Great Beginners' ride last Saturday...

[Dirt]

Hey Folks.

Thanks so much to all the folks that turned out for the Beginners Skills building ride at Schaeffer on Saturday. Special thanks to Scott Scudamore for leading the faster group. I'd love to hear how the ride went for you folks.

We had 16 people turn out for the ride and ended up splitting into a casual paced group that had previous riding experience as well as a casual paced group that were new to riding off-road. I can attest that the latter of these groups had some great people in it that made the ride a joy to lead.

Moose wowed us with his ability to hop logs on a rigid forked hybrid with slicks on it. He was a great inspiration and a great help in teaching people to enjoy the logs rather than fear them. It was fun to see everyone's progress.

Thanks again to Cheryl, Ken, Moose, Julian, Tom and Christina for their support of this group. Julian and I had a lot of fun working with you.

Some of the photos from the ride are posted on the web site that I'm slowly building.

My Web Site (http://www.peterbeers.net)

Look at the bottom of the main page in the "What's New" section. You'll see links dated September 22nd for the photos from the ride.

This ride was the first in a series of beginners and skills building rides this fall and winter. We're going to continue to offer them every other Saturday through the winter. Look on the forum and the list-serve for details. We'll have a few weeks off before the next one since I'm going on vacation next week.

Drop me an e-mail if you're interested in this ride series: pedrogringo@yahoo.com

Take care,

Peter

[dc_saxman]

This ride was great. Peter did an excellent job of organizing this ride. I really appreciate this function of MORE. The good news was that we were able to split up into two groups. One group went with Peter and Julian (Another Julian) and a more advanced group went with Scott and Dennis. I, of course, went with the beginners unit because this was my first off-road ride.

Peter did a great job of instructing us on how to do things properly and Julian graciously sacrificed himself to demonstrate what happens when things go wrong. Go to Peter's website to get more details on this. :) Peter referred to him as his crash stunt guy.

I think everyone in our group had a great time. Peter was very patient and gave us many opportunities to catch our breath. He explained and pointed out each obstacle before we encourtered them. This really helped me focus on looking at what was just ahead.

We also had a surprise guess in the form of Moose. Moose claimed to be a novice mountain biker. At first glance you would believe him. He rode a hybrid bike with 700c wheels. There wasn't an obstacle he did not manage with ease. I learned a great deal by watching Peter, Julian, and Moose. I am very greatful that MORE exists. I can't wait until our next ride.

Julian:)

[Dirt]

I learned a thing or two from Moose.

http://home.earthlink.net/~peterbeers/Special_Guest/DSCN1055_Moose.JPG

Here he is going over the third log stack in a series of 4. Yup. He made all 4.

Peace!

Peter

[Rider 209]

Peter and everyone that was on the beginner ride,

My name is Les and I am typing this left handed because I am the one that endoed and ended up going to the hospital that day. Ouch!

I just wanted to say thanks to all of the great people that helped me that day. Peter gave a great orientation and showed me how to check my bike out. Scott lead a good ride and was very helpful getting everything together when I had my accident. Joe gave up his ride and walked my bike and myself back to the parking lot and then gave me a ride to the hospital. Ryan finished his ride and then drove my car to the hospital for me. These were all people that I had just met that day. Your kindness helped me get through what could have been a really bad day. Needless to say my membership check to join MORE will be going out in the mail tomorrow.

I just got back from the orthopedist today and he confirmed that I have a nasty break in my right clavicle. I will have to get one of those figure 8 braces tomorrow and start wearing it. Hopefully I can be back out on the bike in 8 weeks or so. When I am ready to return to the trails, I'm sure it will be on another MORE sponsored ride.

Thanks again to all of you and I'll see you on the trails.

-Les

[Dirt]

Glad to hear you're doing okay, Les. Having had the same break a few times on the road bike, I know how much/little fun you're having. My thoughts for a speedy recovery are with you.

We look forward to having you join us again. The people in MORE have proved themselves to be great riding companions over the years. They've always come through for me and I'm glad they did for you too.

Peace!

Peter