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Joining a cycling club — virtually

12.11.2008 by Ray Niekamp // 4 Comments

The Internet has changed the way a lot of us work, and spend our free time, and it even changes the way we have to think.

Recently, I became a “virtual” member of a cycling club.

I had no idea how to cycle “virtually,” unless it was spinning in front of a Tour de France video. But it turns out that the president of a cycling club saw one of my posts that mentioned Bike Journal, the online ride logging site. He e-mailed me, and invited me to join the club. Now, this club is actually in my area. It’s centered about 10 miles from where I live. ccrcc1But I’m not really keen on driving to a bike ride, and that’s not something I’d care to do on a weekly basis. Besides, I’m already in a club — the Circle C Ranch Cycling Club (CCRCC) — right in my neighborhood, so when we have club rides, they start about a mile from my house. It’s an easy pedal over there. So I told him that while I appreciated the invite, I didn’t think I’d take him up on it.

That’s when he came up with the notion of the “virtual” membership. Bike Journal has a section for clubs to log their members’ combined miles, and if I joined his club, my miles could be added to the club’s total. That’s an additional 2,500 miles for them. All I had to do was log onto Bike Journal and add my name to his club. I mulled it over. There wouldn’t be a conflict of interest with CCRCC, since they don’t participate in Bike Journal’s club totals. Soooo…

ltcTa da! I’m now a virtual member of Lake Travis Cycling. They’re pushing for over 60,000 miles on Bike Journal this year. They’re almost there.

The beauty of it is, I still might be able to do some real — not virtual — rides with them. Some of their routes come east, near my part of town, and the club president said he’d let me know when they’ll be in the area. Heck, despite my earlier comment, I might even put my bike on the car and drive out there for a ride or two in the coming year.

Anybody else out there a “virtual” member of a cycling club? How about more than one “real” club? Why?

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Categories // clubs, Community Tags // clubs

Twitter update

12.07.2008 by Ray Niekamp // 1 Comment

It looks as though I’ve been punked. The Twitter ID I posted earlier for Tom Boonen comes up with the label, “Fake Tom Boonen.”

And now Lance says the ID for Contador is a phony, too.

picture-11

Oh, well. Still plenty of other sources to feed our Twitter cycling addiiction.

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Categories // Blogging, Community Tags // Twitter

Twittering the cycling world

12.06.2008 by Ray Niekamp // 9 Comments

picture-2After several of my colleagues started singing the praises of Twitter, the micro-blogging tool, I felt compelled to try it out. I think my first reaction was similar to that of most people: who cares if you’re brushing your teeth before heading out to work? It seemed that a lot of early “tweets” I read just updated the mundane.

But recently, I went back for another try. This time, I think I’ve got it. I’m finding other Twitterers whose posts match my interests.

Which brings me to the point of this post: There’s a lot of cycling-related Twittering going on out there.

Who’s the most prominent? Guess.

lance1

It’s a lot of fun to follow Lance (@lancearmstrong) on Twitter. For example, I learned before the formal announcement was made that he would ride in the Tour de France this year after all. Earlier speculation was that he would ride in the Giro de Italia, and skip France. But before his press conference, he Twittered this:

lancetwit

He’ll also send at least a tweet or two each day about his training rides, the teammates he pals around with, and what they do when they’re not training. Lately, he’s begun adding links to pictures he takes during training rides.

And it turns out that Lance is not the only one Twittering away. Alberto Contador (@albertocontador), Chris Carcmichael (@trainright), Taylor Phinney (@taylorphinney), the Tour de France (@tourfrance), Tom Boonen (@tomboonen) — but his is in Flemish — Team Slipstream (@TeamSlipstream) and others can all be found on Twitter.

The problem with Twitter, as with so many new media social networking types of sites, is that it can be addictive. Once you find two dozen or so people to “follow,” their updates come fast and furious. You want to make sure you don’t spend too much time reading Tweets and clicking on links.

Or maybe you do.

Yes, the Bike Noob is a Twitterer. You can find me at @rainycamp. Be forewarned, my posts deal a lot more with my work interests than with recreational cycling, but you’ll find some cycling-related stuff, too.

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Categories // Blogging, Community Tags // Blogging, Twitter

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