Archive of 2007 General Meetings

Barry Hartglass, 5BBC Program Coordinator
Leila Rinehart, Assistant 5BBC Program Coordinator

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December 2007

♦ ♦ ♦  H O L I D A Y   P A R T Y  ♦ ♦ ♦

Saturday, December 8, 8:00 PM

Location: Woolworth Tower Kitchen, 233 Broadway at Barclay Street, Manhattan (entrance on Barclay St.)

It is time to celebrate a successful 2007 season, and to see what your club has planned for next year – day rides, weekend trips, monthly programs, and the Montauk Century 2008!

By popular demand our annual holiday party will again be at the Woolworth Tower Kitchen in the City Hall area of Lower Manhattan. The party will feature:

• Full dinner buffet including vegetarian and non-vegetarian selections
• Beer, wine, soda, coffee & dessert
• Optional cash bar
• Door prizes
• Entertainment! High stakes dreidels and Christmas carols
• Our famous raffle! One free raffle per participant, additional raffles 3 for $5, proceeds to be donated to various bicycle-related charities.
• And many surprises ...

This party is the best dinner deal in town and is partly subsidized by your club. Advance registration is $35 per person until Thursday 12/6. At-the-door registration (if still available) will be $40.

• Register online with credit card
• Register by mail with check

This party is for club members and their guests only. If you're not a club member, you can fix that here. If you have questions, or have difficulty registering, or are bringing young children, or have economic hardship, please contact me at programs@5bbc.org

Indoor bike parking is available. The facility is handicapped-accessible.

November 2007 General Meeting

Monday, November 19, 6:30 to 9:00 PM

Location: Hostelling International, 891 Amsterdam Avenue (at 103 St), Manhattan, Room 111 (Board Room). Subway: #1 to 103 & Broadway.

Profiteroles vs. fondant au chocolat: in search of France's most perfect dessert

It's time for another European travelogue, plus our annual wine and cheese party (this year with some authentic French chocolate!), and the election of club officers for the coming year.

The Velotravelers return once again to dazzle us with a multimedia presentation of their bicycling (and gastronomical!) adventures. This year they visited France's Périgord region, a land of wine, beer, chocolate, walnut groves, castles, prehistoric cave paintings – and hors catégorie bicycling. Find out what a gouffre is. They will tell us what French desserts to order, how to make bicycle traveling simple and more fun, and why the best way to see the world is on a bike that folds. For a preview, check out www.todmoore.net.

Election ballots must be in the clubs' offices no later than 7:00 PM, and results will be announced after the program presentation.

October 2007 General Meeting

Monday, October 15, 6:30 PM

Location: Lower Manhattan Business Improvement District, 104 Washington Street (near Rector Street), Manhattan. Subways: 1/R/W to Rector, or 4/5 to Wall Street. You can lock your bike right outside the building, which also houses a police substation.

Taking a break over Byron Bay, Australia

Thirty Days Down Under!

G’day Mates! Hop on your “push bike,” and join Richard Sanford for his Australian adventure. His 600 mile, 30 day journey took place during Australia’s summer months, and early into the fall, from March 10 to April 10 of 2006. His 18 days of long distance touring along Australia’s east coast had him coming face to face with Kangaroos, and Koalas, catching the strangest thief imaginable, and riding along beaches like Surfers Paradise, and Byron Bay. He even joined a beekeeper for one honey of an interview! Part of Richard’s time in Australia also combined days of city cycling, a train ride into the outback and a bus ride to Melbourne (bike on board of course). Melbourne turned out to be a cyclist’s dream. Find out what new foods he discovered, how Australians spend their free time and some of the things that make life “down under,” distinctly Australian.

Authentic Australian refreshments will be served!

About Richard Sanford

Richard Sanford is a retired high school foreign language teacher and a New York City licensed tour guide, specializing in bicycle tours. When he is not leading tours both professionally and as a leader for the Five Borough Bicycle Club you may find him pedaling his bike to places like California, Florida and Alaska or working with teachers on Chinese exchange programs. Richard is also a disaster volunteer and safety and preparedness presenter for the American Red Cross in Greater New York.

Nominations for the 5BBC 2008 Executive Board

5BBC Vice-President Andrea Mercado will be at the meeting to receive nominations. All nominations must be be submitted by 7:00 pm, and they will be announced following Richard's presentation.

September 2007 General Meeting

Monday, September 17, 6:15 to 8:00 PM

Location: Lenox Hill Community Medical Group, 215 East 95th Street, Manhattan. Subway: #6 to 96th St. Indoor bicycle parking is available.

Core Muscle Activation for Cyclists

When we think about core strength – if we think about core strength! – we think about that abdominal six-pack. The six-pack may get you a date, but it won't get you stability, endurance and power on the bike, or prevent injury. For that you need the core muscles, essentially pelvic and scapular stabilizers such as glutes, transversus, obliques and lats, but others as well. How to activate these muscles, without gaining the bulk of a musclehead, is the topic for the evening, with presenters Bob Nelson, Seth Greiner and Amy McGorry, all physical therapists at H & D Physical Therapy in Manhattan (www.hdphysicaltherapy.com).

Bob is a fellow cyclist and triathlete, member of the 5BBC, multiple Montauk Century rider and a founding member of the Fast and Fabulous Cycling Club (www.fastnfab.org). He counts Liz Baum among his satisfied former patients. Seth began playing soccer at age 6 and now plays left midfield in the Hoboken Soccer League. He received his personal training certification through the National Academy of Sports Medicine (NASM) in 2003 and is a strong believer in functional exercise. Amy, an avid runner and golfer, is the former director of outpatient rehab for Georgetown's collegiate athletes. In her spare time, she's a freelance sports anchor and reporter for Cablevision's News 12 Long Island.

Bob, Seth and Amy have developed a set of exercises that will help cyclists maintain an efficient position on the bike and use core muscles to power the pedal stroke, resulting in a lower incidence of injury. The exercises, done with a physioball and stretch cord, were designed for triathletes but are suitable for a number of different sports. They have adapted their program for cycling, and are working on a version for golf. A free brochure describing the exercises for cyclists will be available at the exercise demonstration.

The trio have shown their stuff at several triathlete shops in Manhattan and have graciously offered to give the 5BBC a demo and to answer any questions you may have. The presentation will begin at 6:30 PM sharp and will run approximately an hour followed by a Q & A. We are pleased to hold the meeting in the medical offices of 5BBC Board Member and webmaster Jim Zisfein at Lenox Hill Community Medical Group, 215 East 95th St. between Second and Third Ave., in Manhattan.

The off season is the perfect time to start using this exercise program to train the core. Cyclists of all skill levels are invited.

August 2007 General Meeting

Monday, August 13, 7:00 to 9:00 PM

Location: Hostelling International, 891 Amsterdam Avenue (at 103 St), Manhattan, Room 111 (Board Room). Subway: #1 to 103 & Broadway.

Swap Meet

Bring one or more bicycle-related components, tools, accessories, apparel, etc. (new or used) that you don't want, and trade or make a deal for things that you do want. If you email programs@5bbc.org with a description of what you're bringing, we can include it in a "shopping list" to be posted here. A partial list of items available are: at least one whole bicycle, a collection of various bike bags, an assortment of clothing (including vests and winter booties), a riding saddle, and various tools and lights. Keep it coming!

Of course, there will be food – not to be swapped, but to be eaten. Expect some good old-fashioned NY deli plus a veggie selection. There may even be a mini-keg sampling of beer to top off the summer!

The 5BBC "Lady Liberty" jersey will be available for a deeply discounted close-out price. Sizes and quantities are limited.

And check out 5BBC member Jen Benepe’s new company, Hotvelociti Cycling Apparel (www.hotvelociti.com), which features women’s and men’s bike jerseys, stylish arm warmers, and socks. She will be selling this season’s jerseys at the swap meet at a significant discount from retail to 5BBC members and invited guests only!

July 2007 General Meeting

Wednesday, July 18, 6:30 to 9:00 PM

Location: Hospital for Special Surgery, 535 East 70th Street, Manhattan, 2nd Floor Conference/Lecture Room "C". Subway: #6 to 68th St. & Lexington Ave.

Sports Medicine and Cycling from a Humanitarian Perspective

Our speaker this evening is Brian C. Halpern, MD, a physician affiliated with the Sports Medicine Service of New York's renowned Hospital for Special Surgery. Dr. Halpern is a graduate of Weill Medical College of Cornell University and is on the faculty of that institution. He has also served as associate team physician to the Mets. Dr. Halpern is board certified in primary care sports medicine and family medicine and has published articles in professional journals and sports magazines.

In 1998, Dr. Halpern was tour physician for a 16-day, 1,100-mile bicycling expedition through Vietnam with disabled veterans of that war. Other participants included Senator John Kerry and Greg LeMond. This evening, it will be our privilege to see "Vietnam, Long Time Coming", the Emmy Award-winning film based on that journey.

Dr. Halpern will be available to entertain any questions you may have with respect to sports medicine and cycling – injury prevention, musculoskeletal issues, nutrition, hydration, respiration, etc.

We have also invited representatives of the United Spinal Association (www.unitedspinal.org), an organization founded by paralyzed veterans, that is dedicated to helping people with spinal cord injuries to lead full and productive lives.

This program has it all: cycling, sports medicine, community service, inspiration, and an award-winning film (with celebrities). You don't want to miss out on this evening!

Light refreshments will be served.

A bike rack is available across the street from where our meeting is being held, in front of 525 East 71st Street (the hospital's Belaire Building).

The 5BBC wishes to thank the Hospital for Special Surgery, Dr. Halpern, and Denise Magoolahan (Dr. Halpern's Office Manager) for their efforts and assistance.

June 2007 General Meeting

Monday, June 11, 6:30 to 9:00 PM

Location: Hostelling International, 891 Amsterdam Avenue (at 103 St), Manhattan. Subway: #1 to 103 & Broadway.

Navigation by Ferry and by Folding Bike

We have two speakers this evening! First up is Peggy Boyce, Community Relations Manager for NY Waterway. Peggy will tell us about NY Waterway's expanding network of ferry routes which include trans-Hudson commuter crossings north of NYC plus service to Monmouth County, NJ. She will discuss the history of metropolitan New York's premier (and bicycle-friendly!) ferry service, how ferries integrate with rail and other transit systems, and the many benefits of mass transit on the water. Courtesy of NY Waterway, a few ferry tickets will be raffled off at the meeting.

Lynette Chiang, our next speaker, will tell us about Bike Friday, a manufacturer of folding compact bikes. Bike Friday makes road and touring bikes that rival the best full-size models, and great commuter bikes that fold and unfold in a snap. These bikes fit in unimaginably tiny spaces – under your desk at work, inside airline baggage compartments, on train overhead racks, even in a New York City apartment! Lynette is a travel writer, videographer, and accomplished cyclist who travels the world on her Bike Friday. Her adventures include the famed route 66 "Mother Road" from Santa Monica to Chicago; she will show her video of this. She has also cycled in Peru on the world's highest paved road at 16,000 feet – pass the oxygen please!

Bike Friday, in cooperation with David Lam of B-Fold, will offer discounts on bikes purchased during this meeting. Please check back here for details. Plus, Lynette promises a door prize raffle for some of her books and videos.

Light refreshments will be served.

Indoor bicycle parking is available. Enter the hostel via the lobby, park your bike at the 5BBC office (Room 002, lobby level), then walk one level up to the Board Room (111) for the meeting.

May 2007 General Meeting

Thursday, May 10, 6:00 to 8:30 PM

Location: Hostelling International, 891 Amsterdam Avenue (at 103 St), Manhattan. Subway: #1 to 103 & Broadway.

A Prelude to Montauk

Are you riding the Montauk Century on May 20? (And if not, why not?) Make the most of your ride by attending our Montauk Century informational meeting.

This meeting is both for new and returning riders and is open to the general public. Debbie Friedman, our volunteer who paints those beautiful vivid pink "M-and-sideways-C" road marks, will be on hand to review the relatively flat and easy route of the Montauk Century. Experienced Montauk centurions will offer coaching tips to help you accomplish your mission, be it 65, 100, or 145 miles. There will be a video on effective group event riding. And while you're at the meeting, if you would like to register for the Montauk Century or purchase jerseys or T-shirts, we can handle that too (cash or credit card, no checks please).

We will be serving some of our "award winning" Montauk Century rest stop snacks such as focaccia, biscotti, and Nutella. We've also arranged for a wine tasting with locally produced Long Island wines. Parts of the Montauk Century route are similar in scenery, terrain, climate, and soil to regions in France and the Napa Valley.

Indoor bicycle parking is available. Enter the hostel via the lobby, park your bike at the 5BBC office (Room 002, lobby level), then walk one level up to the Board Room (111) for the meeting.

April 2007 General Meeting

Monday, April 16, 6:30 to 9:00 PM

Location: Hostelling International, 891 Amsterdam Avenue (at 103 St), Manhattan, Room 111 (Board Room). Subway: #1 to 103 & Broadway.

From The Top of The Manhattan Bridge
Photo: Dave Frieder

If you're a bridge, Dave "The Bridge Man" Frieder (www.davefrieder.com) wants to take your picture. He has climbed to the top of 16 New York area bridges (plus the Coney Island Parachute Jump) to capture views and perspectives you simply can't get from below.

Dave has studied under John Sexton, personal assistant to Ansel Adams and Jeff Nixon, workshop assistant to Ansel Adams and Morley Baer, a well known photographer who has extensively photographed the Big Sur coast of California. He is a member of The American Society of Media Photographers. His work has been on national tour and has appeared in several books and in the broadcast media. He is featured in the February issue of Shutterbug Magazine. I heard him being interviewed on WCBS Radio (while I was crossing the Throgs Neck Bridge in my car – how's that for timing!) and immediately thought of inviting him to a monthly meeting as a speaker.

This evening, Dave will treat us to a presentation of his photographic work, and will also show a movie of the construction of the George Washington Bridge. Prints can be ordered at the program; these are mounted and matted on cotton fiber museum board and signed by the photographer.

Light refreshments will be served.

Indoor bicycle parking is available. Enter the hostel via the lobby, park your bike at the 5BBC office (Room 002, lobby level), then walk one level up to the Board Room (111) for the meeting.

We see these bridges from our bicycles. Here is our chance to see them from a new perspective.

March 2007 General Meeting

Monday, March 12, 7:30 to 9:30 PM

Location: Bicycle Habitat, 244 Lafayette Street, New York, NY 10012, phone 212-431-3315. Subway: #6 to Bleecker Street or Spring Street.

Ask The Bike Shop Pros

Our March meeting will be held at Charlie McCorkell's Bicycle Habitat ("New York's Best Bike Shop") on Monday Evening, March 12, 2007, at 7:30 PM. This an exclusive after-hours opportunity for club members and accompanied guests to ask Charlie and his mechanics about bikes and accessories (or even what it takes to run a small business!) and to get recommendations for the Spring season.

Charlie is a civil engineer by training and a NYC cyclist and cycling advocate for over 35 years. He is an Executive Director emeritus of Transportation Alternatives (TA).

If you have specific questions for Charlie, email cmcbike@bicyclehabitat.com before the meeting with cc: programs@5bbc.org.

Bicycles, parts, accessories, and bikewear will be available for purchase at special sale prices! The sale is limited to stock merchandise for this evening only and is in lieu of the club discount.

• Closeout on all winter clothing - gloves, jackets, tights, etc. - 50% off.
• A select group of Specialized Optics (a/k/a sunglasses) - 50% Off.
• Specialized Body Geometry gloves $15 (regularly $40), plus some gel Nike gloves $20 (regularly $38).
• A select bunch of Specialized BG saddles - 40% discount.
• A small sampling of helmets - 40% off.
• Trainers will also be deeply discounted.
• ALL regularly priced merchandise will be at 10% discount, PLUS you will receive a coupon that will allow you to buy any one regularly priced item for 20% off (including bikes!) or any one public sale item (i.e. that is not being offered as a special to the bike club) for an additional 10% off.
• There will also be surprise items on sale.

Charlie says he's giving away wrenches! "We have 50 pedal/headset wrenches to give out to the first 50 arrivals. The wrenches will be numbered and periodically we will call out a number and give away a tube or something similar..."

Mechanics will be on hand to demonstrate bike building and bike fitting. Also, there will be a tour of the shop basement! While there is not a lot to see, some people might get a kick out of seeing a basement full of tires and bike boxes.

Prospective club members are also invited! If you are not (yet) a club member and would like to come to this meeting, please contact me (Barry) at programs@5bbc.org by noon on the day of the meeting 3/12 so I can put you on the guest list.

Refreshments will be served. The 5BBC would like thank Eric Schofield of Charlie's staff for helping us set up this program.

February 2007 General Meeting

Monday, February 26, 6:30 to 8:30 PM

Location: Hostelling International, 891 Amsterdam Avenue (at 103 St), Manhattan, Room 111 (Board Room). Subway: #1 to 103 & Broadway.

I Hate Traffic: A Conversation with "Gridlock Sam" Schwartz

We try to feature a program on urban planning at least once a year. In January 2006, our speaker was transportation engineer Carl Selinger of Cooper Union.

For February 2007, we are extremely pleased to have Sam Schwartz a/k/a "Gridlock Sam" (www.gridlocksam.com) to be our guest.

Sam had a distinguished career in New York City government for close to twenty years. He began his career as a junior engineer in Mayor John Lindsay's Traffic Department. He served as Traffic Commissioner under Mayor Ed Koch and subsequently became Chief Engineer/First Deputy Commissioner of the city's Transportation Department in that administration. He now works as a writer and consultant.

Sam holds a graduate civil engineering degree from The University of Pennsylvania. He is also a graduate of Brooklyn College and is the recipient of numerous honors for his work on urban infrastructure for integrating traffic and transit systems. Sam's traffic advisories are featured as a regular column in The NY Daily News. He is also a cyclist.

From his unique perspective, Sam will discuss our regions' transportation and traffic systems – the history (including his involvement in the creation of the first NYC bike lanes), the engineering, and the politics (including his thoughts on decongesting traffic in NYC).

It is not always that we get a witness to history and practitioner to come to chat with us to what will be surely a most educational meeting. The 5BBC wishes to extend our thanks to Mr. Schwartz's assistant editor, Joshua Knoller, for his help in setting up this program.

Seasonal refreshments will be served.

Indoor bicycle parking is available. Enter the hostel via the lobby, park your bike at the 5BBC office (Room 002, lobby level), then walk one level up to the Board Room (111) for the meeting.

January 2007 General Meeting

Malmo Sweden RR station. Photo by Ken Coughlin.

Monday, January 22, 6:30 to 8:30 PM

Location: Lower Manhattan Business Improvement District, 104 Washington Street (near Rector Street), Manhattan. Subways: 1/R/W to Rector, or 4/5 to Wall Street.

Scandinavian Adventure

5BBC members Ken Coughlin and Brian Hoberman will warm up the evening with a travelogue and photo album from their trip to Sweden and Denmark this past summer. They will provide practical information on self-contained bicycle touring, shipping bikes by air, and rail transportation in a foreign land. We hope to serve authentic Scandinavian refreshments. You can click here for more information on touring Scandinavia.

We will also hear from Laurent Chambard, NJ/NYC regional brevet administrator for Randonneurs USA (RUSA). Laurent will discuss randonneuring (long distance cycling with specific time limits) and will present his 2007 calendar of 200, 300, 400 and 600 kilometer brevets for cyclists who can qualify for the famous Paris Brest Paris 1200k ride in France.