Ride Leader Jerseys

In both my bike clubs, we've been discussing the idea of rewarding
members who lead a predetermined number of rides with a "Ride Leader"
jersey with their name on it. The basic intent is to expand our cadre
of ride leaders by encouraging members to step up and begin to lead
rides.

Do any of you belong to clubs that do this? If so, what style of jersey
(club or plain?), from what company, how many rides, etc., and if you
don't mind, at what cost? Thanks. --Roy Zipris

On 19 Mar 2005 16:21:13 -0800, Roy Zipris wrote:
In both my bike clubs, we've been discussing the idea of rewarding
members who lead a predetermined number of rides with a "Ride Leader"
jersey with their name on it. The basic intent is to expand our cadre
of ride leaders by encouraging members to step up and begin to lead
rides.

Do any of you belong to clubs that do this? If so, what style of jersey
(club or plain?), from what company, how many rides, etc., and if you
don't mind, at what cost? Thanks. --Roy Zipris

Central Jersey Bike Club used to do this (I wish they'd bring it back)
now they give us gift certs to local bike shops. I'd just wish they
figure out that a bike shop local to me wasn't in Northern NJ (50+
miles away)!

Princeton Freewheelers also give out Jerseys. The old CJBC * PFW
Jerseys are club jersey not plain. I'm hoping to earn a PFW Jersey
this year, Last year people showed up for only 3 of my rides. I'm new
to PFW and ride long and fast. I lead rides upwards of 100 miles at 18
mph avg.

--
Linux Home Automation Neil Cherry
http://home.comcast.net/~ncherry/ (Text only)
http://hcs.sourceforge.net/ (HCS II)
http://linuxha.blogspot.com/ My HA Blog

"Roy Zipris" wrote in message
oups.com...
In both my bike clubs, we've been discussing the idea of rewarding
members who lead a predetermined number of rides with a "Ride Leader"
jersey with their name on it. The basic intent is to expand our cadre
of ride leaders by encouraging members to step up and begin to lead
rides.

Do any of you belong to clubs that do this? If so, what style of jersey
(club or plain?), from what company, how many rides, etc., and if you
don't mind, at what cost? Thanks. --Roy Zipris

I am the proud owner of a ride leader jersey from my club. If you lead even
more rides, then you get the jacket, too. The jersey is the standard club
jersey, with the words "Ride Leader" on the front, back, and I think the
sleeves. It doesn't have your name on it.

Ride leaders have to complete training before they can get credit for
leading rides. I never attend the pizza party they have quarterly for
leaders because I have another commitment Sunday evenings and they are held
far from my home.

Basic info is he http://www.cascade.org/EandR/Ride_Leader_Info.cfm. If
you email with the queries about the costs, I bet
you'll get an answer.


--
Warm Regards,

Claire Petersky
Home of the meditative cyclist:
http://home.earthlink.net/~cpetersky/Welcome.htm
Personal page: http://www.geocities.com/cpetersky/
See the books I've set free at:
http://bookcrossing.com/referral/Cpetersky

On Sun, 20 Mar 2005 06:49:05 -0800, Claire Petersky wrote:
"Roy Zipris" wrote in message
oups.com...
In both my bike clubs, we've been discussing the idea of rewarding
members who lead a predetermined number of rides with a "Ride Leader"
jersey with their name on it. The basic intent is to expand our cadre
of ride leaders by encouraging members to step up and begin to lead
rides.

I am the proud owner of a ride leader jersey from my club. If you lead even
more rides, then you get the jacket, too. The jersey is the standard club
jersey, with the words "Ride Leader" on the front, back, and I think the
sleeves. It doesn't have your name on it.

Ooo, very nice. I'm a ride leader and I don't even get a jersey. :-)
We do get gift certificates but they're seldom for bike shops local to
me.

Ride leaders have to complete training before they can get credit for
leading rides.

Now this is cool! I've been leading rides for the last 8 years. When I
started I had no training but I did learn from very good leaders and
cyclists. The only thing different I do is we have no route maps. I
have an arsenal of routes in most directions and we let the days
weather decide which ones we use. One of these days I should write
them down. The clubs I belong to have too few long rides.

--
Linux Home Automation Neil Cherry
http://home.comcast.net/~ncherry/ (Text only)
http://hcs.sourceforge.net/ (HCS II)
http://linuxha.blogspot.com/ My HA Blog

"Neil Cherry" wrote in message
...

Now this is cool! I've been leading rides for the last 8 years. When I
started I had no training but I did learn from very good leaders and
cyclists. The only thing different I do is we have no route maps. I
have an arsenal of routes in most directions and we let the days
weather decide which ones we use. One of these days I should write
them down. The clubs I belong to have too few long rides.

Here, really, it works the other way. Ride leaders want to lead rides that
they themselves want to ride on, with maybe just a slightly lower mileage or
pace. As a result, if you're a beginner, you will be daunted by a list of
rides that are much longer or at a faster pace, or both, than you can
manage. 40 miles might as well be 400 for these people.

Mostly I lead rides that tend to be less than 25 miles and at the slower
paces. When I lead rides at "leisurely" (10-12 mph), I nearly always get
some folks who really should be at "easy" (8-10 mph), mostly beginners or
seniors. But there scarcely any rides for these people. That's why we get
adults at our kids' rides -- they are quite content to go 10 miles down the
trail at 10 mph. My suggestion for this year's kids' ride series is to call
these "family rides" so that more adults can feel comfortable going on them.

If we don't make a place for beginners to go on club rides, they'll always
feel like our club is elitist, or only for those who are really into
cycling, as opposed to those who would like to give it a try.


--
Warm Regards,

Claire Petersky
Home of the meditative cyclist:
http://home.earthlink.net/~cpetersky/Welcome.htm
Personal page: http://www.geocities.com/cpetersky/
See the books I've set free at:
http://bookcrossing.com/referral/Cpetersky

In article ,
says...

Basic info is he http://www.cascade.org/EandR/Ride_Leader_Info.cfm. If
you email with the queries about the costs, I bet
you'll get an answer.

Cascade gets those questions often enough, they have a custom jersey FAQ
on their web site. http://www.cascade.org/Community/Team_Jerseys.cfm

--
is Joshua Putnam
http://www.phred.org/~josh/
Updated Bicycle Touring Books List:
http://www.phred.org/~josh/bike/tourbooks.html

In article ,
says...

Mostly I lead rides that tend to be less than 25 miles and at the slower
paces. When I lead rides at "leisurely" (10-12 mph), I nearly always get
some folks who really should be at "easy" (8-10 mph), mostly beginners or
seniors. But there scarcely any rides for these people. That's why we get
adults at our kids' rides -- they are quite content to go 10 miles down the
trail at 10 mph. My suggestion for this year's kids' ride series is to call
these "family rides" so that more adults can feel comfortable going on them.

My wife and I occasionally lead family rides on the Interurban Trail.

Besides being very leisurely-paced, we find it works well to make them an
out-and-back ride of a set time, rather than set distance -- ride out
for, say, 45 minutes, than back along the same route. That solves the
problem of stragglers, if everyone turns around at the same time, the
faster riders catch up to the slower riders on the way back to the
starting point.

Next weekend we're expanding the concept to a family ride-and-walk,
everyone starts at the same time, meanders out at whatever pace their
family perfers, and ends up back at our house in time for lunch.

--
is Joshua Putnam
http://www.phred.org/~josh/
Books for Bicycle Mechanics and Tinkerers:
http://www.phred.org/~josh/bike/bikebooks.html

On Sun, 20 Mar 2005 14:33:32 -0800, Claire Petersky wrote:
"Neil Cherry" wrote in message
...

Now this is cool! I've been leading rides for the last 8 years. When I
started I had no training but I did learn from very good leaders and
cyclists. The only thing different I do is we have no route maps. I
have an arsenal of routes in most directions and we let the days
weather decide which ones we use. One of these days I should write
them down. The clubs I belong to have too few long rides.

Here, really, it works the other way. Ride leaders want to lead rides that
they themselves want to ride on, with maybe just a slightly lower mileage or
pace. As a result, if you're a beginner, you will be daunted by a list of
rides that are much longer or at a faster pace, or both, than you can
manage. 40 miles might as well be 400 for these people.

The one club I belong to, CJBC (Central jersey Bicycle Club) tends to
have lots of B's & C's (13-14 & 10-11, respectively). They do drive me
a bit nuts as I will lead members only rides (with a Lunch provided)
and they almost always give me the shortest ride (I won't use it).
There are only 2 fast ride leaders in the club, one rides far the
other rides hills.

Mostly I lead rides that tend to be less than 25 miles and at the slower
paces. When I lead rides at "leisurely" (10-12 mph), I nearly always get
some folks who really should be at "easy" (8-10 mph), mostly beginners or
seniors. But there scarcely any rides for these people. That's why we get
adults at our kids' rides -- they are quite content to go 10 miles down the
trail at 10 mph. My suggestion for this year's kids' ride series is to call
these "family rides" so that more adults can feel comfortable going on them.

That explains the dilemma you spoke of in a pervious post. The one
with the slower than average rider. I normally won't get those riders,
those who are brave enough to try out the miles usually have lots of
experience. But I still watch over them like a mother hen. Things can
go very wrong on a 100 mile, un-SAG'd ride.

If we don't make a place for beginners to go on club rides, they'll always
feel like our club is elitist, or only for those who are really into
cycling, as opposed to those who would like to give it a try.

The CJBC has plenty of support for them. In the area where I ride
there are at least 5 clubes who cater to riders in the 10 - 14 mile an
hour range. CJBC also has quite a few rides for the 8 - 9 mph avg
riders. The next group of clubs are the racers. Their pace 19+ is
above mine and that's generally thought of as their starting
point. They also don't ride the distances I ride. In the PFW I'm
considered fast for the distances I do but not at the top of the
bicycle chain. :-)

One, very important, thing to note: I never look down on folks riding
at whatever speed they ride. I try to wave or nod my head when I can
(there are times in traffic when a wave can be a very bad thing). One
day I may not be able to ride my bicycle so for now I'll be jealous of
those who can and enjoy the time while I have it!

Smoke'm if ya got'em!

--
Linux Home Automation Neil Cherry
http://home.comcast.net/~ncherry/ (Text only)
http://hcs.sourceforge.net/ (HCS II)
http://linuxha.blogspot.com/ My HA Blog

The question really isn't about custom jerseys, as I understand the
term, but how do clubs deal with the added cost of printing each
person's name on a jersey--that is, each jersey is "custom." For
example, one club sells its jerseys for $45, but if the club were to
give ride leaders their own, personalized jersey, what does that do to
the cost, and where do clubs go to get that kind of printing done? I'll
have to follow up your Cascade suggestion, Claire.

Neil, you should hook up with a couple of guys from Suburban Cyclists
Unlimited, Steve Scheetz and Doug Levy, who do the kinds of rides you
lead. However, as you have experienced, they tend not to get too many
other riders on their expeditions! See you at the Princeton Event,
where I usually do the century, although at about 85=90% of your pace.

The issue of ride leaders, ride criteria and new or less-experienced
riders is another issue. As a ride leader for "mid-range" rides, I try
to stay roughly within the guidelines (average speed, overall mileage,
and general terrain), and I also try to ensure that a group ride is
indeed a group ride. For that reason, I don't give out cue sheets, we
re-group whenever necessary, and no one gets dropped unless they want
to go off on their own. Like many others around here, I also choose
routes and rides that I enjoy, which is part of the motivation to lead
rides: you don't like the ride? Volunteer and lead your own!

Once people start leading rides, a good number go on to volunteer to
lead slower rides, as a way to give back and perhaps because they
remember what it was like when they started, riding that gleaming new
hybrid! We encourage this (in both clubs) with constant efforts to
expand our cue sheet libraries, so it's easy to pick routes and rides.

Encourage people and they enjoy the experience and the club, and
perhaps grow into more active members. Once some one has been around a
while, they learn which leaders are infamous for hilly rides, killer
distances, or speeds far beyond the advertised mph, and choose their
rides accordingly. But newbies too have a responsibility to be
realistic, especially early in the season, and not go on rides beyond
them: no one likes to be an anchor and hold others back.

In any event, the idea of personalized jerseys is part of a discussion
to induce more members to start leading rides, and to lessen the burden
on the regulars. This might combat the clique-ishness that can develop
when a small group of people do all the work. Thanks to you all. --Roy
Zipris

In article .com,
says...
The question really isn't about custom jerseys, as I understand the
term, but how do clubs deal with the added cost of printing each
person's name on a jersey--that is, each jersey is "custom." For
example, one club sells its jerseys for $45, but if the club were to
give ride leaders their own, personalized jersey, what does that do to
the cost, and where do clubs go to get that kind of printing done? I'll
have to follow up your Cascade suggestion, Claire.

Any good sublimation shop could add the name to an existing jersey.
Prices from a one-person sublimation shop should be quite reasonable -- I
think I paid $20 to have two 8x10 custom sublimated logos added to two
jerseys last year.

The technology is sublimation inks run in inkjet printers, you'll often
find a desktop sublimation setup in a custom embroidery shop, the sort of
place that does logos for small businesses and sports teams.

--
is Joshua Putnam
http://www.phred.org/~josh/
Books for Bicycle Mechanics and Tinkerers:
http://www.phred.org/~josh/bike/bikebooks.html