Good turnout for Jersey Day!

Lots of riders turned out today to take advantage of our beautiful warm weather and BCI Jersey Day.   Many members showed their club spirit and some 30 to 35 riders gathered afterward at the Oak Creek Center (by Gelson's) food court to share a meal with friends.  
Thank You Suzanne McCord for coordinating the discounts at some of our favorite places. Join us again next month - 1st Saturday of each month!

Baja Fresh was popular at this table - hungry riders appreciated their generous 20% discount.

Baja Fresh was popular at this table - hungry riders appreciated their generous 20% discount.

New York Upper Crust Pizza, Daphne's and Mustard Café also offered discounts to BCI riders.  (Photos courtesy of Suzanne McCord)

New York Upper Crust Pizza, Daphne's and Mustard Café also offered discounts to BCI riders.  (Photos courtesy of Suzanne McCord)

Photo by Phil Norton

Photo by Phil Norton

Photo by Phil Norton

Photo by Phil Norton

Photo by Phil Norton

Photo by Phil Norton

Photo by Phil Norton

Photo by Phil Norton

Be sure to join in the fun NEXT MONTH - mark your calendars now!

Cycling Through Camp Pendleton - Changes coming!

Riding south from Orange County, we are fortunate that the USMC allows us to ride through Camp Pendleton.  It's an enjoyable route with some rolling hills and light traffic - and it sure beats riding on I-5!

Changes are coming, but the good news is we will still be able to ride through the base. Here is the latest:

Camp Pendleton wanted to give you an update on our visitor access policy.  We value the great relationship we have with the area cycling community and wanted to develop a process allowing bicyclist's continued access to Camp Pendleton.  By Mar. 1, bicyclist will be required to register in order to have access to the base.  An online process will be complete mid-February and base access will be good for one year.  Bicyclists will need to re-register every year.  Until the registration process is finalized, bicyclists will still be able to enter the base with their U.S. or State government issued identification card just like now. After Mar. 1, all bicyclists will need to be registered and show their U.S. or State identification when entering the base.  Once the registration process is up and running in a few weeks, we will share the link.  Our goal is to maintain a great relationship with area riders but also balance that with security and protection for our Marines, Sailors, civilian employees and families.  Thank you for your patience and understanding.

BCI extends our thanks to the USMC for its continuing hospitality.  If you are riding Camp Pendleton, be sure to register once the new system is online, and please respect their rules while you are "aboard"!

Update: Feb 1st the on line form to access for recreational / active transportation is live.
Have you drivers license handy & expect 7 days for processing. Not sure what accommodation will be made for a traveler showing up who did not know or does not have/use a computer. If turned away, CalTrans is currently providing on cal shuttle as the freeway work is making that shoulder unavailable to cycling. 

Board Completed (almost!)

The Board Officers met on January 28th & have filled the vacant director positions; We now have a full board of 11 directors working to lead BCI into 2016 & beyond!  
(well... 10 of 11*)

Congratulations and Thank You to the volunteers who have joined the leadership team.

You can see the board now HERE

(*Update 2/25: Suzanne McCord was appointed to the vacant Director of Hospitality. The 2016 Board is now complete.) 

(*Update 1/30: Jenny Short was not present to agree & was appointed against her wishes, so we do still have no Director of Hospitality... Beth Sher, our 2015 Director of Hospitality will make sure we have refreshments at the February General Meeting, and the Board will appoint a volunteer at their February 25th meeting. If interested in serving, providing snacks & beverages at the General Meetings,  and providing hospitality to help us continue to be our friendly best, contact a board member!)

 

Annual Meeting & Election Results!

We had 7 volunteer candidates running for 5 of the 9 club officer positions, the votes were tallied at tonight's annual meeting and here are the results:

Vice President                                      Penny Poorman
Ride Coordinator                                  Norm Moyer
Communications Coordinator             Bill Sellin
Treasurer                                              Ann Reichling
Statistician                                            Marc Urias

The new board will be working to fill the positions of President, Secretary, Membership Director and Hospitality Director, as well as the board's 2 director-at-large positions.  If you are interested in volunteering, please email the Board of Directors.

Congratulations to the new board members - please remember they are all volunteers and can use your support and help to make BCI all it can be. 

 

Vice President Marc Urias, covering for the vacant Statistician, recognized Highest Mileage and presented the lead riders with certificates for custom BCI vests.
The Broken Crank Award: went to David Marino for the Most Club Miles ridden in 2015. David was not present, but was awarded the 'Broken Crank' by Vice President Penny Poorman at our February meeting:


Top 3 men & top 3 women:

David Marino            5,611 miles   
Rhonda Larson           4,780
Louis Iacopetti            4,531              
William Quon              4,090
Judy Quon                  3,601              
Bethany Gray            3,414

Director @ Large Bill Sellin, covering for the absent Membership Director Ramona Dalton, presented the Spirit Award to Paul Haussler.

Man Found Dead Near San Diego Creek Trail and Los Olivos Apartments

The body of a 51 year old man, apparently a cyclist, was found dead and is being investigated as a homicide.  Not a lot more information is currently available and as of this writing apparently no arrests have been made.  The body, with a bicycle nearby, was found alongside the 405 where the trail parallels the freeway behind the Los Olivos Apartments.

Irvine Police have not issued any sort of advisory, we've reached out to them for comment.   Please be careful and maintain awareness of your surroundings as you ride.

From the OC Register:  Irvine man's death on bike path is investigated as a homicide.

UPDATE at 5:30 pm.  I spoke with Irvine PD.  While they cannot release any details due to the ongoing nature of the investigation, they do have reason to believe that this was an isolated incident.  If they felt otherwise they would be cautioning people about using the San Diego Creek trail.  IPD does recommend that riders remain observant and use ordinary cautions.  Also, they ask that if any riders saw anything in the area to please contact them to share that information.

UPDATE: 1/26 : IPD posted info that a 'person of interest' was arrested and may be a suspect - was not a random assault. Facebook 

Incident Reporting - crash@bikeirvine.org

You may have noticed this at the bottom of recent route slips, BCI asks that if you are involved in a mishap, or you see one occur, that you email a report about it to crash@bikeirvine.org.  Why?  Because this is required by the insurance policies that BCI carries, both for general liability and to provide supplemental medical coverage to our members.

What constitutes a mishap?  If a rider goes down, if riders collide, if there is any contact with another vehicle, all of these should be reported to the board.  Better to make the report than not.  It is OK if we receive more than one report.

What to report?  What you know.  Who was involved, what happened, when, road and weather conditions, whether or not police or paramedics responded, etc. 

Promptly reporting incidents allows board members to gather the information needed to report to the insurance company and helps us to quickly get claims forms out to anyone injured.

Website Tips #3

BCI publishes a roster of our members here on the site.  This roster shows the members' names, email addresses and member numbers.  This roster can be viewed by anyone visiting the website, they do not have to be a BCI member.

To lessen the chances of the email addresses being harvested by email spammers, the roster is posted as a scanned pdf file, not a text file, so a spambot program scanning our site will only see an image file, not email addresses.

You may opt out of being included in this roster.  Be sure to sign up on the site and choose your roster option.  If you've already signed up you may edit your profile to opt out.

UPDATE - the roster is offline as 1/13/16 since spammers have already found it. We are working with TidyClub, the site that manages our membership data, to provide a more secure solution.  

BCI Routes on RideWithGPS.com

A number of our upcoming rides this month are now on RideWithGPS.com. The links are included with the link to the pdf route slips for that day.  

You can preview your ride on a map and even see the elevation profile.   From RidewithGPS you can download the route to your Sports GPS - click on the "Export" tab to the right of the map for instructions.  Click HERE for an example, the "blue" route for this coming Saturday (go to this Saturday's ride for a link to all the RideWithGPS routes).

This is an ongoing Work in Progress and will be updated as more rides are converted to this format.   Thanks much to our Ride Coordinator, Randy Profeta, for taking on this project!

BCI Jersey Day and Food Discounts!

The first Saturday of every month is BCI Jersey Day.  Show your club spirit by wearing your BCI jerseys. After your ride, join fellow members for a social lunch at the food court in the Gelson's shopping center at the corner of Alton and Jeffrey.

NEW, starting in February, these restaurants are offering the following discounts:

  • New York Upper Crust Pizza   15%
  • Daphne's:             15%
  • Baja Fresh:          20%
  • Mustard Café:      10%

Members must be wearing their jersey for the discount and it is only for the first Saturday of each month.  Plan now to stop by, enjoy the company of your fellow riders and have a bite to eat.   Don't have a BCI jersey yet?  Click HERE for ordering information.

And we'd like to give a big shout-out to our volunteer Jersey Coordinator, Suzanne McCord, for setting this up with the restaurants.  Well done Suzanne!

 

Website Tips #2

Navigating the new bikeirvine.org is pretty intuitive, but like a new saddle it takes some time to "adjust"!  Here are a few tips for finding your ride:

1. If you want to see all rides by month, click on the calendar.  Rides and other activities are shown on their scheduled dates.  You can click calendar items to get details and the route slip.

2. If you want to look at all rides by day of week, jump to the bottom of any page on the website and you will find links to Saturday, Sunday, Tuesday and Friday rides.  Click the link and you will see all posted rides for that day with a link to the route slip.

3. If you want to see all rides and other scheduled events in chronological order, go to the Rides & Events link at the top of each page.  All events and links to route slips are here.

If you have suggestions about how to improve the site, email the webmaster.

 

 

Website Tips #1

The new bikeirvine.org has many features designed to make it easy for you to find the information you need.  Tip #1 is to check back here frequently for club news!   This news section of the site is titled "Pacelines", continuing the tradition of BCI's newsletter in a new delivery format.  From the days of printing, folding parties and snail mail, to online pdfs and now this new blog format, the goal is the same - keeping BCI members informed about the club and your friends' activities.

If you have ride reports or other interesting news, send an email to editor@bikeirvine.org.  Don't forget to include pictures!

2016 Officer Candidates and Statements are posted!

We have 7 volunteers running for 5 of the elected officer positions for the 2016 BCI board, with 2-person contests for Ride Coordinator and Communications Director.  Regardless of the outcome of the election, the Nominating Committee members say THANK YOU to all 7 of these candidates for stepping up to lead BCI into 2016.  

We also have 4 positions for which there are no volunteer candidates.  It will be the role of the new board to appoint people to fill these empty positions, as well as the 2 director-at-large seats on the board.  

Click HERE to see the list of candidates and their statements.