Bedgebury Forest Cycle Club Newsletter 27th April Good Evening Boars, Sows and Piglets and welcome to another edition of the fortnightly computer virus I like to call the club newsletter.

This newsletter has been virus checked, spell checked, grammar checked and punctuation checked. Unfortunately my brain has not been error checked so all mistakes remain, as ever my own…


Stolen – Reward Offered!

I start this week with news of a very serious theft from Bedgebury. It appears that over the past couple of weeks some devious thieves have been systematically stealing the very thing which makes Bedgebury special. The Mud! Now I don’t know who has been doing it, but I would certainly like to offer a reward. How great is it to ride there for the day and come back with a bike which is just “a bit dusty”? So take off your mud tyres, throw the mudguards in the back of the shed and enjoy the dust! Summer is here!

And now I’ve just seen the weather forecast for this weekend and I feel a bit silly having said all that. Nevermind, at least the rain is warm now…

Trail Build

Thank you to all who turned out for the trail build on the 17th. It was nice to see a couple of new faces there. We did a lot of work on the new Black section which hopefully will soon be opened. The next trail build will be on the 15th of May – please try to come along if you can. It really is very satisfying and we really appreciate your assistance.

This weekend…

This is a very busy weekend for the club with something for everyone.

On Saturday the second of our Junior Saturday Clubs meeting at 9.30 for a 10am start. This week Michael is due to lead with me assisting. Be afraid!
The usual club ride will also take place on Saturday starting at 10am at the bike shop. All are welcome.

On Sunday the first of our ladies specific rides will start from the Bike shop at 10am. Join Ali for a friendly ride around the forest using some singletrack, some of the family trail and some bits you may never have seen before.

Night rides

Wednesday nightrides are now starting from 7pm.
When it is our monthly committee on the first Wednesday of the month, then the nightride will be on following Thursday starting at 7.30pm. Confused? Well on Wednesday 5th May there won’t be a ride, but there will be one on Thursday May 6th starting at 7.30. We will finish at around 9pm, so you will still have time to vote on your way home!

Coaching

The coaching year is in full swing. We have already run successful courses for adults covering drop-offs and cornering and Junior courses introducing Mountain Biking. Coaching runs through until the Autumn, please see our coaching courses at http://www.boarsonbikes.co.uk/courses.html . If you would like something covered which is not in our diary, please contact Gary our head coach on Gscot1@aol.com or call him on 0789 641 2223 as we may be able to add to our diary if there is sufficient demand.

Committee Meeting

The committee meeting in May is on May 5th starting at 6.30pm in the old pantry in the walled car park. All are welcome to attend; this is your chance to influence how the club is run.

And Finally

This is your newsletter for your club. If you have anything cycling related to say which you would like to share with your fellow club members please drop me a line and I’ll include it. Racing news, coaching feedback, cycling events may well be of interest to all of us so send your plans and reports to me. Thanks!

Enjoy your riding.

Boris

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Bedgebury Forest Cycle Club newsletter 1st April Hello!

First of all a very warm welcome to those new members who have joined us at the beginning of our new membership year. Take off your sensible trousers and put a silly hat on. It’s great here – you’re gonna love it!

New Assets

It is very exciting to report the imminent arrival of some new assets to the club. The Forestry Commission quite rightly do not allow us to use power tools or motorized vehicles in the forest due to the potential dangers to the users and others in the vicinity. However this causes us a lot of very hard work when it comes to cutting the grass around the training area and racetrack, and in transporting tools and materials when trail building. So in order to reduce the labour and increase the time we spend actually building trails we have purchased three new assets. Molly and Dolly are a pair of New Romney Black faced ewes who will be responsible for keeping the grass cut and providing something soft to fall on to when we have novices practicing in the training area. We are also hoping to use them to boost club funds by offering a range of Ewes Milk dairy products such as cheese, yogurt and eggs. Fleecy saddle covers with the club logo on will hopefully be available by mid summer.

The third member of the team is an Dutch Heavy Horse called Dwaas. He is eight years old and is 15 hands tall but only has four feet. He will be used to transport materials and tools to trail build days, dramatically speeding up the opening of the new sections of singletrack. We are hoping he will be available to us for the next trail build on April 10th as long as he can complete a training day on singletrack cornering and drop-offs with Gary our head coach beforehand.

If you are near the training area, please feel free to go and see our newest members and maybe take them a carrot or two!

Trail Build

Our last trail build was a great success with nearly 20 volunteers! We were able to work on three sections of trail including Wanda and Starvegoose which are now running much better. Thank You very much for all involved and hopefully we will see even more of you on the next trail build day on April 10th.

Coaching

The new coaching season is almost upon us. We start on April 10th (busy day for the club!) with an introduction to Mountain Biking course, then on 17th April the Junior members Saturday club starts. For more information and bookings please seehttp://www.boarsonbikes.co.uk/courses.html

Demo Day Thanks

Dave Cole would like to Thank all those who helped out at the Demo day last Sunday. Feedback has been very good, and your help is very much appreciated.

Night Rides

There have been several requests to run night rides later to allow those with lives to get to them. We are delighted to announce that from next week the rides will be as follows: First Wednesday in the month is a committee meeting so no night ride. The Thursday after the committee meeting will be a “late” night ride starting at 7.30 and finishing no later than 9.00. I will be leading it so there is nothing at all to fear… Every other Wednesday in the month will be the usual night ride starting at 6.30. In both cases make sure you are on time as we lock the car park gates to keep our cars safe.

So hopefully I will see a few of you next Thursday at 7.30. Please let me know if you wish to borrow lights.

Ladies ride

Apologies to Ali, the Ladies ride is actually in the 2nd May not the 3rd as I reported in the last newsletter. Come along and meet Ali for a relaxed and friendly Ladies only ride. And Ladies if you want to bring your male partners along I’m sure there will be a few of us gents so we might as well do an informal separate male ride as well so we don’t feel left out!

Racing

We are still hoping to run some races this year and will have details shortly, but in the meantime please use these links to see details of other races organised by local clubs:

http://www.vcjubilee.co.uk/events_2010.html
http://www.southeastcycling.co.uk/racingcalendar.htm

Committee Meeting

And finally, we are holding our monthly committee meeting next Wednesday 6th April at the old pantry on the walled garden. Starting at 6.30, all are welcome.

Boris

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