Utica Velo/UKABRA joint ride

Alright, well this post is a few days past due, but better late than never right?

So Sunday, UKABRA held a ride, and our core group of riders (Greg, Erick and I) decided to go meet up with them. It was finally nice to get to know who it was behind the “other bike group” here in Utica. The ride itself was pretty nice. 15 mile round trip down Canal Trail to Oriskany. It was a beautiful day, though there were a lot of bugs. Bleh. Well, there isn’t a whole lot to talk about the ride, but here are some photos!

What a morning

What a morning for a bike ride. As I left home to head to work the city was still engulfed in a heavy fog with a visibility at only just over a block. It was actually quite nice. I love mornings.

Ride updates for May

Our weekly Monday Night Ride time is being switched to 7pm. The later start time should make it easier for more people to show up and now with the later days there is no real reason for such an early start date. There will be a new flyer to reflect the time change.

ALSO! Starting this week at 7pm is Wednesday Night Worlds training rides. The rides will alternate each week between pavement and dirt. Meeting at Cafe Domenico like usual. We will leave there at a slow warm up pace till we get to our destination. There will will do some sort of race or hard ride over likely a short course. After we will ride back at another slow pace to cool down. Everyone is encouraged to come ride with us even if you don’t intend to do the harder bit. You are more than welcome to just come and hang out and watch those racing. This week we are starting on pavement. Looks like a possibly criterium downtown.

A Tweedly Success!

15 riders on 13 bikes! Today was the biggest turnout we have ever had and was a great success. While the weather was just a bit warm, there were a couple who stuck to the idea of the ride and wore tweed. Temperature aside though, a great time was has by all. We all got to meet a lot of new faces, and hopefully made some new friends. We look forward to seeing you all again, and hopefully many new people at all our future rides. I will leave you know with a few photos from the ride, and you can see the rest on our flickr page.

We had 2 tandems show up. Both couples were quite well dressed as well.

Owners of local cafe, Cafe Domenico, joined us as well.

One can only imagine when the last time was that Utica saw this many bikes locked up together.

New addition

I just added a new page, “Our Rides”, to the blog today. This is where I will try to keep an updated grouping of all our regular and bigger rides. Be sure to keep an eye on it! I should be adding a few more rides in the coming weeks.

On that note, once the weather dries up a bit, we will be starting a 2nd weekly ride, this one focusing on dirt rides within the city of Utica. The rides will all start at the usual place, so there will be a bit of road riding to get to the particular trails. This should also be a good way to promote trail maintenance as many of the trails within the city are very much in disrepair

Utica Tweed Ride take 2

1st Annual Utica Tweed Ride
May 2 @ Cafe Domenico
Meeting between 11 and noon for coffee. Ride leaves shortly after the noon hour.

So it was decided, upon much mutual agreement, to reschedule the Tweed Ride. The forcasted weather for this past Sunday was absolutely horrid. A high of 45 with rain and possible snow flurries does not make people want to get out and ride. Hopefully the weather will be on our side this time.

Oh, and rumor has it, that if enough people show for the ride, a certain local pub will open early just for us.

Spring!

Leaves! The final sign that winter has lost it’s grip on us for a few months and the start of great riding weather.

Our weekly rides have been going well. We are still only getting a few riders, but a lot more have expressed interest so hopefully the rides will grow this summer.

Also! This Sunday is the 1st Annual Utica Tweed Ride. With a bit of luck the weather will be beautiful with cool temps and no rain. Don’t forget to wear your most dapper attire and to bring a friend or three. We are meeting at Cafe Domenico, between 11 and 12 for coffee, followed by a noonish departure. It will be a casual ride, with likely a few stops for socializing.

In other news, there are plans to start a weekly or bi-weekly dirt ride. Are Wednesday or Thurday nights good for anyone? A possibility is alternating dirt rides and training race rides each week.

That’s all for now. Now get out there and enjoy this beautiful weather!

New trails?

Well it’s spring time and you know that means?! Trying to fix damage to the local trails from over the winter.

Starting a little different this year though by cutting an entirely new trail. I expect it to be completed by the end of April.
If any of you would like to help, we will be doing a lot of work on it over Easter weekend.

Dirt?

A regular dirt ride has been discussed as of late and the general concesus so far is to have a once a month ride on one of the various trails in and around Utica. I figure that if we start in April we can hit up each of the trails by late summer.

Have any thoughts?

Ride updates

So the weekly rides have been going for a few weeks now. So far the turnout has been small but it is still early in a year and I know a lot of you are still just getting your bikes out for the season. There has probably been more interest this year than ever before though, which is just pretty awesome!

The Utica Tweed Ride is now just 3 1/2 weeks away! As a reminder we are meeting at Cafe Domenico on Sunday, April 18th at 11am for a bit of coffee and socializing. The ride starts promptly at Noon and will be a casual 1-2 hour ride until we finish at the Green Onion Pub for more drinks and socializing.

So for those that haven’t yet, get out that bike, dust off any cobwebs and get out and enjoy the beautiful weather that I have no doubt is just around the corner!