Finally, the weather man empathizes with our cold weather woes and provides us with sunshine and 17° this Sunday. Our “official” season hasn’t started yet, but we’re heading our for a pre-season ride. We’ve got a 100k coming up next month on the May long weekend, so a few of us are anxious to get ourselves moving!

We’ll meet at Carlisle Park where we’ll head our for an easy 17k (Loop A) and for those who want to give it some more cuz your legs are feeling fine, after returning to the park we’ll take off again for a little hill-age and distance—45k more!

Date: Sunday, April 28th 2013
Time: 10:00am
Start Location: The park on Carlisle St. between Ewing and Westwood
Ride Difficulty: Loop A (Level 2), Loop B (Level 3 or 4)
Route Maps: Part-A-17k and Part-B-45k route maps and elevations

New this year! Elevation Charts on our route maps
Check out a route map and you’ll see that we now have elevation charts on the first page. It’ll help you visualize those hills. But don’t be deceived by what looks like a big hill on the 17k route—the maximum elevation is only about 116m which is basically pretty flat. The 45k route on the other hand has a max elevation of about twice that.

Non-members (Guests): Membership in the NHCC means you can ride all you want. But if you aren’t quite sure about joining and want to give it a try, Guest riders (non-members) can ride with us too! Non-members may ride with the NHCC up to three times before a full membership is required. Prior to each ride, guests must sign a guest waiver and pay a $5 per-ride fee which gets credited toward a full membership. Guest waivers here.

Got a comment, suggestion, or just want to let others know you’re coming out to ride? Leave a reply in our comments section to get your two cents in!

Dig out those old bikes—Cycle Transitions is holding a bicycle donation drive this Saturday and also next. They’ll take any bicycle as long as it has potential for refurbishment or for parts (please, no junk bikes!). The fabulous volunteers at Cycle Transitions either refurbish the bicycles and offer them for sale at very low cost to the community, or salvage the good useable parts. Some of the bicycles may enter their “Sweat Equity” program where individuals can receive credit by volunteering at CT and in return use that credit to build their own bicycle from their stock.

Funds generated from the sale of these bicycles or their parts help with operating costs of Cycle Transitions, a non-profit, volunteer-run organization. If you don’t have the means to transport your donation to CT, give them a call (905-377-1278) or send an email to info@cycletransitions.org; to arrange for pick-up.

When: Saturday, April 20 and 27, 2013
Hours: 9a.m. to 12 noon
Where: Cycle Transitions – 739 D’Arcy St., Cobourg (behind the old NuComm building)

The First Annual Cycle Transitions Bike and Gear Swap is your opportunity to sell, buy, or swap any cycling related items including bikes, parts, clothing, etc. What might you see there? Cycling related stuff—what exactly, we can’t say, although there should be a good variety of styles and price, the best bargains will likely be found right at the start. Prices are determined by individual sellers. No early birds, please!

Seller information
Anyone can bring in their equipment, gear, clothing, etc., to be displayed for swap or sale. Register by email info@cycletransitions.org or on the day of the Swap before 9:50am. Registration opens on Saturday at 9:00am. There is a registration fee of $10 for individuals, $30 for businesses. Sellers assume full responsibility for their own sales and pricing of their items.

Date: Saturday, June 8, 2013
Time: 10:00am to 3:00pm
Where: Cycle Transitions parking lot

For more information, check out their website: First Annual Cycle Transitions Bike and Gear Swap

This is it! This is the first official ride of the season, the one we’ve all been waiting for. Spring has finally sprung.

This ride will be our first Level 1 ride and will be the first of our “official” season. We’ll cover some rules of the road, basics of riding in a group and how the NHCC works. We’ll pedal around, get a feel for riding together. When it’s all done around 7:30 or so we’ll head over to Mike’s house for hot dogs and hamburgers (provided by the NHCC). Bring your own drinks, however.  🙂  All club members are welcome! It’s a great opportunity for all club members to get re-acquainted with each other after this long cold winter.

This ride will start an hour earlier than the normal start time, due to the BBQ afterward.

Time: 6:00-7:30pm
Difficulty: Level 1
Start location: South end of parking lot at industrial plaza (see map)
Ride Leaders: Maria Garrett and  Mike McLellan

Important: In order that we have enough hamburgers and hot dogs on hand, pleeeeease take a moment to either comment below that you are coming, or send us a quick email. nhcycling2010@gmail.com 

View Larger Map

Dust off the bike, pump up the tires! Our official riding season begins on Monday May 6th. This year we have made a few changes to our structure that should clearly define what to expect on our rides as far as speed and skill. We’ve broken it down into 4 different ride levels, which can be reviewed on our website. Read about the NHCC ride levels here.

In general, the rides are as follows:
Monday Evenings: Level 1
Wednesday Evenings: Level 2
Thursday & Sunday Mornings: Levels 3 and 4
*Port Hope rides are held on Tuesday evenings and the level of difficulty will vary according to group needs.

T-Shirts and Club Jerseys:
New for 2013: Take a look at our new NHCC T-shirts that will be available for purchase for approximately $15 (to be confirmed). We hope to have them available for our first club ride. They’re ideal for those evening rides where you can be spandex-free, and still look like and NHCC-er.

Jerseys on the other hand, need to be pre-ordered and pre-paid and sell for $65. We’ll take orders for jerseys up until June 1st when we’ll place the order with Louis Garneau (6 week delivery)

Surely the weather has to take a turn for the better soon and we’ll all be out riding. In the meantime, we’d like to direct your attention to a new feature on our website. The Members Forum is a great resource for us to share information. It’s the place where you can:

• Create your own Ride: Find someone to ride with outside of official club rides.
• Charity Rides: Post information about a charity ride that you are participating in, or want to let others know about
• Buy, Sell, Trade, Swap: Classified ads where you can sell bikes, parts etc.
• Road Hazards & Construction Reports: Mention hazardous conditions, road closures etc.

Check it out, see what the possibilities are. You can subscribe to topics and forums that are of interest to you if you wish to be notified whenever new content is added. By default, you will not be notified about new content.

Photo courtesy of Northumberland Tourism.

The NHCC goes off road! We’ve got mountain biking on the sched for three Saturdays in May, particularly geared for the teenaged crowd. The group will venture into the forest and discover how much fun it can be to step away from the X-box, leave the electronicals behind and get some real authentic fresh air.

It won’t be crazy neck-breaking technical stuff, but it will be fun.

Dates: May 4, 11 and 18 (Saturdays)
Times: 2:00-4:00
NHCC members: FREE
Non-NHCC members: $5 per ride (plus the signing of a waiver)
Age: 14-20 (and for the young at heart)

Got some friends? Got kids? Friends with teenagers? Let ’em know. More details will be provided as we get closer. Bike helmets are mandatory—no helmet, no ride!

Cycle Transitions, the Do-it-Yourself Bicycle Shop will be offering Women’s Only Workshops in bicycle maintenance and repairs at their facility starting next month. It’s a great opportunity to learn some useful technical skills in a fun, comfortable environment. And best of all, you’ll feel empowered once you know what that funny thingamajiggy is, and what to do with it. 🙂

Thursday, April 25, 2013 (7:00-9:00pm):
Introduction Workshop “Cleaning and Maintaining Your Bike”

Thursday, May 23, 2013 (7:00-9:00pm): 
“Hubs, Headsets and Bottom Brackets” with guest mechanic Tegan Moss

Thursday, June 13, 2013 (7:00-9:00pm):
“Shifters and Derailleurs” with guest mechanic Tegan Moss

Thursday, July 11, 2013 (7:00-9:00pm): 
TBA with guest mechanic Tegan Moss

Pre-registration is required. Email: info@cycletransitions.org for information
NHCC members: $10 per session, $30 per set of 4 workshops, with opportunity to join their non profit group ($30 single yearly membership, $50 family membership).

(FREE for Cycle Transitions members)

Yes, it’s very short notice, but we’ve been holding out hoping for a good weather forecast and it looks like the weather gods are working in our favour. 8° and sunny! As always though, keep your eye on the comments section to know for sure what’s happening.

We ride from Baltimore to Sandy Flat Sugar Bush, eat some pancakes, sausage and yummy maple syrup then pedal home. It doesn’t get any better than that! The route is approximately 60km it’s a hilly one, so if you haven’t been out there training, your legs are gonna be sore afterward. It’s not for the newbie rider! You can however, cut that distance in half by starting in Centreton at the main intersection, joining the group as they pass through. NOTE: If you start in Centreton, be ready to ride as soon as the group passes through. The warmed-up riders will chill way too much if they have to stop for any length of time.

Check out the route: Sandy Flats Breakfast route map

Date: Saturday March 9, 2013
Starting place (for the 60k): Baltimore Community Center (10:30am)
Starting in Centreton (30k): Main intersection (11:30-11:45, approx. Be ready to ride!)
Anticipated arrival at the Sugar Shack: 12:30-1:00pm

Admission to the Festival is $4.00 and another $7.00 if you are partaking in the pancake breakfast.

Location of Sandy Flat Sugar Bush map here

Please comment below if you are planning to ride. It’s nice for others to know that there will someone going, and they won’t be riding alone!