May Ride Update

Ride Updates

Just a couple of regular ride details to update on and some gravel updates in this message.

  1. With the weather now clearly into normal temperature range, please be advised that we are moving the start time for the Saturday morning coffee ride to 8:00am. Sign up on the calendar for these rides.

 

  1. Please note that Clips and Tips returns this coming Monday. If you are interested, please register on the website calendar.

 

  1. Gravel Goats rides are starting this coming Thursday. Contact kvluder@gmail.com to join the WhatsApp chat group to receive location and times for ride starts.

 
Scrappy Badger Gravel Ride
 
On Saturday May 7th VCC members Rob Givens, Chris Medved, Matt Nowak, Pedro Caraballo, Alex Boisseau and Keith Luder had a blast at the Scrappy Badger gravel event set in the scenic hills of Northumberland County near Cobourg, Ontario. Badgers are known for their tenacity and power and our VCC riders had plenty of that on display as they rode over 80 kilometres of challenging terrain. As if the numerous steep hilly gravel roads were not enough there were lots of ATV trails to connect them together. These trails were made from every material nature can challenge a gravel bike with including stones and rocks of various shapes and sizes, deep sand and slippery mud. Check out the video below:
 
VCC Scrappy Badger video
 
If you’re thinking of joining the Screaming Squirrel gravel ride (SS Ride details here)
on June 11th our former prez Rob Givens has the following advice:

  • Leave your ego at home, the course will humble you.
  • Make sure your bike is tuned up so that you don’t drop your chain 6 times
  • And most importantly, gravel events are fun, don’t forget to enjoy it.

Sign up to VCC here

If you have questions about the article above, send us an email.

Facebook Twitter Instagram

Sign up change

Change for Ride Sign-Up

Well, it didn’t take HQ very long to re-introduce the use of the calendar for signing up for certain rides. While WhatsApp works great in certain circumstances, particularly where there is a regular committed group of participants (Tues/Thurs, Gravel Goats and Get Outta Town Rides) going “blind” so to speak for Mon, Wed and Sat morning is not making sense.

Why? These three rides have a wider dispersion of ride participants making a WhatsApp chat group ineffective. 

Additionally, this helps the Ride Captains plan, participants to see who is coming and the club to understand the participation rates. In the case of Tips and Clips, we want to restrict the number of riders early in the season until this group finds its groove.

So, starting this Wednesday, May 4th, the calendar will be back in use for:

Monday – Clips and Tips (first ride scheduled for Monday May 16th)
Wednesday – Tempo Ride
Saturday – Danish Pastry Ride (Social paced)

Find the Calendar here

The calendar is active now for these rides and those who used it last year will find it just as easy. 

Sign up for 2022 here

If you have questions about the article above, send us an email.

Facebook Twitter Instagram

All most ready to go

2022 Season Soon to Start

Lots to update on but first a safety message: While the pothole fillers have been out, we all know the winter can be hard on our roads. So please take caution early in the season for uneven roads and potholes.

Hold the dates for our signature events

Steve Hancock Memorial Ride
Sat July 9
Tour D’Abernethy – Beaver Valley
Sat Aug 20

Tanya’s Ride – Albion Hills
Sat Oct 1

 

 

 

2022 Ride Schedule

Stay Tuned for the Official Opening of Rides
 
  • Rides six days a week.
  • Gravel rides on Thursday morning (for those with flexible schedules) and this year we plan to add some weekend gravel rides (managed through a WhatsApp Chat group) and see what type of response we will get before making these regular.

Still haven’t signed up?

                                      Then get on it!
                                       2022 sign up
 
 

If you have questions about the article above, send us an email.

Facebook Twitter Instagram

Chain on Supply Chain

Chain Reaction Update on the Bike Market

Hello Velocitypes! 

At Chain Reaction we wanted to reach out to everyone in the club to let you all know what’s shaking here at the shop, and what you can expect from the coming year. Suffice it to say, it’s going to be another challenging year as far as the supply chain goes and you can expect that for at least another 12-24 months. Yup, that is not a typo.

A couple quick points to note….

  • Now is the time to get your bike service appointment on the books. It will only get more and more busy from here on in. We do our best to prioritize Club Members, but we expect a higher than usual volume for repairs again this year.
  • Shop early for things like parts and accessories this year. Inventory is good now on many things, but mid season replenishment may not be possible.
  • We’re back open for the full in store shopping experience.
  • WE CAN NOW TAKE PAYMENTS ON OUR WEBSITE!! This is something we’re working on every single day and we need your help to “beta test” our system. More items are being uploaded literally every hour. Most of the items you see are available now. This means you can fill a shopping cart, pay for your order and pick up in store. 

We’re offering a special 10% off discount code to all club members for any purchases made through our site until March 25th. This includes everything but bicycles and trainers. Just use the discount code ‘VELOCITY‘ at checkout (only for Velocity members so not for sharing). Make sure you use the same email address you use for in-store shopping so you can collect your rewards.

And if you want to take a deeper dive on the full state of the nation, Jason has written a brief newsletter. It’s only about a 2 minute read and it will help to shed light and add some transparency.

Thanks again for all of your support over the years. We really appreciate it! With any luck, the worst of this whole pandemic thing is behind us. We look forward to seeing all of you in the shop and out on the road/trail this season in a bigger and better way.

Keep the rubber side down,

Chain Reaction Tea

 

If you have questions about the article above, send us an email.

Facebook Twitter Instagram

Order your kit

Order your kit to meet the deadline

                          

Just a little nudge to order your kit by the February 15th deadline so that we can get the goods in your hands by mid-April. We will be changing the design in 2023 so last chance to get the current design.
As you know, we have expanded the choices to choose from for the 2022 season so have a look.

                                       Order your VCC kit

Not registered yet for the upcoming season? We’ve had strong registration to this point and joining still only costs $50 plus $48 for the OCA and their insurance coverage.

                                            Join Now

If you have questions about the article above, send us an email.

Facebook Twitter Instagram

2022 season open for registration

2022 registration and the Castelli kit portal are now open

Registration

Joining still only costs $50 plus $48 for the OCA including their insurance coverage.
                                           
                                    Join Now

We will put out a provisional ride calendar before the season opens but we finished 2021 with rides 6 days a week plus our weekly gravel rides managed as an offshoot to our formal VCC rides.

Castelli Kit ordering
After two years of valuable experience, we are determined to get the kit into your hands earlier in 2022. As such the store will close on February 15th which means the product should arrive at HQ by mid-April. If you don’t already have an account (shame on you) simply set one up.

                                       Order your VCC kit

For those who attended the year end social, you would have seen the expanded kit choices for 2022 which includes a wind jacket, a long sleeve jersey option and gloves.

                                                   
All the kit will be customized to our VCC standard once we finalize our sponsorship list for 2022.

Looking forward to a great 2022 season.

If you have questions about the article above, send us an email.

Facebook Twitter Instagram

Members meeting results

Member's Meeting

Thanks to all for attending our Member’s Meeting and Year End Social event at the Crooked Cue last week. Looks like we had over 40 people attend.

And another big thank you for showing your confidence in the current board and executive by voting in for another two years, Greg Alfred as President, Keith Luder as Vice President and Paul Martin as Treasurer. As your Board, we are looking forward in the next two years to more cycling and less COVID interruptions.

And we couldn’t do what we do without the support of our sponsors:

Plan Group as our lead sponsor since 2010 – Paul Sheridan

TPM Custom Homes and East Credit Dental since 2016 – Craig Tyndall and RTD

Eclipsys and Greg and Peter Walker since 2018 – Michael Richardson and Greg & Peter Walker

Chain Reaction since 2019 – Bill, Leslie and the Team at CR

Vibo and Zerv Inc since 2020 – Luca D’Aprile and Paul Martin

And to the two new sponsors in 2021:
Layzboy  – Paul and Heather Hogeboom

AMD – Hanif Mawji

We would also like to acknowledge the 2021 Award winners for those who could not attend last Tuesday:

Domestique of the Year – Rob Lunney (+13,000 km)
Groundhog Day Award 2021 – John Santos
Rookie of the Year 2021 – Dave Sammut
Fashionesta Award – Rebecca Bromstein (pink rules)
New Awards in 2021
The “Better” Cyclist  – Abua Oshen
The Road Whisper (master route designer) – Rich Williams
Retirement Award – for those longstanding and high contributing members who have now taken their bikes elsewhere – Rob Lunney and Rob Lendvai

With 2022 fast approaching we will be opening up the club for membership for next season early in January and advising on the full line of kit choices for the new season. We will be looking to shorten the delivery for kit so we will be asking for a quicker decision in 2022.

If you have questions about the article above, send us an email.

Facebook Twitter Instagram

Click here to learn more about our sponsors.

VCC Members Meeting and social

VCC Year End Meeting and Social

 
 Hello VCC Members

We are one week away from our year end Members Meeting and social event to be held on Dec 7th, 2021 at 7PM at the Crooked Cue CC link. Here is what you need to know:
                                                
 
  • We are expecting to have a full Castelli fit kit available for trying on including some new items to add to the list (long sleeve jersey, jacket and gloves) so this is the best chance to get to know your size
                                                      
                                         
  • You will be voting on returning Greg Alfred, Keith Luder and Paul Martin to the board for another two-year stint (hopefully with minimal COVID impact unlike our first two years on the board)
                                                                        
                 
  • And a few award winners to be acknowledged
Bring your appetite and the club will provide your first drink on us. Hope to see a great turn out.
 

If you have questions about the article above, send us an email.

Facebook Twitter Instagram

Click here to learn more about our sponsors.

Year End Social

Year End Social Confirmed

SAVE THE DATE – December 7th, 7pm at the Crooked Cue

 VCC Members Meeting and Social 

Please join us at the year end event where the following matters will be addressed:

  • voting to re-appoint Greg Alfred, Keith Luder and Paul Martin as your club’s board of directors and thank Agnes for her two years of service
  • celebrate the 2021 award winners
  • enjoying some food and your first drink on VCC
 
And if there are any Kendall Roy’s amongst the membership, BRING IT ON! 

 
But more seriously, we will be looking to increase the diversity of the board to better match the membership. This will be a focus of your board in 2022.

If you have questions about the article above, send us an email.

Facebook Twitter Instagram

Click here to learn more about our sponsors.

November Update

November Update

Hello VCC members,
 
While the weather turns and many of us head to the basement and the trainer we wanted to update you on a couple of matters of interest. But, on that note, Chain Reaction advises they have good inventory on trainers so give them a call if you are looking for one Chain Reaction trainers

 VCC Year End Social – Wednesday December 8th at 7pm
 
We haven’t forgotten about this great annual event that we were not permitted to do in 2020. Come along and catch up with your fellow riders, have a sip and a snack and celebrate the 2021 annual award winners.
 
More details to follow as we get closer to the date.
 
Milton Velodrome Update
 
The Milton Velodrome has been mostly closed for the last 18 months and now several VCC members are just getting back to doing those 250 meter loops.
 
Riding at the track is a great way to maintain your cycling fitness with that real feeling of speed through those cold winter months. You can find yourself, once you have found your comfort zone, in a pace line of 3-8 riders pedaling at 30-45kph.
 
From simple drop-in sessions to advanced structured training & racing there is something for every rider.
 
If you have any questions from experienced track cyclist, reach out to us and we can put you in contact get in touch with Bill Greene or Rich Williams.
 
You will need to get certified and the next certification dates are Nov. 20 & 27th. The Velodrome has bikes to rent so you can’t use that as an excuse.

 Velodrome certification link
 
Keep on peddling

If you have questions about the article above, send us an email.

Facebook Twitter Instagram

Click here to learn more about our sponsors.