supporting the revolutionary ramble

 The Morris Area Freewheelers have offered the Revolutionary Ramble, a charity ride supporting their EMS services, for decades. But clubs and volunteering are falling on hard times: their membership is down, and there are not volunteers to run the ride the was it has been in the past. They reached out to my club, the Princeton Free Wheelers*, for assistance with the event, and the club agreed, and even sent a director of the event, Emad S. 

*Yes, the Morris Area group thinks that Freewheelers is a single word, and the PFW thinks it's two words. Don't argue with me. 

The Princeton club had an Event for years that we put down a few years ago. I was one of the loudest voices calling for the PFW Event's demise, so I felt something of a responsibility to help out. I agreed to head up one of the rest stops (after all, as tough as it is, it's only a single-day commitment). Most of my crew were other PFW members.

 In an effort to get back to regular posting, I got some pics at the stop.

 

I'm way tired, but it went well. I'll plan to do it again.

wrenching at the tour de franklin

 The Franklin Township Food Bank Tour de Franklin is usually the first charity bike event of the season, and I've been wrench-for-the-day there for years (except for last year, when I was at school in Oregon). They have rides for the serious enthusiasts (including a metric century), but also rides down to 5 miles, for the local families who bring out their kids. I forgot my camera, and had to take what pictures I could on my phone (and I'm not as adept with my phone as I am with my single-purpose camera, but a few of 'em came out anyway).

My workstation:

 Some of the registrations:

 Early in the day:

 

The rides of the different routes start with a mass-start (they have a lot of fun with it, with a barker and a cheering squad):

 It was a very windy day, and cooler than expected, so there were fewer riders than there sometimes are. But (as is common for this ride, and other charity rides that cater to the riders with more hope and good wishes than experience) there were some unusual calls for service at the mechanic station. One rider broke off the top of his presta valve when he was loosening the schrader adapter he keeps on it; the tire continued to hold air, so he went off to do the ride. One woman took the opportunity to have her bars straightened; I expect she had been riding that way for years! We did a couple of chain lubes, and filled a LOT of tires.

The Food Bank provides me with a high-school assistant (she's a minor, so she doesn't get a picture). She was initially enthusiastic, then bored (which was appropriate; it was largely a slow day). But she was pleasant to speak to, and treated me is if I were not just some superannuated stranger.

I like being the event mechanic; they treat me with a deference I find pleasing, and I see people I don't often see otherwise. I'll plan to go back until they won't have me anymore.

new brunswick bike exchange ride

 Some of youse already know about the New Brunswick Bike Exchange (see also Facebook link). We take bike donations, and either rebuild them and sell them at low cost, or strip them for parts that we can use on the bikes we do sell. I'm a co-manager of the all-volunteer staff, and I wish I could have taken credit for organizing the ride today (it DOES sound like a co-managerial thing to do), but the truth is that one of our weekend volunteers, Baratier Erebus du Halm, set the whole business up.

That's the founder of the feast, on the left, above.

We were a crew of six, with varying interests and abilities. We left from Washington Crossing and went up the D&R Canal at a conversational pace to Lambertville.

It was a lovely fall day, with temperatures as if it were the end of May.

Once in Lambertville, we did a walk around, stopped for lunch at El Tule, a Peruvian restaurant there, and came back, again at a stately pace.

My thanks to the volunteers, both for their service to the Bike Exchange, and for allowing me to participate in such a delightful day.

Ride page.