We hope everyone is well and enjoying the year so far. As the busiest cycling season for NW Ohio is nearly here we are ready to get club rides and meetings moving along! See details below for the upcoming kickoff/enrollment meeting and planned events of the year.
MEETING: Saturday April 27th, 9 AM at the Wheelhouse in Lima on Elm Street. We will have a brief meeting to discuss general business, rides, enrollment and questions. Plan to ride directly after the meeting pending weather. Please find the enrollment form for 2024 on our membership page.
RIDE SCHEDULE: 2024 schedule will be posted close to the meeting on the 27th on the club website. We may have a few slight revisions after the meeting on the 27th.
Overall we want to focus club rides and activities for 2024 as “quality over quantity”. Hopefully that means larger groups at each ride, but fewer actual “club scheduled rides”. We also encourage members to reach out to each other through our club TRR-Member-Chat on Meta Messenger that was introduced last year. If you need a link/invite to the group please ask. All members receive the link. More days throughout the week are left open for individuals to head up their own flexible/organic rides and invite other local members to join them. Merely post a ride plan and if anyone is interested they’ll show up or let you know they will join on any non-TRR club ride day. Message example: start location and time, duration or miles, and approximate speed you expect to ride. Or message to ask if anyone else is riding and if you can join them! (Note, this is a closed/private chat group, like text group, so the general public does not see your plans.) As discussed and agreed to at the Fall club meeting 2024 ride schedule will only be Tuesday nights and Saturday rides due to interest and participation in recent years. Flex/personal organized rides are encouraged any other day or time of the week!
LIMALAND TOUR: The difficult decision was made by the club leadership to discontinue our club’s annual tour for the foreseeable future by the end of 2023. We only want to host a high quality and well attended event if we are charging to ride and gaining sponsorships. Given the current economics of hosting a tour, the size of our club for volunteers/workers and the recent tour turnouts the consensus was that enthusiasm for continuing the tour was mixed at best. We feel we produced the best possible tour we could in recent years, but the results just haven’t reached the level we need for viability. There were no concrete new ideas on how or what to change to grow the tour any further and it only made sense to pause any idea of a paid tour and focus solely on club riding and community cycling promotion for 2024.
Cycling Promotion/Volunteering: We will continue our safety oriented Keep Right Riverwalk marking project in 2024 now that the south end pathway construction is complete. There will likely be opportunities to volunteer at bicycle and safety events later this year. A few of our members continue to be involved with the community Bike and Pedestrian Task Force, Wheelhouse and other cycling opportunities throughout the area.
Club Records, Cycling and Group Riding Info: Remember, our club website includes all club meeting minutes, route maps and some very helpful tips about rider safety and group ride recommendations/guidelines. It’s a good idea to review every once in a while for rider knowledge and club ride unity!
We look forward to a great 2024 with many cycling activities and fun memories! See you on the 27th and Stay Safe!
