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How To Join a Bike Club – Part 2

04.08.2010 by Ray Niekamp // 3 Comments

Guest poster Don Blount continues his quest for the perfect bike club.

Stockton, Calif., where I live, is not far from the foothills of the Sierra Mountains. There is plenty of serious climbing and steep grades available for any rider who goes there. Everyone tells me that you can fake it on the flats but that climbing really shows the type of rider you are.

The Stockton Bicycle Club does a lot of riding in the hills.

During a day off from work, I did a first-time solo 27-mile ride around Lake Camanche with 1,900 feet of climbing and some 14 percent grades. The friend who provided me with the route described it as a nice “introductory” ride in the hills.

It was not easy but it was fun. Some of those roads obviously were not designed by a highway engineer but were once cow paths that someone decided to pave over.

A few days after I did this ride, I received an e-mail notice of a 40-mile ride with the Stockton club. It was described as a longer but similar ride to the Lake Camanche ride.

I was in.

It took me about 45 minutes to make the 29-mile ride to the meeting place – Charles Howard Park in Ione, Calif. The park is named after the owner of Seabiscuit. The group of about a dozen people included both men and women. Introductions were made and we took off.

This was a talkative group, which makes sense if you’re going to spend a few hours with someone whether on or off a bike. Of course quiet settled in as we hit the rollers and more steeply graded hills.

Again, all of these riders were older than me, a few retired including a 62-year-old podiatrist who rode 18,000 miles last year. He planned on riding 100 miles that day.

We ended up with just under 43 miles and 2,300 feet of climbing.

I think I held my own as several other riders asked me if I had ridden much in the hills and were surprised when learning I had not.

I submitted my membership a few days later.

It was not much money and riding in the hills with anyone will help make me a better rider, which is ultimately what I want.

I eventually heard from the Stanislaus County Bicycle Club.

I was told I hadn’t heard back sooner because the “general email address” I found on its website went to spam. Apparently had I kept looking I would have found more specific contact information.

However, I was fine with how things worked out.

When deciding on a bike club I would ask: What are you looking for? Do you want to be challenged? Do you like to ride fast? Do you want to climb? Do you want to just go out leisurely and putz around? Do you want to volunteer at events or mind if you are required to do so? And how deeply involved do you want to become with the club and its events?

Some of these things I still need to figure out, but I probably made the biggest decision in joining a club, which also enabled me to meet one of my cycling goals for the year.

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Categories // clubs Tags // Blount, clubs, guest post

How To Join a Bike Club – Part 1

04.06.2010 by Ray Niekamp // 4 Comments

Guest poster Don Blount suggests you not join the first bike club you hear about — first, check out several, then decide.

One of my riding goals for this year was to begin doing group rides. Mostly because of my schedule, it’s difficult for me to find time to ride with others. During the week I have work. Sunday mornings, when many groups go out, I have church and I also have young children at home, and a wife.

But I do have a window on Saturday mornings. So I have targeted a few of those a month as an opportunity to get out.

I found that just picking a group and riding with them isn’t as easy as it appears.

I had to figure out what I wanted in a club and as part of that process, I e-mailed three groups within a 45-minute drive of my home.

One of three, the Stanislaus County Bicycle Club I didn’t hear back from for weeks (more on this group later).

The Stockton (Calif.) Bicycle Club got back to me within a few days but said most of the rides they were doing in March were too difficult for people just coming out. One of the membership people sent a followup e-mail: “The SBC rides are often heavy with Type-A’s.  Many of us are retired with time and disposable income. Sometimes the rides are not friendly to the new person but you’re doing the right thing by making inquires … hah!”

He went on: “That’s the other thing — we are mostly in the AARP-Social Security Range. Young riders come out but it’s almost always ‘one and done’.  Can’t blame ’em.”

So it didn’t sound too attractive.

I also received an e-mail from the third group, the Sacramento (Calif.) Wheelmen. This is a large group, its website says it has 600 members. The group usually has three to four rides each Saturday. One of those often begins about a 40-minute drive from my home.

“We hope you can join us. You don’t have to be a member to join us on rides, but if you do, you might decide to join up.”

I did join them for a 40-miler on a recent windy Saturday.

I had a good time in spite of the wind. I was most surprised to see that most of these riders were older than me. One guy was 75 and logged 15,000 miles last year. That’s farther than I drove my car.

When I asked how he managed to do that, one of the others chimed in, “He’s retired!”

The ride leader was 70 years old.

They weren’t hammer heads. I could even hang with the A group, but that may have been because of the wind as they just tried to keep the group together.

I had an enjoyable time riding with them and may look for other opportunities to ride with them again.

I’m not looking to race and I doubt I would socialize much with this group, in part because of the distance from my home. But I found the joy in riding with others.

This experience would become my baseline for comparison when I joined the Stockton Bicycle Club for a ride two weeks later.


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Categories // clubs Tags // clubs

New Jersey (The Kit, Not the State)

02.05.2010 by Ray Niekamp // Leave a Comment

Rode today in our new club jersey. Compared to the old ones, this looks much better and stands out on the road.

As far as a picture of me modeling it, well, I didn’t shoot one on the ride, and now the jersey is in the wash — but maybe someday soon, I’ll appear here in it.

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Categories // Accessories, clubs Tags // clothing, clubs, jersey

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