St. Jude Ride - 5/17 => 5/25

[Alan]

This is the 5th Annual St. Jude Ride.   Bob is again organizing this event.  I will be leading the ride and, while the route is not set yet, this has historically been a scenic, all day route.

Watch this thread for more details.

7/03/2014,  6/22/2013,  6/10/2012,  6/25/2011

5/05: This ride will meet at The Point with KSU 9:30.  Read a bit more in the reply that follows.

5/11: A secondary meetup will be 11:00am at the KwikTrip in Pine Island - mainly for Chapter 526 riders to join us.  Lunch will be in Wabasha at Slippery's.
Its always a good idea to fill up tanks at the meeting spot (The Point in this case) - if you have any questions about gas stops, see me that morning.

5/14: See note below.  KSU has moved up to 9:15am, Pine Island meetup time slips to ~11:15am.
Watch Saturday evening for a possible weather postponement.

5/16: As noted below, weather has postponed this ride from 5/17 to 5/25 - Memorial Day Monday.  Same meeting place and KSU time.

5/24: Rain has done us in again!  See the post below for the new plan for 5/31.

[Alan]

I was able to set aside today to do the first preride and I think its pretty close.  Some years I've done maybe a half dozen "prerides" to get the route just how I want it, so I'm happy with how today went.  The route will be south to hopefully include as many 526 members that Scott and Bob can round up.

At this point, I'm ready to set the meeting point and time as listed in the top post: KSU 9:30 at The Point.  If that's a a bit early, there will be a later meetup for the Rochester group that may work for some in the metro to join us.  The mileage won't be terribly high but will include many scenic and curvy roads with a nice mix of new roads and roads we've done before - although some not in awhile.

I'll post more details later once I fine tune a bit.  I think you'll really like this route and ride!

As an aside, the new bike is doing very well (turned 1k today) and I gave the Garmin Zumo a good workout (with admirable results).  More about that later - maybe in a tech topic.

[Alan]

As we get closer, I'd like to know who is planning on joining Bob and I this Sunday.  I'll need one or two Scala's with one being the tailgunner.  I'm not looking too close at the forecast just yet so this is assuming we'll be riding.  The details have been updated on the top post.  I'll need to check one route segment but otherwise I liked what I rode last Tuesday.

Really hoping for two days of nice weather this weekend (for both my rides?), but just in case I've reserved the Monday of Memorial Day in case we need it.  Looking at our calendar and our family calendar, the next open date for me is mid August.

[Papa Chachi]

I'm planning on coming Alan and I'll bring my G9 with me.

BTW.  The place I bought mine from still has them for under $300 for the set.

[Chappy]

Hey Papa,

Where did you get your G9?  I have one, but I want to pick up another single unit to replace the old Q2 that Debbie has.

Chappy

[Papa Chachi]

Chappy,

I found them on E-bay.  I do recall seeing some single units available but don't recall the price.

[Alan]

Thanks, Jim - I appreciate the help for the ride!


If you could find the eBay link and post it or send it to Chappy and Scott Oesterlin (526 President), they'd appreciate it.

[Papa Chachi]

Here's the link.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Cardo-Scala-Rider-G9-PowerSet-Headset-INCLUDES-2-/221766016128?hash=item33a248dc80&vxp=mtr

I made them a $279 offer when I bought mine and they accepted it.  There are also currently some new and used ones up for auction for less than that right now.

[Alan]

While the forecast for Sunday is not currently looking too favorable, I will wait until Saturday evening or early Sunday morning to make the call.  As mentioned above, the rain date will be Memorial Day Monday.

In the meantime, you'll want to make note of an update in meetup time and, possibly, place.  The original route had us crossing US52 at an uncontrolled intersection.  We did this a couple years ago and it worked fine but I was looking for a better and safer spot.  The updated route now has us crossing on a new overpass on CR9 a couple miles to the north - much safer!  In the process, I'm adding about 20 miles including a new (to me) scenic road.  This means a bump up for KSU to 9:15am and a push back at Pine Island to about 11:15am.

[Jackie Jankowski]

I found a single Scala under $220 on Amazon.

As for the ride, right now it says severe thunderstorms, which will sway my decision to ride.  Watching the radar and if it lightened up I'd like to go, if not... till the next time... :-)

[Alan]

While I agree that the forecast looks unforgiving, I have jumped the gun in cancelling a ride too early.  I'll still wait until Saturday evening or, at the latest, Sunday morning.  

With the start time moved up a bit, that Wabasha dude has to start riding before the chickens get up to make it up here in time to beat us all to the starting point.  So by about 4am or so, Bob??  

If we do get rained out, please keep Memorial Day open for a rain date.

[Alan]

Been talking with Bob and watching the forecast -- we are reluctantly postponing this ride 8 days until Memorial Day (Monday the 25th).  The forecast has consistently shown rain for all of Sunday for several days now with threats of severe thunderstorms.

I hope that we can have a good turnout next Monday and we'll have more cooperative weather for the whole weekend.  I expect the meeting time and place to stay the same.  Please let Bob and I know who can make the new ride date with your reply.

[Papa Chachi]

All things being equal I'll be there Alan.

BTW.  Good call on the weather, it's already raining down here and very windy.

[Alan]

I always hate to call a ride but, looking back at yesterday's weather, it did turn out to be the right call.  We would have left in the rain, been caught in a rather serious system passing through Wabasha at the time we'd be leaving Slippery's (no pun intended ), and then another system that came through Pine Island at the time of our return.   At least.

I'm just glad next Monday's forecast looks so promising.    Not!

Stay tuned ...

[RANGER & GW]

bump