Darryl Gunson

Great turnout today from the senior club and the Jets. Mud, gravel, punctures, coffee and cake, and a nice social pace was the order of the day. Just as Davie would have liked it

I have submitted what is the first edition of our confined events calendar for 2022.  As a club we are currently looking into ways to increase participation and there is still much work to be done taking on board what has already been said.  Therefor this is only the start!  The calendar is, at the moment, presented with no changes.  This is to show what would normally be done and allow everyone to see how things will evolve.  New events need to be chosen and old ones will need to be discarded along the way as we look to adapt.
For the first few events, the reliability runs, they are quite established and have been reasonably well attended during my time at the club.  They will stay in place this year, but I propose a simple change.  We discard the middle group leaving and only have two groups.  The first group will depart at the allotted time and do the route as they have always done, which is a social pace that suits everyone in the group.  The second and faster group shall then decide how much of a delay they should have before setting off.  Let us all see if you have the skills to wait longer than usual and still catch the earlier group to finish as a whole club in Miller Street?  A long lie in and bragging rights await.  Please let me know how you all feel about this before it is confirmed.
An open meeting for all club members will also happen soon to discuss the rest of the calendar.
2022 Confined Events #1 15 January.pdf

I was saddened to read Darryl’s post, above, and learn of Davie B’s passing. 
Davie was a wheeler at heart.  
 
The man who went to Italy with blue tinged legs and came home with blue tinged legs.
Many a time he would appear out of the murk on a Sunday morning, to meet me on the track at Kilbirnie, with his grimace on and greet me with a ‘Morning - shite weather’ and barely miss a pedal stroke. We also limped home down the track to the Garnock Valley numerous times, sucking each others wheels to save what little was left in the tank after a long day in the saddle. The best of times.
Davie was the most modest down to earth bloke, who loved to get off the main drag and head for the rural lanes and tracks. The more rutted and mankier the better. He had a pragmatic almost bleak outlook on life but was a dependable, generous individual with a wry sense of humour. Never particularly vociferous, yet spoke his mind when the occasion arose. 
 
I don’t know if Davie’s passing, and indeed his life, has been marked on the Club’s Facebook page (I don’t do Facebook), but it seems remiss that there is nothing on the the Bunch to pay tribute to the man. If this thread is it then this is my contribution. 
 
Davie B your were and always will be a Joansin Wheeler. You sadly ran out of farm tracks way too soon. You’ll be missed. 
 
Mark O

There was a thread with condolences after he died (although i cant find it just now to link to) plus another one with some photos and stories after his diagnosis. Some good photos and memories @ https://www.johnstone-wheelers.co.uk/thebunch/index.php?/topic/11776-farewell/
 

Sunday 16th: planning on a wee spin along the back roads in memory of our dear friend Davie Borland. Davie was a big fan of ‘farm watch’ rides so we’ll be seeking out some of the worst roads in the area 😅
All welcome to join me - including gravellers 😀
9.30 Miller Street.
PM me if you know of any bad roads Davie would have liked (or did indeed like) and we’ll try and incorporate them!

Sunday 16th: planning on a wee spin along the back roads in memory of our dear friend Davie Borland. Davie was a big fan of ‘farm watch’ rides so we’ll be seeking out some of the worst roads in the area 😅
All welcome to join me - including gravellers 😀
9.30 Miller Street.
PM me if you know of any bad roads Davie would have liked (or did indeed like) and we’ll try and incorporate them!

Sunday 16th: planning on a wee spin along the back roads in memory of our dear friend Davie Borland. Davie was a big fan of ‘farm watch’ rides so we’ll be seeking out some of the worst roads in the area 😅
All welcome to join me - including gravellers 😀
9.30 Miller Street.
PM me if you know of any bad roads Davie would have liked (or did indeed like) and we’ll try and incorporate them!

Just throwing in some events ran in past which proved popular
I used to run a two day event at Glengarnock circuit  it started with a prologue TT 1.6 miles followed by a crit of an hour plus 5 laps in afternoon. Followed up by a RR at Gateside on the Sunday all done with 3 marshalls per day .
We ran a series of APRs  at various locations a) Peesweep at top of Braes  b) Gateside  2 circuits  c) Kilmacolm d) RNAD always popular events
A hill climb series 4 climbs one after the other starting at Howwood then Club hillclimb then 2 climbs off Beith Road heading to RB at Lochwinnoch
Hill climb followed by cyclocross event  we ran this for a few years first as a confined then as an open event.
Place to place TTs instead of out and back great if you ride with tail winds only  or reduced distance one year we were getting great numbers at Georgetown and light was fading so we shortened distance each week down to a final 3 mile event everybody loved it .
We rented a field off a farmer near Howwood and had a series of MTB races for different categories on a weekly basis ( riders paid £2 each ) before that we built circuits at Bluebell woods Elderslie  , vacant ground opposite clubrooms , quarry near Georgetown road and Gleniffer braes 
Two ups where teams were chosen from hat on the night so you could have the fastest and slowest rider riding as a team , great for team bonding or not depending on the individual LOL
We used to traditionally follow up club hill climb championship with a sports day which had slow cycle ,obstacle race , speed judging , freewheel , plus novelty events ie throwing the welly a sort of shot putt on bikes . WE invited other clubs to event , traditionally Lomond Roads and Regent.
We did a couple of cyclist v Harriers events with Kilbarchan Harriers these were popular down south ( a couple took place in Irvine as well) 
we did try to organise a bike v horses event but failed to find a suitable circuit 
Sometimes you have to think out the box 
ie when I started the Millport events again we had a 3 up 10 mile lap of the island . Everybody told me it was too short for a team TT nobody would ride it  the first year we had over 120 riders and more the next year . It was only discontinued due to island becoming too busy .
The same was true of TTT championship when I reduced it from 100K to 50K everybody said it wouldnt work it went from 6 teams to 24 teams 
We also held open event series with other clubs ie
Early season APRs at RNAD Beith 36 , 45 56 miles an extra lap per week we did that with Inverclyde Velo and Fullarton Wheelers
We also ran a summer crit series at Glengarnock with Inverclyde Velo , Fullarton and Inverclyde CRT helping to run the events 

A pretty spot on observation from Billy.  There are currently many different small groups of people riding different bikes at different times.  As club members we really should be be trying to ride together as much as possible.  In the past the planned diary of club runs and events have defined what you needed to do as an active club member but that model is not getting participation and we are now looking for a new way to do things.  As time is progressing on this matter I will put up a provisional diary based on what we would normally have done, a starting point from where we can work from.  Quickly following on the next task is to decide what we should keep and what we should change out with.  Darryl has proposed a working group for discussing this and the invite is still open to everyone.  Widespread contribution is vital, we all want to ride our bikes as club members, what would get us doing it together?  This may also involve doing it over a video conference call that I have zero knowledge of setting up!  I would rather bribe/encourage everyone with a drink at Amaretto.

You know the problem is the club is made up of loads of different groups ( not a bad thing ) which all go out in their own separate groups  and currently Traditional Sunday Club Runs and Time Trials are not really that important to the current membership . Maybe we should deliver something different and bin testing maybe do  Timed Gravel Rides ( not races) would save the committee some time and stop trying to get a non racing club racing . At the moment we have one racing track , maybe one racing road and at best 2 doing time trials , we have more riding gravel than riders racing . So maybe we should focus our time getting all the bunches back out on a Sunday , jus a thought  

How about a revamp of the old Tourist Trial event ??  a sort of BAR club event 
A)  long ride  of 100 miles ie 5 ferries , double Arran or  nominated sportive which has to be completed in different times for each standard  Gold , Silver , Bronze (  dated events to allow qualification)
b)  a 10 mile TT ( part of League of 10s) again with standard times 
c)  a Georgetown TT ( Chocolate series) with standard times 
d)  a hill climb with standard times  ( 2 events to allow qualification time)
possible addition of confined circuit race , APR , cyclo cross or track event 
Gold , Silver ,Bronze awards  with Platimum for riders who qualify and also attend nominated whole club runs 
Separate category for e bikes as we must embrace that these bikes will become more and more prevalent in the future .
 
 
 

Saturday could be better , however you still loose a chunk of riders that ride with the bogs , so maybe every second Saturday, But what do I care as second claim member I can’t ride in them 

Moving some events to a Saturday morning might get more along as riding confined & Georgetown league on consecutive nights is tough 

Just want echo Paul’s post and to encourage anyone who quite fancies it but maybe isn’t sure, or perhaps doesn’t know everyone. We first went just before the first lockdown and it was great. We stay in a quiet area with great cycling and accommodation. Basically, because the weather is so nice, we are out on our bikes all day. In the evening we have some nice food and a couple of light ales, and repeat the next day. It’s a great mini- break. As Paul says, get in touch if you fancy it.
Cheers

Great write up Colin. Many thanks for taking the lead here, I’m not sure we’d have managed without your steady hand guiding us through it all. Already looking forwards to the next race series in January.
Have to say it has been an absolute blast. Anyone who fancies racing for their club should give it a go. It’s online so of course it’s not like irl. But, it’s safe, inclusive, a good workout, and the weather can be as warm or cool as you wish.
I think we are recruiting for more team members to compete, so don’t be shy, drop me or Colin a line and  hopefully we’ll be able to field stronger teams with a full complement of riders for the next series of races in January.

Darryl 

Just a heads up that 8 of us are heading to Torrevieja area from Thus 24th Feb to Wed 2nd March. If anyone else interested please get in touch with me, Darryl or Billy. Transport for up to twelve is sorted by Billy with a mini bus and trailer for bikes. 4 of us still to book accommodation so would be good to know by next weekend and we can book a bigger villa.
 
Cheers

Great write up Colin. Many thanks for taking the lead here, I’m not sure we’d have managed without your steady hand guiding us through it all. Already looking forwards to the next race series in January.
Have to say it has been an absolute blast. Anyone who fancies racing for their club should give it a go. It’s online so of course it’s not like irl. But, it’s safe, inclusive, a good workout, and the weather can be as warm or cool as you wish.
I think we are recruiting for more team members to compete, so don’t be shy, drop me or Colin a line and  hopefully we’ll be able to field stronger teams with a full complement of riders for the next series of races in January.

Darryl 

Great write up Colin. Many thanks for taking the lead here, I’m not sure we’d have managed without your steady hand guiding us through it all. Already looking forwards to the next race series in January.
Have to say it has been an absolute blast. Anyone who fancies racing for their club should give it a go. It’s online so of course it’s not like irl. But, it’s safe, inclusive, a good workout, and the weather can be as warm or cool as you wish.
I think we are recruiting for more team members to compete, so don’t be shy, drop me or Colin a line and  hopefully we’ll be able to field stronger teams with a full complement of riders for the next series of races in January.

Darryl 

So, that's the end of an attritional season 1 for the C group. We started with a pool of 9 riders, (Ali Crichton, Ryan Finn, Colin Downie, Dan Skierka, Vali Stefan, George Donnelly, Dave Cathcart, Eric Lymburn and me), and finished on the last night with 4 riders. During the season, George got promoted to the B group - well done George.
Injuries, technical issues and work commitments affected numbers elsewhere. On only two occasion did we manage to actually field 6 riders. Our best result was 11th in race 2, and arguably our worst was a DQ on week 7, the team trial, even though we finished halfway up the field, but with only three riders.
The racing was hard, I guess its supposed to be, but fun in an intense sort of way, especially if you manage to get into a good bunch to get dragged round the various courses. If there are other people out there who want to race, but aren't sure about what's involved, then they are more than welcome to log in and take part.
Looking forward to Season 2

¡El del monte dice que sí!

Well done everyone. Those times again:
15:22 for Iain & Ian; 15:55 for Sam & James; 16:58 for Darryl & Rob; 16:59 for Alan & Gerrard; 17:45 for Scott; and 17:56 for Geo.

Well done all, and thanks to David for timekeeping. Congratulations to Iain and Ian, closely followed by Sam and James.

Well done all 👍
Ian and me on full TT setups this year unlike the road bikes of previous. The competition is getting too fast to mess about 🤣

Thanks Dave for the timekeeping!

Good turn out today - not the result we had hoped for with a couple of mishaps along the way like rubbing wheels and snapped stem bolts!
The overall time would have been good enough to win some years in the past - but not this year so congrats to VCGS on a well earned victory. Training starts for next year at the 2up on Tuesday
Geo hope your new bike is ok - Cav maxed out at a mere 1600w in a sprint so clearly not putting the stem under as much stress as you do!
 
 
(I've got an extra medal for someone - not sure who is due one after missing presentation?)