Sat. Feb 25th 6pm: Adventure Cycling Director visits OCBC to unveil Underground Railroad route
OCBC welcomes local bike tourists for special program, potluck dinner, camaraderie!
We are pleased to be able to use the large new space in the showroom of our new shop to host this free gathering and slide presentation by Jim Sayer, the director of one of the best-run cycling groups in the world. Everyone is invited to this free event: we'll serve vegan chili with meat and dairy sides -- please consider a potluck dish (or cash donations are always welcome!), and RSVP to Adventure Cycling, as in their announcement for the event, below.
In addition, we'll have a brief presentation on local Underground RR sites by Joan Southgate, President of the nonprofit organization, Restore Cleveland Hope, which is dedicated to celebrating Cleveland's historic anti-slavery past through the establishment and operation of an Underground Railroad education and resource center in the historic Cozad-Bates House.
We'll also be using this occasion to announce the start of a new, more structured, format for our Saturday Social Ride on the following Saturday, March 3, with a tour of Cleveland Underground Railroad sites, when Ms. Southgate will give a more detailed presentation. See the March 3 Social Ride description on our OCBC Schedule Calendar for more details.
Celebrate the Joy of Bicycle Travel
Join us for a special gathering in either Cleveland or Oberlin on February 25 with Jim
Sayer, executive director of Adventure Cycling Association, America’s bike-travel
experts. Enjoy food and drink, meet kindred cycling spirits, learn the latest about bike
travel and cycling in North America — including Adventure Cycling’s new 520-mile
Underground Railroad Detroit Alternate route, which traverses Ohio, Michigan and
Ontario — and discover new bike-touring resources.
Please RSVP at info@adventurecycling.org or 800-755-2453 x211 and we look forward
to seeing you in Oberlin or Cleveland!
Saturday, February 25 from 11-12:30 pm at Swerve Bicycle Shop
(www.swervebikeshop.com/) at 23 Main St in downtown Oberlin (phone: 440-774-7978)
Snacks and drinks provided.
Saturday, February 25 from 6-8:30 at Ohio City Bicycle Coop (http://
www.ohiocitycycles.org/) at 1840 Columbus Rd in Cleveland
(phone: 216-830-2667). Vegan chili provided – bring potluck dish to share (preferred)
and/or cash donation.
Marmots' Meander: sign of spring successfully sighted!
On Saturday, February 4th 2012, about 50 semi-intrepid folks enjoyed the semi-winter weather and, yes, saw a sign of Spring* on the 9th Annual Marmots' Meander post-Groundhog Day Ride.
After an unexpected breakfast (thanks to Dave's Supermarket in Asiatown for the fruit!), and the traditional mixing of the cocoa (thanks again, Dave's!), and the loading of the cocoa-barrel onto the first prototype of our new cargo trailer (and a brief demo of its garden-cart conversion feature), oh, and a traditional group safety check... we were off!
Since there was an abundance of knobby-tire bikes in attendance, about half the field took a detour through the Scranton Road Beaver Colony, and heard the latest news about the County's plans for fish habitat restoration there as part of the Towpath Trail completion (which hopefully will include conservation of the beavers' habitat!). Kudos to John McG who did that 1/4 mi. of bushwhacking on his skinny-tire, single-speed commuter!
The next stop was an involuntary one at the top of Scranton Rd hill when Marie learned a valuable lesson: before a ride, you should never, while holding a spare innertube in your hand, say to yourself, "I won't need this, I haven't had a flat in months!" Thanks to a tube from Boris, and John M's mad drum-brake cable-disconnection skills, the road group had no trouble catching up to the off-road folks before the W11th St pedestrian bridge (which was, astonishingly, completely free of glass!).
The ride had just a brief pause at the Clark Field sledding hill to lament the lack of snow -- though the Mt. bikers did enjoy the short, steep descent along I 490 -- before continuing on to Steelyard Commons. At the Jennings Rd. end of the steelyard path, many present were pleasantly surprised to find that the silly, unfinished 20 yards of trail there had been nicely paved, complete with a beautiful curb cut! It was rumored that thanks for that engineering coup is owed to the Metroparks -- early evidence of their enlightened new strategic plan at work, perhaps! (if you want to thank them in person, or say anything else, be sure to attend one of their upcoming public comment events coming to a nature center near you!).
At the Ohio Erie Canal Reservation the cocoa was tapped, and deemed perfectly mixed, and the groups split again, with the "roadies" heading down the towpath to Rockside for ice cream (or shopping, or something) while the rest tried a lap of the trail, deemed just firm enough to ride without damage to the collective reputation for good trail etiquette. Props to Ben on his hybrid with fenders and rack!
After a somewhat delayed return, chili was enjoyed by all (thanks Mom!), and, after a bit of members' meeting-type talk, OCBC President Greg Bonanno unveiled our new donation tally totem (thanks to Joni's artistic energy). A reverse raffle was then won by lucky attendee Jerry, and it was back to a busy day of off-season retail sales. However, those sales did not include either of the new cargo trailers (or Barton's Carts, as they are coming to be know) -- despite the generally wild admiration for Barton's work -- so you can still be the first on your block (and in your universe!) to own a piece of OCBC, and Marmots' Meander, history!
You can stop "Think(ing) Snow" now!
Jim
P.S. Pictures of the day are here (on Facebook) until someone figures out how to get them out of there and up on here... Anyone?
*OK, so nobody got a picture of this, but a kid fishing in the canal is a pretty hopeful sign of spring, right?
Our New Location!
We have officially opened in our new space at 1840 Columbus Road! More photos are forthcoming, but in the meantime you can see some of the new spaces below.
1840 Columbus Road is across the street from our old location at 1823 Columbus Rd. -- you can follow all the directions here, but enter the new building from the rear, off of Merwin Ave. (the cobblestone street just north of the Columbus Road bridge).
Our new Retail space, complete with bicycles and hanging frames
Our new Member's Shop, which will eventually have more benches with pegboards for tools