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Ride with GPS photo

With the official start of Spring, I want to remind all LWA members about one of the best benefits to membership in the LWA:  The ability to be included in the LWA RideWithGPS club account.

This account provides a place for the LWA to store and manage our cycling routes library and gives all LWA club members who are authorized in the LWA-GPS club account access to Premium features in RWGPS for all routes in our club library. (It does NOT give all LWA members the RWGPS Premium Level features for route that are not in our club library.)

Be sure to read through this document for more information: *RideWithGPSClubAccountB.pdf (lehighwheelmen.org)

For 2022, I will be managing the LWA RideWithGPS club account so let me know if you have any questions and I will be providing additional information as the cycling seasons starts up and gets into full swing.

We want to share with you this Thank You Letter from Community Bike Works.

As noted in a post from Carl Zvanut in September (https://lehighwheelmen.org/index.php/latest-news/spinathon-for-community-bike-works) a team of LWA members participated in  the 2021 Spinathon for Community Bike Works.  Rich Ferrera, Lenni Maguire, Raine Fussner, Steve Crampton, Jane Derby, Clyde Odom, Jack Helfrich and Carl Zvanut. 

A friendly competition among many cyclists in the Lehigh Valley, our LWA team was in the lead until the last day and we look forward to another try for 1^st place this year and further support for this big fundraiser for CBW, an organization we all know and appreciate for the good work they do.

At our LWA Holiday Party and December Meeting last night at Bear Creek we elected the below slate of nominees for LWA officers and board members.

I congratulate our new LWA President Paul Smith.

We had a very successful LWA Holiday Party and December Meeting last night at Bear Creek with about 75 attendees.

I thank everyone who contributed to making this a great evening especially:  Dave Sheffield, Jack Helffrich, Kathy Crampton and Bert Mukkulainen.

We now have 65 members registered for the LWA Holiday Party at the Bear Creek Lodge on Sunday, 5 December 2021.

Today is the last day to register.

See Meetup for details and how to sign up:  2021 LWA Holiday Party, Sunday 5 December 2021 | Meetup

After dinner, we'll have a brief club meeting including a 2021 year in review, 2022 Officer Elections, Appreciation Awards.

Jack Helffrich is developing a slide show of our 2021 Rides and Jack needs help.

At our LWA November Meeting on Wednesday, November 17 we received a very informative presentation from Erin Smith Sparrold, a Performance Nutritionist.

We now have 50 registrations for the 2021 LWA Holiday Party.

If you haven’t registered yet, you can still do so via Bike Reg link in the Meetup:

https://www.meetup.com/Lehigh-Wheelmen-Association/events/281741801/

https://www.bikereg.com/lwa-seasonal-party

Jack Helfrich will be putting together a photo slide show for the meeting and asks everyone to share with him 2021 LWA cycling photos.

Our LWA Event Coordinator, Janna Baum, has made arrangements for Erin Smith Sparrold, a Performance Nutritionist, to present at our LWA November Meeting on November 17.

Erin, who holds a sports specific nutrition certification in Metabolic Efficiency for Athletes, will talk about nutrition for athletes followed by a healthy snack for all so please RSVP on Meetup for a count of attendees.

Erin has been helping people for over 20 years live healthier lives and you can learn more about Erin at:

• Nutritionist – Matryx Performance

• (2) Erin Smith Sparrold Performance Nutrition | Facebook

See https://www.meetup.com/Lehigh-Wheelmen-Association/events/279479878 for details on meeting, which you can attend either in person or via Zoom link.

I talked to Dave Sheffield this morning about the LWA Holiday Party at the Bear Creek Lodge on Sunday, 5 December 2021.

As usual, Dave is doing a great job at planning this event that will include a cash bar cocktail hour starting at 6 pm and at 7 pm, a buffet dinner.

After dinner, we'll have a brief club meeting including a 2021 year in review, 2022 Officer Elections, Appreciation Awards.

We will also have a Jack Helffrich developed slide show of our 2021 Rides including a Donut Derby Video.

We urge all who want to attend to RSVP via BikeReg.com as soon as possible:

This past Saturday while at the Philly Bike Expo, Mark & Tammy Doran, Jack Helfrich, Clyde Odom, Carl Zvanut and I attended s 2 session seminar on "How to be a Quality Ride Leader” led by League of American Bicyclists Certified Instructors: https://phillybikeexpo.com/come-on-lets-ride-how-to-be-a-quality-ride-leader/

I learned that we here in LWA do many things related to our rides that are best in class including use of Ride With GPS, Meetup and our ride leader guidelines as articulated in these documents on our website:

• http://lehighwheelmen.org/files/documents/rideleaders-guidelines.pdf
• http://lehighwheelmen.org/files/documents/Guide%20to%20Group%20Riding.pdf

I think we do an exceptionally good job at explaining ride classifications by using distance, terrain elevation, and pace as explained in: http://lehighwheelmen.org/files/documents/LWA%20Ride%20Classifications.pdf

I also learned that bike clubs have various approaches to how to best handle vehicle traffic on the road but most follow the rule not to call out “clear” as we do.

I noted that many clubs are more cautious than we are with stop signs, and we should more completely stop especially when in the towns that we ride in.

At our LWA October Monthly meeting, Tom Kellogg of Spectrum Cycles was our guest speaker.

Tom recently retired from his long career as a custom bike frame maker, and he presented several topics including:

The Philly Bike Expo is back this year see: 2021 Philly Bike Expo – Nov. 6 & 7

There is a car full of us planning to attend as posted by Jack H on Meetup:  Philly Bike Expo | Meetup

Others who want to attend can plan on other car pool options.

I attended several years ago and found the Expo very intesting and made some good purchases of cycling clothing.

In addition to the Expo, seminars are available per: Seminar and Event Schedule – 2021 Philly Bike Expo

 Tom Kellogg of Spectrum Cycles has graciously agreed to be our guest speaker at our October LWA Monthly Meeting tomorrow, October 27,  at 7:00.

Christine Penn, our LWA Secretary, is now recovering from a bike accident,

Her fellow members of LWA Leadership team wish her a speady recovery.

For next few weeks, Chris will be recovering at:

St. Luke’s Lehighton Campus

We had a great presentation at our September LWA monthly meeting monthly meeting on Wednesday, September 22, 2021 by Damien Dugan who shared his experiences with his 2021 cross country bike trip.

Thanks to Damien for presenting and to Jack Helffrich for organizing this event.

During the meeting, we thanked Bert Mukkulainen and his team for the great 2021 Donut Derby.

During the discussion, I learned about “Notorious B.O.B.” and found this YouTube video of his participation of our 2021 Donut Derby:

https://youtu.be/1kUXhz3Zd0E

Note: Donut Derby Slide show coming soon!

We had a FANTASTIC 2021 Donut Derby & Munchkin Mile on Labor Day!

The weather was perfect, and both the Donut Derby and Munchkin Mile were very well attended and there were no calls for SAG support.

A big thanks goes to Bert Mukkulainen, our LWA leader of this year's events, and his entire committee listed below.

2021 Donut Derby & Munchkin Mile Committee:

In the Fall of 2019, we decided to no longer create the LWA Newsletter known as “Quick Release.”

We made this decision based on our ability to use a more modern communication tool, which is our LWA News/Blog located on our LWA website at: https://lehighwheelmen.org/index.php/latest-news

Since the beginning of our 2021 season, we have posted 34 New/Blogs to this site, which generates notification emails to everyone who has “subscribed.”

As the year has proceeded, I have been asked about “what’s new” with LWA and I refer to these many News/Blog posts that I and others have entered.

I also recently learned from Dave Drummer, our Website Manager, that a relatively low number of LWA members have subscribed to the LWA/Blog notification emails.

I hope everyone is having a good and safe summer.

I know of one member who had a significant accident while cycling.  Steve Kelly was injured while on a Fitness Central ride a few weeks ago.  I ask that you wish him and Dina a quick recovery.

We have had many rides this summer and I will let Kathy Crampton, our VP of Touring, update you on the number of rides, but I have heard that some of our recent News/Blogs posts may not have gone out with email alerts so be sure to catch up on some of our new Ride Leaders on these following posts from Kathy:

The main purpose of the Lehigh Wheelmen is to promote the general interest in cycling in all its phases.

To fulfill this purpose, the LWA with Lehigh County installed and dedicated a bike repair station just beyond the entrance to Rodale Fitness Park entrance for use by all who cycle and use the park.

The dedication occurred on July 10 with over 40 members and quests in attendance and was proceeded by:

• An organized ride for those new to cycling.
• A Flat Repair Clinic led by Fitness Central.
• A session on how to use the new Bike Repair Station.

Link to Photos relating to Bike Repair Stand Dedication

We dedicated the bike repair station to all who enjoy cycling and to the memory of 3 of our long-time ride leaders:

The main purpose of the Lehigh Wheelmen is to promote the general interest in cycling in all its phases.

To fulfill this purpose, the LWA with Lehigh County has installed a bike repair station just beyond the entrance to Rodale Fitness Park entrance for use by all who cycle and use the park.