STARRT Bike Club 2022
Welcome to the 2022 the STARRT bike club. What is the bike club you ask? Well basically it is a twice weekly group ride open to any current member of the club. It will be lead by a couple of long time and experienced club members. We will ride on Wednesday evenings and Saturday afternoons starting by May 1 and continuing to mid September, all weather dependent of course.
Have you ever wanted to learn how to ride in a group? Or how about how to ride long distances on your TT bike. Wednesday nights we will be a teaching ride or a specific workout format. Saturdays we will do a long ride building up distance as the season progresses. Both rides will be a no drop format, meaning no one will get left behind. We may break up into several groups depending on skill and endurance levels, but no one will ride alone. Expect the Wednesday ride to last a minimum of 1.5 hours up to 2 hours perhaps more as we progress. With the Saturday rides being more of an endurance set lasting 3 hours or more once our endurance builds up.
Since we are technically a Triathlon club the idea is to ride our TT bikes. But we get that not everyone has one, so road bikes are welcome too of course, just no MTB bikes. The teaching format portion will be pretty informal. The whole idea of the group is to just get out and ride and the more the merrier.
There will be some minimum requirements. The first and most important one is of course to have a bike that is road worthy, so get those things tuned up and ready to go when we start. As an aside there are a couple of club members who can get that done for you rather than waiting a week or two turn around at the LBS.
Second, you need to be self sufficient on the road. This means a couple of things. You need to know how to fix a flat. When you ride enough its not an if but when you will flat. So you need to know how to repair it and of course have the tools to do it. Now, we understand that not everyone knows how to do this. But good news we can teach you. If there is enough interest we can setup a clinic before the season even starts so everyone will be prepared.
Lastly you need to be able to stay hydrated and fed. What this means is water bottles, gels, sandwiches, etc. We won’t be stopping for lunch anywhere. Although we could always head to the local pub after those long Saturday rides. That’s about it for the requirements other than a desire to get out there and ride.
If there is enough interest we could conduct a bike maintenance 101 session. This would cover basic maintenance techniques that anyone could do with a few basic tools and supplies. Such as cleaning and lubing ones chain, brake and shifting adjustments, cleaning, etc.
More information will be forthcoming as to who will be leading the rides, times, formats, etc. The club will send out an email asking who would like to sign up.
Just so everyone knows this is not coached sessions like our swim groups. As stated earlier it is and will be very informal and led by club members volunteering their time to do this. There will be no additional fees and will be on a strictly drop in basis. Consider it a means to meet fellow club members that you would perhaps not have had an opportunity to do so.
