Tuesday, April 27, 2004

Minutes. April 27, 2004

Present: Chris, Unger, Penner, Jonny, Marls, Secretary

The North Kildonan division of the club showed up on bikes. It only took 30min., which begs a couple of questions: 1) why don't they ride more often; and 2) why don't the closer people ride more often.

Marls brought chips.

Discussion ranged, so here are some of the more Klub oriented thoughts in no particular order:
  • Unger will be in his first race tomorrow, at Birds Hill. He tried to register under the FGBC, but we are not registered as a club. For that matter, Chris also registered without a club because Tinker Creek has also not registered.
  • related to above, Tinker has not registered because Birch is still closed, and apparently it's not looking particularly good for re-opening.
  • young Ben had a crash. Unger, Anita, Ben and Zoe[sp?] were out for a ride on garbage hill. Ben went vertical (head down) and managed to rip his knee open to the bone and break his collarbone. At first the extent of the injuries was unknown, so Unger rides to the nearest phone, calls Adolf, and waits. Adolf isn't coming, Unger's riding up and down Empress waiting for him, finally goes back to the phone for 911, goes back to find Ben shivering and going into shock, so he gives him his shirt and proceeds to ride up and down Empress bareback, waiting for reinforcements. Must have been quite the sight for the locals.
  • fortgarrybikeclub.com is now active. As mentioned, no files will move there until a few things get fixed up... but there is a link there to our current site, so if you forget, or want to tell someone about our site, you can start using the new url.
  • further in the media department, the president is working on the '04 fgbc DVD. It hopes to include member profiles and live fgbc action.
  • Trans-Canada Trail. Jonny rode the bit from the forest at CMU to Beaudry Park and suggests it's a nice ride... other than having to ride over the Perimeter Hwy.
  • as there was some question raised over the ability of our humble collective to have two professors as members (see previous blog entry), it seemed worthwhile to hear the humble words of the professor that is able to make it to regular meetings, "it shouldn't be a problem... there may be two profs, but there's still only one Doctor." Apparently it remains in the hands of the other (non-Doctor) prof to test the club's ability to sustain two Dr's.
  • some discussion of the bike auction, and auctions in general as potential fund-raisers. The theory is that we will buy cheap at auctions and garage sales, and sell high on ebay. Marls seemed ready to go on this work.
  • iron supplements became a significant topic. The race director takes them because he claims its necessary for a nearly vegetarian... our medical officer claims it's a certain level of blood doping. No resolution here. Then it turns out the nearly vegetarian race director isn't the only one on extra iron...
  • where the Deevil are Bergen and Luke?
  • Marls is still on sticker detail... working on a local option
  • finally, we are still proceeding with the spring ride on the given dates... it is not determined where we will be camping yet. Debate between the Minnewasta Lake site and the Stanley Park site...

til next time.

Friday, April 23, 2004

new job for US rep

Trev just posted on his blog that he will be the Assistant Professor of Ethics at Bluffton College. Is there room for two professors in our humble collective?

Tuesday, April 20, 2004

...On with the show this is it!

First and foremost, peanuts were absent (again) from the meeting ... the president is making up a schedule, and you will be contacted.

Onto bike news ... Hal stepped up and displayed his battle scars from his fight with a chain link fence (fence-1, Hal-0), but he will be ok. All we know is 61km/hr + corner = bad.

In other bike club news, the technical director has been in contact with Colin Bock about a maintenace session, so a time a place will be forthcoming shortly.

The Vertex is Unger approved ... go Vertex go!

Wax vs. oil - wax is the winner.

No sighting of Melanie.

fortgarrybikeclub.com is ours - it will be coming to a computer near you soon!

On a side note - the Pixies show did not disappoint (trevor, we were thinking of you). A solid 75 minutes of music, 2 encores, and happy fans in every direction - very, very memorable.

Phil was elected the President of the tubing/toboggan club.

We are hoping for a tour of the Fort Garry plant - we are leaving this in the capable hands of jonny.

Present and accounted for: Dave (Dieter), Darryl, James, Juan, Chris, Hal, Jon (Beans) and me.


Until next time.

Mark (Marls)

Tuesday, April 13, 2004

April 13 Meeting of the FGBC

Much news to report. Let's get down to it, shall we...

First, attendance. Another newish face, as you will see...
- penner, chris, hal, marles, jonny, secretary, unger, and, yes, aiden se ("se" standing for super esquire).

Well, top of the news was jonny's email to the original FGBC, thanking them for their product, letting them know that we've kind of named our club in parallel with theirs, that we sometimes ride bikes and almost always consume their esteemed product. That was a week or two ago. The recent reply was in the nature of "Good show. Let us know about an event and we'll supply some free product." So, that's a fairly huge response to a potentially dangerous initial contact. The idea of a corporate interfacing portfolio was discussed. I suspect jonny's got it sewed up at this point. It's that darn disarming smile that he puts on in his emails... We'll see where this goes... it was never really, actually, pointedly mentioned that we are working with something of a parallel logo...

Marles is still on sticker detail.... thinking that a 1.5 x 5" effort with "fortgarrybikeclub.com" on it might be nice... so, with that thought, and the news that we are closer than ever to coming out of the closet with the larger FGBC, there was some concern about our level of profile. Jonny closed the discussion with the assertion that, "we are exactly what we are". Done.

Next Race: Garbage Hill, Sunday April 18 @ 2:00pm. Meet at the main gate at the SW corner.
A few members have been enjoying the challenge of Garbage Hill, none more than Hal who got his doors (figuratively speaking of course) blown off by some hot shot on a single speed. There is more than one FGBC member who is skeptical of even making one round on a bike with more gears than we know how to use. (Yes, I realize this is a very strong argument for the single-speed.)

Further to single speeding... Hal reported that the winner at the single speed world championships literally gets branded. It seemed like a good idea for us to consider such an honor for some winner at the big annual ride in June.

Birch discussion: The most recent news on the opening of the Birch riding area is that it's a maybe, but we're making plans to be ready if it does open. The requirements are a) membership in a club which is signed up ($150), and then b) at the very minimum, the plain $5 membership with the MCA. The significant option we're exploring is hooking up with the Tinker Creek guys, and thus dropping the per person amount. It is unclear whether we can exist as a "sister" club, or whether we take the Tinker colours to get through the hoops. Unger is working on the details. Stay tuned for a deadline date to submit a few $$$ to be in. Seven FGBC have made verbal commitments to ante up.

There was contact with the Duke in the last week. He seems confident that he will join us for the spring ride. He's also encouraging the beers and bike stands event to get his ride in order. A fine idea around this emerged, where we would pay Colin B (neighbour of Chris' and bike repair guy) for a group afternoon in his garage. The technical director is looking into this.

Finally, there was once again debate on how to measure results at the upcoming catwalk competition at the spring ride... distance or time?

and how do we factor in the all important style points?

... well, that ranks right up there with, "what's the meaning of life?" doesn't it?

Tuesday, April 06, 2004

Doin' it bloggy style!

Let's check in to see what happened last night on the "Adventures of FGBC"...

Hal and Greg checked into for an evening of bike club, Hal biked, impressive.

Hal also gave another great idea for our stickers ... www.thestickerguy.com thanks Hal.

Ideas were bandied about for future races for FGBC, and the idea of poker derby (or game hat) for the June ride in Morden. This was met with a smattering of opinions. What is a game hat anyways? The future race ideas was quite an intense discussion with Chris leading the charge - with all these potential races coming up, it is going to be quite hard to find enough excuses not to attend, some of us will have to dig deep and give 100% in this department. (man, I wish I had brakes, again).

Some sad news - there is a rumour that Ingulf will be clear cut. We need the VP External to look into this for clarification.

On other race news, there is a 24 hour relay taking place at Falcon Lake. Both Hal and Chris are hoping to do it on their own. Hopefully they will keep us posted on a potential date for this event.

Hey, check out Greg's site www.gregorydahl.com It is FGBC approved!

Quorum was met, and it was decided that our new domain name will be fortgarrybikeclub.com. It will cost us $35 and Jonny Beans stepped up and threw 10 in the pot - that a boy beans!

The potential of us riding the naked bike ride/protest was brought up, and pretty much shot down immediately. The question of seats as an option for this ride was tabled, and met with a few laughs and giggles - oh, those silly boys in bike club!

Finally, preliminary discussions arose of a potential 'sistering up' with the Tinker Creek gang, this was met with optimism. Oh yah, Dave got his new ride - the Vertex has been unleashed and is terrorizing Wolseley as we speak - can hardly wait to see it Dave.

Members attending: Dieter, Juan, Dr. Hubie, Darryl, Jon, President and me. Thanks again to Hal and Greg for joining us - come again.

quick hits ... the dark was good, no sighting of Melanie, and no peanuts.

I'm oot and aboot

Mark/Marls

Monday, April 05, 2004

World's largest naked (cycling) event

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.

Sunday, April 04, 2004

new race page - and thoughts on new web domain

just as a follow up to the race director's prior post. I have begun a new season of race recording. I just need some confirmation on the season's point system from said race director. I know that the yellow needs some work.
race page

there seemed to be interest in us getting a new domain name. www.fgbikeclub.com is available. now www.fortgarrybikeclub.com has been suggested (also available). we will finalize the question on tuesday, and proceed. Assuming there are a few $$ contributions to the effort.

Saturday, April 03, 2004

FGBC Cup #1

The 2004 FGBC racing season is off to a good start. Six riders turned out for the first instalment of the FGBC Cup today at Assiniboine Park. I believe that is a record tunrout for a race. Hearing lots of excuses from those who didn't show--stuff like "my bike's got no breaks." The race: 5 laps of the road loop at the park--roughly 15 kms. Unofficial standings below. Official standings are on Barg's photo of the minivan window we wrote them down on. Tuesday we will hold an election for the pen and paper director, just in case there isn't a dirty minivan lurking around. Next race: Garbage Hill sometime before too long. Stay tuned for more details.

Dr Hubie - 29.59
Johnny G - 33.52
Unger - 33.57
Barg - 34.45
Starlene - 39.16
Anita - 44.17

Thursday, April 01, 2004

Race Saturday

With the snow all but gone, it's time to get the 2004 race season going. We will wipe the slate clean and start all over again with a new edition of the FGBCC(up). We will meet Saturday morning at 10am at Johnny G's place and likely head over to Assiniboine park from there. I'm thinking of one race a month minimum. Unger and I already have a list of potential race sites, so we hope to introduce a few more venues this season. See you Saturday. No excuses! Will Unger be debuting his new wheels?