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| 4 december 2024 |
Your Bike North NewsLETTER |
|  | Our Celebratory Big Rides Day
What a year we’ve had! And what a great way to celebrate it: Christmas Big Rides Day!
Nine separate rides, eighty-seven riders, one goal: a fun morning in the saddle, followed by catching up with old friends and new, in the sunshine.
As the rides converged, we were treated to a wonderful spread, courtesy of the Social Committee. We thank Marilyn Algeo, Wendy Jannings and Di Lawrence for looking after us so well, and for the lovely Banh Mi and sushi!
After the feast and the chatter, we were treated to our new favourite Christmas carol, ’Tinkle (Bike) Bells’, with an impromptu verse by Will. ('Oh what fun it is to ride with Bike North today, hey!’)
We then reflected on the year’s achievements and successes, organised in the ways we will be focusing our energies in the coming year:
A. Enhance the value of membership
We have so many members! Over 500 at last count! We might be the biggest cycling club in Australia. What do people value about their membership? Surely a big factor is that we put on so many rides: at a rough count, 500-700 rides in the last 12 months!
- We have rides for people with many different interests, including through our new Interest Groups and Forums and even the Pino tandems; Daniel Gu thanked us all for being so welcoming to him and others will now be able to ride, even though in his case he is legally blind. We thanked Gary Hackett, Chris Byrne, Martin Bowesman and all the others who are contributing to these special interests.
- We have all become more and more familiar with our new IT system and website (thank you Sarah Gillis)
- We have had a fabulous year improving cycling conditions through our achievements in advocacy (thank you David Thomson, Advocacy Convenors and Area Coordinators).
B. Help members feel welcome
Many people rhapsodise to me about what they get out of coming on our rides. We meet and develop friendships with so many people through Bike North and come to recognise and know them well. We are looking to make Bike North more and more welcoming for members, new and old alike. Tom Rubin spoke to us about some New Members Rides that we will be running in the new year.
C. Increase member participation
We remembered Activ8, Brian Lynne’s brainchild, which helped us blow out the winter cobwebs and get back into the great cycling season; there were over 440 participants on 68 rides, covered over 22,700km in just one month!
We noticed that for Tour de Cowra next year, ANZAC Day and Easter are close together – eight possible days of riding, 24 rides, a number of new routes – come for as many or as few days as you wish.
We have had many achievements in how we communicate with members and others: through Chain Reaction, social media. A big thank you to the Social Media Gurus!
D. Increase the level of activity of Ride Leaders
Ride Leaders are the lifeblood of Bike North; without them, there would be no rides. We really value the contribution they make, and are truly grateful.
Without constant renewal, we risk losing the vigour we currently enjoy. Looking around the members, what can we do to enlarge the numbers of Ride Leaders? How can we get new faces in there? How can we tap into enthusiasm just waiting out there, people who would be great at leading rides? Happily, Brian informed us that three new people had indicated they would like to become Ride Leaders!
Thank you Brian Lynne and all Ride Leaders for the rides to all through the year. And a special thank you to the Ride leaders from the day’s rides: Martin Gelato Fairy Bowesman, David Thomson, Greg Boyd, Andrew Elliston, Kerry Tipton, Brian Lynne, Geoff Young, John Williams (and myself). And once more, we send a huge thank you to the Social Committee for organising the day: Marilyn Algeo, Wendy Jannings and Di Lawrence.
The Executive Committee send you our very best wishes for a safe and refreshing holiday season, and we look forward to a fresh new year of cycling!
Phill Hart, President
|  |  | Join our new On Bike Tech Forum
Need an excuse to buy more bike stuff for Christmas?
If you have been thinking about spoiling yourself with some on-bike technology, then head over to our new On Bike Tech forum.
Hosted by self confessed tech-head, Martin Bowesman, in the forum you can:
- read a detailed report by Martin Bowesman about Safety / Action cameras and mounting options
- join or start a thread about any bike-tech you have / recommend / want to buy.
Let's get talking about all things techy!
(see article below for a reminder of how to join a Bike North forum via our website)
Sarah Gillis, Communications Co-ordinator
| How to find and join a Bike North Forum
1. Log in to the Bike North website www.bikenorth.org.au and under your login details, select Profile: | | |
2. On your dashboard, navigate to the Forums section then select Forum memberships
| | | | 3. Navigate to the Optional forums, find the OnBikeTech forum and click the green button to join!
You can now click the link to go to the forum on the website, read and contribute to threads, and adjust your settings and preferences for example to be notified by email every time there is a thread updated or choose to be updated weekly. | | | Congratulations to our Newest Master Ride Leaders
We send hearty cheers to Andrew Elliston and Brian Lynne, who have recently been accredited by Bicycle NSW as Master Ride Leaders.
The rigorous accreditation process recognised their extensive skills and expertise; it was fascinating to see written down all the ways in which they have contributed to Bike North, the members and to cycling generally.
This prestigious accreditation enables Andrew and Brian to deepen their leadership in supporting and encouraging Ride Leaders.
We applaud their ongoing commitment to Bike North and congratulate them on their achievement.
Phill Hart, President
| | | Be part of Lane Cove Cycling Decisions
Nominations are open for a number of committees which advise the Lane Cove Council. These include the Bicycle Advisory Committee.
Nominations close 16 December.
If you want to help shape decisions in Lane Cove nominate here .
If you would like to learn more about being a member of such a committee, contact Advocacy Coordinator, David Thomson on 0419 227 213 or advocacy@bikenorth.org.au or Frank Vaccher on 0409 397 934. | | | Willoughby City Council Road Safety
Willoughby City Council has recently made public two draft reports which contain sections that confirm what many of us have known or suspected about cycling around Willoughby, and more specifically in the Chatswood CBD. These reports are firstly the "Draft City of Willoughby Road Safety Plan" (contained in the November Traffic Committee Agenda here), and secondly the "Victoria Avenue Movement and Place Plan" available here.
Quotes relevant to cycling in the first document are: "Casualty detail indicates that there were proportionately more people seriously injured in Willoughby LGA crashes than in crashes in Greater Sydney or NSW over the same period. This is because of the higher proportion of crashes occurring in Willoughby LGA involving vulnerable road users (i.e. pedestrians, motorcyclists and pedal cyclists) and the higher likelihood of vulnerable road users being seriously injured (or killed) in a crash event." and "Bicyclists are also over-represented as a road user group in casualty crash data, with 6% of total casualties from 2018 to 2023 on the Willoughby LGA road network in the pedal cycle rider road suer class, in comparison to Greater Sydney (5.42%) and NSW (4.76%)".
The second document evaluates the cycling infrastructure in and around Victoria Ave in Chatswood. . .
Readers are strongly recommended to download and peruse both documents.
Andrew Nelson, Bike North Member, Willoughby Councillor
Read the full article here in our News Library.
|  | Long wait over for Construction on SHB Ramp
There was excitement for many of us this week as construction commenced on the Sydney Harbour Bridge (SHB) Ramp.
Check out this video link for the news footage of the activity and announcement.
| | | CHAIN REACTION ARTICLE DEADLINE
Bike North members are keen to hear about your rides and ideas. Send your article, either within an email or as an attached Word document, and separately attached images (jpeg files please) to news@bikenorth.org.au by 4pm each Tuesday for publication in our weekly newsletter Chain Reaction or for your article to be added to our News library.
Before sending your ideas please read the Guidelines for Contributors .
Submit your article | BICYCLE NSW DISCOUNT
Did you know that membership of Bike North entitles you to a 15% discount on a membership to Bicycle NSW? Use code 15NORTH when you join or renew. Bicycle NSW members receive global, comprehensive (personal accident and public liability) rider insurance and a range of other benefits as well as advocacy and legal support.
Find out more | | | |