Join Team Views From The Top - TBTS Ride for Research 05

[darren]

Hi. On Sunday, May 15th, Team Views From the Top rides again for The Brain Tumor Society's Ride for Research 2005! Please consider joining the team and riding either 25 or 50 miles with us, or donate to this very worthy cause.

Most readers here know that I run this site in my spare time with money out of my pocket. Once a year I do this charity ride for the Brain Tumor Society and rely on the generous donations of the site readers to help make the ride a success. Please help Views From The Top continue in it's support of the Brain Tumor Society.

All information on the ride is located here.

Thank you for your support!!!

- darren

 

[chomp]

I always want to join you guys for this ride, but it always falls on the same weekend as Trail Days in Damascus. Sorry I won't be there once again, but I'll make sure to support the VFTT team for their efforts. I hope that we can make this event an even bigger success this year.

 

[Sherpa John]

My tentative plans are to ride 50 Miles with you.(I need a bike) If for some reason my plans change.. as large a donation as I can make will be sent to your cause.

 

[Barry Sr]

My son and I have been on the team for the past couple of years.
(after all, someone has to bring up the rear)
It has been a high point for me to participate.
Alas, my son is now in highschool and has more commitments than I do time.
Good luck to all riding and I promise, we will ride again another year.

Regards,

Barry, Sr & Jr

 

[ChrisB]

Is There a List?

Darren,

Does this ride count toward any list?

If not, then I am in!

I'll begin tuning up the old Columbia this weekend...

See you on May 15th, if not before.

cb

 

[darren]

CB and SherpaJohn - glad you will be joining the team, I am sure you will really enjoy it. We always have a great time.

Barry - it's a bummer that the Barry's wont be making it this year. We will really miss your post ride kilt! Thank you for all your support over the past years and hope to see you again.

Chomp - don't worry, I am used to you not showing up...

So.......anyone else want to join the team????? We only have a few riders so far and I would really like to have more. Please click here to join the team and help make a difference.

Thanks!

- darren

 

[Quietman]

Darren shouldn't have to keep asking for our help, so I will!

The VFTT team needs some donations, let's give them our support!

I work for a non-profit so I can empathize. Lots of good organizations are trying to do so much, with very little money.

Thanks.

Please donate only if you can and want to - no negative comments necessary

 

[MichaelJ]

I am IN for the ride! I'm going to try to do the 50, too, though given that my bike is halfway between a hybrid and a mountain bike (read: heavy with wide tires) we'll see how I feel that day.

I live only 15 minutes away and would be glad to have people over to the apartment, particularly if you're coming a long distance and aren't allergic to cats, though I think post-ride you'll like the Watch City Brewery in Waltham better!

 

[Sherpa John]

I agree with Quietman, raising money is no easy task.. and if I am correct... Darren runs this site on his FREE TIME and all he asks (from what I hear and have read) is that we help him out with this cause.

I'm definately IN.. give me a few to register for it because I just spent $600 on a 2004 Trek 1200 C

 

[John Satterlee]

Darren: I'll be there, thanks for coordinating this.


Barrys: Sorry you can't make it; I will miss riding with you guys this year.


Chris, MichaelJ and SJ: Welcome to the team. It is a rewarding ride.

Michael, I did the 50 on a mountain bike with knobbies, no problem.

To everyone else who is considering doing this ride: I cannot say how moving it is to ride with all these folks, hundreds, thousands of riders all with some reason to be there. Last year the ride started as a slow peloton of slow moving riders, mostly young people wearing cotton and sneakers in the pouring rain! Wow.

I have been impressed with the generosity of VFTT readers over the past three years that Darren has done this ride.

John

 

[darren]

Team Members

So far we have the folowing team members:

Darren Almeida
Carmel Wills
Chris Brown
John Lacroix
Mike Maljanian
John Satterlee
Brian Schroder
MichaelJ

I'd really like to see some other readers join the team. You can ride either the 25 or the 50 mile route. If you can hike 8 miles you can bike 25...it really isn't that hard!

Please think about stepping up to the plate and making a difference. If not you, who?

- darren

 

[Jay H]

Michael, I've done a 120 mile semi loaded tour on my mountain bike before (rear panniers only) so it is definitely doable. I would recommend spending some cash on a set of narrow slicks, perhaps 26x1.5 would work. If you want to spend some $$, specialized armadillos (assuming they make them in 26", I believe they originate as road touring tires), avocet cross II ks. Those are some touring tires that are in 26" so they are smooth and are generally built for commuting or touring so some of them will have a kevlar belt for puncture protection. Otherwise, just find any nice slick or semi-slick tire in your LBS, it's very hard to find touring tires in many LBSs. But you should be able to find a slick tire. Run the tire as high as the tirewall says since it's a road tour.

I do a bunch of centuries and I do see folks on mountain bikes all the time. I tour and commute to work on a mountain bike too.

Jay

 

[sli74]

Michael, I've done a 120 mile semi loaded tour on my mountain bike before (rear panniers only) so it is definitely doable. I would recommend spending some cash on a set of narrow slicks, perhaps 26x1.5 would work. If you want to spend some $$, specialized armadillos (assuming they make them in 26", I believe they originate as road touring tires), avocet cross II ks. Those are some touring tires that are in 26" so they are smooth and are generally built for commuting or touring so some of them will have a kevlar belt for puncture protection. Otherwise, just find any nice slick or semi-slick tire in your LBS, it's very hard to find touring tires in many LBSs. But you should be able to find a slick tire. Run the tire as high as the tirewall says since it's a road tour.

I do a bunch of centuries and I do see folks on mountain bikes all the time. I tour and commute to work on a mountain bike too.

Jay

Wish I could say I was this fit
Jay, you are a biking/hiking fiend, you devil

MichaelJ,

If I can fit this into my schedule, I will also be riding a hybrid (semi-fat tires)

sli74

 

[twigeater]

I know lighter bikes are easier, but my philosophy has always been, whatever bike you ride or train on is fine for a charity ride/tour. You may be slower than others, but if it ain't a race, who cares!
There's a fella who does the Trek Across Maine (3 days, 180 miles, benefits the Lung Assoc) on a regular old bike - his motto is, "one speed is all you need."
The first few years I did the ride on a mountain bike with cross tires, moved on to a cross bike, last year (my 8th year) was my first on a road bike. The only way I would really notice the difference, is if I rode my road bike one day, then my mountain bike the next. But I'm not big into performance, I just like to ride.
Course, picking them up is another story...

 

[Jay H]

Wish I could say I was this fit
Jay, you are a biking/hiking fiend, you devil

Sold my soul...

I biked from Stockton Springs to Orient Maine (on the border of New Brunswick) in one day, but since I was going to a friend's cabin, travelled very light. 130 miles though and it east of Lincoln, ME, was very hilly. Basically rode north on 1A through Bangor to Rt 2 through Old Town. Then turned east at Lincoln and headed to Danforth before picking up Rt 1 and heading up to Orient. Got an AWESOME view of Katahdin on Rt 1 though.

Biking to work helps with keeping fit. my ride is easy (10 flat miles each way) but I sprint it and parts of it is dirt.

I wish I could join all of you all, but I think between my father's health and all my stuff I need to do for Rainier and the escarpment trail, getting out that weekend is tough.

Though definitely support the Brain Tumor Society!!! I'm donating money myself through my Escarpment hike, but if not, I would be giving money to one of you folks.

As far as the list idea, there are actually folks who keep a perimeter list Like say riding around the state cockwise on the perimeter to the ultimate domestic route, riding around the whole continental US clockwise.. here ya go:

http://www.pbaa.com/Home.html

How about that list??

Jay

 

[John Satterlee]

Sold my soul...


As far as the list idea, there are actually folks who keep a perimeter list Like say riding around the state cockwise on the perimeter to the ultimate domestic route, riding around the whole continental US clockwise.. here ya go:

http://www.pbaa.com/Home.html

How about that list??

Jay

Interesting. One of my cycling goals this year is to ride around the border of the state of Connecticut, My first leg, on Easter, I went from the RI/CT border (where I live) to Newtown,CT, and this summer I hope to ride a route that roughly goes along the state border.


As for lists here is one list of a "century of the month club", I know of three such lists.

http://65.34.225.208/www.JohnAndJuliet.com/COM2005.html

 

[Jay H]

Yeah, I was sent that link a long time ago, the last time I checked they have a whole bunch of different places, everything from the fastest time around a Lake, your county, to things like the state.

I've ridden most of the northern part of CT from Salisbury to basically the northeast corner before going into Webster, MA and that lake with the long name.

Jay

 

[MichaelJ]

I'm looking at a set of Specialized Nimbus tires. A friend of mine with a similar bike did the AIDS Ride with a set of those and had no problems whatsoever. That's one of my projects for this weekend while I nurse an injured back...

 

[jfitzkayak]

Great idea-where is the ride

undefined Hi Darren thanks for starting this useful and very interesting site. I will donate and would like to ride. I could not see where the ride is to take place. If one sends a check who is it made out to? peace Joe

 

[Jay H]

The nimbus looks like an excellent tire. Good size, inverted pattern is fine, my Cross II K tires are an inverted tread.

One benefit of not riding with full knobs on the road is it's so much quieter, you don't sound like a rolling truck on a bike frame...

Jay