Back to town, back to work, back on the bike

I managed to get away for a few days over the holly-daze. It was good to see my grandmother, good to share some of my home-state haunts with my girlfriend and good to be home.

I rode the Bicycle Club's Polar Bear ride on the 1st, so was on my bike for the first time in about two weeks. I rode the Bacchetta, just in case I needed to keep up with a few folks. I got to ride with Earl Jones, the club president, and talked with him about my goals as VP Education, a post to which I expect to be elected in a couple weeks.

I have a busy year ahead of me. In addition to being the presumptive (although hopefully not presumptuous) VP Education for the Louisville Bicycle Club, I will be teaching some classes at Bluegrass Bicycle based on the Park Tool School curriculum. Another shop in the area is offering some free clinics, but I suspect the instruction will be cursory at best. We plan to offer an Intermediate course developed by Park Tools, and will offer more detailed modules from the Advanced course as staff timing permits. The schedule is not yet finalized, but will be posted soon. The LBC is involved in the Bike Summit II coming up in February, and I will be part of that process. I will be primary instructor for the LBC "New Rider" clinics from early May until the end of August.

But I've also had a chance to start the new year off right: I rode the Vanguard to work today. I finally took the time to correct a noisy brake issue that had been frustrating me, and the bike is once again a joy to ride. While I was in bike-fixing mode, I installed a different batch of brake pads on the Raleigh in hopes of gaining some stopping power on that bike. It stops better, but I need to tweak the pad alignment a bit to reduce noise from THAT bike now. In any event, the Vanguard has more load capacity, and I needed to carry some clothing items and other odds and ends to work after having been away for a week.

It's good to be back on the bike.