a century, carry ID. Have it on your body or at the very least in a jersey pocket. If your ID is in your hydration pack, you are often seperated from it if you have an accident. If you conk your noggin' and can't tell others who you are and who to call, what do you have on you that will do that job? Dog tags, bracelets, shoe tags, ID card in a jersey pocket, cellphone programed with an ICE (In Case of Emergency number), those are the things that will be searched for if you can't speak up. No one plans on being in an accident, and that is the point.

And second, as we roll into our fall and winter season our start times will adjust as the months go by to keep us in daylight (which was a bit lacking this morning!). For our newbies and as a reminder to our regular riders, please note the following for our adventures yet to come:

 Sept/Oct 7:00am
 November 7:30am
 December 8:00am
 January 8:30am
 February 8:00am
 March 7:30am

Ride safe

Hi All!

We had 89 riders appear for our romp to the east this morning. Included in the herd were a couple of celebrity riders from New Mexico (Bill and Sharon, it was great to see you both again!) and a lot of regular riders returning from summer cycling adventures hither and yon. The roll down Lindsay was made interesting (?) by having the bike lane and most of the right traffic lane waffle textured for several miles. Hopefully this means that at some future date we will have new smooth as glass surface in place along there. Breakfast chatter ranged from discussing the vacation that the Kirk's bikes took without them when they got lost as airline luggage (the bikes, not the Kirks) to the discovery of chocolate cheese as a food source at a rest stop on a ride in Wisconsin.

Coming up...

Saturday 8/25/07 6:30am Kiwanis Park. We head southwest on the AhwaFooty route. Route options 25 miles with one gentle climb or 35 miles with moderate climbing. Breakfast at the AZ Bread Co, southeast corner of Elliot & Kyrene.

Saturday 9/1/07 7:00am Kiwanis Park. NOTE THE TIME CHANGE! We move up our start time to avoid the morning chill (?) and celebrate the start of our fall season with the Mummy Mountain route. Options of 27 miles with moderate climbing or 40 miles with a few extra hills. Breakfast at Brueggers, northwest corner of Mill & 11th.

Monday 9/3/07 7:00am Kiwanis Park. Buddy's brigade invites all to join in Pylant's Pedal. On Sunday mornings, you could often find Buddy Pylant romping in the Ahwatukee area, following a course favored by him and the rest of his thugs. If you are off for the holiday, come join us on a joy filled jaunt in memory of Buddy. One route of approximately 30 miles, which will be a mix of our original Ahwatukee route with a bit of the Wednesday nighter's romp tossed in. Breakfast at the southwest corner of Ray & 54th, at either 5&Diner or Paradise Bakery. Excessive and loud talking will be required.

Tid bits

The view from the rear. Trailing the group every Saturday morning (leading like Napolean), gives your ride leader an interesting perspective of the pack. It's rewarding and yet at the same time incredibly frustrating. The fun parts are getting to meet our new riders, assisting and encouraging them. Getting to dilly-dally along, moving from flat tire to flat tire, rendering assistance if needed, but more often just basically lolly-gagging, enjoying the day and the company of friends. The frustration comes in looking up the road, and seeing our pack in motion, appearing nothing like the skilled riders they could, and should, be. And the term "skilled" has nothing at all to do with speed. We have skilled riders who turn out every week and hold a pace of 15mph the entire ride. Being able to ride fast and riding correctly, legally, safely... are two entirely different subjects. When in the SatCycling pack, you will:

• Ride no more than two riders side by side, tight to the right side of the road. If by riding two by two you are impeding traffic, drop to single file.
• When traffic lights turn red, you will stop, you will wait until the light turns green, and then proceed.
• You will treat the the convenience stores we stop at like your mom's kitchen... clean up after yourself.

We are a large, high profile community organization. No one rider is worth risking the reputation of our club and the safety of our pack. If you don't want to ride legally and safely, you have selected the wrong group to join and we would be glad to point you in the direction of some of the yahoo race training groups around town. (Let's see how many ranting emails that line generates from our racing members!)

Ride safe

We had 25 riders take on the heat. Did you know Phoenix broke a heat record yesterday? Those that rode can attest to the record, which brings up a good point when biking in the summer, fluids, fluids, and more fluids. As far as the ride goes, I guess the ride leader needs to look at his own map for directions, with Bill the only one doing the proper route. The pack broke into a couple of groups along the way because of a stop light, and then witnessed a bizarre event at our second regroup in Mesa. Last but not least, we did try the new restaurant on Chandler & Kyrene, Soma Cafe, and it was good. Randy and Mark tried the 10lbs of pancakes, with Mark taking the honors of pancake king.

Ride Schedule

8/19 - 6:30 AM - Metro Mania - Hit the cities and towns of the east valley. Mileage options of 36 or 45 miles, mostly flat. Breakfast at Einstein's on Rural & Ray.

8/26 - 6:30 AM - Milk Run - See the old dairy farms, or what is left. Mileage options of 36, 38, 40, or 44 flat miles. Breakfast at Wildflower in the Chandler Mall.

Hi All!

We had 67 riders brave the hot humid morning for our romp to the south. Our roll out down Kyrene kept us away from the contruction on 56th Street, but instead put us going over the bike eating diagonal tracks at Elliott and the challenging old fashioned speed bumps at the southern end of Kyrene. (We'll never complain about the newly designed low impact speed humps again!) The roll across the bottom of the loop, into the sun to the east, was toasty and dusty, resulting in some of the riders appearing at breakfast looking like cyclo-cross contestants instead of we-don't-do-dirt road riders. Einy's newly designed interior and revamped ordering system seemed to make for a smooth flow of getting everybody served, but those who managed to snag seats inside in the a/c didn't seem to be in any hurry to leave anyway.

Coming up...

Saturday 8/18/07 6:30am Kiwanis Park. The Length of Lindsay takes us east, with route options of 27 miles or 39 miles, no climbing. Breakfast at the Chandler Mall, your choice of Wildflower or Ruby's Diner.

Saturday 8/25/07 6:30am Kiwanis Park. We head southwest on the AhwaFooty route. Route options 25 miles with one gentle climb or 35 miles with moderate climbing. Since Kasha's can't figure out of they want to be opened or closed, we'll head down the street to the AZ Bread Co, southeast corner of Elliot & Kyrene.

Tid bits

The plethora of event rides that are coming up this fall takes a lot of people who are NOT riding to make them happen. PMBC will again be staffing a rest stop along the route of the Safety Ride and we need some assist. The date of the ride is Saturday October 13th and we need a few volunteers to host the stop. For details on what is involved and to sign up, contact Bob Beane. If you can't be riding in an event, the next best thing is running a stop where you can talk to everybody who is riding and exercise quality control by sampling the snacks yourself, and you don't have to pay an entry fee!

Ride safe

Hi All!

Thanks to Ron Waller for leading the home pack on Saturday. He advises there were 63 riders, which was pretty good considering there was a chance of showers and there were some dribbles (?) in the area at the start time. One rider (who shall remain nameless but maybe should have bought new tires as his souvenirs in France instead of bringing home road rash) managed to have three flats during the morning's romp. Little is known about the breakfast conversation as our fearless ride leader broke his stem during the ride and managed to triumphantly appear at the food stop after everybody was done.

Coming up...

Saturday 8/11/07 6:30am Kiwanis Park. Tour de Sue, in reverse. We head south, with options on either Queen Creek or Riggs. Mileage either 25 or 35 miles, no climbing. Correction on the breakfast stop for this ride, we'll be eating at Einsteins, northwest corner of McClintock and Guadalupe.

Saturday 8/18/07 6:30am Kiwanis Park. The Length of Lindsay head us over to the east, with route options of 27 miles or 39 miles, no climbing. Breakfast at the Chandler Mall, at either Wildflower or Ruby's Diner.

Tid bits

We just started August, but it's time to think about the fall season of riding that is rapidly bearing down on us. If you are doing Tour de Tucson, get your registration in (the fees rise the longer you wait) and get hotel reservations made if you are staying a night for that ride. This is a big year for that event, with other bike related things going on there the same weekend, and the town is going to be booked up early.

Ride safe