Elmhurst Bicycle Club Newsletter

The Elmhurst Bicycle Club, EBC, is one of the best bike clubs in the Midwest offering many rides and social activities. A large part of our success is due to the generous and dedicated Ride Leaders who offer many rides and activities. Our Ride Leader this month is Kathy Wagner-Selbach

What is your favorite bike to ride and how many bikes do you own?

I’m down to three bikes: a Specialized M4 Stumpjumper Pro I mainly use for trails. It’s lightweight with huge knobbys and I’ve used it for everything from night rides, winter street riding and 100 milers on the paths. My second is a Giant TCR Zero that is all Dura-Ace components and Campy pedals. It’s fun for invitationals or getting a quick ride in but I don’t like it on windy days. My absolute favorite is my old Panasonic that I purchased in 1988. It’s a fabulous all-purpose touring bike that rides like a Cadillac. I have over 84,000 miles on it and it’s crossed Australia, climbed the Tetons, been on fully-loaded weeklong rides and my 5hr century. I’ll probably be buried with it.

Why did you join the EBC and how long have you been a member?

I started riding with EBC in 1985 and joined in ’86. My first ride was led by Dick Diebold. It was a 32mile ride and I thought my bones were going to break, but he stayed with me and I finished. I met so many nice people that first year that I joined and I’m still hooked!

Not many people know that I’ve held the positions of President (1990), Membership (4 years), and numerous Metro Chair positions including quite a few years of Sag Chair, which was my absolute favorite.

What kind of rides do you lead, distance, routes, pace, and destinations?

I’ve led every kind of ride from children’s ice cream shop rides pulling a Burley to 100+ milers at 16-18 avg. Lately I like to lead rides that bring riders on streets that they hopefully never knew about. I enjoy quiet neighborhoods and I ride a very consistent pace. I think this year will see me leading longer, newer routes and I’ll be posting path rides again. I think we’re fortunate to have Google Maps where we can see streets, sneek-thru’s and pathways that we didn’t know existed in past years when we were laying out our rides via car or bike. It’s so much easier to find new routes now.

What is the most challenging part of leading and why do you lead rides?

When I started in EBC I loved going on rides because I was introduced to Chicagoland areas that I’d never been in before. That’s the best part of going on other peoples rides and hopefully I do that for them. I like to find the best of an area and work out a route for everyone to enjoy. The most challenging to me is safety to the people on my ride. I’m old fashioned and I guess I don’t believe in some of the riding habits I see on rides –like people riding down the center of the street or even on the other side. I’ve been called rude because I don’t let others “Push” me to go faster than my posted speed range and even stop at Stop signs. I know this isn’t popular with some groups but that’s how my rides are led and it’s because I’m trying to be safe. I saw one of my best friends hit and killed by a car and I don’t want to ever have that happen again!

What is your favorite ride and do you have any ride stories?

My favorite ride is probably the PAW (Pedal Across Wisconsin) NorthWoods weeklong ride from Merrill, WI thru Nicolet Forest, Land O’Lakes, MI and back. It’s all about the trees, beautiful smooth roads, pines, birds and more trees. An absolutely gorgeous ride with great people every year!

One of my favorite stories involves Betty Bond and the year we both had over 6,000 club miles. We decided to go out on a winter day Show n Go when it wasn’t even 20 degrees, -15 wind chill and it started to snow half way into the ride – but we were determined! We rode to the WalMart on Rt 83 and there she introduced me to Hot Hands, which I stuffed into my boots and gloves and we took off again into the snow. That was a tough but fun ride.

My other favorite memory is riding with Susan Kilgore on a hot summer day. We were riding up a never-ending hill out of a rest stop on the Dog Daze Double (double metric century-124 miler) when I turned to her and said that I forgot my sunglasses at the rest stop. She looked at me kind of crazy but we went back down the hill and started to look. After a while, she finally asked me what they looked like and I told her they were rose-colored lenses, my favorites. “Oh”, she said, “you mean like the ones on your face?” I had them on all the time. How embarrassing but we knew then just how hot and tired we were. We later missed a turn, which gave us an additional 5 miles and we finished the last few miles having a water fight with our bottles and celebrating a very hot 129 mile ride.

I have so many great memories from bike rides over these years –but that’s why I’m still biking.

What advice would you give new members and guests who want to go on your rides, or lead a ride?

To new members and guests I would first make sure that they are capable of riding the pace and distance of the posted ride. I also like to remind them of the rules of the road and some safety rules for group riding.

Do you have any final comments for our members, guests, and your riders? I wish more members would lead rides. There are a lot of areas some of us don’t get to ride in. It doesn’t have to be far and you can always break it up with a stop at a local coffee shop or just somewhere interesting.

Refreshments Thank You

As I bring my term as Refreshments Coordinator to a close for this year, I would like to extend my heartiest appreciation to the following members who so graciously volunteered their time in providing delicious and creative refreshments for our monthly meetings in 2011: Maria Esqueda (2xs), Kathy Wagner-Selbach (2xs), Debbie Scarcello, Gerry Fekete, Chuck and Marilyn Dean, Joanne Nicholson, Kim Messina, and Nancy Shack.

I would also like to extend my gratitude to Jim Gross, George Pastorino, Connie Karras, Maria Esqueda, Marge Ricke and Mike Struglinski for their contributions and assistance in making the Holiday Party a wonderful event.

Lastly, I would also like to thank all those members who frequently offered to help me set up and/or clean up throughout the past four years for whatever I was involved with. One of our new members, Connie Karras, is taking the lead in coordinating the refreshments for 2012. I am confident that she will be as well supported as I have been.

Cheri O’Riordan

(Editor’s Note: Cheri’s note of thanks was prompt and should have been published in last month’s newsletter, but I forgot to. I’m sure you’ll all join me in thanking Cheri for her contributions to our successful club meetings over the last four years the next time you see her. Thanks Cheri!)

Ted’s Tours

Year after year, Ted’s Tours continues to be a popular draw. I’ve personally attended one or more tours in each of the last three years, but I’m guessing that Ted has been leading these outings for many, many more years. What are these tours? Each tour is a hike in the woods – in one of the delightful forest preserves that bless Cook and DuPage counties; a chance to catch up with like-minded hiking club members. And on many of these hikes I’ve frequently heard, “What a great day to be outside enjoying this weather.”

Many of the hikes frequently draw as many as 16-18 hikers, but almost always more than a dozen. The weather can be cold (10’s and low teens) or balmy (into the 30’s and 40’s). You can find yourself trudging through snow, walking on packed dirt, crushed limestone, or asphalt; or ‘skating’ carefully on treacherous ice fields (as was the case recently in Waterfall Glen). Sometimes you find yourself on an exposed windswept clearing, but other times you are peacefully sheltered in the trees. Some of the trails are alongside babbling brooks, and even the I&M canal can offer a watery belvedere. Birds, deer, the occasional coyote, and other wildlife have been spotted.

As cyclists, we are frequently sensitive to whether or not a particular course will be hilly or relatively flat. The same concerns exist on these hikes as some of the terrain offers climbing opportunities. Knowing that the Palos area used to have toboggan slides, you have to expect some hills; and certainly the steps remain even if the slides are gone. Many of the hikers come prepared with hiking regalia including walking poles, ‘Gaters’ (lower legging wraps that keep snow from getting into boots), and ‘Yaktrax’ (cleats that buckle on to the bottom of your boots) which helps you stay upright on icy paths.

The hikes tend to be 6 or 7 miles long, about 3 hours, and include a snack break. Ted will usually be able to offer some historical or geographical insight into some aspect of each tour. For instance, the ‘bay’ adjacent to a stretch of the DesPlaines river in the Waterfall Glen area was created by excavation for landfill in the 1920’s to help create Chicago’s Lincoln Park. Some crumbling concrete remains still bear the letters LPS (Lincoln Park Society). The 2011-2012 season has come and gone, but hopefully, Ted will lead us again next season. Thanks for these tours, Ted!

February Club Meeting Cancelled

Just a reminder, The February EBC Meeting has been cancelled because a large portion of our membership will be enjoying the skiing at ABR in the Upper Peninsula that week. The March Club meeting will be held on the usual 2nd Thursday, March 8th. Come join us that night.

Cross Country Skiing Lesson

Bonnie Brennan, Diane Eident and I took a cross country skiing lesson on the last day of the EBC trip to Ironwood in February 2011. Since several people have asked me what I learned I decided to share it.

The three of us now have a mantra to use when we are gliding across the snow: bend your knees; lean forward; look where you are going (not at your feet).

After our instructor assessed our current styles, she decided to spend the hour teaching us striding on fairly level ground. The first thing I learned is that I was skiing all wrong. I thought you were supposed to use your poles to help move you along. Wrong! You’re also not supposed to be pushing off with your back foot. So how to you get your body to move forward? As you slide your foot forward you should shift your weight to that foot. Then continue to shift your weight from one foot to the other. It helps to take shorter strides, and don’t use your poles – let them drag behind you until your arms are swinging in time with your legs.

When I was discussing the technique later with George Hermach he confirmed that striding was the most important thing to learn for cross country skiing. I can add that it is also a very difficult thing to learn. I spent the rest of the day practicing hard to make it work. I had a few times when it was actually working, but a lot more times when it wasn’t. I consider it progress that I at least knew when I was not doing it correctly.

Later that day I was skiing along with Al Stanke a ways behind me. He called out, “Cindy, you are not even using your sticks!” I gave him a thumbs up. He didn’t even know that that was exactly what I was striving for.

Maybe this winter I should take a lesson on the first day. Or maybe I should have taken it 20 years ago.

Our Instructor

Rachel Borth, home: 906-932-4273, cell: 906-364-2286 (ABR has a list of available instructors.) $40 total cost for 3 students for one hour. We added a $5 tip so the cost was easier to divide by 3. I think the three of us will be calling Rachel again. Maybe to learn the “proper poling” that George mentions below.

More notes from George H.

Skiing without poles is a basic learning technique to teach proper weight transfer. I was taught to push off from the back ski as you shift your weight to the forward gliding ski which then drives your gliding ski forward. Then you repeat that step with the opposite ski and so on. When I was learning this technique, I was told to hold my poles horizontally by grasping the middle of the pole (or not hold them at all) when swinging my arms, but don't let them drag on the ground behind you. Keep on practicing that technique. The next step after you have mastered the technique of skiing without poles is to add them. Just make sure the pole is planted BEHIND your foot, not in front which would impede your forward momentum. Proper poling technique can and does add forward momentum when skiing, but is NOT a substitute for learning proper weight transfer in the first place. Going up and down hills is another lesson. And that’s what makes skiing fun. Master the flats first, then learn to tackle hills.

Volunteers Needed

In conjunction with the Elmhurst Bike Task Force and Elmhurst College, please consider joining your Club President on Saturday morning, April 14th to help out at the annual bike collection. I'm hoping 2 or 3 of you can participate between 9 a.m. and noon. Even if you can only spend an hour, please do. I'm keeping track to insure we are properly represented, so let me know if you can help out. Call me (630 790 4203) or email me at cdean69033@aol.com.

Please also keep your calendars open later in April for the Great Western Trail cleanup. Save the date (the last Saturday in April): April 28th. Regards, Chuck Dean