January - February 2005

Planning for Weekends 2005

Ted Kushner, Weekend Trips Coordinator

That warm sunbeam of summer vacation light is just around the corner, and the 5BBC would like your input. The club will hold its annual "Phil O'Reilly Blizzard of Oz" Weekend Trips planning meeting on Saturday, January 22, 2005, 1:00 pm, at the new/old Club Offices, 891 Amsterdam Ave, NYC, room 002, where you - our paying customers - can share your ideas, your thoughts, even your money, in investing in the Club's goal of offering value added, fun, exciting, fashionable, and affordable Weekend Trips. Refreshments will be served. Please however drop a note to weekends@5bbc.org or call 212 932-2300 ext 115 by Wednesday January 19 so we know how much food to order.

And let's face it - none of us are getting any younger, and neither is our van equipment. You know, those contraptions the 5BBC uses to load and secure those gazillion dollar bicycles you, our paying customers, bring when indulging in one of our famous and fabulous excursions. The Club (and its predecessors) has been running these popular status symbol vacations for years … perhaps decades. Eons! They've become so ingrained into our collective subconscious that even the hint of that sunbeam during the long winter's night will evoke passionate thoughts of cycling amongst vintage locales… Cape Cod… the Vineyards of Long Island… the Amish country. Hey, if this was O'Reilly writing, he'd say that sunbeams don't cause passion, night time does.

But those contraptions, those racks and trays have taken a beating. We, the Club, are quite literally facing the moment in history when our current system of running weekend trips may need drastic surgery. One may ask, why doesn’t the Club simply purchase new van equipment? The answer to that is not so simple: the company that manufactured our equipment bit the dust years ago, and modern van equipment, for lack of a better term, just won't work. The commercially available Yakima or Thule roof racks on the market for vans are ideally intended for "one time" installation. That is, they are not really meant for constant installing and removal, and the Club must do so because the vans we use are rentals. Second, such racks must be ordered to fit a particular vehicle's make, model and year. Thus, a rack that is purchased in 2004 or 2005 might not fit a 2006 rental vehicle. Third, those racks are heavy! We need a couple of Hercules just to lift the damn things onto a van's roof, not to mention that someone (namely, a Weekend Trip leader) would have to climb atop the van's roof in order to lock the bikes into these clamping devices. Believe us… we've done it already twice, and it's not an easy task. That's why the "upside down" rack and tray system we use now is so efficient: the racks are relatively light, the trays are light, and it's relatively easy to position the bikes on top of the van (although some of us would beg to differ).

But now, after perhaps 30 years of usage, those racks and trays deserve more of a rest. In order to stretch out our equipment's useful life, the Club is rethinking its strategy. One idea is to run a few weekend trips via Car Pooling, where you, our faithful public that owns vehicles, combines talent and transport for your fellow cyclists to points beyond. Another idea is to make better use of Metro-North and the LIRR for "self-contained" weekends, to destinations that are within reasonable cycling distances of train stations. Another idea has been to rent mini-buses or full size buses for popular trips, or to rent a combination of vans/trucks, although these systems may increase trip costs. Yet another idea, in conjunction with car pooling, would be for the Club to invest in Saris racks, or Allen racks, which should be easily mountable on any vehicle.

Ideas for Weekend trips, new and old, and the means to run them: we'll take your opinions, and firm up the calendar. Look for further information on scheduled trips in upcoming newsletters and the 5BBC web site.

Ted Kushner
Weekend Trips Coordinator