Prescott AZ October News

Prescott Chain Gang Cycling Club
October Chain Mail

The October ride schedule is posted
and available at
http://surf-ici.com/chaingang/Schedule/RideSchedule.htm

CONTENTS:

Out of Town Events
CazB Board Meeting Report
Pioneer Parkway is Open
AZ Talk
End of the Tuesday / Thursday Rides
New CazB Site
No Printed Newsletter
Wupatki Tour - by Nacho
Adopt A Highway Program - by George

To all of the Chain Gang members and friends:

Nacho Reyes is our new ride coordinator now that George’s three-month term is up. Thanks George! Nacho will do it for three months then, unless someone else volunteers, it will be my turn again. It is not the easiest of jobs but one of the hardest parts of it is finding ride leaders for each Saturday ride. We need some new people to lead rides. I led my first ride about a year ago and know how hard the first ride you lead can be. If you have never led a ride but are interested I will personally help. Everyone seems to think that they have to come up with an original ride. While this is great for the club it is the hardest to do. For the first ride that you lead I recommend just repeating a successful ride from the past. There are several rides that are always popular. I have most of these rides already typed up which saves more time than you think. Also, this way you have a sure thing. Email Nacho or me if your interested.

Nacho Reyes nreyesno smamgoodnet.com

CazB Board Meeting

Last Friday I attended the the Board meeting of the Coalition of Arizona Cyclist (CazB) in Flagstaff. I am newly on their board and represent Prescott area cyclists. I met the representatives from Phoenix, Kingman, and Flagstaff. It was very interesting to hear what the bicycle related concerns were in other cities. Their concerns generally were to extend a bike lane on an existing road, add one to a new road, or expanding an urban trail system. When it got to be my turn to talk I was embarrassed at how far behind Prescott is compared to these other cities. All I could say about current riding conditions in the city is that Prescott is a very dangerous place to ride; particularly if you are a bike commuter and ride the main arteries every day. I also said that I hope that the Chain Gang's newly formed partnership with the CazB will help bring about change. They all agreed that Prescott is a dangerous place to ride and another representative even said that (on this topic) "Prescott is back in the stone ages. " The conversation kept returning to the fact that the Prescott Bicycle Advisory Committee (PBAC) is so heavy with city employees. When the other representatives heard that over half of the board is made up of city employees they were alarmed. One suggestion was to get the printed by-laws, from the city, governing the PBAC, and learn how PBAC members are chosen. Once this is done we can tackle the next step. If any of you are interested in getting involved, I need people to:

*Go to the city and obtain the By-Laws governing the PBAC,

*Regularly attend monthly PBAC meetings,

*Writers to write updates and summaries on this topic.

If any of you want to help in any way please let me know.

Out of Town Events

There are a lot of cool rides coming up around the state. The Palo Verde Nuclear Century, on Sun. Oct. 31, was my favorite GABA ride last year. There are 100 and 50-mile options with both being pretty much flat. Last year I think they had several hundred people. The night before last years ride we camped in Estrella Mountain Park while there was a Renaissance Festival going on. There is nothing like spending Halloween with this crowd. King Arthur meets Spandex.

Palo Verde Nuclear Century Web Site http://www.sportsfun.com/gaba/paloverde.html

Nacho has planned a very nice Fall Colors ride, on Sat. Nov. 6, in Sedona. The club has several members and friends in the Verde Valley and I hope they turn out.

Pioneer Parkway is Open

I took my first ride on the new Pioneer Parkway the other day. I rode it from Williamson Valley Rd. to 89. Boy, there is nothing like new pavement. It seems almost all downhill going this direction. It has been a while since the last time I was exploring a new route on my road bike in Prescott. I think it is a missed opportunity that there are no bike lanes but most of it has a decent shoulder and 4 lanes always helps. I don’t think that the cars have found it yet because traffic was light. Route 89 back to Prescott is currently full of tore up pavement and road crews. Do you think the repaving of 89 will be bike friendly or will this be yet another missed opportunity to improve cycling conditions?

AZ Talk

There is a growing amount of traffic on the AZ Talk website. Most of the postings are about Prescott and bicycling so far. As this site grows I will divide it into different categories by topic. If you have something to say this is the place to do it.

AZ Talk http://www.prescottyellowpages.com/arizonatalk/

End of the Tuesday / Thursday Rides

The last week in September will be the final week for both of the 5:30PM Tuesday and Thursday rides. There are only a few rides left in this season so if you have been thinking about going you had better do it soon. We only have enough daylight to ride one lap and that is shrinking by the day. We still have a core group turning out but during the middle of the summer we often had 15 riders each evening on the MT ride and several regulars at Spar Wars. The Tues. Thurs. evening format is far more successful that I thought it would be in April. Thanks to all who made it a fun summer and especially Steve Becker and Jim Warrick for leading these rides. We will do it again next spring as soon as the sun starts setting at 6:15 pm. Maybe April.

New CazB Site

The Collation of Arizona Bicyclist (CazB) has a new web site up and running. This web site is very new and still a little rough around the edges but this fall I will be heading to the valley to teach Bill L how to edit and post to this site. Once this is done I expect that he will improve it considerably.

CazB Web Site http://www.prescottyellowpages.com/cazb/

No Printed Newsletter

In the last Chain Mail I asked people to help write articles and fold and prepare a printed newsletter. I had two responses offering help. I had visions of me sitting home alone (again) with a mountain of papers to deal with. (No Thanks) So, I have talked it over with several people and I think we are not going to publish a paper newsletter. It is a lot of time and a fair amount of money to mail a newsletter. GABA already does this for us with the Tail Wind Times. They always include our ride schedule. If someone out there thinks we are excluding non-email members or just really wants to do the work you are welcome to go for it. I will continue the email Chain Mail version of the Newsletter. I prefer just hitting send.

A surprising number of people in the club have email and those who do usually prefer to get the ride schedule and Chain Gang news on their computer. The list that the Chain Mail is sent to is 40 cyclists and rising. Most live in the Prescott area but others are from the valley and beyond. I have received very positive feedback from some of you and I thank you. If any of you want to include an article or pictures just send them. I am eventually going to put an email sign up sheet in the bike shops around town and on the web site in order to expand this list. Are we lazy, cheap, or ahead of our time?

Tim Travis - President - Chain Gang Cycling Club

Ride Schedule = http://surf-ici.com/chaingang/Schedule/RideSchedule.htm

Chain Gang Web Site= http://surf-ici.com/chaingang/index.htm

PS Nacho wrote this really funny poem then told me not to post it. Marcee got a to see it by mistake and she liked it. His poem is even approved for all audiences. Maybe someone can convince him to respond to the group with his work of art.

Wupatki Tour - by Nacho

Wupatki Tour

For the weekend of the 18th of September the major ride was the Wupatki Tour through Sunset Crater, which is sponsored by two chapters of GABA, Coconino Cycling Club of Flagstaff and West Valley. We, Chain Gang Cycling Club of Prescott, had been looking forward to this ride since last year! The only thing that looked a little discouraging was the weather. All week long it had been raining, without a indication of letting up. We went for it and that day was one of the best days in Arizona! The temperature was a nice 70 degrees. Now the morning was a touch cool, but it felt great.

Most of the folks that came up from the Phoenix area left that morning. Which meant getting up at the wee hours of the morning and driving for two hours. Once one showed up, it was a matter of finding a common tree or bush or even a shrub. The coffee really goes through you. Most everybody had something to eat before starting the drive. The forest was nice and wet and the coolness that was in the air was so refreshing it just made you feel like you could ride forever.

There were several tandems and I think I saw a mountain bike too. Most were on road bikes though. The first section of the ride, before you get to the highway, is a small incline to get your heart pumping and loosen your legs. Than the fast down hill starts and before you know it, your reaching speeds of up to 33 to 36 miles per hour, without even trying! We were behind a tandem and the pace was 'warp speed'.

At the first SAG stop we all fed our faces and compared 'max. speeds'. Has anyone really seen the tattoo that Marcia Brown has on her left thigh? It's a little different than Herman Bear's. I even saw a guy there with a tattoo of a spider web on his elbow! But hey the peanuts were good. That first stop is always a good one for refilling water bottles and getting something into the gut to make it to the ruins. Than there was this lady that needed to find a bush or shrub large enough for... well I don't know if she found one or not, maybe she held it all the way to the rest rooms at the Wupatki ruins. There are times when it pays to be a man.

Once at the ruins we all got a chance to fully rest and eat, go the bathroom too! Betsy and Marcia transported our walking shoes so that we could take advantage of the sights. It's great the way Betsy has things set up. When you arrive at the ruins, you must wait to be fed. The wait is so that even the slowest rider gets to enjoy the food and the views. It gives everyone a chance to meet one another and compare stories, bike components and the such. Mainly rest and regroup. Anytime Betsy Turner is in charge you can bet that there will be some fantastic home made goodies to eat. Question: Are you going to ride at the Palo Verde Nuclear Century? Betsy is in charge there too.

The last part of the ride is the killer, but if you've trained, even just a little, you can do it. Anyway, I made it and so did everyone else. I went over a cattle guard at the wrong spot, because I developed a slow leak from that point on. Not wanting to fix the dog gone thing I chose to just pump it up. I pumped up my front tire three times and when I rolled into parking area of the starting point, I had just enough air to make it to my truck. Next time I just better spend the time and fix it. A low pressure tire makes for higher rolling resistance and harder work for the cyclist, namely me. But hey, once the ride was over we all just hung out for a moment or two and enjoyed some more of Betsy's cooking. Compared max. speeds and average speed and of course DISTANCE. My computer read 49.4 miles and the ride was to be 56 miles. Maybe I need to recalculate my computer, eh? Well until next time see you on the roads to the next event. The Palo Verde Nuclear Century!

Nacho

From George:

Adopt A Highway Program

Several years back The Prescott Chain Gang Bicycle Club contracted with ADOT to pick up litter on a 2-mile stretch of Highway 89 between mile markers 304 and 306 south of Prescott. This highway was chosen because the club and club members frequently ride it. Signs on each end of this stretch identify our club. Our obligation as a club is to periodically police this stretch in order to help make this approach to Prescott scenically appealing. To meet our obligation, we schedule at least 2 cleanups per year on our ride schedule. We urge all members to participate in these cleanups. It is not difficult, can be fun or interesting, and does not require a large time commitment. For this small effort, our club gets free advertising in the form of the signs that everyone approaching our leaving Prescott on Hwy 89 sees. Some of our club members first learned of our club because of these signs.

Please join us on Oct 16^th for the fall cleanup. Let’s make this a good turn out, which will allow us to complete the task quickly! We will meet at the Safeway parking lot on Whitespar Rd. at 8:30 am. Wear sturdy shoes and bring gloves.