January 2021 - Morris Area Freewheelers

To all MAF RIDE LEADERS, 1/5/2021

Happy New Year to all MAF Ride Leaders and a big thank you on behalf of MAF for stepping up to take on this important responsibility. You are the main reason why this club is so successful. Jay Marowitz put together these statistics for the past year that is not bad for 2020 and looking forward to a better 2021:

Total rider miles = 236,041 (sum of # riders x ride length)

Total rider climb = 10,470,927ft or 1983 miles

FYI – miles to the moon = 238,855

For your safety talks at start of your winter rides please include care crossing railroad tracks, black ice, and how to handle aggressive drivers.

So far we have D+ and C rides covered but I am reaching out to our C+ and B ride leaders to please consider putting in more C+ and B rides.

Main reason for this message is that last night at the Board meeting it was decided over the next few months to let ride leaders experiment with how they lead rides as long as they stay within MAF guidelines spelled out in the Pace and Terrain Information on the MAF website. You can specify a range of pace for your ride, you can decide to lead the ride from the front as long as you have a coleader sweeping, you can designate occasional regrouping, or you can maintain the status quo. As an example, I refer you to Valerie Cole’s ride on Friday. It is important you specify how you plan on leading your ride in the comments section of your ride and email your riders before the ride to make sure they reviewed your comments. The reason why we decided to do this is that we are always looking for ways to improve our club and to address your concerns. Looking forward to feedback from you and other ideas you may have.

Stay safe, ride safe and Happy New year,

Ride Coordinator

Manny

To all MAF RIDERS, 1/1/2021

Happy New Year to all MAF riders and their families and hope you all are well and staying safe. Looking forward to a great 2021 riding season and so far we are off to a great start with 3 rides today and 9 rides tomorrow.

As we start 2021 just a reminder that rider limit is 10 or less and rides at same starting point need to be spaced by at least 30 minutes. Ride leaders can set their limit from 4 to 10 and space their rides by more than 30 mins. These guidelines were put in place for the safety of our riders and their families. We are all ambassadors for MAF so please set the proper example by wearing your mask not only at rest stops but at the starting point and please social distance.

As riders when you sign up for a ride but change your mind please if possible do not wait until the morning of the ride to cancel. This is not fair to riders on the waiting list or the ride leader. Please be considerate. If you are on the waiting list please do not show up at a ride hoping there will be openings. This may put the ride leader in a difficult position. If there is a lot of riders on the waiting list of a ride I hope a ride leader will step up and put in a backup ride.

It has been brought to my attention that recently there has been several incidents where drivers have harassed riders. When this happens do not engage the driver and I recommend taking a picture of the car’s license and if necessary, call 911. Recommend you forward me any info on the incident.

With respect to safety be careful of black ice on these cold days. On today’s ride we witnessed a few areas of ice. My recommendation is avoid the ice by walking around those icy areas. If you find yourself on black ice don’t panic and just unhook your shoes and coast thru the area without braking or pedaling. Same precautions if you are skiing and you hit ice. With these cold temperatures and wind chill be careful of frostbite on exposed areas of skin. If you see any of your fellow riders with white spots on their face that is frostbite. First aid is to hold your hand on the white spots but do not rub and get the affected person into a warm area.

Many of our rides from Bed 1 go on Station Rd and for months Station Rd has been closed due to work on 2 bridges. On a recent ride we saw that both bridges are nearly complete and you can actually ride over both bridges as long as there is no construction activity. Finally, 2021 is looking up since the Burger King at Bed 1 is under contract. Could BK be coming back???

Stay safe, ride safe and Happy New year,

Ride Coordinator

Manny

January 5, 2021 Ride Leader Update

1/1/2021: FOR ALL MAF RIDERS