Welcome to the 2024 Ganaraska Freewheeler cycling season. Your Executive (Michel, Lilianne, Jennifer, Jen and Ruth) and the Ride Coordinators (Brian & Gail, Sue & Paul) are pleased to officially launch the 2024 season.
Season Opener Ride: Friday, March 29, at 2 PM
This year our first official ride will be Good Friday, March 29th starting from the home of Lilianne and Barry in Cobourg. A traditional potluck will follow. Note the change of time from our earlier “Hold the Date” email. We thought it might be a little warmer later in the day! Brian has added the event to Facebook – be sure to comment if you will join us.
Ride Coordination
Friday Rides
Brian H. is your Friday Ride Coordinator until August. Gail will take over from there.
Rides default to a start time of 10 AM. They can be set to a different time by the host.
The deadline for requesting to host a Friday ride is Wednesday 9 PM.
Tuesday Rides
Sue is your Tuesday Ride Coordinator until August. Paul will take care of the second half of the season.
The deadline for requesting to host a Tuesday ride is Sunday at 9 PM.
For un-hosted rides, the Ride Coordinator will select a starting location and route from our extensive route library. All other decisions (such as eating arrangements) will be made by the ride participants, either at the ride or ahead of time through comments on Facebook.
All Year Club
We are now a year-round club so you may host extra events such as hike, mountain bike, canoe/kayak.
Ride with GPS Club Account
As promised at our 2023 Annual General Meeting, we have purchased a 1-year subscription to Ride with GPS. The club has paid for it this year, but if members enjoy the benefits, we will need to ask for a boost in fees next year to be able to continue it.
If you don’t already have a Ride with GPS account, step 1 is to create a free membership by visiting:
Once you have an account, click the link below to add yourself to the club membership:
https://ridewithgps.com/auto_approve/Club/12654/W2wX9o8MZaz3AIgy4TmK7CQEK6dFXLmP
Once you’ve completed these two steps, you will have access to all maps in our Club’s library and can get turn-by-turn audio cues from your cell phone. You can also search and filter by start ride area, length of ride, elevation, and map title. Note that you will have both a personal account and a club account. To get turn-by-turn instructions, you need to be signed into the club account. We’ll do an orientation at our first few rides to make sure we can help you overcome any challenges you are experiencing.
New Web Page
As mentioned in an earlier email, our hero Anita redesigned the home page of our website to make it more welcoming to both members and newcomers. She has also restructured it to make it easier to navigate. There are eight main menu items, with small to major tweaks. Here’s a basic orientation to the new structure and a few of the important changes:
- HOME is where you arrive and are welcomed into our wonderful club. Note among other attractions the big beautiful mugshots of our Ride Coordinators on our home page, so if you’re ever unsure who is the current Ride Coordinator, you need to go no further than the top page of our site to remind yourself.
- JOIN is the second main menu item – we not only encourage this on the HOME page but also devote a main menu item to it. We want to make it easier for cyclists in the community to find us and join us for a ride. See more on how you can help us with this goal later on!
- NEWS is the third menu item. We give a sneak peek on our HOME page, but for past posts, visit this link. We’re working on adding a search feature here so you can quickly filter for a specific post. Note that we only go back a couple of years in our posting history, but if you’re ever searching from any time in the last 10 years, we have it in our archive.
- 2024 CALENDAR is the fourth menu item. We will continue in 2024 to update this calendar with minimum detail (who is hosting + ride start). All other details and communications will happen in our Facebook group. A summary of how we coordinate rides, along with images of our 4 Ride Coordinators are there, along with reminders about Facebook and Ride with GPS.
- ABOUT is the fifth menu item. It contains non-password-protected details about our club, who we are, and how we roll.
- MEMBERS is the sixth menu item and has two password-protected pages: 1) our Member Directory and Emergency Contacts pages which are now in one comprehensive table, so no need to dig deeper for these important details, and 2) AGM Minutes. MEMBERS also has two non-password-protected pages: a beautiful new public gallery of member images over the years as well as a page with insurance information and forms.
- MAPS is the seventh menu item. It replaces our previous “Local Routes” page. Mich has updated it with Ride with GPS links for all maps and reorganized most routes alphabetically by start location. Many thanks to Mich for his great detailed work in updating this page and to his crew who created many of the Ride with GPS maps – Barb, Irene, Marshall, Paul, Peter and Sue.
- LEARN is the eighth and final menu item and includes reminders and tips on safety, bike and body maintenance. We’ve lost the recipes pages – if any of you are interested in bringing it back, let me know – we can add it here.
Password – Protected Pages
The Member Directory and the AGM minutes are the only pages that require the password. If you don’t remember the existing password, check the email we just sent.
Note that we will change the password this year. We will announce the new password at the season opener and follow up with an email and date on which we will switch over.
Please verify that your Member Directory information is correct in both the member column and the emergency contact column.
Send any corrections to ganaraskafreewheelers@gmail.com which goes to Ruth our Web Administrator. Use this email as well if you can’t remember the password.
New Members
We are focusing this year again on welcoming new members. We have business cards and flyers to distribute and ask that you help distribute wherever you go. Please pick some up from Michel at our next ride.
Long Ride
Sue and Lilianne are organizing this year’s 4-day long ride. It will take place in the Midland/Penetang area from Monday July 15 to Thursday July 18. Hold the date! And book soon your accommodation if you plan to attend.
Please check our Facebook Page for information regarding booking for this trip. There are 7 rooms available at the Quality Inn and Conference Centre, and it would be easier if our group were in the same accommodation. Sue has also posted information regarding camping.
Generally, it looks like tourist accommodations are being booked very early these days. So act soon if you plan to join us.
Safety
On our kick-off ride, and early in the season, we will try out the default process for going into single file. The rider closest to the curb or shoulder goes ahead, the rider in the middle of the road drops behind.
In Closing
Execs and 3 of 4 Ride Coordinators met on Monday to finalize our plan for the season! It was so great to see everyone, and we’re giddy with excitement to see all of you soon! In the flurry of post-meeting emails, Jen P. stated in her meeting notes summary:
We are a well-oiled machine and the 2024 cycling season looks like it’s in good hands! The Ride with GPS will be a great addition to the club and fingers crossed members find it user-friendly.
Indeed, fingers crossed! We hope you’ll join us in this experiment with technology. Most important, we hope to see you on Easter Friday for our kick-off ride or very soon thereafter.
Let’s have a wonderful 2024 season together – Great Fitness, Great Food, Great Friends.
Ganaraska Freewheelers Cycling Club 