New Bike Safety Video

Most visitors don't keep track of new additions to the FOGBEE Blog.  We would like to invite everyone to watch the new video we posted from the League of American Bicyclists.  Click on the BIKE SAFETY tab and scroll to the bottom of the page.  Of course you may also want to watch the great videos from the League of Illinois Bicyclists and Music City Moves just above it.

Spring Over-Nighter

. . We didn't have our usual Spring over-nighter last year because the weather was so crappy.  However, several have already asked, "what do we plan for this spring?"  Very likely the weather is going to be significantly better than last year so we are targeting a ride for April 28'th and 29'th.  That will allow those who wish to do the new Spring BRAT to do both.
. . We are tossing around a number of candidate destinations: The Silver Comet, the Virgina Creeper, something in Louisville, the Spring BRAT (instead of our own), and ride from Bristol to Knoxville.  Some even want to repeat the Little Miami ride.
. . So what do you want to do?  How about some suggestions. SOON so everyone can schedule and plan.

Cystic Fibrosis Cycle for Life Committee Meeting

. . The Committee Meeting for organizing the 2012 Cystic Fibrosis Cycle for Life ride has been moved from February 12'th to March 11'th at 2PM in Gary's office.  Our new marketing Director from Cystic Fibrosis Tiffany Kerns has a conflict for February 12'th.
. . If any FOGBEE would like to serve on the Planning Committee or has ideas on how to improve the event please send me a note.  Last year's committee elected to have the annual ride on the fourth Saturday of October.  We will again be at Sycamore Springs and Gary has agreed to have his spectacular Halloween Party that evening so its going to be a gala event.  It'll be a Ride and Party Hardy.
. . Lastly, the long ride was one of the most scenic in the area and well planned by Bruce and Miley.  We received lots of kudos.  But it was tough, especially the approach into Hartsville! Maybe too tough. So we will be looking to level out that section as best as possible in Tennessee and shortening it.  Cystic Fibrosis has also asked us to add a 20-mile route. 

Life Happens

In my never ending quest to keep my fellow Fogbees abreast of how old we really are..take note..it's a sad day as Johnny Otis the creator of the Hand Jive song has died.. :(

JOB Announcement

The Safe Routes to School National Partnership is hiring a state advocacy organizer in Tennessee who will build and maintain a network of diverse partners to achieve three main policy objectives: (1) Leverage funding for bicycle and pedestrian construction projects including Safe Routes to School and Transportation Enhancements funds, (2) Facilitate additional street-scale improvements through Complete Streets policies and other mechanisms and (3) Advance joint-use agreements. Policies must benefit lower-income communities and improve the built environment to increase physical activity to help reverse childhood obesity. Applications are due on Thursday, February 2, 2012 at 5:00 p.m. PT.  The position begins on March 1, 2012.

RAGBRAI 2012

It's RAGBRAI time and Charlene (aka Spinjunkie) is putting together a group to attend this year's event.

Hello Friends! Go here first: http://ragbrai.com/about/ and read. :-)

By now, you've heard me talk about the epic bike tour called RAGBRAI. "Register's Annual Great Bike Ride Across Iowa." Ragbrai is the oldest and longest bike tour in the world. 2012 is their 40th year! The route changes every year and always travels West to East. Imagine Ten thousand cyclists from all over the world pedaling across Iowa, experiencing the small town life, eating more kinds of pie than you thought existed, friendly local people, pork chops, corn, wait for it...CORN! I've done Ragbrai in 2005, 2007 and 2009. Check out my Ragbrai Albums on my Facebook page for a peek inside this 7 day 500 +/- mile bike tour.

Some of you are already on board with us for this bike vacation of a lifetime...or at least decade. Feel free to forward this email to your cycling friends! I would love to take a big group of Ragbrai "Virgins" with us July 22-28. 

Membership List

Several members are asking to access to the Membership List.  We have ONE log-in for EVERYONE, rather than trying to administer another list of member account ID's.  Click on the Membership List in the sidebar.  When it asks for your ID and a PASSWORD, your ID is ALLFOGBEES@gmail.com.  We have mailed everyone the password on 1/13/12.  These instructions are repeated in the "How To" tab. 

UPDATE

Its a little late, but we have completed the update of our Membership List and Blog Author List.  Members can view the membership list by logging into Google as ALLFOGBEES@gmail.com. You will need a PASSWORD, which we have changed from that used with the prior list.  We will send everyone that password via our LISTSERV (aka Google Group) to which y'all just subscribed.  PLEASE don't share it with non-members.

We have moved member's record who have not responded to the December LISTSERV invite to the EXPIRED worksheet in the Membership List. If you see someone on that page and know they should be on the ACTIVE worksheet, have them send us an note and we will attempt to re-authorize their account.

If you once were able to post to the blog and no longer can, that means we do not have a current active email address for you.  We really didn't want to cut anyone off, but want to keep the author's list to only those people who might actually want to post or comment on the blog.

We have included a list of the FOGBEE Internet Administrators on the "How To" page of this blog.  They are people who have volunteered to service our stuff.  We are always looking for help.  If you have internet skills, we need you.  PLEASE send us a note at FOGBEES@gmail.com

BRAT has new SPRING Ride.

Join us for the BRAT spring ride (River & Lakes Tour) April 20th-21st to knock the dust off your bike and get the winter blues right out of your legs. Come see what makes the Bicycle Ride Across Tennessee so great. If your not sure you can handle our 7 day event in the fall the spring ride is a great chance to see what a multi-day tour is like.
FOGBEES might want to consider this as their SPRING overnighter. Thoughts? Click here for more info.

WHY Fat Old guys keep riding bikes

After Spin goodbye to Jennifer !

As usual we will Spin Thursday night at 6:30 pm at the Y. We had 12 Spinners Tuesday! Several mentioned taking Jennifer to Sams afterwards to wish her well and say goodbye as she's leaving for Virginia (I think)this weekend. Even if you don't Spin come by Sams around 7:45pm and say hello. Jennifer has been a loyal Fogbee rider for years and a devoted Spinner. :)

Update

. . Most of the "heavy lifting" on the conversion of FOGBEE Blog and various websites has been completed.  We are also about to update the Membership List based on those who responded to the Google Group Invite.  About 14 invitations have not been approved by members, some people we know.  However, Google does not permit us to register.  They must do it themselves.
. . Our goal is provide the best website of any club in America and we are on our way to make that a reality.  ALL of it is available to us for FREE thanks to Google.  Please take time to review what we have and offer suggestions.
. . Miley asked for an optional format for phones.  This morning we added that feature.
. . Bob wanted members to be able to have their own page.  We can do that also.  The website is wide open for EVERYONE to contribute directly via Web 2.0. But we need people to volunteer to be trained as administrators for the various sections of the website (see the How To page).
. . We have been archiving all our Photoshows on YouTube.  Its a terribly time-consuming process and Bruce took charge of the work.  For more info on that see our website navigation in the right sidebar. Look under Resources, Photo.