FIX-A-FLAT (AND MORE) CLINIC

Free for Putney Bicycle Club members (all nine of you)
Thursday, June 14 6:00 PM

Sara will show you how to quickly and easily remove your wheel and change your flat tire, at home or on the road in a hands-on clinic. She will also give a quick overview on basic bike care and maintenance, as time allows. Bring your bike; we will provide tools.

The clinic is free to all current Putney Bike Club members; otherwise the fee is $5. There are a few spots left - for reservations call 802-387-5718 or email Diny.

Vermont Mountain Bike Association Meeting

Patrick Kell has invited Putney Bike Club members to the next Vermont Mountain Bike Association Meeting June 10th at Ascutney. The meeting is at 3pm for a ride and 5pm for the actual meeting. There will be discussion of Putney becoming a chapter of the VMBA.

Directions:
We'll be up in the 'Crow's Nest' in the Ascutney Hotel for the meeting. We can meet in the Nordic Ski Center Parking lot just down the road from the Hotel for the ride. Pass the Hotel on the left. Make a right at the stop sign. Make the first right and you'll see the Nordic Center sign. Park anywhere in the lot.

Racing Team Bus

My idea is to purchase a used yellow school bus (already half of the team colors), and convert it into a Putney/West Hill racing team vehicle that can be used to transport bikes, equipment, and racers to events (road races, crits, mt. bike races, cross races). We can paint it to match the jersey. Putney on the back, West Hill on the front, Putney/West Hill Race Team on the sides, with the shop phone number and website address. Take out a few rows of seats and install bike racks on the floor, bolt a set of rollers or two to the floor, hang a curtain for a changing area, park it in the field to be seen from I-91 when not in use to help drivers spot the shop. Not a full size bus, but not a converted van either -- mid-size. Preferably diesel. I am checking with DMV to see if the driver would need a CDL - probably not if used for strictly recreational purposes and noncommercial uses.

Here is a link to a possible bus: http://www.buscrazy.net/upload/L1745.htm

Any interest? Any ideas how to raise the money to buy one?

Will.

Tour of the Valleys, 2007

The annual Tour of the Valleys ride, which starts and ends at West HIll Shop, took place on the rain date of Sunday, May 20 - check out some pics here.

Do Your Part to Avoid Road Rage

We're reprinting this recent letter to the Brattleboro Reformer, because the writer has made some valid points. Safety (and road rage, which can result from one too many cyclists flaunting one too many rules of the road) are no laughing matter.

The rules of the road are simple, and there for specific reasons. Signal your turns and stops, stop at red lights and stop signs, use a portable light at dusk.

Drivers appreciate it. Other cyclists appreciate it. Your family appreciates it when they don't have to come visit you in the hospital.

When you're in the Tour de France, you can break all the rules you want.

In the meantime, use good sense and common courtesy. Protect yourself and be considerate toward those folks you are sharing the roads with - particularly the ones driving large heavy four-wheel objects traveling at high rates of speed.

Editor of the Reformer:

Now that the warm weather has arrived we are once again facing another "bicycle season." Last night while I was on my way to Townshend on an errand I saw the start of the season up close and personal -- two of the "Team Putney" cyclist were making a left hand turn out of Grassy Brook Road onto Route 30 without a pause or a second glance to see if there was any oncoming traffic. Now mind you, this was at dusk and they had no lights on their bikes whatsoever -- I am hoping that this year we can FINALLY see some enforcement of the rules as they pertain to bicyclists.

Growing up in Brattleboro we always had an officer from either the Brattleboro Police or Windham County Sheriffs Department hold an assembly where they went over the rules of the road regarding bicycles. It was stressed that all bikes needed to be registered, you rode with the flow of traffic, used hand signals (the proper kind and not the more commonly used vulgarities that seem so common these days), obeyed street signs and lights, rode single file except on specific paths or wide shoulders, etc.

Many times over the past several years I have come close to colliding with bikers simply because they did not adhere to these common sense rules -- they seem to think that they are invincible or that the laws do not apply where they are concerned. I have seen bikers ride through walk lights and come close to hitting pedestrians without missing a beat, ride on the sidewalks downtown, continue straight through a red light in the left hand turning lane and many more violations than I have the time to list.

I, for one, would like to see a crackdown and tickets given to these people who so wantonly disregard the rules of the road not only as a punishment but also as a lesson: A driver cannot always see them when they do things such as this especially when the light is fading or if the sun is shining brightly in our eyes. If I can receive a ticket for not wearing my seatbelt, then why is it a bicyclist is not ticketed for endangering themselves? It's all the same principle.

Andrew Buttery

Williamsville, May 9