On behalf of the Board and our great volunteers, welcome to another season of great cycling in our beautiful Northumberland County!  It was  great to see so many of you out to Membership Night.  We have been working hard to continue providing a great ride experience for NHCC members.  Here is a bit of what’s in store for 2018.

Soon we’ll be heading out for our traditional pre-season ride to the Sandy Flats Sugar Bush in April.

Our 2018 ride calendar has been populated.

Pre-season Rides: Everything  before our “official” season starts on May 1st is considered to be preseason. That means that rides may be irregular in schedule and announced only when weather permits. The best way to keep up to date is to monitor the website or better yet, subscribe to receive email notifications.

Regular Ride Season starts Tuesday May 1st: After the 1st, the regular schedule applies. Variety is the spice of life and more weekly evening and day rides have been added this year!  Thank you to all of those who have volunteered as ride leaders.  However, we can still use a few more (hint, hint).  The more ride leaders we have the more successful (and fun) our season will be. Just leave us a comment to say you might be interested in taking our ride leader training and we’ll take it from there.

On the social side of things our Anniversary Ride and BBQ is on May 6th.  Mark the third Wednesday of each month on your calendars as our All Levels Ride and Socials.  We are planning to vary the locations for these each month.

Sundays will be varied ride levels and distances this season.  We will be offering some special out of town rides throughout the year.  Newly retired Randy has taken on coordinating some weekday rides and he also plans on hosting a Cycling Film Festival sometime in April.  Watch for more details on all these events as they happen.

As in previous years, we are hoping to provide our membership with some Informative Workshops and here is where we can also use your help.  We are looking for volunteers willing to lead simple, short workshops.  We would like to offer two or three at various times over the season.  Here are a few suggestions:·

• Tire changing workshop
• Basic Bike Maintenance
• What to look for when buying a bike
• Gearing and conquering the hills
• To clip or not to clip
• Hydration/nutrition on a long ride
• Cycle touring
• Riding in a group.

Please let us know by commenting below or send an email to info@northumberlandhillscycling.com.

Stay tuned and get that bike ready! Pray for warmth and endless sunshine and dust off those helmets! It’s going to be a fun ride!

Just a quick reminder that tomorrow night (Thursday night) is our Membership Night at the Mill Restaurant  990 Ontario St, Cobourg, ON K9A 3C7 , 7:00 pm .   In addition to getting your memberships for just $40 for an entire season of great cycling, we’ll also have some great cycling merchandise on-hand available for purchase.  We can all mingle, have a bevy, eat some yummy food and wait in anticipation for the cold weather to pass.  See everyone soon!

A sure sign of springtime and the anticipated cycling season is the NHCC Membership Night! Bring a friend (or several), or just come on your own, everyone is welcome. We’ll be hanging out upstairs at The Mill Restaurant from 7:00-9:00 in order to share some NHCC awesomeness. (Psssst….we have a little secret to share…..we have a whole lot more rides going on this year! We’re talking 10 regularly scheduled rides per week!) There are plenty of reasons to come out! Here’s just a little of what we have in store for ya:

• Join the NHCC: Get your membership for just $40
• Size up a jersey from the Garneau Fit Kit
• Nab a jersey from our existing (limited) inventory for cash & carry
• Meet and yak with ride leaders & coordinators
• Find out what’s on the 2018 schedule
• Cycle Transitions will be there to tell you about their future plans

PLUS:

• NEW! World famous artist Pamela Tate will be present with a few pieces of her original cycling themed artwork for sale (they are beautiful!)
• NEW! Chandel from RYB Denim Inc. will be there with some cool things to wear (You might have seen her at BikeUp this past fall). “RYB Denim Inc. is a design company tailored specifically to making the best denim products for the active individual. We have a focus on movement-oriented products  inspired by the cycling community.”

Lots of groovy NHCC folks will be on deck to answer questions and let you know what to expect. Everyone is welcome….members, non-members, friends, etc. Drop in for a drink, order up some munchies, and just be social!

NHCC Jerseys with some new variations! 

• NEW! Technical T ($40)
• Sleeveless ($65)
• Short Sleeve ($75)
• NEW!  Long sleeve LIGHT ($80)
• Long sleeve HEAVY ($85)

This is your chance to get one early in the season and be ready to roll. After Membership Night the special membership rate will end and the regular rate will apply ($45)

Date: Thursday, March 22, 2018
Place: The Mill Restaurant, upstairs (990 Ontario St.)
Time: 7–9pm

Here ya go folks, it’s your opportunity to make a difference! The strength and variety of our NHCC ride schedule is 100% reliant on our volunteers. We are looking for ride leaders for the 2018 cycling season. More leaders means more rides! What we want is to establish a pool of ride leaders for each level that coordinators can call upon to make sure that all rides are covered. New for 2018: Each of the ride levels has two scheduled ride nights per week this year!

We’ll train you. You don’t need to be super-fit or super-experienced. What makes you qualified? Being an NHCC member (of course)! And heck, just a willingness to help out a little, and have a little safety training under your belt (really, that part’s essential, but we’ll get you trained up with a few ride-leader-training days before the season gets underway). Even if you can lead just an occasional ride here and there, we’d be thrilled to have you lead. The proposed ride schedule for 2018 is as follows:

Monday evenings: Level 1, and Level 3
Tuesday evenings: Level 2, and Level 4
Wednesday evenings: Level 1, and Level 3
Thursday evenings: Level 2, and Level 4
Sundays: Varied ride levels
Weekday morning rides: Varied ride levels

You don’t need to be all skilled and confident yet—we’ll get you there! So, how about it? There’s no obligation at this point, we’re just seeking an expression of interest on your part! We’ll take it from there.

For those who weren’t able to join the Golden Beach joint club ride or anyone looking to get additional kilometres this weekend in preparation for next weekend’s 100km ride.  Please comment below if you are able to join.

This is a nice, longish route (approx.70km).  We have to take advantage of this amazing late Summer weather. Waterfront Trail all the way to Newcastle!  If you want to shorten the distance, just turn around at any point and come back because the route back is the same as the route there.  You can also start in Port Hope if you prefer a shorter distance (57km).  This makes it suitable for multiple levels.

Start time: 9:30am
Start location(s): Parkette on Carlisle St., Cobourg or King’s Field in Port Hope(10:15 am)
Level of difficulty: Level 3 and Level 4

An easy route, but for those who like a map here is one from Port Hope: 57k printable route map here or view it on Ride with GPS

It’s an oldie but a goodie.   A lovely ride to Osaca and the fields will be beautiful this time of the year.   Lots of photo ops!  We would just have time to squeeze in the 36km route before dark, but there is also a short-cut option for just 27km.  This would even be suitable for a Level 2+ as it is relatively flat.  A good option after Wednesday evening’s Bickle Hill! Let’s try to get in as many precious evening rides as we can.  Lights and laughs are a must!

Depending on what everyone would like to do, there is a new establishment in Port Hope, but I’m not positive it is open quite yet (corner of Mill & Ontario St).  We can check it out afterwards if anyone is interested.

Start time: 6:00pm
Ride Leader:  Deb Parks
Start location: Port Hope Town Hall Parking lot
Route map: Printable route map here

The Third Annual Home Hardware Bike Up Northumberland joint-event fundraiser ride will take place on Saturday, September 9th in support of Northumberland County’s two hospital foundations (Northumberland Hills Hospital and the Campbellford Memorial Hospital).

There will be 5, 10, 25, 50, and 100km distance options to choose from, all following the Waterfront Trail eastbound and starting at Donegan Park!

We have a good number of members representing the NHCC and it would be great if more could join us.  We will meet at Donegan Park.  If you can’t ride you can always support a rider, or volunteer.

It’s not too late. Registration is still open!! Click here to register.  Or you can register at the start of the event at the following times depending on your distance:

100K – 7:00 am, 50K – 9:00 am, 25K – 10:00 am, 10K – 10:30 am, 5K – 11:00 am