if you are new to spr and are a female rider did you know that we have our own spr chicks facebook site. i don’t get to see what is on it as i don’t have the right qualifications, but you can. this site lets you know what activities are going on in the club as well as helps to organise some friends to attend events with you. renae’s race is on next weekend and i am sure that most of the girls in the picture will be racing. if you want to give it a go, then catch up with one of them at the next ride, or start a conversation on the spr chicks facebook page. we can guarantee that you will be well supported by the club if you do.
ride leader sponsor – there is no ride leader sponsor for this month. if you have a business that you think would benefit from advertising on our blog/facebook/emails then get in contact with the club. all money goes towards providing vouchers for the ride leaders who give their time to ensure that the group is riding to our standard.
tips and tricks – how often have you changed gears on the front and manged to drop the chain. this happens one of two ways. firstly when you change from the big to the small and the chain ends up next to the frame, or when you change from small to big and it ends up next to your pedal. the first thing most people do is stop, get off their bike and use their hand to put it back on the chainring. if you have momentum (i.e. it didn’t happen going up a hill) then there may not be any reason to get off your bike and even worse, get your hands dirty. what you need to do is move the gear lever back towards the way it was before the chain came off but remember to keep rotating the cranks. initially there will be no resistance under your pedals, but soon the chainring will bite and grab the chain. the tricky bit is the speed of shifting and the speed of pedalling. if you shift too quickly, then the chain will jam in your deraileur. if you shift too slow then you will spin until you run out of forward momentum. also if you pedal too quickly the ring will not manage to grab the chain, to slow and…well you need to experiment with this one. at the end of the day there are many times that i have dropped my chain during a group ride and it just meant that i missed 4-5 pedal strokes, but did not lose contact with the group. however, if your chain is regularly coming off, then get your gear limits looked at, or your chain and chainrings may need to be replaced. the basic rule of thumb is 5,000kms for a chain and cluster and 10,000kms for front chain rings. best if things are all changed at the same time as they mesh a lot better.
saturday start locations – we have revamped the group start locations on saturday morning. please have a look at the map so you know where your group will congregate. this makes it easier for ride leaders to give you a briefing before the ride starts. see the previous post for more details.
renae’s race – a regular to the summer criterium calendar, this year we are starting to make some changes to the format of renae’s race. this is the only women’s focused race in the state and we are moving towards it being a fully women’s only event. this year there is only 1 men’s support race kicking the event off. it is hoped that numbers allow us to have no men’s support race at all next year. however, to do this, we need more women to enter this event. there are 4 grades where there will be independent races (no sharing with other races) as well as a free “come and try” event. there are a lot of women that ride in our saturday group that would easily be able to race in “d” grade. check the previous post for more details as links to registration. help support this event to make sure it grows bigger in the future.
ride routes – there is only a slight chance of rain on saturday morning. after the thur/fri downpours, this should mean that it is relatively dry….hopefully. however, if it is a bit damp, please be careful and ride to conditions. this is especially on round-abouts as they are notoriously slippery in the wet. we had a rider slide out this morning on the main ride as they went in too hot to the final round-about.
saturday 11th february
ride starts under the narrows (cityside) at 5:30am
early lap – earlybird 40.93km spr special
all rides start at coode st carpark at 7:00am
development group – novice shelley 36.06km spr saturday
transitional – trans shelley 40.59km spr saturday
fast & main groups – south st 51.23km spr saturday
sunday 12th february
all rides start at coode st carpark at 7:00am
development group – coffee ride
short – khna weir 72.23km spr sunday
long – can mills peet obs 90.30km spr sunday
monday 13th february
ride starts under the narrows (sth perth side) at 5:30am
south stock 33.76km spr monday
tuesday 14th february
ride starts under the narrows (cityside) at 5:30am
spr tuesday 36.37km (river ride)
ride starts frasers ave at 5:45am
development group – interval training kings park
wednesday 15th february
ride starts raffles bike path at 5:30am
interval training – stock road repeats
thursday 16th february
ride starts under the narrows (cityside) at 5:30arm
spr thursday 37.26km (cott & freo)
ride starts frasers ave at 5:45am
development group – interval training kings park
friday 17th february
ride starts under the narrows (sth perth side) at 5:30am