Urge your Senators to vote NO -Today - on Senate Amendments 2370 and 2371

The East Coast Greenway Alliance just passed along an online petition, which is extremely important for the local region's cyclists and pedestrians. The petition aims to ensure that if the TZ Bridge plans get altered, the plans will still call for a bike and pedestrian path on both the North and the South sides of the bridge. The more the regional planners hear from the cyclists in the area, the more likely they are to comply, so please take a moment to sign the petition online.

Are you using Twitter to track your friends? Well you can use our new Rockland Bicycling Club Tweets to keep track of what's going on on the site.

More info on our feed is here: http://www.rocklandbike.org/messages/viewtopic.php?t=2370

Info on Twitter at twitter.com

You love your bike. You love riding your bike. And you love the RBC. Wouldn't it be great to have some way to commemorate your riding and help the club at the same time? Introducing the club's newest project — rider portraits.

Here's how it works: We'll have a variety of portrait dates available, sign up here in the comments in order to be contacted about a date. We'll be doing portrait sittings, both with a backdrop and in Piermont with the Hudson river behind (probably both on the same date). (Additionally, we can also do a riding portrait on a local road, but that requires a higher contribution, and a separate date.)

Those photographed will get a full size JPEG of their photos and a print of their images. We're also going to ask you to let us use the (approved) portraits for a new ad campaign we're doing, called "I am the Rockland Bicycling Club"

It's $40 for the portraits (more if you'd like a shot while riding). The money is going directly into the club treasury.

View our thread here to signup: http://www.rocklandbike.org/messages/viewtopic.php?t=2324

One of our own, Jim Kelly was seriously injured in a van vs. bicycle collision on Routes 45 and 202. He is in the ICU at Good Sam. A forum thread is currently running with info and good wishes.

We're not yet sure what sort of items can be sent to him while in the ICU, but cards are certainly okay. The address for Good Sam is the directions/details section of this post.

Click details for the full content of the New York Bicycling Coalition monthly update for January

The journal news has run a long feature on avid cyclists and club members Jay and Gerry. Click details to read more.

The price of a barrel of oil hit $100 today. Want to help out the environment, save money and get healthier all at the same time? Ride your bike more, drive less. Not sure where to start? Join the Rockland Bicycling Club and we'll show you how.

More information here: http://www.rocklandbike.org/join.php

People to People needs hands.
Add even more points to your Good Deed Quotient!

People To People's Santa Project is in full swing at the Armory in Orangeburg, and helping hands are sorely needed.
Today and tomorrow, Santa Letter adopters continue to drop off gifts, and the recipient families will pick up their gifts tomorrow thru Thursday.

Come help check-in, bag, label, organize, then pick the bikes and bags for the recipients as they arrive. You can even direct traffic! There's no shortage of activity - it's a busy scene and there's plenty to do, for young and old alike. Many of the stalwarts who've been pillars of this rewarding volunteer effort for years have earned their rest or become limited to 'desk duty'. C'mon out and lend a hand for a couple hours or for the duration. Your help is needed, particularly with receiving and distributing bikes - including ours!

Help for a couple hours or for the duration:
Sun. Dec. 9 - 12pm - 5pm
Mon. Dec 10 - 10am - 6pm
Tues.Dec 11 - 12pm - 6pm
Wed. Dec 12 - 12pm - 6pm
ThursDec 13 - 12pm - 6pm

NYS Armory
84 Old Orangeburg Rd., Orangeburg 10962
Just off Exit 6W of Palisades Pkwy, or west from Route 303.
people to people nanuet office : 623-4900
rita 845 641-6556

The RBC is now using YouTube to share our videos, This will replace our video section, currently available under the menu bar. Visit

http://youtube.com/user/rocklandbike

to see our club ride videos.

Anyone who would like to add one, please contact info@rocklandbike.org for instructions.

The club's been fortunate to have a lot of great rides this year. But some people have noticed that there were fewer weekend rides. Whazzupwithdat? It's simple. We need you to be a ride leader. That's right, you. And we've got a nice program to make it too tempting to pass up.

The club's board also comprises the majority of the ride leaders at RBC. We're working hard to make the club great. But at the same time, we're all also trying to get other things done tooó get to work, juggle the schedules of kids soccer games, get married, get elite mileage in for the year, and so on.

As a completely volunteer run organization, we need our member's participation to keep growing. Everyone on the board (with the exception of me and Foster, who started the club) joined as a member and then went on to become a ride leader, (some after a bit of trepidation).

Each ride leader leads different kinds of rides. Paul's damn good with the new folk and he's a guy you can count on to show up. Maria leads fun rides with great chatting. Sheryl picks rides with sharing and pep talks. Gerry likes to turn right before he makes a left (we can't all be perfect). Glenn's rides are for the insane.

What we love about each of these is their differentness. And we'd like to add your rides to the mix.

And we're willing to back you guys up tooó starting now, here are some new programs.

The RBC 2007/2008 club jersey is here, and it looks great. If you ordered your jersey, you can pick it up at the Club birthday party at Casa Del Mare on Wednesday the 29th. You can also purchase a jersey then, if you didn't pre-order. Jersey sales will also happen before the Thursday night Rockland Lake ride in the parking lot (come a bit early).

We've got a lot of great things planned for the upcoming club meeting, so we wanted to detail them all a bit more.

First of all, we'll be taking orders for our 2007-2008 club jersey. The order with Voler is in and we've got limited numbers of jerseys available, so they're on a first-come-first-served basis. You can see the design at this thread.. Sizing samples will be available. Jerseys will be $60 and we'll need cash or check.

Next, we'll have membership cards for all of you who have been chomping at the bit for them.

We've got a Floyd Landis signed book which we'll be raffling off. Tickets will be on sale at the meeting.

We'll have some very special information about our new ride leader appreciation programs, as well as our new "life member" enrollment.

We'll also talk about the August 12th charity ride for the Suffern girl who has extreme medical costs from a heart transplant. Be sure to bring money for this donation.

A tire changing clinic will be next, so bring your tires and a tire lever if you'd like to follow along.

Toga has let us know that they'll be providing the funds for the complete helmet purchase we need for the Bikes for Kids program. That's 100 lids, folks, a generous gift!

Here's a last-minute plea for the Bikes for Kids program, which is coming up short this year. We still need lots of money and we're going to need lots of help building the bikes. Looks like build day is going to be either the 6th or 7th of dec. We'll keep you posted. In the meantime, please send last-minute donations payable to Rockland Bicycling Club Fundraisers, PO Box 175, Nyack, NY 10960. Or send them via paypal by clicking on the link to our Bikes for Kids page and clicking on the banner.

Or click this button

To help gather funds for our Bikes For Kids program, we're going to try something new this year. While direct donations are still the best for us, we're going to take advantage of Piermont's eBay program. Anyone who wants to donate to the Bikes for Kids program can now bring any ebay-able item to Piermont and drop it off with Glenn and the proceeds from the sale of the item will go to bike purchases.

Be sure to let Glenn know that you're dropping off the item for the Club's program, not for your own store credit, and please send an email with a quick list of your items to david@rocklandbike.org so we can track the auctions.

You can bring items in at your leisure, though the sooner the better. We'll also do a drop off at the October meeting (which we're currently scheduling) and at selected rides.

Every year the Rockland Bicycling Club raises money for our Bikes for Kids program, held in conjunction with Rockland's aid service organization People to People. We're starting our fundraising efforts, and need your help. We're hoping to raise money for 100 bikes and helmets, double what we raised last year. Visit our information page to donate. Or, contact us at info@rocklandbike.org if you or your company would like to donate.

We've been contacted by the manager of the Paramus Eastern Mountain Sports (EMS) store, who let us know that they'll be opening up a new, large store in the Rockland Plaza shopping center. The store is scheduled to open October 5th, and they're looking for part time techs to build, tune and service their line of bikes. Anyone interested should call 201 670 6464 and ask to speak with Mike, Eric, Ken, Matt Jake or James.

We've had lots of requests for official Rockland Bicycling Club socks, to complement the jerseys and now the hopes and dreams of club members are finally answered. Introducing the new Rockland Bicycling Club sock. Available in two sizes, the socks are on sale for $10 a pair or $8 per pair for quantities of three or more. Club ride leaders who have led more than three rides in a season can purchase the socks for $8 a pair.
The socks will be available at many rides (including the North County Trailway ride this weekend) and will be available at our BBQs at Toga and our club birthday party.
Supplies are limited, get them while they last

Specialized Recalls Bicycles Due to Fall Hazard

JUNE 23, 2006 -- WASHINGTON, D.C. (BRAIN)óThe U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission and Specialized yesterday announced a voluntary recall of about 2,700 Specialized bicycles with SW Carbon Stem with Magnesium Faceplate.

The bicycle's stem has a magnesium faceplate that holds the handlebar in place. The faceplates on the recalled stems can crack and allow the handlebar to break off the bicycle, posing a serious fall hazard. Specialized has received five reports of the magnesium faceplate exhibiting cracks. No injuries have been reported.

The SW Carbon Stem with Magnesium Faceplate is black with the words "S-Works" and "Magnesium Faceplate" printed on it. The stems were included as original equipment on the following 2006 bicycles models: S-Works Tarmac, Tarmac Pro, S-Works Roubaix, Roubaix Pro, Allez Pro and S-Works Transition. It was also sold as an aftermarket item under the name S-Works Advanced Composite Mag Road Stem.

The Taiwanese-made stems were sold at authorized Specialized retailers from June 2005 through April 2006 as original equipment of the bicycle models referenced above or as an aftermarket item for about $160.

Those riding the bicycles that have the recalled stems should stop immediately and take them to an authorized Specialized retailer for a free replacement faceplate.

For additional information, call Specialized at (877) 808-8154 or visit the company's web site at www.specialized.com.

Beginning with rides posted to the Club April 3rd and later, we will no longer list a "meeting time" for rides, but will only list starting times. Exceptions to this include the Rockland Lake ride (where we want new participants to know when to expect ride leaders to show up) and any trip or event where we are meeting at one location and driving to another.

For more information on this policy, see our message board topic

In order to ensure a great season of riding this year, the Club is rolling out some new policies aimed at making our rides go more smoothly. This information is available in our message board for comment but can also be found by clicking 'details'.

This month we took the wraps off a new program to increase membership in the club, by offering in-store signup for the club. Piermont Bicycle Connection sold the first one last week. We're really excited about this new program, as we think it's a way to increase club membership exponentially. If you know people who would like to join the club, send them to Piermont Bicycle Connection, to Toga Bikes and to Eyevolution Optique, our current partners in the program.

Eyevolution Optique has announced that it will begin offering a 15-percent discount off of all full-price merchandise in the store to Rockland Bicycling Club members. Eveolution Optique is a great supporter of the Club, and this new discount program adds them to the list of businesses that offer club members a discount.
Eyevolution is located at 42 South Franklin Street in Nyack, NY. Their phone number is 845 353 4701.
Eyevolution will also be a sign-up location for those interested in joining the Club. Simply fill out a form at the store and pay the membership fee, and you're instantly enrolled in the club.

We've added a new Calendar View to the site. We'll be integrating it into the laoyut of the site, but in the meantime, you can click the link above to bookmark this new way to access rides and events.

In mid-December, a landslide closed the popular cycling route "River Road" (aka Henry Hudson Drive/Alpine Approach Road) in Palisades Interstate Park, on the New Jersey side of the George Washington Bridge. The Palisades Interstate Park Commission is working on clearing debris and repairing the road, and River Road should re-open by this spring. For updates see www.njpalisades.org.

The Journal News has been working on a piece on cycling and on the Rockland Bicycling Club. The reporter has indicated that the piece will be in the Sunday Journal News, in the sports section. Check it out.

We've received a letter from the Spruce Lodge (sprucelodgebnb.com) in the Adirondacks, offering club members a rate of $50+tax pp/per night with a min. of 4 people per unit. The Lodge is a B&B with a guest cottage, and is near a park situated on the Chubb River. The lodge has a full kitchen, laundry, broadband and much parking.

We don't know anything about the lodge personally but the Adirondacks are a great place to ride. You can also call the lodge at 800 258 9350

We'll be posting more complete information on this shortly, but the Orangetown board announced at the end of a three-hour public comment session that they will be voting unanimously to continue with the paving and the improvements to the Joseph B. Clarke trail.

Thanks so much to everyone who sent an email, faxed, called or attended the session. More info to come.

The Journal News just ran an article on putting a phone number in your cell phone's directory that starts with ICE, which stands for In Case of Emergency. We're recommending the practice to all our club members. Click Details for the full article.

Due to the security concerns of the Westchester County Department of
Public Transportation regarding their White Plans TransCenter facility,
the TAPPANZEExpress Bike-on-Bus program has been temporarily suspended.
We will keep your infor

'Lance in France ... Off The Bike and On The Mic' to air daily on FACTION channel

NEW YORK, June 1 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- SIRIUS Satellite Radio SIRI announced today an exclusive series that will allow subscribers to follow Lance Armstrong in a personal way during his quest for an historic seventh consecutive Tour de France victory when Lance in France ... Off The Bike and On The Mic, debuts July 2, the first day of the Tour.

Click 'Details' for more.

Motorist charged in bicycle crash
By STEVE LIEBERMAN
slieberm@thejournalnews.com
THE JOURNAL NEWS
(Original publication: May 24, 2005)

A 63-year-old Pearl River man has been charged with reckless driving in what police yesterday called a road-rage incident involving a bicyclist.

Ronald P. Schneider is accused of braking his car on Sunday and causing a New Jersey bicyclist to crash into the black BMW, Police Chief Thomas Gaynor said yesterday.

The cyclist, 47, suffered a bump to his head when he was thrown from the bicycle during the crash. He didn't require medical treatment.

Click 'Details' for the complete story.

Action!
Contact your senator by e-mail, visit http://www.senate.gov/ and then go
to your senatorís individual Web site to find contact information.

Background
Senator Sessionsí amendment seeks to reduce the overall funding level in
the Senate transportation bill by $11bn (to bring it in line with the
funding level approved by the Budget Committee on which Sessions
serves) ñ and proposes to do it by slashing funding for two of the primary
funding sources for bicycling and walking projects.

The amendment will cut funding for public transit by $5 billion, clean air
improvements funded by the Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality program
by $4 billion, community building and transportation options funded under
the Transportation Enhancements program by $1.1 billion, and smart
transportation strategies funded under the TCSP program by $100 million.
These changes and some others total $10.7 billion.

The amendment singles out these funding programs from the dozens of
programs in the proposed Senate legislation, and chooses this approach
over across the board cuts. This gratuitous attack on some of the core
transportation programs established by ISTEA in 1991 must be soundly
rejected in order to send a message to members of Congress who will be
negotiating the final bill in conference committee. They need to know
that cutting these programs is simply not an option.

The Rockland Review has printed another editorial against anti-cycling writer John Lurica including such phrases as "They are like the illegal aliens at the Mexican border as they mostly come from New York City and New Jersey..." and other pleasantries. while Lurica's points about cyclists who ignore the laws are valid, his manor of presentation, and his ideas about forming a MinuteMan campaign to address them are out of touch with the situation. We urge you to click Details and read the whole article, and then share your thoughts (politely) with the Rockland Review's Editor Larry Hyman at rocklandreview@optonline.net

The Journal News is reporting that a 10 year old boy was killed yesterday while riding his bike on Viola Road in Monsey. Full story by clicking "details"

Club member Jay just emailed to let us know that Cablevision now carries the Outdoor Life Network (OLN), which means that Cablevision subscribers can now get the Tour De France and other cycling events. Up until recently, only DirectTV had ONN. See cablevision.com for more details.

Update: Cablevision phone sales reps don't know it's available in Rockland. You might have to speak to a supervisor to order it.

US lawmakers want daylight-saving time change

07 Apr 2005 00:01:04 GMT

Source: Reuters

By Tom Doggett

WASHINGTON, April 6 (Reuters) - A House committee voted on Wednesday to expand U.S. daylight-saving time by two months to help reduce energy consumption, but rejected a plan to shave total U.S. oil demand by 1 million barrels a day.

Both proposals were offered as amendments to be tacked on to a broad energy bill that was debated by the House Energy and Commerce Committee.

The panel agreed in a voice vote to move the start of daylight-saving time in the United States -- which occurs when clocks are turned forward by one hour -- one month earlier to the first Sunday in March. The end of daylight time would be moved back one month to the last Sunday in November.

Supporters of the amendment, sponsored by Michigan Republican Fred Upton, said it would save about 10,000 barrels of oil a day because offices and stores would be open while it was still light outside and therefore use less energy.

Did you miss our First Annual Easter Egg Hunt bike ride? Well if you did, don't fear. You can check out photos in our Gallery, and you can check out video from the ride here.

As spring rolls around, we get a lot of people visiting the Club's website to find out what we're all about. We've added new information to the Club and Membership Information and Join The Club pages, which we hope will help answer any questions you might have about the Rockland Bicycling Club. If that doesn't do it for you, drop us an email.

For Immediate Action
Federal Rescission Directive Puts Bike/Transportation Funds at Risk - PLEASE ACT NOW

The federal government requires all 50 states to return their portions of $1.26 billion in previously allotted transportation funds. The states have until Feb. 24th to determine how to meet their quotas for the sums they must return. Transportation Enhancements program money (the largest federal investment in bicycling, walking, rail-trails) is vulnerable to disproportionate, huge cuts.

If you wish any additional info, call Rita at 845 598-2417 or 845 362-4595.

The new 2005 Rockland Bicycling Club jersey design is done and ready to order. This year's design comes in both a short sleeve as well as a sleeveless design (because club member Sheryl hounded us about that). Since we're still stuck with many of the 2003-2004 design, we're only going to place a very small order for the 2005 jerseys, and when they're gone...they're gone.

If your order isn't in by December 15th, you're going to miss out on the hottest club jersey around. Jerseys are only for sale to members, and the member price is $70 for the short sleeve and $65 for the sleeveless.

You can place an order from the main page of Rockland Bike's site using credit card or Paypal, or place your order at our Holiday Party on December 12th, from 6-8pm. (We'll require cash or check for the jerseys at the meeting.)

Anyone placing an order for the 2005 jersey at the meeting or online can pick up the 2003-2004 jersey for only $30! That's $40 off the original price. (While supplies last. Limited sizes remain, mostly "large".) Simply place an order for the jersey online and we'll contact you to see if you'd like a 2003-2004 jersey. Or buy your jersey at the club meeting and pick up your $30 jersey then. You can even buy more than one.

Once again we're going with Louis Garneau for our Jersey production, ensuring the highest quality technical fabrics and great quality construction. Ask anyone who has a 2003-2004 jersey and they'll tell you it can't be beat. Jerseys should be delivered by the middle of March, just in time for riding.

Every year the Rockland Bicycling Club works with the organization People to People to help bring bicycles and helmets to needy children during the holiday season. The Rockland Bicycling Club aims to provide as many bicycles and helmets as we can and we need your help.

Please click on the donate button below, and give to the Bikes For Kids program via Paypal. Any amount helps, but a bike/helmet combo costs the club around $50-100 depending on the size of the bike. (Older kids need more expensive bikes.) Club President David Schloss and club Membership Coordinator Abigail Anderson will be doing a matching donation for the first $500 raised.

We received this email from Thomas Pantino, one of the grandsons of Ennio Spiri, who was killed Sept 10th while riding his bike. He told me it was okay to pass it along, and it includes more information on the current police investigation and the name of the police detective investigating the matter. We'll contact the detective, but it wouldn't hurt to have multiple voices weigh in on this matter. Click 'details' to read the email.

The Journal News reports that Ennio Spiri, 74 of Valley Cottage, was struck and killed by a driver in New City on Congers Road.

According to the article, the driver swerved to avoid a truck pulling into M&M Farms, and struck Spiri, who he did not see because of "glare". The driver was not charged with anything, nor was he issued a ticket.

The Rockland Bicycling Club would like to express our sorrow and outrage at this 'accident.' It's the responsibility of a driver to allow enough room between their vehicle and those ahead in order to stop suddenly. That someone could swerve to avoid hitting a truck and instead take a man's life, without being charged with anything is reprehensible.

The complete article can be found Here.

Citing security concerns (and lack of resources), the Port Authority of NY/NJ has announced the bike lane on the George Washington Bridge will be closed from Midnight through six am daily, until further notice. Full article from Transportation Alternatives by clicking 'details'.

This year's Good Sam Ice Cream Ride, presented by the Rockland Bicycling Club was a fantastic success. We fielded three-hundred cyclists on the country's only large-scale charity bike ride. The Club and Good Samaritan Hospital have received rave reviews from cyclists and the media alike.

We have already begun planning next year's event, and we'd like to reach out to he community looking for additional corporate sponsors. The support of Gourmet Carden, DeCicco's, Star Kay White, Holt Construction, Z100 and others made this event possible, and for 2005 we'd like to broaden our sponsorship base. 2005's event will feature varying sponsors levels and opportunities, and we rely on the help of sponsors to defray costs and return more money to the Cardiac Care unit at Good Sam. We expect a huge turnout for next year's ride, providing even greater exposure for our sponsors.

If you or someone you know is part of a company that would like to be associated with the best cycling event/charity event around, please contact us at info@rocklandbike.org.

The closed bike trail from Hook Mountain in Nyack to Havestraw is being repaired, with completion of repairs scheduled by the end of the summer. The Journal News has an article, with more information.

Click Here for the Journal News piece.

South Orangetown Central School District hosted an Earth Day celebration which generated some interesting topics for our bike advocacy programs. Click on 'details' to learn more.

According to the League of American Bicyclists, bicycling is part of the solution to many of our nationís problems: the obesity epidemic, traffic congestion, air pollution and more. Some 64% of adults and over 15% of kids are overweight today, resulting in 300,000 premature deaths and a cost to society of $117 billion a year. Over 22 percent of all motor vehicle trips Americans take are less than one mile long, and 50 percent of the working population commutes five miles or less to work, an easily bikeable distance. If the average person biked to work or shopping once every two weeks instead of driving, we could prevent the pollution of close to one billion gallons of gasoline from entering the atmosphere every year.†The League promotes bicycling for fun, fitness and transportation, and works for a bicycle-friendly America.

On February 12th, the Senate passed S. 1072, the successor to TEA-21, by a vote of 76 to 21. Bike-related legislation fared well in the final version. Existing programs such as Enhancements, Rec Trails, CMAQ, etc continue at the same level, and Safe Routes to School is to be funded at $70 million a year.

President Bush has theatened to veto the bill which calls for $62 billion more than his proposal.

On Thursday, September 4, the U.S. House of Representatives voted in support of a bipartisan amendment (Petri and Olver) to strike the language eliminating funding for the popular transportation enhancements program, the major source of federal funding for bicycle projects. If the appropriations bill (H.R. 2989) passes, this means the current 10% set-aside of federal money for transportation enhancements will remain a law. This 12-year-old law requires states to set-aside 10% of federal surface transportation money for use in pedestrian and bicycle pathways and simmilar enhancements.

Thank you to everyone who called your representatives in support of this amendment.

We get a lot of emails from folks who are new to cycling, or are new to the area, asking us if there's a way they can come and try out the club, without having to plunk down $25 for the membership. Aside from the Thursday night rides, which are free (but are too casual for some of those interested in the club) our previous policy was that all other rides were members-only.

While that's still the policy (for insurance reasons) we wanted to be sure that people could come ride with us. So, we've started a "Daily Membership Program." Come to any of our rides, sign our liability waiver, fill out a form, and pay $2.00 (to cover the insurance costs of having additional members) and you can join us on a ride. When you decide to become a club member later on, that $2.00 gets deducted from your dues. You can do the daily membership twice, (so you can sample more than one ride) and after that you'll be asked to become a full-time Rockland Bicycling Club member.

Many of you groan when the club president is seen snapping pictures on rides, but there's been a good reason for the shutter clicking. Our new image gallery is up online. It's not finished so it doesn't look like the rest of the site yet, but we thought you'd like to see pictures from the rides. Anyone can submit pictures to us, and ride leaders will be able to post directly to the gallery. If you'd like to post your images, email info@rocklandbike.org.

The author of a humorous grammar text that was featured as a Book of the Month Club selection has been identified as the man killed Tuesday when his bicycle was struck by a truck on Route 303 in Blauvelt.

A man was killed yesterday afternoon when his bicycle was struck by a car on Route 303 in Blauvelt.

Our killer new club jersey is now for available for pre-order! Click on details for more information, or jump right to our online ordering page/

Riders and ride leaders have begun posting ride reports in the Message Board. Check out the descriptions, look at photos (coming soon), and even view maps of the rides.

Read the minutes from the 2003 March meeting of the Rockland Bicycling Club

This is a reminder to all the riders out there. Wear your helmets.

Pro racer Andrei Kivilev, a former Tour De France contender died after a head-first fall from his bike during Paris-Nice. Doctors say a helmet would have saved his life. Full story by clicking details.

It is so incredibly important that everyone ride with a helmet. The "pros don't wear them" excuse doesn't cut it.

Rockland Bicying Club has formed Team Rockland, which will ride in upcoming charity events, such at the Empire State AIDS Ride (August), and the A.L.S. Boston to New York Ride (July).

As official training ride leaders for both events, Rockland Bicycling Club will be running a series of training sessions this summer designed to prepare riders for long-distance event rides.

Team Rockland is looking for people to join us on these two rides, and looking for people to support us as we raise tens-of-thousands of dollars to fight AIDS and A.L.S. Training rides will be posted on the ride calendar as they are announced. . Please email info@rocklandbike.org for more information.

Both the proposed Palisades Trail and the Rockland Bicycling Club landed in the news recently. Thanks to the RBC members who atteneded this important meeting. Click Here for the article.

We're happy to announce that Albert's Westwood Cycle is now offering Rockland Bicycling Club members a 10% discount, joining the list of great Rockland and NJ bike stores already offering club discounts. We will also be working with Westwood this summer to schedule group rides. (Westwood has a very hard core group of cyclists, and we welcome any of them who want to join RBC.)

Minutes from the November meeting of the club are now available. Click Details for more information.

Check out the ride journal and photo gallery from the Sunday Nyack to Ft. Lee Intermediate ride which is now available in the Message Boards. Click on Ride Reports, and then on the name of the ride (or any other posted ride) for a description and pictures.

We've just added an Advocacy forum to the message boards, which is our place to talk about the roads and resources in and around Rockland that need improvement for safe cycling. We're compiling a "hit list" of projects to bring to the local municipalities. Please use this forum to help us create that list. Click here to go right to that forum.

Click on details for a gallery of photos from the October 22 Rockland Bicycling Club Meeting.

We're pleased that hot on the heals of the newly announced discounts of last week, Bicycle Workshop located at 175 County Road (also known as Rt 501) in Tenafly, NJ is now offering a 10% discount to Rockland Bicycling Club members. Check out the complete list of shops offering a discount Here

Thanks to the New York Sports Club reps who stopped by the meeting, we have a chance to get a corporate rate established at New York Sports Club. The rate will go in effect when we get five new members, and then existing NYSC members can swtich over to the Rockland Bicycling Club rate. We'll have regular spin classes there, and our own private member only sessions. Plus you get full use of the gym and its classes. Click on details to find out how to get signed up.

Guests came to speak from New York Sports Clubs in the Palisades Mall location. They spoke about the benefits of joining a New York Sports Club. They feature month to month memberships and have approximately 85 locations in the Tri-State area. They emphasized a 6 week cycling program that they have.

Glenn from Piermont Bicycle Connection was on hand to conduct a bicycle fit for anyone who had brought their bicycle with them. Improper bicycle fit can cause less efficiency and possible discomfort when riding.

Support the Rockland Bicycling Club by buying some of our great merchandise. You can find t-shirts, mugs, clocks, and a great licence plate frame (that includes the slogan "Share the Roads With Bicycles") in the online store. We've just added a ton of new merchandise with some great new logos and looks.

Please note: we changed the name of the store from rocklandbicycle to rocklandbike on the CafePress site. If you bookmarked the old store, you'll need to click the link above to go to the new one.