Year: 2006

Saddle Challenge is On!

It’s March. Sign-up and participate in the Saddle Challenge
(see details below).

March is the month to get in shale. Set a mileage goal for this
month and let’s challenge each other to get ourselves into shape.

The event is also a fundraiser for the Ron Wilmot ride for Project
Inform. A ride founded by one of DSSF’s departed members.
Pledge in a lump sum or by the mile…..but sign up!

Many thanks for Tina Smilkenstein and Jerome Thomere for
getting this up and running!

See you on the road,

Dave

To sign-up
Go to
http://www.dssf.org/dssf_html/SaddleChallenge/DSSF2006.php

The login is your name
The password has been mailed to you from the yahoo group.
Enter your mileage and fund raising goals for March

Login issues? e-mail: webmaster@dssf.org

To donate

Send your check to
Different Spokes, P.O. Box 14711, SF, CA 94114
Scott Steffens, scotts885@yahoo.com, will be playing
collectionator at the end of the month

To learn more
Go to
http://www.projinf.org/develop/rw06.html

Cinderella Training Ride 1 – Sat 2/18

Khai reports: The Cinderella Classic training bike ride on Saturday, 2/18, went beautifully. My odometer read 37 miles when we were finished. I think not bad for a group of people who claimed to not have been riding very much this Fall/Winter season! It was my first time “leading” a ride…a virgin…and thanks to the wonderful group of women on the ride, it was a great experience. 😉

Alright…here is the group picture at the beginning…ready to go.

Cinderella Training Ride 1

Thanks, Khai!

Team Different Spokes AIDS/LifeCycle Fundraising Party – Sat 3/18

Where does the time go?! AIDS/Lifecycle 5 is fast approaching – in early June we’ll be on our way to LA!

This year, 18 members of DSSF bike club have formed TEAM DIFFERENT SPOKES and we’re hosting a fundraising party. All contributions will benefit the San Francisco AIDS Foundation and their ongoing effort to provide critical AIDS and HIV services. Donations can be made through our team page or fill out a form at the party (cash, check & credit cards accepted).

We invite you all to join us on Saturday, March 18th from 4:00 – 8:00 PM. The party will be held at the home of Michael Schmucki at 253 Sanchez Street #1 in San Francisco. There will be plenty of tasty hors’doeuvres/finger food, drink, chat & good cheer – and a raffle, too!

Everyone is welcome to invite friends/guests/family who will support our efforts – just let us know how many heads to expect so we can plan accordingly. Need an eVite to respond to? Email: rides@dssf.org

Thanks for your support & we look forward to seeing you at the party!

China Camp Loop

This ride saw a pretty substantial turnout, for such a short notice. Originally it was decided after the board had agreed on a date for the board meeting, and then decided to ride beforehand, which is why it got only posted on Thursday. The idea of going to China Camp (on San Pedro Rd near San Rafael) came from a ride I did last July around the San Pablo Bay. I then noticed how gorgeous that 11 mile stretch around Point San Pedro was, and that it would make a nice change to the Tiburon Loop.


Group on the Bridge – A Cove in China Camp

The ride departs from the Tiburon loop at Paradise Drive, where it gose north through San Rafael and San Quentin (well not really through, unless you’ve done something very bad). China Camp is located on the north side of the Point San Pedro. At the end of that road you can also admire the Marin Civic Center designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, then the route goes towards Manuel T Freitas Pkwy, with a steep climb to a bike path that lead over the San Rafael Hill down to San Anselmo. The rest of the ride would be familiar to people coming from Fairfax.


Group picture in from of the Marin Civic Center ( see more on the web site)

Apart from the members of the board, Bill, David, Dave and Jerome, a surprising number of new or less new Spokers showed up: Erik, Don, Lesley, Jeff… They gave this ride a pretty serious pace.
We were then joined by Michael who had succesfully chased us since the Panhandle, and by Brian and Joseph coming back from their more butch ride to Point Reyes.

I put the GPS information on this website where you can get the GPX file, the map of the route and even the KML file if you have Google Earth, to retrace the route!

February 25, Board Meeting Minutes

The DSSF Board met on February 25, 2006. Present were Bill Bir, Jerome Thomere, David Gaus, Dave Glidden, Michael Schmucki.

Saddle Challenge

Update on the Saddle Challenge. March is Saddle Challenge month. Tina S. will work on the website for people to track their miles. One again the saddle challenge will be run as a benefit for the Ron Wilmot ride sponsored by Project Inform. Scott has agreed to collect the pledges as the end of the month.

Dave Glidden’s Note: this year the Wilmot ride will not conflict with the Wine Country Century. We would like to encourage participation. Would it be possible for people to show up after the Jersey ride which will be the same day?

Picnic

The board discussed setting a date for the club picnic. The suggestion was made by Dave to change the venue to China Camp State park. It is easy to reach — no White’s Hill for riders up. There is excellent mountain biking and even nice riding for those who would like to do a road ride up. Plus, it is beautiful.

The date for the club picnic was set to be Sunday July 2nd, 2006.

Weekend Events

We discussed the River weekend. Some complications were clear. The Willow’s was not universally embraced. Fife’s has been sold. The Highlands was mentioned as a possibility. Another possibility was to rent a house or two for people to stay at. However, we may take a break from the River weekend to sponsor a Santa Cruz weekend.

Santa Cruz weekend. The idea was floated at a previous meeting for the club to sponsor a weekend ride. The idea would be to ride south (70-80 miles). Overnight with camping and motel options and then head back up the next day. Some possible routes were discussed and the possible destination would be Henry Coe park. We discussed the amount of work and planning involved. A route would have to be developed. We would need to determine the overnight site, make reservation, and plan for someone to haul people’s stuff and provide some level for SAG support (given the distance and the rural routes). A tentative date was set for August 26-27th, 2006. Dave volunteered to coordinate this effort.

Tahoe weekend. A date was set for the Tahoe weekend. October 7-8th, 2006. Right after Castro Street fair and not conflicting with the Jersey ride.

Newsletter and Blog

The newsletter. The newsletter editorship remains vacant and it is quite a task to format the beast. We would like to reduce the burden and frequency of the newsletter. The board is interested in transitioning to the blog at http://blog.dssf.org. It has the possibility of being more up-to-date. The board decided to continue to support and add content to the blog. The newsletter will eventually only contain information which has already appeared on the blog. This will get people in the habit of looking to the blog for the most up to date information. We will also send a monthly or twice monthly message to the group. Pointing out new content posted to the blog. We also want to get people in the habit of posting to the blog.

Membership

Non-paying members. Michael reported that some people did not renew their membership for 2006 and they have not yet been purged. The current plan is to spam them into submission.

Outreach

Bill brought up a number of new venues for advertising. The Bike Coalition newsletter, the Gay/Lesbian Sierran’s newsletter, Bay Times, Cycle California and maybe the newsletters for the Frontrunners. In addition, we will pursue free coverage will Jim Provenzano at the BAR.

Women’s participation was also raised. The idea was floated that perhaps a monthly ride in the East Bay might increase women’s participation.

Next Meeting

The board is looking to meet again in April. Dave will poll the date April 15th, 2006.

Action

  • Dave will reserve the campsite for the picnic.
  • We will look into ways to promote participation in the Wilmot
    ride.
  • We will gauge interest in the club for the Santa Cruz weekend as a possible one-time replacement for the River weekend
  • Michael will go after non-paying members.
  • Bill will look into new places for club ads
  • Dave will ask some Easy Bay members about developing a monthly ride

2006 DSSF Saddle Challenge

Get ready for….

The DSSF 2006 Saddle Challenge

The premise is simple. Commit to a mileage goal for March 2006 and track your March miles – rides to work, errands, road rides, club rides; they all count. It’s a great way to jump start your training and to challenge each other to ride.

DSSF is asking that people give (in a lump sum or per mile) to the Ron Wilmot Ride to support Project Inform. The ride was founded by DSSF member, Ron Wilmot, who died of AIDS in 1997.

Details on sign up will come over the weekend.

Tour de Palm Springs – Sat 2/11

The first Different Spokes organized ride of the year was well attended, what with a 600-700 mile drive, but with the fabulous weather, and some well timed (or maybe just coincidental) departures, Dave G and Michael S met up with David G and Bill M about 30 minutes south of Los Banos.

We arrived at the planned lunch spot, the In-N-Out Burger in Kettleman City about 11:30 in Friday. As we were getting back onto Interstate 5, Jerome T and Ron N were pulling off for lunch, so they were just about 45 minutes behind us, followed by Bill B and Stephanie C. Rico N was already in Palm Springs, having headed down earlier in the week for a little extra R&R and some golf. Wayne T and Dave F along with Don D were also somewhere along the way. Things went well, until we get into the Friday afternoon traffic from LA to PS making for a very slow 60 or so miles.

We met up Friday evening for the early registration and pasta feed, we got our rider numbers, but no safety pins, and they were out of the century route sheets.

The Tour de Palm Springs makes a large loop around the valley, and after going thru downtown Palm Springs, where they had an entire lane blocked off with cones for the ride, we head north towards Bighorn Mountain. The desert scenery was quite, mountains surround the entire valley, and snow was visible on top of some of them. After the first rest stop, we headed south and we rejoin the 55 mile rout in North Palm Springs on Dillon Road. From here we head souteast parallel to the Joshua Tree National Park and about 40 miles into the century route is the turn off for the 55 milers, the “exscape” route. Ron N, Jerry & his partner doing the 55 mile route caught up to us here as we had a flat amongst us.

Lunch was at rest stop 3 at 54 miles, our choice was cheese sandwich or… cheese sandwich, they had run out of any other choices “2000 sandwiches ago.” Two thirds of the ride is in fairly remote areas, with some rollers, some winds, but the next stretch out to Thermal and then west towards La quinta had some very rough patches of roads. Teeth chattering rough. As we started getting into La Quinta the roads got better, and the area came with more landscaping and protection from the sun, cooling things a bit.

The last rest stop was outside of Cathedral City at about mile 90, we again regrouped before heading on the last stretch back to Palm Springs. We arrive back at Palm Springs High School, retrieved our tshirts and headed back out as it was getting dark.

Congratulations to Stephanie C., not only did she complete her FIRST century, but a century so early in the season, we actually logged nearly 109 miles, with the extra mileage to and from the condos and such.