We would like to determine if there is interest in weekend rides.

Please answer the following questions.  Note the survey is not interactive. Just list your answers in order, for example: 

          Y, Saturday, 30-40, C+-B-, Y

Additionally, list any locations outside of Trexlertown that you would prefer as a starting point.  Also please feel free to make comments, which the board will review. 

Please email your responses to Henry Friess at  board-members@lehighwheelmen.org

Despite the snow flurries, spring and the outdoor riding season are coming.  For many of us, the outdoor season never stopped since the winter was so mild but more warmer days are ahead.  Look for more rides on Meetup in the near future.  There are some events coming up in the next two months to help prepare for the riding season:

March 22 - Club meeting at South Mountain Cycle and Cafe.  Come hear what they have new (and old) for this year.  Ask quesions about maintenance or issues with your bike.  The cafe will be open so have a coffee or snack while you're there.  A very short business meeting will be held after the general discussion.  There will be no Zoom connection for this meeting.  And Funks is a short distance away.  Meetup - https://www.meetup.com/lehigh-wheelmen-association/events/sdlbbtyfcfbdc/

March 25 - Ride Leaders Meeting.  Come to the velo for a ride leaders meeting and training.  A short ride if the weather permits.  Many have commented on the lack of weekend rides or rides in areas away from the velo.  Become a ride leader to fix that!  It's easy and fun; you'll meet new people and share your favorite routes.  Meetup - https://www.meetup.com/lehigh-wheelmen-association/events/291994195/

April 26 - First Aid and CPR training with Earl Ostrander of CPR Roadtour.  Earl is back giving us his training focusing on cycling.  If you haven't been to one of his trainings, you are surely missing out.  You will definitely learn something and be entertained at the same time.  Don't miss it.  As usual, a business meeting will follow.  Meetup - https://www.meetup.com/lehigh-wheelmen-association/events/sdlbbtyfcgbjc/

April 29 - Skills Training - Craig Lambert has volunteered to offer his class on bike skills and safety for riders.  You'll participate in a variety of exercizes that will both test your skills and teach you new ones.  Great for new and experienced riders. Meetuup - https://www.meetup.com/lehigh-wheelmen-association/events/292122622/

IMPORTANT - Attention Club Members.

The board has recommended the following proposed changes be made to the by-laws to reflect changes that have occurred with the club, coupled with some modernization changes.

You can review the proposed changes via the link below.

Shortly, the changes will be raised to club members for a vote to accept or not.  You should familiarize yourself with the changes so you can make an informed decision.

The following is a summary of the changes:

The following is a message from Bruce White, the Event Director of the National Memorial Trail Alliance.  We will be joining them again as they ride through this area.  If you have interest in joining them in any of their other endeavors, contact Bruce directly.  He will also be coming to our May Grill and Chill to meet with club riders and talk about the events.

Carl

The September 11^th National Memorial Trail Alliance is  a non-profit organization that is developing a 1,300 mile multi-purpose trail connecting the Pentagon Memorial in DC to the Flight 93 Memorial in Shanksville, PA to the Ground Zero Memorial in NYC and back to the Pentagon Memorial in DC .  The Mission Statement for this organization is clearly that we must “Never Forget” our fallen heroes from the terrorist attacks of 9/11/01.

In June 2022, a group of 25 cyclists completed a 23 day, 1,100 mile trip to all three crash sites, marking the first organized bike tour to complete the entire triangle.  The LWA met us in Fleetwood and guided us into the Velodrome and treated us to lunch and a few laps on the track.  It was truly a highlight of the trip.

In 2023, the 9/11 NMTA will be offering three events that we hope will interest members of the LWA.

We had very good responses from the last survey about the name change for the club.  There were no strong objections to changing the name although some did prefer to keep LWA.  Most commented that it was a good idea and offered suggestions like - include "Valley" since just Lehigh makes us sound like part of Lehigh University, use club instead of association to show we are a less formal organization, change the name but keep the history, keep the new name short (three words).  All good suggestions but difficult to satisfy all of them.  

We also received some additional suggestions so we thought it would be good to put out an additional survey.  It took on average less than a minute to complete the last survey and this one should take even less time.  Please give it some thought and vote for your favorite.  The board will be reviewing the results and selecting the new name in the near future.  The formal name change will probably not occur for another year due to legal and logistical issues.  Once we have the new name selected, we will need a project manager to coordiante all the work needed to accomplish the change.  

Here's the link to the survey: 

https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/CTNH5KL

Donalee and Carl

The annual Eastern Shore Weekend in Easton, MD is on the Meetup calendar for May 5 - 7.  You can get full details about the event here.  As has been the case every year there are rides planned for Friday afternoon, Saturday and Sunday.  At this point there are 18 members signed up.  I have 10 rooms booked at the hotel at a special rate of $134.10 per night.  If you've already RSVPed to the event be sure to make your room reservation.  If we need more than 10 rooms I can likely add more.  The cutoff date to reserve at this rate is April 5.  After that date I can't promise rooms will be available.

On the Saturday ride we've traditionally stopped at Old Salty's on Hooper's Island for our lunch break.  I've had several conversations with the owner and it became clear that they would not be able to accomodate us as a group, so I'm looking for alternatives.  I've reached out to the Hooper's Island Volunteer Fire Company to see if they would be willing to host a rest stop.  It will be helpful for me to have a good idea of the number of riders and guests coming so I can give the fire company an idea of how many to expect.  So, if you are considering coming to the weeeknd I'd like to encourage you to RSVP sooner rather than later.  I'll have more information about the rest stop once the fire company has their meeting March 1.

I also have a request for someone willing to be the point person for the Friday afternoon rides.  There are two routes available so I'd need two people.  I will not get to Easton in time for the 2:00pm scheduled start, so if you are willing to act as a host for one of the Friday rides please let me know (pocono723@yahoo.com).  

I'll look forward to seeing you at Easton for this really great LWA event.

Paul Smith  - Event Organizer

Here's  a reminder about the club meeting this Thursday, Feb 23 at 7 pm at Asbury Church.  Come hear Raina talk about her experience in Abu Dhabi and stay for the exciting business meeting.  Last month we had a good session on how we can improve the club and we'll be reviewing the ideas including the potential name change for the club.  There's a lot going on in preparation for the riding season, Donut Derby, Ride Leaders Training, etc., so come on out and support your club.

Details on the location and Zoom link if you cannot attend live are on Meetup: https://www.meetup.com/lehigh-wheelmen-association/events/sdlbbtyfcdbdc/

Carl

Come to the next club meeting on Thursday, Feb 23rd, and hear Raine Fussner talk about her experience competing for the US Team (and doing very well) in the World Triathlon Championships in Abu Dhabi.  Raine says it was a truly unique experience and it will be great to hear a member of our club talking about it after  competing at such a level. In her words: "I’d love to share some of the highlights of this amazing country with you"

After the talk the club business meeting will follow.  Agenda for the meeting will be posted closer to the meeting date.

Carl Zvanut

At the club meeting last month we had a lively discussion about what the club does well and what we can change to do better.  A lot of ideas about improved marketing, types of rides, having events closer to home, more involvement with the velo, etc.  In the area of marketing and communication, the idea of changing the name of the club was brought up.  During the meeting (and after) several people tried to Google "bicycle clubs near me" and LWA was hard to find if it was there at all.

So after 70 years, it is time to give the club a bit of a facelift.  "Wheelman" is a very old (1800s) name for a bicyclist but it is not really used today.  It also projects to the outside world that we are a male only club, which we are not.  We've also been refered to as only fast riders and racers, which we certainly are not.  The board would like to keep the history associated with the name Lehigh Wheelmen Association (LWA) while projecting to the outside world that we are a friendly and inclusive bicycling group. 

To help with this, Donalee Frary has put together a survey for club members to fill out.  It's quick and painless.  We'd like to get input from the club members while we work on the legal issues around the name change.  Please click on the following link and fill out the survey: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/YTFYW2R

The board will be reviewing this input, along with the legal and logistical issues, to extablish the best path forward.  

Carl Zvanut

Asbury has closed the chruch for the day so the meeting tonight will be Zoom only.  Here's the link:

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/9198065094

Hope to "see" you there.

Carl

Hope many of you have gotten out on some of these "warm for January" days.  As a cross country skier, I miss the snow but I know many don't share my feelings.

LWA is a great club but all good things can use improvements and changes.  Come to the meeting on Jan 25th and share your thoughts about what the club does well and ways to improve;  There will be a 45 minute session to collect comments from club members and interested cyclists.  So come out socialize a bit and contribute to help the club grow stronger and conitue to promote safe and enjoyable cycling in the Lehigh Valley.  

Go to Meetup for detials and to sign up:https://www.meetup.com/lehigh-wheelmen-association/events/sdlbbtyfccbhc/

Hope to see you there!

Carl Zvanut

LWA members bought $2000 of gift cards and donated $1000 each to Sixth Street Shelter and Turning Point of the Lehigh Valley.  This really shows the club's holiday spirit in helping those in need in these tough times.  The gifts were greatly appreciated and they will go to good use for needy families.  Thanks to Jack Helfrich for coordinating this again this year.

TRAINER AND JOULE COMPUTER,  $400. Andrew Bollinger, bcupaddler@gmail.com 

We have just updated the Content Management Software used to manage our website.  There were several components of the current website that were incompatable with the new version, including the template, which determines the appearance of content posted on the website.  So when you next visit lehighwheelmen.org, what you see will look familiar, but slightly different.  All of the normal functions should be pretty much the same.  However, if you notice anything that doesn't seem to work correctly, please contact me:  webmaster@lehighwheelmen.org .  Have a nice Thanksgiving!

Dave Drummer

LWA website manager

Let’s meet at the Bear Creek Lodge to Celebrate the 2022 Cycling Season on Sunday, 4 December 2022!

There will be a cash bar cocktail hour starting at 6 pm. At 7 pm, a buffet dinner will be served. After dinner, we'll have a brief club meeting with 2023 Officer Elections, Awards, and lots of stories. Once again, Jack & Dick will craft a wonderful slide show of our 2022 Rides including the Donut Derby.

RSVP via BikeReg.com by 21 November 2022.        More details on the LWA Meetup Calendar.

This rack has been sold. . .

Last week a contingent of LWA members participated in a week long ride on the Natchez Trace Parkway.  At the club meeting Wednesday 10/26 Rich, with color commentary from other attendees, will do a presentation about the ride .  Please check the Meetup calandar and RSVP.

Paul Smith

LWA President