In the backroom...

Much Ado About Everything

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 28 May 2014 02:15:00 +0000

Haven't blogged in a seriously long time, but there is a lot of exciting stuff going on at the shop these days.

We've been rabidly attacking all manner of advocacy projects. We even received an award for our efforts from the Tri State Transportation Campaign in November in Manhattan. In conjunction with the Bicycle Coalition of Greater Philadelphia, we have been working to get our county municipalities to pass Complete Streets Bills. We have been meeting with the county engineer, and our Freeholders, to encourage the addition of bike lanes and trails. Just this week, we will be filming a video with the TSTC for The Circuit. The shop is determined to help this project get the funding it needs to complete the planned 750 mile network. Two weeks ago, our State Assembly Transportation Committee put a bill through to institute a safe passing law! Many thanks go to all of you who continue to support our efforts, adding your names to petitions and calling the appropriate elected officials when asked. Every piece of the puzzle gets us a step closer to much safer cycling in the state of NJ. Instead of sitting back and acting like nothing can be done, we are all acting together to make things happen! Stay tuned, we are just getting started.

On the cycling front, there was a distinct lack of support for women's bicycle racing in our area. We have so many strong ladies who do our group rides and showed an interest in competition beyond our "Monday Night World's" group rides. We set out to establish a small team of beginner road racers and ended up with a bunch of wins and a State Championship in our very first season. Now in our second year, we are working team strategies and training as a team to accomplish our goals and move up to the next racing category.

Seeing the success of our women's team, and the budding talent of many of the men on our group rides, we decided to restructure our men's racing team and bring it in-house. With just a few veterans left over, we rebuilt from the ground up with a lot of new faces onboard. These guys have gone from fast groups riders to State Criterium Champions in just the first few months of their season. They, too, have proven that teamwork and selflessness, along with skill and competitive drive, can get you to the finish line first.

While we are extremely proud of our teams for winning races, we are ever more proud of them all for their ability to plan and execute a strategy that has riders helping their teammates get to the finish line without concern for their own placing. A win for the team is a win for all. What's better is that even when we don't win, we are so happy to be riding, racing and working together for a common goal: to do our very best.

These two teams and our existing mountain/cx bike team are now all OneTeam. We look forward to reporting on all the action and successes that our team has in 2014. More pictures and stories to follow.

These same folks are supporting charity events, teaching kids how to ride bikes, and being all around good citizens. The teams would like to thank all our our sponsors: Republic Bank, Cavallaro Family Practice, TraceJenkins Law, DII Computers, SteakOut, More Than Just Rings, Specialized Bicycles and American Truck and Auto.

Sunday mtb ride canceled

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sun, 23 Sep 2012 05:00:00 +0000

Sorry kids, too much rain. The beginner mtb ride has been canceled. We will try again next week!

Tuesday D Ride Time Change

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Mon, 17 Sep 2012 17:51:00 +0000

The Tuesday D ride is moving to 5:45pm on September 18th. Please be ready to roll as darkness is falling quite early now.

Beginner MTB ride canceled

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sat, 08 Sep 2012 14:55:00 +0000

I am proactively canceling the Sunday beginner mtb ride. We are expecting big storms overnight. This should give riders enough time to alter their Sunday riding plans without waiting for the morning. There will be a group of road riders at the Scenic Schuykill Century tomorrow morning. Wear your Action Wheels jersey, iffin you have one. It's much easier to find everyone at the start and throughout the ride.

Patty

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sat, 23 Jun 2012 02:47:00 +0000

Congress to Decide Fate of Bike Funding: Congress is currently debating the massive transportation bill, which includes funding for bicycling and pedestrian facilities. Indications are that these programs could be entirely gutted. Our Senator is on the committee that can stop this. Take Action Now! Please take a minute before Monday and call Senator Menendez's office in support of dedicated funding for bicycling and walking programs. Leave a message if you don't reach a staffer — Monday close of business will be too late! Below is an easy script. Senator Robert Menendez: 202.224.4744 Hello! I am (Name, Address, City). I am calling to ask for Senator Menendez's support of dedicated funding for bicycling and walking in the transportation reauthorization. Thank you, in advance, for supporting cycling!! Patty Action Wheels

Awesome group rides!

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 20 Jun 2012 21:31:00 +0000

If you haven't had a chance to join us recently, or at all, we have group rides for lots of different ability levels. We have paid ride leaders for these events and they are dedicated to providing the safest, most fun, and educational riding experience you can find in our area. As a matter of fact, I have had quite a few people tell me that they have been on group rides all over and ours is the one they find to be the friendliest and most well run. (Toot toot- that was me tooting my own horn, but I digress) So if you find yourself looking for some fun on two wheels, join us for a loop. We have rides on Monday (6p), Thursday (6p) and Saturday (8a) for intermediate to advanced riders and Tuesday (6p) for beginner road riders. We also run holiday rides! Sign up for our email list at actionwheels.com to stay on top of all the local cycling happenings. See you soon!

No D ride tonight!

noreply@blogger.com (Rich) — Tue, 08 May 2012 17:16:00 +0000

Sorry, no ride leader available, so no D ride this evening.

Monday Night Ride canceled...

noreply@blogger.com (Rich) — Mon, 09 Apr 2012 20:20:00 +0000

...due to wind.

forecast change

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sat, 07 Apr 2012 10:43:00 +0000

The high winds won't be coming our way till later in the afternoon. The Saturday ride is on.

Not looking good...

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sat, 07 Apr 2012 02:17:00 +0000

The current forecast has me leaning toward pulling the plug on the Saturday ride. The weather peeps are calling for some very strong wind gusts that will make cycling less than safe. I'll try to post by 7a tomorrow, but check the local forecast in the morning if you want to guess before that.

Thanks and see you soon!

Italy trip: Day 2

noreply@blogger.com (Rich) — Mon, 26 Mar 2012 21:30:00 +0000

The ride today was slightly windy (for the guys on the front!) Our travels took us north through some beautiful medieval villages, over steep cobbled sections and around two large lakes. It's quite amazing just how old everything is here. It's all so very charming, with stone arches, castles, and narrow alley ways. You can't even imagine how they drive (like they're on fire) or how they park (randomly leaving their mico-sized cars just anywhere). Our loop was a challenging 100k with 32k of ascent. The descending was super sweet as some hit upwards of 80k coming down one twisty, long section. Everyone is still smiling, though that may be from delirium... We will see tomorrow how everyone recovers from a pretty hard effort today.

Ciao,
Patrizia

Monday Night Ride Canceled

noreply@blogger.com (Rich) — Mon, 26 Mar 2012 19:01:00 +0000

Sorry everybody, too windy for the Monday Night Ride...seeya Thursday!

Day One: Action Wheels in Italy

noreply@blogger.com (Rich) — Sun, 25 Mar 2012 15:06:00 +0000

Everyone was smiling at breakfast this morning as we prepped for a casual ride to start our week of cycling in Italy. We are on Lake Bracciano (Bra-Chano! Spoken with an accent and the stress on the second and third syllables) We took a nice spin around the lake with a side detour up a little climb. There will be lots of climbing in the coming days, but we only got a taste today. The weather is striking beautiful, like the scenery, here in central Italy. We are about an hour north of Rome and plan to spend our rest day sightseeing there this week. I can't post pics on the blog from my iPad, so checkout The Facebook for all the up to date goings on in the Lazio Region of Italia!

Ciao!
Patrizia

Italy pre-ride

noreply@blogger.com (Rich) — Sat, 24 Mar 2012 22:19:00 +0000

I flew in to Rome early for this cycling adventure, to save a ton of money on airfare, so Saturday became a ride day! We rolled out this morning for an easy spin around Lake Bracciano. The lake is 32k in circumference, and fairly flat, so it wouldn't be too much to do before our "actual" trip begins on Sunday. The lake area is quite beautiful and the weather is perfect so it made for a great day on the road. Italian drivers are considerably less patient than those in Spain, but we easily adapted to being passed by Fiat Panda's while there was an oncoming string of traffic. There appears to be a Lotus rally going on in the area, so there's a inordinate number of race cars here, as well. After completing the lake loop, we headed back out to get in a nice 2 mile climb that starts about 5 miles down the road from the resort. The climb nets you a 2 mile descent, then we rode into Bracciano and grabbed lunch at I Love Pizza. The rest of our 14 person crew arrived this evening so we got all the remaining bikes assembled in short order and had our "Welcome" cocktail party. Dan Maker, tour guide extraordinaire, then apprised us that we are in for some killer climbing this week. Apparently, all roads do not lead to Rome, they lead to the clouds. Wish me luck!

Too foggy...

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sat, 03 Mar 2012 12:18:00 +0000

The National Weather Service has issued a dense fog warning and the radar shows more storms coming our way. We have canceled the 9a ride. Safety first! The weeknight rides start soon, so stay tuned. 'Like' us on Facebook to stay more up to date with what's going on at the bike shop.

Saturday Ride is Canceled

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sat, 25 Feb 2012 01:44:00 +0000

With an eye on the forecast, we have made an early decision to cancel tomorrows road ride. The winds are going to be very strong and the wind gusts even stronger. Safety first!

Snow day...

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sat, 11 Feb 2012 02:47:00 +0000

Today's road ride has been canceled due to the snow that fell overnight, the snow that is predicted to be falling, and us not being able to determine the condition of the road. It has been a great winter for riding, I guess I shouldn't complain.

Snow day...

noreply@blogger.com (Rich) — Sat, 21 Jan 2012 11:44:00 +0000

Today's road ride is canceled. I was going to switch it to a woods ride but the news people were asking people to avoid being on the road. Sorry... See you soon.

Ride canceled 1/14/12

noreply@blogger.com (Rich) — Sat, 14 Jan 2012 12:20:00 +0000

Based on a real feel temp of 16, the ride is officially canceled. Ronny will be at the shop to open up for anyone who still decides to go. We don't take these decisions lightly, while we would prefer to ride, the safety of the riders is paramount. Thanks for your understanding.

See you soon,
Patty

Wednesday MTB Ride at 7p at Camden Co College

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 21:12:00 +0000

Show us your Face

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 21:26:00 +0000

Make sure to friend us on the Facebook so you can keep up to date with new product arrival, rides, ride cancelations and lots of other fun and interesting stuff!

CCC Mtn ride is canceled

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 21:00:00 +0000

Tonights mountain bike ride has been canceled. Looks like a lot of rain is headed our way right around go time.

Eventually, we will get one of these rides to go off as planned...

Brandywine Ride is leaderless for a few weeks

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sun, 09 Oct 2011 00:48:00 +0000

Weeknight rides

noreply@blogger.com (Rich) — Sat, 24 Sep 2011 22:34:00 +0000

For the week of Monday,September 26th, our evening rides will start at 5:45p. The loops will be shortened to accommodate for the fleeting daylight. Please be sure to have a rear blinkie light on your bike for all the remaining evening rides. Safety first!

The Ride to Vegas: Final Thoughts

noreply@blogger.com (Rich) — Fri, 16 Sep 2011 22:18:00 +0000

To get this right, I need to start at the beginning: I had two weeks notice for this ride from Salt Lake City to Las Vegas. I always want to do these epic adventures, but two weeks? My family knows I thrive on this stuff, so they always support me no matter how unreasonable my request. Thank you so much Rich, Jim, Sophia, Henry, Susan, Mom, and Dad for encouraging my whims and taking care of business and family whilst I participate in these ventures. I always ask too much but you indulge my need for growth and adventure.

Thank you:
Nancy LaRocque, for organizing, inviting me and cat herding all week! You did an amazing job.
Nic Sims, for telling Nancy I'm good for a laugh, for pulling me untold amounts of miles and for always providing a silly face, story or gesture. Entertainment plus.
Glen Adams, for being my Voice of Reason when I thought the altitude would put me "in the van", for speaking so calmly while I panicked, for pushing my sorry self up a big climb at the expense of your much needed energy, and for acting like none of it required a thank you.
Simon Dunne, for constant encouragement and a wheel to draft that left me in a vacuum. You smiled all the way from SLC to LV. It didn't go unnoticed.
Kim Hughes, for entertaining me from the airport pick-up to the bar in Vegas. You added that much needed female touch to a mostly male endeavor.
Chris D'Alusio, for your constant kindness and understanding, and your amazing company up a 30
mile climb. I really enjoyed the opportunity to hang out and chat. I'd say I want to be you when I grow up, but we both know I'll never grow up.
Anthony Sinyard, for dragging me around, coming back to ride and chat with me when I was riding by myself, humoring me, and letting me share the margaritas!
Rebecca Rusch, for encouraging me to push harder and not just give in. For making me laugh everytime you call me PattyCakes and for all the fun side conversations post-ride. There are some things neither of us will ever understand!
Greg Martin, for similar encouragement, tolerating my incessant dinner chatter and for keeping me in the pace line.
John and Johnny from High Desert, for keeping me in stitches with your two-man stand-up act and friendly encouragement every step of the way.
Dan from Victory Velo and Shane of NorCal for looking around to make sure I was still in it and providing much needed friendly faces and kind comments when I was struggling the most. Knowing how strong you are, yet how compassionate you could be was a huge deal to me.
Doug Emerson from UBikes, it was like having an old friend to hang out with every day. We could compare how we were feeling and make a team decision on how to proceed. I can't imagine having done it without you.
Glenn Fant of NorCal, you speak with your legs. Your talent amazes and inspires me but the best part was watching you talk about your son. Your passion for cycling is secondary to your passion for family and that speaks volumes.
Ben Capron, you are always light hearted, smiling and fun to be around. Just being near you makes things better. Can't wait to get going on NICA with you. It's going to be awesome!
RaeLynn, my roommate, you are inspiring. It's amazing what you can do given what you've been through. Keep up the good work, sister!
Michael Robertson, photographer extraordinaire, your work is beyond compare. Sorry for the deer in the headlights! I enjoyed getting to know you better. Now, get to a doc who can help you and get back on your bike.
Mark, Mark, Simon, Tim and Noah of Western Spirit, you took such good care of us and cooked us the most delicious meals! I can't wait to plan a sweet mtb trip with y'all. You rock!
Patrick, Daniel and Robert, it was great riding with you both. Keep up the great work.

These types of challenges teach you what you are made of and give you the opportunity to forge bonds of friendship that will last a very long time. I truly appreciate the opportunity I was given and I hope that I contributed something to each of your experiences, as well.