Visitors and non-members are welcome to ride with us but are required to sign a liability waiver for each and every ride that they attend due to Club insurance rules. Yes, that is a pain. Every time, please.
Please print and BRING a signed copy with you to the ride – just click the link above or in the Pages section to the right. Better yet, Just JOIN the Club and be all official and everything. There is a link for that, too.
I challenge everyone to do something different on your next ride. This week I rode my 1970’s 531 steel classic with Campy downtube shifting for the first time in many years after swapping on a more user friendly bar. Take that bike out that you never ride in summer. Take a totally new route. Ride with your spouse. Whatever. Just make it fresh. And then report in here in the comments.
The one who built Shimano.
Jeffrey
Be sure to check out the virtual Tour de France on Zwift.com under the events banner. This link right here should take you to the feed with a little luck, with the women’s race preceding the men on the same course. It is quite amazing to watch how real this is from the efforts to the announcing.
Jeffrey
Happy 4th of July to all riders. It will be hot as blazes for the holiday and for the next week or two, so be sure to carry plenty of water and adjust pace to avoid blowing up. Rescue options are somewhat reduced nowadays.
If you are not riding tomorrow you can tune in to the VirtualTour de France on swift.com or NBC-Gold at 9 AM and watch some of the Pro Tour’s best riders face off on a virtual course. This has stages every Saturday and Sunday for the next 3 weeks. I think you can watch them at any time later on the Swift site. This includes live video from each rider’s home spin studio as well as the virtual world.
The COVID rate locally is once again rising rapidly due to relaxation of the Shelter at Home and general loss of rational discipline. I encourage everyone to ensure that they understand the real science and take all of the recommended precautions to keep yourself and those around you safe. Masks work. Maintaining distancing works. Anything less than these simple steps has a predictable outcome. All scientists and epidemiologists agree on masks and isolation as being vital to stopping spread. My decades of work on the production, measurement, behavior and abatement of aerosols tell me the science is right on this.
The industrial air modeling experience also tells me that there is likely no real safe distance from a potentially infected rider in a group ride setting (not unless you riding in a different zip code!), so I will be avoiding any and all public-call rides myself until it is safe out there. You are much safer (safER, not ever wholly safe) with a small pod of disciplined friends who are each personally careful with their potential exposure than on a group ride where no one knows the real risks or exposures of the other riders. I miss the regular rides myself, but the more disciplined we are in total the faster we will get back to those days.
Stay safe out there and enjoy the holiday.
Jeffrey
Handy link to all Michigan bike path maps. They are a bit crowded in populated areas at the moment but are clearer in the boonies.
Stay spaced. Stay safe.
Jeffrey
