Norman Ahrentreich discussed his own experience with the organization and the mental challenges that accompany this style of riding. In addition to discussing the history of the Randonneuring organizations including the link between TCBC and the local MNRandos, Norman defined the variety of ride names, ride styles, and ride types and distances. While randonneuring has a long history beginning in France, their organization continues to expand its horizons. New this year, RUSA will include rides fewer than 200K. For TCBC, that means the opportunity for more rides in a structured manner that will not take all day or days to ride!
If riding long distances appeals to you, RUSA events such as Paris-Brest-Paris, North Cape 4000, or the local North Star Bicycle Race are some of the rides available to cyclists. In addition to riding over beautiful terrain on less-traveled roads, a rider has the opportunity to experience new locales with a somewhat structured format similar to TCBC and gain cycling friends to discuss their cycling dreams.
While randonneuring is defined by its noncompetitive nature with many unsupported rides, the timed component of the rides, the individual/team riding events, and the awards structure provide a cyclist the motivation needed to expand and challenge cycling limits.
What does randonneuring offer the TCBC rider? The Winter Riding Series, 200K or fewer distance rides, meeting more cycling friends, setting new cycling goals, and consistently structured year-round riding.
This year, MNRandos will be offering and scheduling 200K or fewer distance miles on the TCBC ride calendar. Those rides may include ride names like Populaire, Permanents, and Gravel Ride. MNRando rides will be listed as Outreach Rides. The MNRandos Winter Series offers a 100/200 K ride in the Twin Cities from November through March, so there is still time to ride this winter.
For a TCBC member to ride a MNRando ride you need the following:
a RUSA membership $30/year
a MNRando membership $25/year or a $5 ride fee (NEW!)
and Register both on the TCBC calendar AND the MNRando Site
In addition to commuting year-round, Norman has ridden and finished the Paris-Brest-Paris under the allotted timed finish, continues to work towards RUSA award goals, and enjoys the challenges. He sums up randonneuring by saying it is not just for hard-core long-distance cyclists anymore and that there are ride distances for many different levels.
Thanks to Sam Carroll for arranging for the program and this after-program write-up.
Welcome to The tcbc Bicycle University for February 15 2024 my name is Edward EO and I the coordinator for B you tonight we are very fortunate to have Norman El lantry um the regional bra administrator for the Minnesota randur who will be speaking about ruring locally and nationally before we begin however I
Just have a few announcements uh this is the third session of B you for 24 please put yourself on mute please put yourself on mute this is the third session of bik you for the 2024 tcbc ride year if you have not heard the previous sessions on the Minnesota bicycle Alliance and free
Bikes for kids as well as all the sessions from the 2023 ride year which include uh Ride with GPS the Minnesota Public Schools bike education program winter bicycling fat bikes as well as all the session sessions from the 22 ride Year please do so we have many
Great sessions that you can go back and listen to uh right now there um they include stuff on the environment tcbc history equity and bicycling electric bikes The Greenway please go to the bik you page off the main tcbc website where you will find the link to each of these
Sessions on the tcbc YouTube channel where all the recordings uh are located the recording of the session tonight will also be up after the conclusion of the meeting and after I have had time to edit and post it to YouTube I want to thank our tcbc biku
Council of Regents uh this includes John Benda Tim Rand and Dan Miller for their work if anyone else would like to join we’d certainly appreciate you uh contacting us because we’ like to welcome others on the council because we want the council to be representative of the entire club and cover subjects that
You’d like to hear I also want to give a big sh shout out as I always do to Jim Pon who has helped in the setup and maintenance of the tcbc B you web page Jim does many things behind the scenes for the entire club’s website and is
Always available when I need him thank you Jim during the session tonight please keep your audio muted but do keep your video on so that we can show who is in attendance tonight remember we are recording if you you don’t have yourself unmute and make any noise it switches to
Your video and thus the recording gets messed up there will will will be a question and answer session after the presentation but during the meeting you can enter questions in the zoom chat function we will be monitoring those questions and make sure they get answered during the Q&A please do not
Interrupt the speaker and to ask questions during the presentation I would now like to introduce TCB member and moderator for the program tonight Sam Caroll who will introduce our speaker Sam over to you thank you welcome everyone to this evening’s bik you event randing local and
International I am Sam Carol a member of tcbc since about 2009 and thank you to Edward and the bike you Council for organizing events that uh are exciting events in the cycling community so what do you think when you hear these six words ruring bra rousa pancake Paris breast Paris or
600k well tonight I would like to introduce our presenter Norman arti the regional bra administrator who will be discussing all things Randon nering Norman has been a lifelong cyclist in 2003 Norman moved from Germany to Minneapolis where he soon joined tcbc and became a ride leader Norman discovered Randon noring through
Tcbc in 2008 thinking that these listed distances up to 600k were both utterly insane and impossible to ride it turns out that Norman was wrong at least on the impossible toide part and that these long distances are indeed very addicting Norman has completed 10 super randur series which a series includes
200 300 400 and 600k rides in a calendar year he has completed the Paris breast Paris in 2019 and Norman is close to achieving Randon nuring USA’s mondal award for riding 40,000 k in qualifying rousa events last year Norman became the acting Regional Bry administrator for the Minnesota Twin Cities Rochester
Region Norman is a yearround by commuter and he also organizes the regular winter program for Minnesota randur which hosts a 1200k ride for each month including November through March currently Norman is working on his eighth R12 Series in Minnesota to qualify for an R12 award Norman must ride an official
Rousa 200k event for 12 consecutive months and now I will turn it over to Norman thank you yeah thank you Sam for the introduction uh so let me move this I started sharing my screen and I’m going to move this over here okay so thanks for the invite uh
Sam and Edward so I’m glad to be here um as some of you know I’ve been a member with tcbc for um I would say close to 18 19 years by now so um that’s how I actually discovered uh random nuring so I’ll go back uh and uh discuss the
History of Minnesota render nures and tcbc a bit more in my presentation here but so right now you see our um logo and our motto that we have right far with friends so we came up with that modotto a couple years ago um so uh I uh
It kind of emphasizes the you know Spirit of ruring so let me see I have have here I start with a photo that’s our last year’s uh PBP conent so Paris press Paris so that’s a ride uh that many of you probably associate with ruring those Ultra long
Rides 1200 kilometers 750 miles every four years in Paris going out to breast and uh back it’s the longest it’s the oldest no it’s the oldest um biking event in world uh so way more than 100 years history going back um so and last three or four uh times uh Minnesota
Randon nurse had about you know 10 15 people going every time to Paris press Paris um and participating in it I did it in 2011 did not finish there stupid writing one of the reasons uh and in 2019 I finished it uh so by but I did
Not do it last year’s uh Edition everything has to line up so here you see actually Rob Bel longtime tcbc member and the previous RBA so I took over the range from him last year uh to organize and do the logistics the administrative work um
So what do I want to discuss today so okay so uh the presentation will be somewhat um two parts so the first part is more what is ruring and it’s going to uh play into those uh stereotypes that uh we all have or rering is this super
Long crazy stuff you know those insane rides uh three four F 600k and then those grand randers Randon is of 1200k or even longer than that um so uh but the second part will talk about some of the recent changes that happened uh so I would say renan nuring has
Something for everybody so we or especially rousa the renan nuring USA organization has opened up and is offering now more many rides below the 200k threshold limits that that used to be the limit hey everything under 200k that’s not ruring so we offer now many rides beyond that or or shorter than
That and so that’s how we hope also to recruit new members and get them interested in longdistance riding so let’s move on um on you know what is Randon nuring so it is comes from France so the first um ride was 1891 PBP it’s non-competitive unsupported longdistance cycling so emphasis on non-competitive and
Unsupported so it’s not a Race So typically you don’t have any rankings oh you won or so uh and I came second that’s not the spirit of ruring but it’s also unsupported you’re on your own so when we have bres it’s like we stop at gas stations or any other controls where
We load up on food drinks stop um and uh we are not own there’re supposed to fix our bikes if something happens uh you can stop at uh a bike um shop if you need to but yeah typically no support vehicle behind you that’s different uh than uh for instance
Ram style Race Across America style that’s where you have a vehicle behind you and they hand you the food certain longdistance races uh are you know Ram style and random nuring style Randon nuring style you know depending on the distance you can take 10 20 hours more just because you’re supporting yourself so
Traditionally um Rendon nuring uh covered these long distances starting with a 200k bra that’s 125 miles you have a time limit it’s not a race but those time limits can be uh challenging in Winter I struggles sometimes with a 13 and 1/2 hour time limit um and some
Are usually not an issue but for some others it could be uh so and here are the other typical distances that we write um so up to 600k in 40 hours so Um yeah and then basically a series uh so we call a 200 300 400 and a 600 kilm R uh r right if you have those in a year we call it in a serus so it’s organized by an organization administered by a French organization called
ACP uh or that club Parisian um so if that’s basically your requirement your qualification to participate in Paris press Paris so the time limit for Paris press Paris is typically 90 hours there are some start groups like 80 and 84 hours to you know you start in a different
Time of the day but the uh majority of riders chose the 90-hour time limit I wrote PBP twice I struggled twice with the time limits even though typically I’m one of the faster Riders so something unexpected happens 90 hours can be um challenging so um yeah I mentioned Paris
Plus Paris but that’s not the only Grand r uh so we have also uh other distances it counts as a grand Rand uh anything greater than th000 kilometers so th000 kilometers and greater and there are many great rides out there I think I’ll show some later in the um in uh those slides
So want to mention actually so mission statements from Russa that’s the randoming US a organization so we value the principles of collaboration self-sufficiency and C cameraderie over competition in Minnesota Rand the nurse we also came up with a mission statement um you know promote the development enjoyment of long-distance riding um so
Emphasis on safety and camaraderie so anybody can join us and especially now with the shorter distances available uh we have now most different focus group and different type of writers joining uh us and yeah they get hooked and then are getting interested in writing these longer distances that uh they thought
Before are impossible to write um so yeah I want to add here one how far can you write so that’s that’s a typical question um asked to Rand the nurse how far can you write uh I typically say that that’s the wrong question the correct question is how far
Can you write and a keep your job and B um you know keep your marriage intact and so the answer to those questions how how can you write and then how far can you write with keeping those you know intact very different answer you know very different
So uh why Randon nuring so I say because I can um it’s so much fun I love night riding I like pushing myself um a little bit further Beyond but it’s also you get to see the country and other countries in a ways that you wouldn’t uh on your
Car you go through areas that you’ve never seen before you might be tempted to go into to visit the country to ride um your bike there for 1200k ride so I want to mention a few of those famous uh randur or Randon that are out there and
So any one of these that is listed here on this page we had a few Minnesota renon Nur members doing them in the past so I mentioned PBP already uh there’s London Edinburg London which is 1,400 kilometer right um and uh on the other side of the road very often foggy or so
Small roads narrow um so but yeah still on my bucket list last year we had one doing the North Cape 4000 which is from the southern tip of Italy up to the North Cape uh past the Arctic Circle so you Traverse Europe um I had Jonas nard he did length
Lengths of Sweden uh I love these uh right reports uh a 600 K or no uh actually 1200k or longer in June with 24 hours of sunlight uh so that’s definitely on my bucket list uh and yeah incentive to to go out there um and get to know get to see other
Countries um in the US we currently offer up more probably more than 10 grander when I went up to the uh Russa website 10 grand reres that means thk and more are listed for 2024 uh and that doesn’t include our grand rener so Minnesota randur is offering also a,k right which will be
Very lowkey this year um so very minimal support we have every four years the Koolaid challenge which is a 1200 kilometer bike ride going into Wisconsin 35,000 ft of climbing very steep um so um that’s our Flagship event every four years um so very um yeah um about 100
People from across the US and even International uh participated last time so what are you training for so those are the the events that people are training for with us they join the winter program um some of some of them so that they keep you know stay active
During the winter we’ll talk about it a little bit more and they train you know with our you know longer offerings than in the summer up to 600k for these events one of the events uh that’s not ring that’s rised Across America I mentioned that already from Oceanside uh
To Maryland uh so and pack a tour that’s basically uh the same route but you don’t you’re not racing it it’s uh it’s an organized event with support uh Vehicles behind you you have 21 days for that Race Across America yeah you race so we also had uh people participating
There other races trans and Bike Race um so also traversing the US that’s completely uh self-supported here so the difference between this is the support to divide uh also unsupported uh so those are some of the rides that our you know members uh train
For I wanted to mention we had a have a randur uh he has a movie out there for his Guinness World Record uh right uh think two no 2020 pandemic year um so when he covered all the lower 48 states uh in 31 days um so yeah uh he joined
Minnesota randur did the winter program and got hooked and then he looked for a challenge and yep he he kind of broke this record and improved the time by more than 12 days out races norstar bicycle race from St Paul to um to Grand Portage at the Canadian border and back uh trans
Minnesota wheel race 1200 mile R so those are not breev but those are the things that our Riders our members train for and get ready for it um yeah there’s a bunch of there are a bunch of gravel rights uh Dam I think they across Minnesota again is on the offering
Alexander Ragnarok iova V and rock crazy um crazy cvel right with I don’t know 10 20 people starting three four people finishing uh so in uh April so those are the rides that yeah people get ready for and those are that’s probably playing into your stereotype oh those randers
They’re doing all this crazy crazy stuff um so those winter races I did to scoia last year uh basically one and a half months ago arrowead 135 is on my bucket list um so we had uh one um Minnesota rer participating in edit the 1,000 uh version 1,000 mile so
Yeah and why also we emphasize motivation so there a bunch of awards out there from ACP from Russa and Minnesota randur we created our own Awards uh so and that actually motivates people to get on their bike and keep a streak going um or go for you know their
First you know 200k and get the series there’s rer serious so that motivates people um and yeah um you stay in shape uh if you go for the consistency these are 12 Awards we have fun um very often when we finish a ride we have a cooler with some
Beverages there or if we finish near a restaurant people go in there and uh have some post right refreshments and and dinner and and share right stories um let’s not forget impress your co-workers they ask what did you do over the weekend you said I wrote 400k 250
Miles uh so I don’t impress them anymore with my speed but you know just throwing out some mileage numbers you know you get you get some respect and I mentioned you know get to know the country so I I know more of Minnesota than many others
I think just because I rode through many parts of Minnesota already and on streets that you normally wouldn’t take on your car you know going through Amish Country uh you know riding on bike pass um so yeah that’s part of the fun that I I that’s why I like ruring and
Especially uh what I like I like night riding a sunrise for instance you’re riding through the night and then you’re having nice Sunrise it’s it’s perfect and anything after midnight I I love this right you own the roads so um randing events and right types um so
As I said here we’re going into the area where we said hey we’re not only those crazy longdistance cyclists so first of all I want to mention two different piles of rander nuring there is the ODU style writing and then there is also aure Libra alure Libra so all those words come from
French um so Randon ning started with OD du style this is where you stay together as a group you have a right captain and you write a relatively slow pace and the right Captain basically is responsible for keeping the group together you finish together the rules are very
Stricted in terms of you have to have sitdown meals you know where there’s a two-hour break and uh everybody’s together and the right Captain makes sure they finish within the time limit and says break is over and now we’re getting out again there is Right leader in front
Of the group and somebody in the back making sure the group stays together it’s not a very fast style uh but uh we haven’t offered it yet uh so um mostly we are offering the Allure Libra basically freestyle free speed everybody is riding at their uh own speed um so if
You join a Minnesota randur right you can have everything basically sometimes the group decides to stay together but sometimes you know we have some really fast guys and they want to go um it might be already split up into many different groups you know like 50 miles
Down down the road so uh very often you’ll find riders that ride your speed it’s sell them that somebody knew would have to ride alone so that’s not the type type of of ruring on writing that we want to promote it could happen so be uh it’s possible that somebody joins and
And rid rides alone because um you not not uh everybody or or didn’t find anyone is beat so but we we discuss this all the time you know have have uh somebody more experience uh make sure people finish and have a good time so we we encourage you know forming bigger groups
Um so those are the two types of writing uh we typically do AER Libra we are planning of offering some duck style rights uh as well under shorter rights so it’s in discussion apparently it takes a little more planning because we need to follow all the rules I’ve mentioned the grand Randon
I’ve mentioned in the pr uh so now let’s go down the list here so there are also team events uh uh traditional team event is called the flesh that’s uh French for Arrow the idea is you have many different teams from different areas in the country and you descend to one
Common destination so the team is between three and five Riders and so uh we’re planning for next year a flesh event uh with the sou South Dakota renon Nur uh so they start from their location and we start from location uh we Des sent on a common location we
Had something with the Wisconsin writer so the idea is Brandon nurse from different parts of the country can they find a common location where they start from their locations and then descend to that logistically it’s always a nightmare you yeah you have to come back uh so that that’s why it’s really
Offered so you have to plan for that um so the requirement it’s a 24-hour event you have to cover over at least 360 kilom then there is the two smaller uh you know events Dart Dart is also Arrow uh 13 and a half hours with a minimum of
200 kilometers so same time limit uh than um the regular 200 burb but the same idea and then D popular and this is what we offer now for the last two years and we have three Dart prop there events on our calendar this year already and
It’s an 8 Hour event with a minimum distance of under 20 kilomet so this is where we plan on getting people interested in random ning so you have your team again you as a right Captain you come up with the route actually you also have to
Follow rules there is a requirement of a sit down meal about at least 25 miles out from the um from the finish uh so it’s a good team building event uh so you get to know the writers on your group uh very well last year yep last
Year I had an event where it would have been her longest right the 120k and so if she was very concerned uh can she do that and I said well that’s the perfect event for you to get into ruring so uh I as the right Captain I to make sure keep
The group together we finished with 5 minutes to spare so pretty close uh but we managed so she finished her uh her goal her longest distance at the time we had our nice sit down uh meal at a restaurant uh so it was a complete success and we had three teams actually
Doing it and then at the end yep we all get together the different teams and you know share right stories um so I think dark purple is a really good right type right event you know for you to you know talk to random nurse about their experiences and and get uh yeah get
Interested so what else do we have we have permanence so a lot of these rides every uh route uh that we write is a registered route and approved route so when we offer a ride um we have that route approved by uh rousa um and also uh by ACP sometimes um
And you can turn that route into a permanent so it’s a different committee that approves that and once it’s a permanent it means you can write it any time um so it doesn’t have to be on that weekend when this 200 300K right is scheduled uh once it’s a permanent you
Go into the rousa website um you register and say hey I want to write that in the middle of the week because I have a day off the weather is nice and you get then your credit so and it’s completely self- administered now those are also some recent changes you pay
Once a fee of $10 with Russa uh and then you are registered for the permanent program for that year and that’s how you can keep your any you know streak going if you’re going for an R12 award or so yeah some I I wouldn’t be able to do it without the permanent
Program popular rights that’s anything smaller than 200 100K 125k 150 uh 200k um so those are populars and then we now offer also gravel rights so rousa has agreed also now to um give us additional time allowance so uh if you have a PR that has like 50% gravel and gravel takes you
Know is harder takes more time you get a Time allowance uh for those 50% uh so we have a lot of riders who love gravel rides um I mentioned before uh in the pre- meeting here my take on gravel is I can think of more pleasant
Ways to be miserable so I’m not really gravel Riders um but we have a gravel committee uh they put you know I think we have up to six gravel events this year on the calendar so there are also permanence you can write them any time
You want um so and you can get ready for any gravel race uh you want so there are all types of different events and you seeing is more than just you know writing these super long distances so and know i’ would love to see um again more writers from tcbc joining us and
And checking out these smaller options and see whether you know this is something you uh could enjoy checking time so maybe 10 15 more minutes so um Minnesota random nurseing tcbc so we were once part of tcbc uh all of our rights up to the 600k rights were listed on the tcbc calendar
And that’s how I learned about this type of writing I said that’s impossible um so then a few years back the night writing rules changed for uh uh tcbc and um so we couldn’t basically fulfill those night riding rules uh so that’s when um kind of the connection
Loosened a little bit uh so we uh since then we only list the rights up to 200k uh as outr rights on the tcbc calendar so we just had a board meeting uh and I talked to Rob Belch and he will make sure that all the rides including the
Gravel rides for this year will get onto the tcbc calendar within the next one or two weeks so they’re currently not listed yet so we will add them now we probably should have done that already for the winter program um yeah sorry for not having that uh but yeah so
Everything uh that’s uh below 200k including 200ks we will add within the next one or two weeks so what do you have to do if you want to write uh one of those rights so there is the requirement for insurance purposes you have to be a rousa member um
And um so then the next line actually that changed as of today because I brought up in today’s board meeting that I said hey um yeah so when you want to write uh you either have to be a random Minnesota random nurse member which is a
$25 membership fee per per year or you pay a right fee so and I said those $11 are now a little steep you know there was a time period where we had to pay a right fee for insurance purpose to Russa per rer whether they’re finished or not
Uh that got discontinued last year and so I brought it up we should lower the right fee uh so it’s now down to $5 as of today what was voted on today basic so you can if you just want to write one or two rides with Minnesota Rend Nur you
Can register um on our website so basically um you can you sign up on the tcbc calendar uh I want to write that right so then we get a notification email hey there’s a tcbc member who wants to write it but uh I would also request that you register on the
Minnesota uh randur website I have that listed then uh basically down below M rand.org because then you’re included in all the communication so you need to register there on the uh Minnesota and nurse website that you have an account but that doesn’t mean yet you’re paying Minnesota r a nurse member it’s
Different so um you decide to pay the membership fee then you just click on as many rides as you want if you’re not paying member basically you want to register forth uh right it says you know pay $5 so um yeah that’s the um you know procedure for that so maybe we’ll
Ask uh or answer questions then uh on that uh later on uh I wanted to bring up Rand nuring Awards um so uh there is a bunch of I have here a link um so I’m not sure Edward whether we can distribute that presentation as well uh
So can I yeah if I click on here so you fall onto the rousa website uh I only listed one PR but you could look as a um rousa member hey is there anything where I want to go to and you can see it it really encourages right more rides right
In different regions right International a coast to coast or or you know as many states as possible you pick your ride and then you go for it uh so those are here the international uh Awards uh administered by ACP rousa rousa basically has yearly Awards uh like the n12 12 month or p12
That’s for anything you know for popular rights and multi-year award so I got a couple of those Sam mentioned this in my introduction so that’s my motivation I pick something so I’m going to get the mundal aort probably in three or four months and I have my 40,000 k um
So let so let’s see am I so back on uh the award side so Minnesota rur thought hey what those other organization can offer we can do too uh so as I said I organized the Minnesota um winter challenge um so when we have our winter writing program so it’s on maybe for
Last 10 12 years already and this year we came up with our um you know award levels so if you ride 500 kilometers in eligible rousa events and those are the events that we offer every month 100K and the 200k uh so you could write as up to
1,500 kilometers if you write every one of those uh that would be the gold level and so if you just do 500 so any ride 100K ride gets you an honorable mention uh bronze is 500 kilomet th000 kilomet and then uh gold level is um 1,500 kilometers I came up with another
Uh uh level it’s the Platinum level uh anybody who rides more than me in a winter in El events would get platinum level so far there are no takers so I’m currently at 1,380 kilm or my kilometers actually it’s it’s more than that I’m mixing kilometers and and Miles here actually
80 miles from fobia so it’s more than that um so yeah nobody’s basically challenged me for for the Platinum level yet so but it’s a good um incentive we have five to 10 regular Riders uh so um that try to do every ride uh but we have
Up to 15 20 Riders who do a few rides at least and this year we’ve had already 30 40 Riders you know given this winter or the absence of winter so a lot of people came out and and rote winter rides so but it’s really a good you know
Incentive to get out and enjoy so I would say yeah uh I can wrap it up here um I have everything yep uh so I wanted to convey the idea Randon nuring is not just for the longdistance cyclists anymore that used to be in the past uh
Rusa has changed all that in the last 10 years there were discussions when there were request hey should we open it up for shorter rights you know we have aging randomers who are now 80 years old they still want to go out but they can’t do a 200k anymore so after a few
Attempts now we have all these popular rights and and the ruler award ruler award is 100k 125 150 200k and the dot R so and we have many people in our club now going for the ruler Awards they might not go for a super series which
Used to be the traditional way of of you know going for a Russa award and getting ready for Pb um so we have now a whole new offering um and as I said you don’t have to be fast so you most likely will find if you are on the slower side you most
Likely find somebody who rides your speed um there is also the um saying you know PBP my second time when I did it I did it in 89 hours uh I became a member of the adri enhan Society you know like between 89 and 90 hours one hour less
Than the time limit I paid for 90 hours I’ll take my 90 hours uh so yes that we have people who make a point of it uh to come in as close as possible to the time limit they stop at uh restaurants or they do something found along the way if
They ride a little faster um just to enjoy it so it’s a different type of of writing and of course we have those people who go for a fast time time so yeah our you know times for 600k might be finishing times might be spread out
Over 10 12 hours even so yeah there’s something for everybody and I hope that I may have motivated some of you or you maybe you can spread the word uh there is something uh for everybody there and I hope to see some of the tcbc Riders joining so with that said maybe I’ll
Hand it back to Sam and and open up for discussions all I’ll hand it off to Edward yeah um Norman can you just take your um screen share off and we’ll uh just open it up for questions I know there was some questions that came
Through on the chat um one was with the $5 ride fee do you still have to have a rousa membership yes the rousa membership is something that we cannot um you know change so Minnesota randur is part of Russa we are an organization uh so rousa organizes
Basically it’s all under the umbrella of rousa rousa offers the insurance and therefore um rousa membership is required and then when you um post the rides it’s a tcbc ride it’s an Outreach ride right for tcbc I think so yeah um so you it’s listed as an Outreach but it
Has to be um it’s an organized ride but you have to be a rusa member plus uh a local fee or a member to ride and Rob he said that he will mention that in the right description these these requirements rusa membership uh and then either Minnesota rendom
Nurse membership or $5 right fee so he will mention that okay then one of the other that’s correct Norman pardon sorry that was this is Rob here yeah you’re you’re correct Norman that’s that’s how we’re going to do it this year yeah uh dick startic asked what type of
Lighting systems do you use for night riding so there are different approaches I personally prefer Hub powered systems so I have three ride or three bikes that I can use for any of of the Ren andur and everyone has a Hub uh has a Hub system
So I am independent I also have then a USB port on the bike so I can run my lights permanently also I ride with lights on during the day and I can even charge any you know GPS unit or phone there is sufficient uh um you know power
Left um but I also have a parallel system uh battery powered so I have really good um you know front lights I love denina lights but there are so many lights out there now that are really good that have long uh run times and that are really bright I a night riding
Fanatic and I am a you know light fanatic so I have 10 different backlights um so lights that notify me hey I’m about to die it’s making a noise because sometimes I don’t hear or or notice the backlight is off because the battery dying so um I I experiment I test those
RS and um there are so many good lights out there now um especially on the you know for back um so you don’t have to switch to a to a hub lighting system um so you can you can do those long rides exclusively battery powered it’s easy to do
Now and Sam asked a question what about pancakes I’m not sure what that’s About do we offer Pancakes on the right so I mentioned we have the family of pancake rides so I started um the or created the northern pancake cake crow about 12 13 years ago so there was a time um when we asked ourselves the question can we do a 200k
In Minnesota in Winter can we get an R12 in Minnesota and I wrote Rob’s right that he had uh the uh what was it um app Valley classic William do classic and it had about 4,000 uh feet of climbing it was a Subzero ride I got
Lost um and it took me 15 hours so beyond the time limit that’s when I said we need something easier for winter rights that’s when I created a flat as can be therefore the name pancake uh on the Northern side uh so it has a maybe a
Thousand feet of climbing that ride um so it really became popular so we offer this ride now um as a nitrite we call it then the golden pancake uh the idea is we offer it as a night right around the summer solstice with a full moon uh therefore golden
Pancake um we write it basically every months during the winter months we have done once uh winter solstice night ride uh but stars are rarely aligned for that I want uh temperatures not too cold a recent snowfall the full moon uh so those have
To be lined up so i’ we’ve done it once only in the past uh winter Sals is night Fred on that road and it’s just perfect you know it’s like the the moon reflects then on on the snow you have Wide Open Fields we love it um so it has helped a
Lot of Minnesota Randon nurse getting their our 12 so we have now 16 Minnesota was it eight or 16 uh 16 Minnesota rers with an our 12 award um and uh yeah most of them with the pancake few years ago I offered them half a pancake you know a smaller Loop
We start out the first 20 miles together then the routes split um half a pancake and last year I added a 300K version so the first 60 miles are identical and then it wears off goes into wiconsin that one’s called pancake with toppings so you have some texture in there some
Uh some under Wisconsin site so yeah under places where you can actually stop and get pancakes so coffee I’ve known Norman since he started doing is this is Rob here and one of the things that the pancake ride is really evolved into is is uh whether it’s during the day which typically is
Or goes at night is is we tend to stick together that’s one of those rides that uh we just kind of stay as a group there might be a couple groups we’ll stay as a group through the whole ride and really makes it a it’s not a race you know we
Just want to stick together and have a good time there’s good controls good places to stop and eat along the way and it just works out to be a real friendly ride and then Norman what do you use for um navigation I seem to remember that
Randur had to like check in at different places are you using GPS devices now or or you still use Q sheets or both yeah it’s it’s both I would say 90% or more it’s GPS so for every route or ride that we offer there is a Ride with GPS file
That you download and then you have navigation on your computer um you can print out the Q sheet uh from that right with GPS file um so still recommend it um so there are a few routes where we have you know oldfashioned Q sheets uh that you can
Print out um so but once we switched over to electronic proof of Passage EP it’s a GPS file track of your right it has gotten a lot easier and I would say you know 95% of writers use now electronic proofer passage but yeah it’s you know sometimes nostalgic when you
Think of it oh you had your paper Q sheet in the middle of the night you you clipped it on your bike and and you navigate it through somewhat nostalgic controls um yeah um also you had to go in in in the old times you had a PR card
Where you register you got a stem or signature from the gas station attendant you were there at that time um so we still offer that at request uh but typically we can now look at your EP GP uh right with GPS file yep you were everywhere you were supposed to be so
And that’s how we control basically so so with GPS they a rider has to turn that in to prove that they did the ride uh we asked them to be a member of Minnesota rander Nur group on straa so when you’re on straa we ask you be a member of that
Then it shows up there and I can go in there and get the time out uh when they finish a few hours later than me or somehow um so we can look there or if they don’t want to be public or some people chose you know to have their the
Rights hidden or they just have the GPS file I say send that track to me that I can look at it at my computer so it’s either or but the most efficient way is your straa member you’re a member of the Minnesota and the nurse group there then
I can see it right away there other questions any else yeah I I one question um I presume uh on your uh winter rides then you generally ride with um um studded tires or how do you approach um uh winter winter riding conditions yeah so first
Of all we plan or schedule these rides early in the months so that we have the option if there is bad weather a snowstorm we have the option of rescheduling and it’s still in the same months for your or 12 award so last year it was really needed we rescheduled left
And right because I don’t want to write uh on a snowstorm day a day after we need one day of cleaning the streets um so typically two days after and last year was a challenge with that uh so when we have those rights when we actually do those rights Ro conditions
Should be that they are rable um studs yes or no it’s uh question uh we debate all the time studs have a speed penalty they slow you down some people um show up sometimes with with slicks and have a problem um so my Approach right now is um I have a front
St a tire when there’s ice out there I say started in the back I don’t need to um I love the Continental top Continental winter Pro it’s a rubber tire with thousands of little ridges it gives you good traction on most conditions even on Ice there are limits
Uh but that’s my the best compromise that I found so typically I write on on these uh so this year I have only had this I not not studed Tire territory yet um so but yeah there’s always discussion beforehand what what tires do we do we have a stretch over the Rapid them
Which can be slippery last time two weeks ago we had somebody who crashed again there uh it’s most slippery could Rapids them in winter when there’s Southwind the uh mist is blowing over the Kun rapid stem and it’s around freezing that when it’s most slippery if
It’s 10° the ice freezes as crunchy ice and you can ride through over most slippery is 25 between 25 and 30 degrees so uh experience so we have winter detours so the north the northern pancakes is a regular route and by now I know we have three or four stretches
Where the road is not Cloud uh or the bike path is uh icy on the referee season and we take detours uh for that so we tend to avoid the sketchiest parts of it and that’s experienced by now where I have yep here a winter detour is
Use useful uh but I still recommend winter tires but it doesn’t have to be a studded tire and if studs only front is required in my opinion if if it’s iy yeah other questions uh with all these long rides you do at night and in the winter you must have some good
Stories so tell us a good story I would like to pass that off Rob he loves to tell the story my first was it 400k ride remember that in Randol ah yes I I’m not sure if that’s a story that would be would be the right kind of story for this
Group but suffice to say Norman was just getting getting into rander he’s still a good Rider but he got tired and we ended up stopping at this this bar it was the only thing open to get a Coke and um when we got in there there
Was a woman there that saw Norman and for whatever reason she decided that she wanted to take him home and um after a few minutes I I said Norman we got to get out of here we got to get out of here it’s good for you but
On the way out there was these three or four guys hanging out on the on the on the balcony in the front and they asked us where we’re going and we had 25 miles to go and and it was like one in the morning this is a long ride and one of
The guys he kind of looks he says you know i’ I’d love to help you guys out and give you a ride home but I I’m just getting over my second DUI so I don’t know if it’d be a good idea so we made it home safe and and Norman learned from the
Experience the interactions are sometimes great with the the motorcyclists you we see the Holly Riders and I have to say of course I I didn’t even notice the woman was hitting on me I I just noticed you know because grup kept telling the story um so but
Maybe another story that so I thought about it good story uh that’s my 2019 PBP experience um so as I said I finished within the 89h hour Club um but I was at times 10 hours over the time limit so uh I had some leg issues after PVP after the
Turnaround I suddenly I couldn’t pedal on my right leg I had to clip out I was pedaling just with one leg shooting pains never had it before but it was like okay I’m ready to quit I told Jonas just keep on going and had a hotel in in
Car the first stop then on the way back after uh after um breast and I stopped and I was debating of handing in my BR booklet like I’m done I can’t ride I said I’ll keep my options open so I went to the hotel was break and breakfast
Type um so I had a great dinner uh went to bed slept 10 hours had breakfast and uh so we were all talking and I was as I was sitting there and debating you know oh now I also had a bailout up the car was there um you know
Where I could throw in my bike and just drive back and I said oh the second dnf um but hey wait a minute the weather is beautiful I came here to ride my bike I don’t even know does my leg even hurt you know um so I said hey Lynn Drive me
Back to the route I hop on the bike see how it feels you know if I give you the thumbs up I just keep on going right so I had a 16-hour break 10 hours over the time limit um so I hopped on the bike there didn’t feel anything so I kept on
Going gave her thumbs up and I was about 500 kilometers out from the finish and now I was riding in what I call the area of Shadow dreams everybody you passed was like they were devastated uh demoralized they were over the time limits you know just making it to the next control
And here was I I felt completely recovered I had a 12 you know 16 hour break and I realized hey wait a minute I I could ride this thing home you know let let it be 100 100 hours or so overtime limit that’s still better than
Taking the car home that was my initial intention but then I started calculating in my head you have 10 hours more on the return leg uh first time PVP on render brain I didn’t even notice so I said I keep writing it maybe I can write back
In and uh into the time limit and so first control I still got my stamp and the bra book they had already you know taken away the electronic timing Ms so I wasn’t even registered electronically but I had my stamp second stop the restaurant was still open there was
Logistic I could eat at a control and the timing mat was already no no second stop the timing M was already there restaurant was already closed third stop everything was there four stop I was back in the time limit that was kind of 200 kilm out um and then I actually
Waited five minutes in in ramboer to make it into the 85 89h hour Club so it’s like uh yep I made it uh so uh just keep on going it was a tremendous experience loved it that’s awesome thank you are there um typ types of bikes that
Are better not so much winter biking but during the summer there types of bikes that are better and you use like Pine I you load a lot of stuff on your bikes um it’s probably Rider specific with preferences I’ve uh I have a commuter bike that I’ve used for rering
Before it has been years I’ve used uh I have my long distance bike which I’ve built up in in several ways at had paneers I use that bike for the Northstar bicycle race and I show up during the pandemic year with two heavy paneers and and um on on the back um and
I lift my bike at the start and my carbon rails from the saddle brake so I was heavily overloaded uh for that because I had liquids in there oh I I’m I’m going not going to stop for the first 200 miles you know I don’t need to stop anywhere
Uh everybody else was showing up for a race I was showing up for a bike packing trip I had to B borrow a saddle uh for that one so I love paneers um sometimes when I’m ride leader and I ride out with the bike I I take that bike because then
I have the sign up sheets in there um but you rarely see somebody else with a pineer you know it’s typically a frame back um yeah it’s it’s you know position I think you have to experiment but works you know I’m I’m I have three bikes that
I can choose from um yeah I have a road bike distance bikes commuta bikes and all get used for for Rand earring great thank you other questions okay so we’ll uh uh end up the session here um thanks again to Norman for speaking to us
Tonight also a big thanks to all of you for attending this session of tcbc bike University the recording will be up shortly after it is uploaded to our tcbc YouTube channel the link will be in the notes for this session on the bik you web page as we’ve done in the past uh
The Council of regions is working on other sessions including bicycle maintenance commuting by bicycle professional bike fitting and the tcbc Tuesday tuneup 25th anniversary to name just a few if you have other ideas for programs please uh write to us at bikbik tcc.org and the council will
Discuss them at our next meeting thank you again for attending and we hope to see you again next time