Tuesday, February 3, 2009

50 Mile Ride returns on March 21

Dear fellow Rough Riders:

I am pleased to pass along this info from Doug Grant, creator and organizer of the 50 Mile Ride, a dirt road event in Orange County which benefits Project Rwanda. We participated in the original edition in December of 2006 and loved every minute of it. You can read about that experience here on this blog at this link. This is a wonderful ride for a fantastic cause and we hope you'll support it!

3rd Annual 50 Mile Ride for Project Rwanda
: The (New) New Date: Saturday March 21, 2009

Due to an event conflict at ONeill Park, we need to reschedule our April 4 ride date. We humbly apologize!
Our Rwanda Ride will now be held on Saturday, March 21, 2009. Stop what you’re doing and check your calendars. No really, do it right now! We hope you’re free that day – because we have some world-class MTB fun planned for you and your friends. Check out our newly updated web site.

New This Year: Our planning team has added a new 5 Mile “Fun Ride” to the day’s events. This short ride is perfect for friends, family members, and kids who want to join the fun and help a great cause – but who don’t want to suffer in the saddle for 25 or 50 miles. This “Fun Ride” starts at 10:00am, and travels along the Aliso Creek Bike Trail from Cooks down to Saddleback Church and back. We plan to have some fun games for riders along the way. Check out the “Event Details” page on our web site for more info.

The Full Fifty: We made a couple of minor modifications to our route this year, and now our 50 Mile Ride really is 50 miles (50.5 miles in fact). I know some of you were feeling a little short-changed last year, when it was only 46.5 miles. Our 25 mile route remains virtually unchanged from last year. We have a link to our route posted on Geoladders. Grab the link on our “Event Details” page.

Come for the Ride, Stay for the Food/Fun/Raffle: We’ve already got some great raffle prizes lined up. Plan to stick around at Cooks Corner after your ride. You won’t want to miss the fun, the live band, the great food and drink, and a chance at some top-notch raffle prizes.

We hope to see you and your friends at our Rwanda Ride again this year. On behalf of our 50 Mile Ride planning team, we appreciate your flexibility and understanding about our event date change. Now that you’ve got this new March 21 date on your calendar, why not go to www.50mileride.com and get registered TODAY?

See you soon! - Doug Grant

Monday, February 2, 2009

Rough Riders News, February 2, 2009

Hello, fellow Rough Riders!

We have a bunch of exciting news to report, so this is more of a newsletter than a single feature story.


ROUGH RIDERS RALLY IN JULY 2010
We are pleased to announce that we are planning a weekend-long annual Rough Riders Rally based in and around Mill Valley, CA in May of next year (2010). There will be a Friday afternoon ride, followed by no-host dinner at a designated restaurant. Saturday will be the big day: 4-5 hour ride in spectacular terrain, with each rider and their bike being photographed with a scenic backdrop. Later that afternoon the bikes will be assembled for a bike show. (To enter a bike in the show, it must have been ridden on the full route, including the photograph. - No "for looking only; not for riding" bikes may be shown.) There will be some notable Rough Riding personalities who will speak, awards will be given for various categories, and dinner will be included. It will be a fantastic evening. Sunday morning we'll ride Railroad Grade to the summit of Mt. Tam, then return to Mill Valley for a social hour or two at The Depot, before we depart town.

KLUNKERZ: MUST SEE FILM
Friday, January 30, 2009 we attended the Competitor Magazine Film Festival in Encinitas, CA. It was an all-day sensory treat and loads of fun.

One film that really stood out is "Klunkerz," which documents the origins of the mountain bike and the sport of mountain biking. The story of a how a bunch of colorful characters reinvented the sport of cycling is truly riveting and extremely entertaining. The filmmaker, Billie Savage, completely immersed himself in this project and went to great lengths to secure original photos and film from the 70s and to track down and interview everyone who was part of the scene. There are also some wonderful reenactments, plus a fun use of comic strips, cartoons, and other interesting visual effects which help to bring the whole story to life. Trust me, there are multiple nuances to "the invention story" which will come as surprise and revelation to even the most veteran cyclists and historians of the sport.

What stands out most, though, are the people themselves, some of whom became famous and household names, and others - equally important - who had otherwise been resigned to the dustbin of history. Until now.

What's so impressive and engaging about every one of these people is that they are just as colorful, just as animated, and just as excited now as they were 35 years ago. Their very spirit is refreshing and contagious. Kudos to Savage for the untold time and effort he put into this film. Thank you to all the people - from Tom Ritchey to Joe Breeze, from Charlie Kelly to Gary Fisher, from Alan Bonds to Otis Guy, from Wende Cragg to Charlie Cunningham, from the Barrow Dirt Club to Velo Club Tamalpais, and many, many more - for what they created for all of us in the 70s and for how they opened up their hearts and souls for this film!

Even if you - horrors! - don't even cycle off-road, you will enjoy this film. Please do yourself a favor and order it now! Info here. | Buy it on Amazon.

MEETING AND RIDING WITH LEGENDS
In association with the film festival, we got to meet and even ride with some cycling legends. Here are some photos:

Above: Chris with Gary Fisher, co-creator of the mountain bike
Above: with Charlie Kelley, co-creator of the sport of mountain biking. Charlie was partners with Gary Fisher in the the first "Mountain Bikes" company (with the frames made by Tom Ritchey). Charlie was also first mountain bike race promoter (creator of the infamous Repack Downhill). He was also the first mountain bike magazine publisher (Fat Tyre Flyer). Charlie and I first met at the Iditabike in Alaska in 1988. Charlie Kelly's website.

Above: The Thrill of a Lifetime: Meeting Dennis Christopher, AKA Dave Stoller

Location: Competitor Magazine Film Festival, which screened "Breaking Away" as the final feature, on the 30th anniversary of the film's original release in 1979!

Note: I started cycling in 1982 and watched this film on videotape - while eating a whole box of Macaroni and Cheese (and often a pizza, too) - the night before every century, double century, and bike race I entered for several years. To meet "Dave Stoller" after all these years was truly magical. He was extremely personable, signed a photo from the film for me, and seemed genuinely pleased when I told him how much the film affected me and how often I watched it "back in the day" - as well as how much I still appreciate the film on other levels now that I am a bit older. He's a class act and, yes, he says he still has the Masi!

Dennis Christopher on IMDB.com.