October November 2015

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1 S L O W S P O K E S B I C Y C L E C L U B P. O. B O X S T E R L I N G H E I G H T S, M I October November 2015 President Carol Ritchey Vice President Tom Graham Treasurer: Clara Herndon Secretary: Ed Schultz Newsletter Editor: Jim Walter Newsletter Distributor: Lennie Raines Membership Chair: Lennie Raines Sunshine Liaison: Rita Zupan-Wilhelm POAR Chair: Gabe Halsall Event Coordinator: Tom Graham Webmaster: Tom Miller Website: Mailing Address: Slow Spokes P.O. Box 792 Sterling Hts, MI Rich, Bob, Gary, Jim, Ed, and Bernie 6 Slow Spokes to Embark on Epic Journey Adventure Cycling has a few major routes which they consider to be epic tours. One of them is the Southern Tier which is about 3000 miles long and goes from San Diego, California to St. Augustine, Florida. 6 of your fellow Slow Spokes members plan to head out to California in early September, and leave San Diego on September 10th. The six guys are Ed, Bernie, Rich, Bob, Gary and me. While we can t say for sure how many days it will take, the plan calls for 9 weeks of travel arriving in St. Augustine sometime around the middle of November. Some of us will be blogging on Rich Ostrowski has started his blog. You can find it by going to crazyguy and searching for wind in my wheels. Ed plans to blog under the name 6/60 referring to the fact that there are 6 of us and we are all over 60. I m still thinking about blogging, and haven t started one yet. I think I will call it Slow Spokes Southern Spin. We will try to get information out on the club website telling you how to reach our blogs when more information is known.

2 Meetings Unless otherwise noted, meetings are held at 7:00 p.m. on the first Friday of every month at the Warren Woods Baptist Church at E. 12 Mile Road between Hayes and Schoenherr in Warren. Refreshments are served. Ride Information Send information for rides and walks and other exciting events to our event coordinator Tom Graham, by the 10th of the month. Newsletter Information Send articles you d like published to Jim Walter. the information to him at jim.walter@comcast.net. Articles must be received by the 15th of the month for inclusion in the newsletter. Feel free to call Jim at Erica Erich Welcome New Members Macomb Welcome to the Slow Spokes! We hope to see you on some of our rides. We apologize if we missed anyone s name. Thank you A big thank you to everyone who worked on the Peach of a Ride this year. Things went very smoothly and all the riders enjoyed the ride. Newsletter Since the newsletter editor is going on the epic journey (see page 1 article), there will not be a separate November newsletter. This Newsletter will cover what is known now about October and November. The next newsletter will be the December-January Newsletter which will come out around Thanksgiving. Please submit any articles for that newsletter by November 23rd. Meetings There is no meeting in September as a meeting was held on August 28th. In October, we go back to our regular schedule of meeting the first Friday of the month. The election of officers for the coming year is held in the November meeting. Traditionally the club provides free pizza for refreshments after this meeting. We will need to replace the secretary as Ed Schultz is moving out of the area. It is not known now whether all the other officers intend to continue in their posts. Please consider running for office. We can always use new ideas. October-November Rides There are no rides scheduled for October and November at this time. The evening rides usually quit at the end of September due to loss of daylight. Please watch your and the club website for any impromptu rides that might be scheduled when the weather is cooperative.

3 Club Ride Mileage Top 10 riders: Tom Miller 1022 Jim Walter 994 Clara Herndon 850 Bill Appleberry 835 Rita Wilhelm 759 Bernie Sustrich 636 Paul Wilhelm 582 Mary Woloszyk 569 Larry Djohn 552 Ron Robinson 548 Total Club Miles reported by September 1st is 21,402 Top 10 ride leaders: Tom Miller 3372 Ray Carpenter 3060 Gabe Halsall 2108 R & P Wilhelm 2092 Ron Robinson 2014 Mary Woloszyk 1927 Bill Appleberry 1778 Jim Walter 1680 Rita Wilhelm 1095 Tom Graham 688 November Birthdays: Ray Carpenter November 24 Andrew Czarnecki November 25 Betty Dilbeck November 7 Don Fleishmann November 23 John Gentilia November 18 October birthdays: Laura Branchick October 3 Anna Carpenter October 2 Tari Carter October 30 Bob George October 21 David Kovacek October 11 Debbie Mitchell October 26 David Pakledinaz October 1 Mary Pakledinaz October 25 Ann Marie Schmidt October 10 Ingrid Tierney October 11 Michael Tremblay October 12 The Slow Spokes Wish all of you A very happy Birthday! Tom Graham November 24 Carolann Green November 5 Gary Haelewyn November 12 Mary Jane Hinze November 9 Terry Kinsch November 12 Linda Mariani November 9 Don Markowsky November 5 Kim Mau November 18 Peggy Monaco November 10 Patrick Mullin November 6 Ron Robinson November 30 Matthew Rondeau November 15 Ed Rylicki November 25 Teri Socia November 4 If we missed anyone s birthday, sorry about that! We wish you a happy birthday too!

4 Don Windhorst says many thanks to the radio operators and sag team. I would like to thank Bernie and Carol for all their hard work in organizing the sag drivers assignments for the Peach of a Ride. They got everyone out in short order. Also thank you to all the sag drivers for volunteering your time for your club. This is why the Slow Spokes are one of the oldest bike clubs around. There were only 2 riders that had road rash from falling off their bikes that I was aware of. Some riders were brought in for repairs to their bikes, and some brought in for trying to ride more than they could pedal. Sag drivers and riders were Dave Burke, Jack Logomarsino, Jim Walter, Bill Zakoski KD8FQT, Steve Loche, Bill Appleberry K8WA, Bruce KD8MFR, Diane Scalzi WI8K, Rick Vandecar W8RTV, Terry Kauzlarich KD8HMT and husband (I apologize for forgetting his name). Two hams drove their own vehicles. Thank you to all the Ham radio operators that volunteered their time and worked with the sag drivers and worked at the rest stops. Drivers look forward each year having you along. Some of you used your own vehicles. The riders have commented that they feel better with sag vehicles keeping a lookout for them, and with radios, response times are quicker than with phones. With radios, all operators on frequency are aware of what is happening at the same time and can be ready to assist quickly. Rest stop operators were, Bob George KB8QYJ, Bill Appleberry K8WA, Hank Russell K8TRS, Ray Stidwell WA4MLD, Val Berauldt N8OEF. There was only 1 request for peanut butter. All radios worked well and net control had very little trouble copying transmissions. Thank you to all and hope you will be there next year. Don/N8KNS The Century Report by Jim Walter So how many people rode the century, you may ask? By my carefully pieced together numbers, 69 people attempted the century, and 63 completed it (4 of them after we closed up at 5 pm). I was the sag driver on section 5, which ran from the 60 mile cutoff out to North Branch. We began the morning running the route with stops at Avoca and Yale. On the way to Avoca, we passed 2 women we did not think were part of the ride because they had no bib numbers. We got to North Branch just after the first rider arrived at about 10:15. Bonnie said they were a little late the first one went through at 9:50 last year. We then drove the route backwards to the 60 mile cutoff and counted 66 people. The last guy had a beard and his bike was loaded down with panniers. The 2 women were still coming, but had separated a little. So if I had counted them, I would have had 68. Driving back to North Branch, we picked up an injured rider. His wheel had caught in a rut in the road. We took him to North Branch where he waited for his 2 friends. Another man wanted a ride back to the school and we took him, promising to come back for the injured man. We rode the route backwards to Capac Road, and just a few people were still on the route to North Branch with the 2 women a ways back from everyone else and farther apart from each other. It took an hour to get back to the school, so we sent someone else back for the injured man. Later we picked up 2 of 4 people who called it quits at the corner of Brown City Road and Imlay City Road, about 80 miles into the century. So about the numbers. Carol counted 64 people at the water stop. But she closed before the bearded man with panniers and the 2 women which would make 67 and the 2 guys sagged in from North Branch makes 69 attempts. Since 4 quit after Carol counted them, that makes 63 who presumably completed the century. Bob Halsall arrived at the school at 4:45 followed by the 2 friends of the injured guy at 4:50. After we closed up, I drove the route backwards to Capac. A guy matching the description of Carol s last guy was just reaching Memphis. The first woman was a mile behind him. The bearded guy had just crossed the I-69 bridge 4 miles further back, and the second woman was about 13 miles out (a couple miles past the Capac rest stop). I stopped and asked if she was ok, and she accepted a bottled water and continued on her way. That was my last officious act of the day and I headed home. The rest of the story: Monday night at church, a bearded guy came up to me and said he recognized me from the POAR Sunday. He was the guy with panniers. He said only one car was in the parking lot when he got there. He was training for a UP trip with Adventure Cycling. He gave me his card:

5 Bob George sent this article with the following note: A friend of mine, Ralph Irish, from the L'ance Creuse Amateur Radio Club sent me this article he wrote about Kevin Degen. He has given permission to publish it in our newsletter. Ralph met Kevin on the Wolverine 200 in Kevin would have been 28 at the time.

6 Courage (continued)

7 Slow Spokes Spokin Times News Page 5 YOUR FAVORITE BIKE SHOP!!! The following bicycle stores offer a discount on equipment and accessories. Be prepared to show your Slow Spokes membership card when making a purchase to receive the discount. Allied Cycle Gra ot Eastpointe, MI / American Cycle & Fitness Woodward Ave Royal Oak, MI / American Cycle & Fitness W. Fourteen Mile Walled Lake, MI / American Cycle & Fitness 203 N. Perry Street Pon ac, MI / American Cycle & Fitness Mack Avenue Grosse Pointe Woods, MI / American Cycle & Fitness Hall Road Macomb Twp. MI / Anchor Bay Bicycle & Fitness Mile Road New Bal more, MI / Bike Tech E. Warren Detroit, MI / D & D Bicycles 8383 N. Middlebelt Rd Westland, MI / D & D Bicycles 121 N. Center Rd. Northville, MI / D & D Bicycles 9977 E. Grand River Brighton, MI / D & D Bicycles 4141 W. 12 Mile Road Berkley, MI / D & D Bicycles 7330 Highland Road Waterford, MI / East Side Bike Shop Van Dyke Ave Centerline, MI / Fraser Bicycle & Fitness U ca Road Fraser, MI / Hamilton Bicycle Main Street Richmond, MI / Macomb Bike & Fitness Schoenherr Warren, MI / Main Street Bicycles Mile Road Washington, MI / Main Street Bicycles 622 S Lapeer Lake Orion, MI / Metro Bike-N-Sport S. Gra ot Ave Clinton Twp., MI / Paul s Bike Depot Gra ot Roseville, MI / Stoney Creek Bike Van Dyke Washington, MI / Club Information For more information about our club, please see our website at Most of the information on the website is visible without signing in. If you are a member, you can use your address as your login ID and create a password. This gives you access to some information that non-members cannot see. If you wish to join the Slow Spokes, there is a membership application on the website that you can print out and fill out. You are welcome to come for a meeting or try out a ride before joining the club. DO WE HAVE YOUR CORRECT ADDRESS? If you want to know of impromptu rides and other information of special interest not found on our website or in the newsletter, please make sure you forward your correct address to Paul Wilhelm at jpwilhelm@hotmail.com Notes from the Newsletter Editor: Every attempt will be made to include all articles as they are submitted, and in their entirety, in the newsletter. However, due to space constraints, this may not always be possible. If you do not want your article edited in any way, shape or form (even if typos and/or grammatical errors are apparent) please make a note of that when the article is sent.