Mountain Cyclist –
July-August 2001
Club News
Save this date - September 15th @ Steven's Creek Canyon Park for the Annual ROMP picnic. There will be lots of good food, recreational beverages, pre-picnic rides and other fun activities including the schwag raffle for ROMP volunteers. Be sure to document your hours as you get one additional raffle ticket for each hour of volunteer service.
See the Volunteer article below.
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...by Jim Sullivan
ROMP Volunteer Coordinator
This year the ROMP board has put together a volunteer incentive program that enters you to win great stuff from our sponsors. It is a cumulative program; for every documented hour you spend volunteering as a ROMP member for mountain bike related activities, you will get one raffle ticket credited in your name. Volunteer activities include trail work, attending qualified meetings, the ROMP swap meet, etc.. Your tickets will accumulate throughout the summer and will then be entered in a bingo roller at the ROMP social picnic in the fall. We will draw from the pot of names to give away GREAT bicycle related stuff. The message here is, the more you volunteer - up to 50 hours per year - the better your odds for picking up some classy NEW stuff like: SHIMANO XT 8-9 speed wheelset, a complete SRAM 9.0 Powerglide shifting system, tires, tires, tires, mountain bike memorabilia (new, never worn, national team clothing), Ritchey NCS headsets, clothing from ODLO, and more. Did I mention tires? Also, two Specialized world champion jerseys and cycling books, all signed by Ned Overend!
Fill out the volunteer hours form on the the ROMP web page or send them to volunteer@romp.org. Hours will be accumulated retroactive beginning in January of 2001.
So get your old hours documented. Get some new volunteer hours planned, and get them documented. Let's make this year's Volunteer Sheet the best ever!
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This year's booth at the Sea Otter raised over $700 for the ROMP Mountain Bike Patrol. Thank you to all the volunteers who helped man the booth for the four days. And thank you to our many generous sponsors, who donated the items for the raffle!
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ROMP members Patty Ciesla and Charles Jalgunas have formed a new multi-use organization, the Stewards of Soquel Demonstration Forest, to help land managers of this popular biking spot partner with cyclists, equestrians, hikers, and other trail users. In just a few months, this group has already logged hundreds of hours of work building bike-friendly trails. The Soquel Demonstration Forest is located roughly midway between San Jose and Santa Cruz. To learn how you can help this with this work or join the organization, visit http://www.stanford.edu/~imahorse/.
Work by ROMP members and other concerned local cyclists is winding up for the season at Water Dog Park in Belmont, just south of San Francisco. ROMP member Berry Stevens, working with the city, has led design and construction of new singletrack on this nice piece of wilderness tucked inside the suburbs. To learn more or to help with future workdays, visit http://www.romp.org.
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...by Henry Pastorelli
Summer always marks the start of a New Year for me. It relates to the traditional summer break as a kid. You know, the 3 months of long hot days with nothing planned but what you and your buddies dream up. Not many kids (the ones I knew anyway) were sent to summer camp or shuttled around to karate or soccer. My folks simply said "go out and play".
So you'd get on your bike. Up the street lived a family of nine kids, two of which were close to my age and usually ready to go. We'd fix up old hand-me-down Schwinn Stingrays (the kind with the banana seats) modifying them to accept motorcycle handlebars and grips. Wally, one of the neighborhood dads, would braze on gussets to strengthen the frames. Nothing fancy, just solid bikes; no suspension, no gears, no titanium. In my neighborhood you could always find an empty lot or undeveloped area to ride in. Countless hours were spent riding, jumping, twisting through turns and clearing little obstacles. We'd mix it up with pickup games of basketball and baseball along with general goofing off when things got too serious. But it's not the competition of the games that stands out in my mind, it's the bikes and how we used them to discover our freedom. Riding home at sunset, dirty and tired, is how I remember "summer time".
Now the years fly by and I long for 3 months of unplanned childhood fun. I can't take the summer off but I do use mountain biking as a vehicle to re-capture some of my summer memories. Each ride I try and take away a thought or event that reminds me that I'm twelve again. It could be the sensation of "flying" while riding a roller coaster trail through a redwood forest or as simple as completing a ride at sunset.
I believe everyone has a little bit of kid left in him or her and I challenge each of you to go out and find a piece of it this summer. Do something which takes you back. Something silly, something childlike, something that triggers those feelings of childhood joy, freedom and unburdened, unscheduled endless time. It's the ultimate escape.
Have a great summer.
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ROMP's Mountain Bike Patrol has been on the trails, although you may not have seen them. While we are not collecting data for any land managers officially yet, we have been out riding, educating and assisting the trail users on many local trails.
The rangers at Wilder Ranch State Park and Henry W. Coe State Park have expressed interest in the Patrol. The Santa Clara County Open Space Authority has also expressed interest in having our Patrollers on their land. I am in the process of putting out a letter of introduction to these land managers, so stay tuned!
If you are interested in becoming a ROMP Mountain Bike Patroller, please contact me for more information. Planning is underway for another certification clinic as early as this summer.
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This year's swap meet was once again a huge success! There was everything from cappuccinos to cassettes, from visors to vintage bikes. Something for everybody and everybody buying something!
The weather was perfect for a day of shopping for the best deals in town on bikes and bike-related items. The thick crowd downed a lot of drinks and enjoyed the food from the food booth and everyone seemed to have a good time bartering the day away.
This is our largest fundraising event of the year, and this year we raised over $2500. The money raised will help us in our advocacy efforts in the cycling community.
A big thanks to all the volunteers who helped made this event so successful. A special thanks goes out to Jim Sullivan for the use of the cappuccino machine. Volunteers are such an important part of any event, but ROMP volunteers go above and beyond the call of duty!
We will be signing up volunteers again for next year's swap meet so plan ahead and join us for a fun and worthwhile event.
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New Members
Robert Baynes
William Blackmon
Binh Cheung
Lloyd Davies
Ed Deren
Tyler & Mary French
Mark Hubbell
David P. Ibison
Ruben Jaramillo
Kai Johnson & Margaret Trujilo
Colleen Jordan
Kelli Kruger
David Krull
Joan Leitner
Derek Lindsey
Eric Linthorst
Peter Lopez
Brian Shanahan
Jamie Stewart
Hank Sullivan
Terri Szulinski
Rebecca Thomsen
Jim Williams & Anne Rosenzweig
Renewing Members
Too many to list - Thank you!
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...by Chris Wilcox
Light & Motion
Light & Motion would like to give thanks to ROMP for hosting the "24 Hours of Coe." On top of that, Light & Motion would again like to thank everybody who participated in this past weekend's night ride. Hopefully more people are beginning to realize that bicycles aren't relegated to just the daylight hours. We are looking forward to the 24 hours of Coe becoming an annual event with Light & Motion as a continuing sponsor. Great job ROMP!!!
If anyone is interested in lighting systems feel free to check out our website at http://www.bikelights.com or give me a call at 831-645-1538.
Don't let the fun end just 'cause the sun's gone down!
Nothing beats the fun of raging around in the dirt, except maybe raging around the dirt at night. Our lights extend your ride and allow you too see near and far - regardless of the terrain. Focus one beam on the trail just ahead of you and one off to the side. See the edge of the trail and around corners before you make your turn. Feather-light helmet mounts mean you can forget about your lights and just enjoy the ride.
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