Archive for Club News

Reminder: Club Meeting

February 10, 2015 / / No comments

Don’t forget at the end of the month is our next club meeting, an off the bike chance to catch up with others whilst organizing club business for the year. (Event link)

If you wish to add anything for us to discuss at the meeting please fill in this form and we’ll add items to the agenda:

[contact_bank form_id=2 show_title=true ]

 

if you wish to nominate for club committee positions (including new Race Leader and Development Ride Leads) please fill in the following:

[contact_bank form_id=3 show_title=true ]

 

Category: Club News /

Club meeting 2015

February 2, 2015 / / No comments

It’s been over a year since our last meeting – finally we will have a 2015 one, ideas for agenda items can be messaged to us, please use the form at the bottom of this blog and reference ‘Meeting 2015’ in the email so we know it’s for the meeting.

Time:  19:00 for a 19:10 meeting start
Date: 23/2/15
Location: Blaydon Rugby Football Club (Hexham road – swalwell / Blaydon) – upstairs room.

Event Link: bit.ly/bccmeeting2015

First of all let me thank each and every one of you for choosing to ride with us and become a member, your support goes way beyond my gratitude, everyone of you has made progress in your cycling abilities and made some fantastic friends along the way, we have also probably eaten a great deal of cake and downed a few Olympic pools worth of coffee.

Due to our expansion we want another two members up on the committee. alongside our current roles of Secretary (Rob) Chairman (Paul) and treasurer (Kevin) as per the running of a club, nominations for all roles is open. further details on how we are going to run said ballot to follow as soon as possible.

However the two new roles will be:

  • Development Ride Officer
  • Race Officer

Both of these roles will allow for the two newer arms of the club to have some greater assistance in their running, the lead/rep/officer (exact title to be decided) will help in the organization of events, help us get in touch with the relevant organizations and help us network in general within the cycling community. Development Rides are incredibly popular and we feel it is time to have further people helping us along the way this also takes a great deal of pressure off the main committee members and will allow for events to run in their absence. Again as with the existing roles they will be open to ballot when we get this up and running. Our race team is very new with our first races taking place in early 2015, We are also time trial affiliated allowing us to compete in TT’s and races. (races may be subject to British Cycling license requirements).

Our meeting will be held at the place stated at the top of this post, and there will be a Facebook event to mark your attendance.

We will discuss where we have come in the last year, where we are going, and open to any suggestions on the future, we’ve had our first official year, it’s been a massive learning curve. we are still learning, but I have every confidence with your support and the current attitude within our members we can go a whole lot further and retain the what I feel is unique club atmosphere within Blaydon Cycle Club, I’ve already heard newer members compliment on the way we run our club, the atmosphere between each other on rides, as well as our open communications especially via social media and our website.

[contact_bank form_id=2 show_title=true ]
Category: Club News, IMPORTANT information! /

BCC Follow Friday:

January 23, 2015 / / No comments

On twitter #FollowFriday /#FF is a trend for higlighting those you wish to ‘shout out’:
Here at Blaydon CC we know some fantastic people so instead of using twitter, here’s a little list of a few of the people we know!

 

Cycle Repair Shed:  ‘The Shed’ – also known as Dave the man we turn to when we need our bikes servicing, fixed or just after general bike advice, a local small business and with drop off or collect from work/home options available get in touch and see what The Shed can do for you

Pedalling Squares:  Cycle Cafe (a great one at that too), custom cycle kit, retro cycle wear and more, they do it. Give them a visit on or off the bike!

La Taverna – Out meet HQ for the club, quite simply we couldn’t do without them. Visit La Taverna for great local ale, tapas and a Mediterranean chicken menu, all served with a very warm welcome. Michelangelo Italian Restaurant is also situation in the same building which offers great Italian food.

We know loads more people too many to mention! As always if you want us to share a link please just send us a tweet or tag us on Facebook and we’ll let our members and any potential customers know of your latest!

Category: Club News, Links /

Club ride cancellation. A club first.

January 18, 2015 / / No comments

As most of you are aware the decision was made to cancel today’s ride.
This was due to overnight sub zero temperatures and early morning snow fall.
Thanks to all that fed back the road conditions to us and apologies if you began to make your way to our ride.

Keep an eye on the twitter / Facebook before winter rides for the latest.
This is amazingly a club first. We’ve never previously cancelled a club ride.

bit.ly/BlaydonWinter explains a little more about us cancelling or changing rides and why we do it

Category: Club News, IMPORTANT information!, Ride Alert, RIDE CANCELATION /

Membership Update: 2015 subs & member files.

December 11, 2014 / / No comments

Member Info: After a quick reminder I have added a few COMPULSORY fields for new members when they sign up via British Cycling:
Emergency contact name, emergency telephone number and a yes/no check box so we know which of our members hold relevant first aid skills.
The above we field is essential, and we would find it useful to know in advance who can help with our group rides getting larger

a non compulsory text field will also allow you to enter any allergies or suchlike we may need to be aware of should the need arise.

This information will be collected when we take 2015 subs. We are still waiting on our 2015 confirmation. I will let you know in due course via a blog when this is ready to roll.

This data will be held for club admin purposes, it will not be used anywhere else, only for reference in an emergency should one arise.

Any questions please ask below.
^rh

Category: Club News, IMPORTANT information! /

Winter Rides

November 23, 2014 / / No comments

Winter Rides: *Updated November 2015*

Please Read the below so you fully understand our intentions for winter club events. 

Unfortunately living in the North of England we are at the mercy of mother nature. Just to re-address the issue of winter rides.

We try our best to keep club activity to as near to as full time as we can, we were lucky in previous winters as we never really had any severe weather.

Safety of all members is our top concern and it may get to the point where for these reasons we call off a ride. If you don’t feel confident riding in the weather that has been forecast, there is no shame in dropping out of the ride if you think you won’t be to manage for whatever reason.

We recommend lights for all rides during the winter months due to visibility being lower than the brighter summer months, especially for the ride to and from the club rides. For our week night training sessions they are mandatory (these rides take place in the hours of darkness, it’s also a legal requirement to be lit up at night) – as a minimum, on a club ride a flashing rear light is suggested in daylight hours. (just think if there was an insurance claim, have you took reasonable precautions to aid your visibility) It is your responsibility to make yourself visible to others.

Regarding club rides and events, the decision to cancel or alter a ride will be made where we can, the evening before so during the winter please make sure for our events you check the social media channels (usually this will be decided

We will post a message on one of the following (twitter and main club page are interlinked):

  • Our Facebook page
  • The Event Page
  • Twitter

This decision will be made amongst a group of our regular riders from observing the current conditions, forecast and any weather warnings in place. Rides may be also subject to delay, cancellation or alteration on the day if we feel that it may not be safe to continue due to sudden weather or forecasts received. Please check the individual events and main page for any relevant messages before you leave the house that morning.

Category: 'Main' Club Rides, Club News, Development Rides, IMPORTANT information!, Ride Alert, Ride Info / Tags: , , ,

Affilation: Blaydon Cycle Club and the year ahead (Please Read)

November 22, 2014 / / No comments

In the next week or so we will be submitting our British Cycling affiliation forms again.

We will have a few new options available:

first of all you will be required to submit emergency contact details. this will be a mandatory field when you sign up, as of the new year we want to make sure we have a contact for all should we need it.

Secondly there will be a few membership options, the majority of new members will be standard members and that remains at £10 a year. We will also be offering a discounted second club membership. This will be only open to members who have a primary club already (we can and will check!). Some members will be racing there’s extra costs to this so a small extra amount may be added to cover racing affiliation costs. This hasn’t been confirmed yet and will be arranged when subs are due. We will keep the half year membership, but again, this won’t be due until mid-summer for new members. on all memberships British Cycling levy a £1 charge unfortunately this is a small fee we pay to BC to enable us to keep all record electronic and less paper!

We are Time Trial affiliated. More on this to go on the website soon for anyone interested.

2014 has been a big first year, a big learning curve. We have done things right, done things wrong. we hope to build on the lessons learned of 2014. While we have aspirations of a race team and Time Trials please do remember this is just natural progression and development of the club, We have members of mixed ability down from the newest cyclists, right through to those who have raced across a country. We need to be able to accommodate everyone, the club will do its best to strive and preserve that yet it is very important to get the key messages out that although you may see chatter about racing, time trials and competitive cycling we have something for everyone, In numbers on every ride we can have groups of riders matched to their ability, and we are always open for questions if you have doubts about a ride.  We don’t want people to be ‘scared’ of a club run due to distance, speed, or its terrain, a simple post on the event could be all it takes to have your mind put at ease. Our main focus is and always will be catering for anyone who has an interest in cycling.

What we have done well we want to do better, where we have let people down we don’t want to repeat. We hope to see you on the other side (in 2015 that is!) and help us to build on the foundations that have already being set for a club that is getting some great attention.

As always any feedback or suggestions drop us a line.

Category: Blogs, Club News, IMPORTANT information! /

Two thousand and fifteen

October 25, 2014 / / One comment

October 25th, That’s most of this year gone. 2014 has been our first full year, we’ve started it off as a simple club, rides every 2 weeks, plan your own on the free week. we’ve now gone to having a ride every week having a more ”club like” ride every week and a development group ride the next, we’ve had members come from complete beginners averaging 8mph to comfortably managing 14-15. Others have come along to development rides and gained the confidence to join the longer fuller club runs. It’s all been pretty amazing stuff.

We’ve got ourselves now some keen Time Trial riders and have done what’s needed to get that happening, we’re on the verge of a race team too. none of that was in the ‘plan’ for the club and it’s just all happened, However we do still keep the same principals and we’re doing our best to keep everyone satisfied and included.

Now is the time when we discuss (or start to) our plans for 2015, and it’s you the members who can help us shape that. We’d like to know what you would like to see, what you have seen and liked, and we even want to hear what we may not be doing, not be doing right, or not at all, that way we can do something about it.

Please again do bear in mind we are new to this still, only a year in! and we still are learning!

for replies to this post, please do not comment on the linked facebook or twitter articles, please use the comments box below to add comments so we can keep track of all feedback this way. disqus is free, simple, and secure to sign into to leave comments using your favourite social media identities.

Category: Blogs, Club News /

Blaydon: our rides and what purpose they serve

September 14, 2014 / / No comments

At Blaydon Cycle Club we have three ‘levels’  all will be explained, what they are, what they are for, who they are for and why we run them.

This post has been commissioned as we have a considerable amount of new members, and a few questions have been asked and we want to make sure that everyone understands how we operate and how we are trying our very best to be as inclusive as possible. We understand a lot of our social media traffic might sound like everyone’s wanting to go around winning Le Tour but that’s more than likely isn’t the case (but we can dream, right?)

The three rides are graded as follows:

  • ‘Easy Wheelers’ rides
  • Development Rides
  • Club Rides

‘Easy Wheelers rides’ Occasionally when time allows we operate an ‘Easy Wheelers’ ride, these are open to all. but the focus is on new riders, those ‘fresh out the box’ these rides are shorter (10-15 miles) and are there for any new riders, or those new to riding in groups simply to get used to cycling on the roads (we pick quiet roads for these rides) and riding in groups. everyone is welcome to these but you must remember if you are experienced already these rides are exclusively for the newer riders to learn new skills and gain confidence, more able riders should be prepared to help others and be fully aware the ride will be geared for the new riders.

Development Rides Dev Rides are our middle tier of rides, generally they are every second week and run any time from 9am to 10am start. They usually run a length of 30-40 miles and are planned with a route that is not too challenging. Being Northumberland a few lumps and bumps are inevitable but these are kept to a minimum and around the top we will regroup. These rides are in essence for development and improvement, right from how to climb, corner, even eat and drink on the go. We want people to develop their skills, teach others, learn from others, the rides name is pretty self encompassing when we label it! Blaydon Jerseys will always be on hand and your ‘ride leaders’ will be pointed out at the start, these are your port of call if you have ANY issues on the ride be they mechanical or physical. We also think these are a great ride for your first ride if you have never been out in a club,you get to ride in a group, and meet many of our regulars. The intention is development rides are there to prepare you for and work your way to club rides as your confidence and skill sets grow.

 

Club rides perhaps the most confusing of late. We have operated a few ‘big’ club runs of late, more notoriously our recent ‘Hilly Fondo’ has caused some panic within the club. We want to reaffirm that challenging rides such as a ‘Fondo’ happen occasionally as we do have a very diverse group of riders. Club rides are not there just for the fast, the racers, they are all inclusive as is any ride. As you can imagine with 20-30 people on a ride it is hard to put a maximum speed or time limit out there and have such a large group out in one go. What generally happens now on the club rides is a ‘breakaway‘ group forms which contains a small group of riders who are capable of 16-18mph averages, behind those is the main group these generally are 13-15mph average depending on the terrain and course, if the group was even larger there is a chance of having a 3rd group.

Having mixed abilities is a hard balance to strike within cycling, and it can be hard to plan for from our end, and its with your continued support that allows us to facilitate the group rides. Quite simply put we need members of all abilities to make the rides a success. In no way are club rides designed for the ‘fast lads’ (as they get called) they are inclusive for everyone.

If you have concerns over   a particular route please raise them on the event page or direct message the club page (or email us) we will do our very best to help everyone, and make any adjustments or reassurance to anyone who needs it. Some club rides are challenging, some will be easier, we just want to strike a fair balance to all of our members and offer a bit of everything, all feedback of late has been noted, we really do need that feedback if we are going to be able to try and help everyone. The support can be and will be out there for all.

if you have ANY questions please to sign in with one of your social media accounts below and post a comment and we will do our very best to answer your questions. It’s with everyone’s great support the club is where it is. and it’s with this continued support and occasional feedback that we can plan for the future.

Thanks for reading this, and if you have any questions regarding how we grade and deliver our rides again, please do comment below (on this page as opposed to on twitter or facebook itself please) any feedback is appreciated and this is a great open forum to facilitate this.

 

Category: 'Main' Club Rides, Club News, Development Rides, IMPORTANT information! /

Club Updates August 2014

August 13, 2014 / / No comments

Hello all. it’s been a while since any fresh content has been put on the club website, I know the main focus of interaction is our social media pages (and they in turn show up here keeping the website up to date), but I thought I’d post and let everyone know where the club is almost one year in.

It would have been about exactly a year ago I was thinking of logos, setting up the accounts and planning the first ride. (18th August is when the event was created)

First Ever BCC Ride

A week or so after that I did the GNBR knowing it was a week until we met 10am at Newburn! It happened, 5 said they were going and about 10-15 turned up that day. At that time I thought that was alright, that wasn’t bad. and the 5-10 ridership continued (maybe as we were getting into winter then)

We battled on through the winter, and in the new year membership boomed. We became British Cycling affiliated. We wore a mix of colours, now rides are (or are going to be) a flood of colour since we have our own jerseys.

Now we have 54 ‘official’ members (that’s subscribed) with a good few more about to join or coming for some test rides in the mean time the club has grown from a group of people riding about every 2 weeks into that.

We’re about to have our first social event (a BBQ) to celebrate a great first year. We’re hoping alongside club rides and development rides we can continue growing the club. We are getting 15-30 on some rides which is numbers I’d expected from a club far more established than ourselves. Even ‘unofficial’ club runs of a weeknight are attracting around 10. which is fantastic.

I want to say a massive thanks to everyone that’s helped plan, helped other members out, and came along to rides, and I want to extend that thanks to the staff at La Taverna in Stella who host us before and after club runs, as well as the various cafe staff and coffee shops, pubs etc that have had to put up with us sometimes marching in with soaking gear on. Also the local shops and suchlike that have engaged with us on social media, and sent people our way, every single one of the people above has made the club what it is in some way. And for that I thank you, and I hope I can keep things ticking over as good, if not better as things go on, the clubs expanding so little tweaks in how things are managed will be having to happen to prevent mistakes, but every day is an education and for a someone who had no experience of managing such things. we’re not doing so bad, and I’m happy with progress of things so far, things can only get better though!

 

If you want to know more: check out some of these links

bit.ly/blaydonevents – A list of our upcoming rides and events

bit.ly/joinBCC – Join the club

bit.ly/clubruns – Info on club runs

bit.ly/developmentrides – Info on development rides

bit.ly/blaydoncycling – is our Facebook profile

 

Cheers!

Rob

Category: Blogs, Club News /
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