So you want to do a charity ride

Inspired by the recent Bikes Fight Cancer Ride, as well as their own plans to ride in support of the Pan-Mass Challenge, Kristin and Steve are sharing advice for anyone thinking about joining a charity ride. They also discuss Steve's new Lego bicycle, the appearance of 32 inch wheels at a UCI World Cup MTB race, and media reporting guidelines for road collisions before they answer listener questions.

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Kristin 0:00

On this episode of Cycling Together, we're discussing joining a charity ride. We're also going to talk about how the media talks about bike accidents, and we have some listener questions for you about brake pads and finding beginner-friendly bike groups. That might be for me.

Steve 0:16

Alrighty, you ready? Let's get rolling.

Kristin 0:18

This is Kristen.

Steve 0:19

And I'm Steve, and you are listening to Cycling Together, a podcast about all things bikes, riding, and riding together.

Kristin 0:26

Okay, but before we get into it, we have a new addition to the studio.

Steve 0:29

Uh-huh.

Kristin 0:30

For those who watch us on the video, which is the Lego bicycle.

Steve 0:36

The Lego Road bike.

Kristin 0:37

I mean, I bought it for you, but she's beautiful. Look at that.

Steve 0:41

You did. I I'm sure many of you have seen this on one of your various feeds. And if you haven't, go look up the Lego Road bike. It is brand new. I think you pre-ordered it and then it arrived.

Kristin 0:51

Okay, it's one of the things.

Steve 0:52

Right before Father's Day for me.

Kristin 0:53

Yeah, it's one of I didn't know when it was gonna come. It is one of the few things that you have specifically said to me. Yes. I want that. I want that. And um, we are of the age where we kind of don't do gifts like that. We're just gonna buy what we want. Yep. And so I pre-ordered it with zero idea when it was gonna come. And it came about two weeks before Father's Day. It came fast for a for a pre-order thing. Yep. And then the kids and I were like, do we hold it for Christmas?

Steve 1:23

That makes sense because a lot of the YouTubers were were building it about two or three weeks ago.

Kristin 1:27

He was like, and the kids were like, he's never gonna make it to Christmas. He'll buy it for himself. You have you have to give it to him. Right. But the other thing is you did have to promise that you would put it together. Yeah, because I've bought you stuff in the past that's ended up ended up in the basement. Because it may be worth something someday. Only one thing like that.

Steve 1:47

Anyway, the bicycle is awesome. And Lego needs, I want a full suspension mountain bike, I want a commuter bike. This is this better be the first in a series from Lego. This thing is incredible. And yes, the cranks do turn with a chain through a dual pulley derailer uh with a freewheel. It's awesome.

Kristin 2:09

It's so satisfying, too. Even our daughter was was playing with it, and she was like, I think I need one. Yeah, I was like, You really don't. The other cool thing that they have is you can there are now I'm amazed by how fast it happened that there are companies where you can buy decals for it so you can make it into your bicycle, not just the down tube, but the wheels too. So you can be like, I do, you know, I have Mavic wheels and I have a canyon frame. Um so that happened really fast, and the display options for it happened really fast too. And again, our daughter and I were looking at some of the display options, and she was like, They can only you can only get him a display if you can still turn the crank. She was like, If it Oh, absolutely. If it hangs from from there and it stops the turn, that's terrible. But it doesn't. It the one I saw, it hangs from the top tube. Yeah, just like if it was hanging at your so anyway, it is now here in the studio, which means I'm gonna have to redesign the studio around it.

Steve 3:15

Around the bike, yeah. I think unless it's with room for more.

Kristin 3:18

With room for more wall.

Steve 3:22

All right. Um, I have injected in just a quick topic I want to spend real quick on this because we've been talking about it. Before we get into charity rights. Yeah, because we've been talking about 32-inch wheels since their debut over a year ago, uh with some tires, yep, at a at a trade show. So here's what I'm gonna talk about. They made their debut at on the World Cup circuit uh at Lindzer Hyde last weekend. The Thomas uh Maxis team were riding on them, and in particular, their stars Alessandra Keller and Matthias Fluchinger. So Keller was the one who who was first up on it in the cross country, and she she did actually really well in the short track on the Friday before. Okay, but you could see the differences in that short track. Now, the short track course is different, it is faster, it is less technical. Yeah.

Kristin 4:10

Um height of these two people, Alexandra's like five. Five nine. Five ten. Okay, so tall. Like my height. Okay.

Steve 4:17

Uh Mateus is, I think, is a little shorter. I I haven't looked him up, but he's a little, I believe he's a little shorter than that. Got it. They probably both ride in medium frame, if I were to guess, but that's neither here nor there. So just first impressions on the 32-inch wheels.

Kristin 4:32

Now just watching. You have not ridden them. I have not ridden them, just watching.

Steve 4:36

Now, Alexandra Keller has a very unique style. I I kind of call her a piston pusher. She doesn't she doesn't spin the cranks. No, she pumps those cranks. She is all over her bike. So you have to read between the lines with her on her body language difference. But it was clear that you know, cross-country mountain biking is an event of constant accelerations and decelerations. Right. And she was struggling getting that thing back up to speed each time. Just much more so.

Kristin 5:10

Well, and and it's a sport of lots of short turns. Turn, you know, and she was getting everything wide. Yeah, she was getting stuck on there was one thing in particular that she got stuck on, I think, almost every time. It was kind of through two trees and and she crashed.

Steve 5:28

Which is un which is not yeah, which is unusual for her. Yeah. Yeah, and she was kind of, you know, the the 32 inch is supposed to roll over things, but she was kind of stuffing it into some of the rocks. And I think it's because she couldn't pick her line as easily. That's just uh a spectator's initial reaction to it. Yeah, I mean, you and I'll be interesting to see.

Kristin 5:50

You and I have talked about you building up a 32-inch in part just so you could try it. You said you found a frame that you could use, but you couldn't find a fork.

Steve 6:01

The biggest thing is this is the suspension fork and of a reasonable cost.

Kristin 6:06

Yeah.

Steve 6:07

And those are coming. So yeah.

Kristin 6:08

So I think it I think at some point it will make sense for you to build one up, even just so that you can try it, and so that people in our world can try it. But yeah, it was interesting to watch her race. Yeah, if you're especially compared to Jenny, you know, who is so I mean, their styles are completely different, right? So quiet on her bike, and just again, and and just it there was a nimbleness that seemed to be missing from what we were watching. But on a straight, once she got back up to speed, girl flew. Oh, yeah. Right?

Steve 6:47

Like Alexandra flew at speed, they go.

Kristin 6:50

Yeah, and it was straight, and it was or straight up or whatever. She went.

Steve 6:53

Yep.

Kristin 6:54

So it was it was interesting, I will admit. I had two, I have, I had two thoughts. I was like, I hope this is terrible, which is a terrible thing to think of.

Steve 7:03

And it was actually.

Kristin 7:04

Um, but my other was do you think that racers, any racer who is put on a 32-inch is compensated differently with the knowledge that this could be bad and could mess up their results?

Steve 7:21

I would love to know from somebody who has the insider knowledge on that. If it because from what we understand, she only got the bike the week before.

Kristin 7:28

I could be wrong about that. And she might have been involved in that. I read more, so I don't actually know that that's true. I read that and then I was like, is that really true? Or did or maybe she got it finally, but I don't think it was her first time on it. That's what I was unclear on. But still, you're saying to someone at the top of their game with her, yeah, and and even with the um unbound racers, right? Like, like well, unbound was the perfect conditions for it is the perfect conditions, but you are still saying to someone, you're gonna take a risk, you're taking a risk. You're you're risking so you, these two Scott racers are taking risks, giving this a try. And and again, what I'm curious about is like, yeah, they're paid, so maybe that's the compensation. Or is there something extra to say? We know we know we could be messing up your results with this. I'm just curious. Yeah, I don't know enough about that. Anyway, all right, let's talk about charity ride. Main event, charity ride. Yeah, because so the reason I wanted to talk about this. Well, first, we just did a charity ride last Saturday for bikes like cancer. Love bikes, hate cancer, one of my favorite mottos ever. But I think a lot of people get into cycling or start get on a bike inspired by a charity ride. Yeah. Right? Our friend Matt, years and years ago, did his first PMC. Yeah, you know, he came in and he was like, I want to do the PMC. You sell me, but you sell bikes, help me. So that's that's the inspiration of it.

Steve 9:00

Well, this will be your you're doing the triple this year for the Pan Mass Challenge.

Kristin 9:05

Also inspired by the fact that we have signed up for a charity ride. You're doing your fifth year of PMC Unpaved, as am I. This is actually my 11th year involved in a PMC ride. And yes, this year I'm calling it the mini triple because I'm doing I did one the mini triple, sure. I mean, I'm gonna call it mini triple because I did one, I did winter cycle with Anders. I'm gonna do the 50 mile PMC on PMC summer on the summer PMC light. Yep, I'm gonna call it right, and not saying just 50 miles, I'm doing 50 miles and then PMC unbehaved. Yeah. So charity rides are also on our on our mind. But I want to talk about the bikes by cancer ride first because it was a great day on the bike.

Steve 9:57

It was, and the weather was night and day from last year, which was of course was in middle of June 55 degrees and and drizzly, right? That's right. And this year we had oh, just beautiful. It was probably, I don't know, 78, 80 and sunny. Yeah, uh, a little bit of clouds came in, right? But it's great.

Kristin 10:15

And what I like about this ride, it's out in Deerfield, Massachusetts, which is gorgeous. The roads are wide and open and not a lot of traffic. What I like about this ride, which will get us into some of the topics we're gonna talk about, is it's uh it's a really nice beginner ride.

Steve 10:32

Like they have lots of, they're very welcoming to the new cyclists with their their short course, like you see riders that you don't often see at charity rides. Yeah, at least at least for us in many cases. And that would be the kind of riders who are not they're not riders, they are they are are people who picked up a bike. The the day out on the bike to make it.

Kristin 11:01

Inspired by something local, too, by someone local, inspired by a you know, a local team, a local, you know, maybe a local patient, somebody who has been impacted by cancer. And yeah, I remember last year I was I didn't ride, I was the MC, and that beginner group showed up, and some of them were wearing, you know, Tevas, and some of them were like they had clearly they were just there to get this 25 done. They got it done. Yeah, the vibe was really high. The vibe was great.

Steve 11:30

They are they are just yeah, so happy to be out there, right?

Kristin 11:34

And yeah, yeah, and and this year they had about 600 cyclists at Bikes Fight Cancer, 150 volunteers, they raised $425,000, um, which they distribute amongst various community organizations. But I'm gonna put this on my bucket list of a of uh do again, no problem. So let's dive in. Okay, and I think the number one question that we want to talk about before we get to the bike is how to find the right ride for you.

Steve 12:08

Yep. Right? So for the distance, I mean, should it be with a charity ride, and you're if you're if you're raising money and you're asking people to give you donations and so forth. Now, some charity rides you just pay the entry fee and that is your donation, or at least that's the minimum. Yeah, right.

Kristin 12:24

They'll always want you to take Yeah, we'll get to we'll get to the fundraising piece of it.

Steve 12:28

But should it be that you're pushing yourself, you know what I mean? In terms of so the 25 miles for all of those those non-rider beginners out there, like that's a that's a big ride for them, right? And yeah, so that's that's fantastic. They are there, that's a big day out on the bike.

Kristin 12:48

And I think that's I think that's right, but I think it's knowing how far to push yourself. Um, because we've certainly had friends sign up the we're gonna focus a lot on PMC because that is the ride we know the best.

Steve 13:05

There are lots of other one of the premier cycling fundraising events in the country.

Kristin 13:10

I believe it is the largest cycling event in the country, fundraising event in the country. So the core summer PMC route is used to be Sturbridge to Bourne, born to Providence, Provincetown or Wellesley to Bourne, born to Provincetown, or a lot of people might just take on the one day, which is Wellesley to Bourne. Yep, that is still 90 miles. Yes, and I'm not saying you can't do it, but that's a that's a pushing yourself, and then there's soul crushing, right? And like I was talking to someone at Bikes by Cancer about how I was doing the Sunday 50, and she didn't even know that was an option.

Steve 13:52

Like she didn't realize you were talking to somebody at Bikes by Cancer, you were doing the the Sunday 50 at PMC at PMC.

Kristin 13:59

Like I was talking to someone at Bikes by Cancer who about doing the PMC Sunday 50, and she was like, Wait, how does that work? I was like, it's Wellesley down to Foxboro and Foxboro back to Wellesley. I was like, There's also a 25 from Wellesley back to Wellesley. There's I don't think that she realized there were so many different options to do like mileage-wise, where you could still push yourself, yeah, yeah, but not to the point where you crack, right?

Steve 14:28

Like, I guess the PMC has built themselves up around so much about that to the to the end of the cape type of situation that that maybe even people don't know you can do one day.

Kristin 14:39

Oh, yeah. No, I mean, and it's it's it's I will talk to people in the past and they'll, you know, what are you doing? Oh, I'm just doing from Wellesley, or you know, or I'm just doing, and I'm like, can we just get the word just out of any anything that you're doing? First of all, the distance and the ride is the reward, right? Like you're not generally getting, oh, pay me five dollars a mile, or maybe ten. It's it's you have done the work, you've done the fundraising, you've done the training. This is your reward. Yeah, this is the end-of-the-line party. And so, yes, you want to push yourself, you want to feel like you've you've worked.

Steve 15:19

Yeah, but I don't break yourself.

Kristin 15:21

Don't break yourself. And so I think looking at those distances, also looking at the elevation, right? Because you could have a fundraiser, you know, 50 miles bikes fight cancer, very different than 50 mile PMC unpaved. Yeah, right. Same distance, crazy elevation difference. The other thing is train for it.

Steve 15:43

Oh, yeah.

Kristin 15:45

So most training rides will have most charity rides will provide you with a training guide if you go to their website. And I remember our first year, my first year of the PMC when I was doing Sturbridge to Provincetown. Yeah. Um, I followed that thing to the letter.

Steve 16:02

Oh, you did?

Kristin 16:02

You followed training plan, really? Oh, I followed that to the letter to the point that my friends who had done the PMC before were like, you're gonna overtrain. And I was like, I don't think so. I don't think that's possible. I totally get it now. You know, people who've done I'm this way now, like done it before, they're like, I know how much training I need to do to get there comfortably. But if you don't know, then those training guides, that training guide for the PMC two-day, it was perfect because it it had it it brought you up in your mileage, then it brought you down, but to two days in a row, because that's really what you have to train for. It's not enough to just do 80 miles in one day. You have to do 80 miles two days in a row. So it would back you off your mileage, but add a second day. So you were um, and then it told you when to start relaxing because you needed to.

Steve 17:02

So if you're if the training, if the charity ride you have doesn't have a training plan and you're not sure what to do, you might be able to look at other charity rides and see if they have something out there.

Kristin 17:11

Absolutely. Absolutely, and I'm sure the internet would deliver some kind of training ride. But my point is ignore anyone who says you're over training. If you're happy Oh, yeah, yeah.

Steve 17:27

Overtraining now. So, you know, my big things about distances like that is that you don't need to do the full distance in your training to be able to do the full distance on the day. No. So if if you're gonna be doing a century, right, and you've and I mean maybe you just you haven't done a century or you or you don't very do it very often, you know, if you get a good 75, 80 mile ride and you're like, I'm comfortable with this now, you're gonna be fine on the final day. I mean, yeah, maybe the last 10 miles would be like, ugh, are we there yet? But it won't be you won't feel bad when you get to the end.

Kristin 18:01

Well, because the other thing is every charity ride that I've done has rest areas perfectly spaced, so that if you can just get in the headset of like, I just need to get to the next rest area. Rest area. We even did this like during bikes fight cancer, it's 50 miles, and so 10 at 10 miles, I go four more times, three more times, two more times, because in my head I could do I didn't know how prepared I was for 50 miles. I haven't done that kind of a distance in probably since last year.

Steve 18:33

Yeah.

Kristin 18:34

Um, but if I could like mentally be like 10, 10 miles, 10 miles. So yeah, if you can then to your point, get to that point where you're like, oh, I know I can do 55, I can do 80. If I, you know, it'll it it will get you there.

Steve 18:51

Speaking of and then rest the week before. Yeah. Not rest, rest, but do not do big rides the week before. I think I I always think you should have that.

Kristin 18:59

That's absolutely I think that's the hardest part for athletes is you're so like you start you're you're so much in training mode, the idea that you really need to give your body time to rest and you need to fuel. Like I would like to do that.

Steve 19:12

I think that's what's the whoop is all about, right? It's it's it's saying that the most important part of your training is actually the recovery part.

Kristin 19:19

Our watch does that too. Yeah. It tells me how much how much um our grandma watched. Recovery time it says I have zero hours. I can ride right now. Let's go. No. No, I think the other thing is in that week leading up to it is the fueling starts that the fueling starts like three days before. It doesn't start the night before, as much as we all want to gorge on a carb to dinner. And the other things let's talk about in since we're in training, how big these rides can be.

Steve 19:51

Oh, thousands of people.

Kristin 19:52

Yeah. Yeah. How do you prepare for riding with thousands of people? Can you prepare for thousands of people?

Steve 20:00

Oh, so this is a good one. Um if you are an experienced rider who has ridden in groups before, then you you I mean you if you've done charity rides, you know. And if you haven't really done a big charity ride and you just ride with other your small groups, it's gonna drive you nuts because you're going to be among a lot of a lot of riders who do not know the same etiquette that you know, or do not follow the same etiquette, or you know, following zero etiquette, right? Uh don't point out potholes, uh, don't stay maintain their line, swerve all over the place, don't call out things, and it can be kind of dangerous. We certainly know people who don't want to do certainly charity rides anymore because they find it too dangerous. So this is where it's just sort of helpful to me say, okay, you know what? I'm gonna keep myself away from people.

Kristin 20:55

Yes. And you can do that. Yep. Because it will string out really fast. And it will string out. Some of it, I think, is practicing with your like so in in in um PMC speak, we have teams, and these are not teams for competitive purposes, they tend they team tend to be teams for training, moral support, fundraising, um, logistics. Practicing with your team certainly is a good way to start, right? If you guys get into a rhythm and you start to learn if you can ride with someone who does know all these rules, or like we were talking to one of our neighbors who has a a team, and he asked at one point if I could come and like train them on some of these etiquette things, like pointing out holes, and I think that's a good place to start. And then often you will see uh people joining smaller charity rides first, maybe ones that don't have a fundraising minimum, like bicep bike fights, cancer, right? Um, so that they can get a taste of riding with. With a big group of people. I think it's really important to remember that first of all, it's not a race, it's a ride.

Steve 22:06

Yep. Oh, 100% there. People are not And there will people be racing. There will people who will be almost treating it as a race.

Kristin 22:12

Oh, yes, there will.

Steve 22:14

But if you're not, they're gone, so don't worry about them.

Kristin 22:17

Don't worry about them, but the the idea is to be as predictable as you can be, right? As to stay like in in your line, not a lot of swerving around. Stay on the right side of the yellow. Roads are usually open roads. Yep. And again, remember you're surrounded by people. I remember at Bikes Fight Cancer last year, I'm standing there with our daughter at the end, and these two women came in, and the one who was like, they weren't together, just suddenly swerved right to like she saw her friend. So she swerved right and smacked right into the rider that was next to her, and then started yelling at her. And it's like, okay, yes, she was the rider behind, so she has to pay attention to you, but you also did a 90-degree turn into her. So it's like, you know, especially, I think those are the moments the start and the finish are definitely the most dangerous areas, right? Because we're all starting at the same time, trying to find a group, trying to stay a rhythm. I don't like the finish.

Steve 23:23

The finish is usually just ones, twos coming in.

Kristin 23:26

Because we're not always paying attention. We're so excited we're done. You're tired. You're tired. That's where I see the most clonks into each other. Because again, like someone comes in and they're so excited they're done, and they're not necessarily paying attention to everyone around them. They're just like laser focused on, oh, there's my husband, there's my friend. So yeah, it's definitely about being aware and just practicing, like practicing riding and tracking.

Steve 23:54

We have a podcast on road etiquette, I think.

Kristin 23:56

We do. I know.

Steve 23:59

Yeah, that but if if you can be in that group in the beginning, then the first 10, 15, 20 miles can go by so nicely when you're caught up in that group and and hopefully you're chit-chatting with everybody around you, yeah, and you're just cruising along, and of course you're not working as hard because you're in the draft of the group, and then just suddenly you've melted away uh miles before it starts to string out.

Kristin 24:26

And that's the other thing, though, is to be careful that in your uh enthusiasm for the ride starting, you don't like burn out all your watts because you know, yay, we're riding.

Steve 24:38

If that initial group you're riding with is is at an average speed uh three, four, five miles per hour than your normal pace, yeah, then you can all suddenly, when things string out and maybe you're uh with your little small group or even alone, you start to say, Oh, I'm feeling a little more tired than I should be here.

Kristin 24:56

Yeah. Absolutely. Training is part of the big I think the big message I want a new rider to come away from this podcast or anytime we talk about a charity ride is don't let the um experienced riders keep you from being prepared. Right? Like don't be prepared? Don't yeah, don't leave things to the last minute. So we just talked about don't leave training to like do the training, don't let someone be like, no, you don't have to train that much. It's totally fine.

Steve 25:27

Oh yeah.

Kristin 25:27

Right? The other one is um the bike, right? We've talked about buying a bike, we've done we're not gonna get too much into that.

Steve 25:36

Right.

Kristin 25:36

But I do find charity riders tend to be the ones so you set up a you set up a tent. Yeah. It's a I I call it an unsanctioned, unsanctioned support tent. About how many miles from the start of the table? Oh, only like six miles maybe from the start. Six miles from the Wellesley start of the PMC. And you're there to cheer, but you're also there to provide a level of support that I think I guess I'm still surprised by the thing, the things that roll into that tent. Yeah, knowing that they're embarking on a 90-mile ride, right?

Steve 26:16

So Yeah, and and you get the combination of the sort of uh whoops uh situations of like I forgot to do this or or or this. Yeah, and then you air in my tires. And then yeah, and then you get the ones that are they they pulled the bike out of the car, they got went up to the starting line with all the hundreds, thousands of other people, they just started riding, yeah, they had not been on the bike, yeah, and now they are five, six miles in and saying, Oh, like struggling. I have um look cleats on my shoes, but this bike I borrowed has shimano spd and that kind of thing. That was the worst. You get that kind of situation going on.

Kristin 27:05

Or the or the what was it? Didn't we have a guy? I think he'd been I don't know if he'd been training at all, but at the last minute his dad was like, here, use my bike. Yes, and he didn't really know anything about the bike, like he didn't I'm trying to think of the circumstance of that.

Steve 27:26

I don't believe he knew how to shift it. Was that correct?

Kristin 27:28

I think he didn't know how to shift it, yeah.

Steve 27:30

So he was like in the hardest gear and he didn't know how to shift it out of the hardest gear.

Kristin 27:34

Yeah, and that it I mean, very well meaning, I'm sure. Dad was like, Oh, my bike is great, you should take my bike, but also that should have happened about four weeks before, which is not the hour before. Right. He also had a baseball hat underneath his helmet, which just kills me because it's just not safe. Like at one point I was like, Hi, can I adjust your helmet? It's not fitting. Oh, because his helmet was all the way on his back of his head.

Steve 28:00

And he's got the baseball hat and the um uh we saw the the e-bike rental last year, right? Oh the city bike. So a down a downtown Boston e you know, e-bike share share bike.

Kristin 28:13

No, no, it was a Boston or Ben. Oh, it's it was a rental. It was a rented it.

Steve 28:18

It was a it was a hybrid, which is which is fine. It was an e-bike, right? But the um, I'm trying to think of what was I think it was the fender. So the fender was just uh just dragging into the tire. I mean, dragging hard. Like so she comes up, she's on an e-bike, we're only six miles into the ride, and she is uh she's last basically. Yeah. Um, and and half hour behind everybody else, and this thing is just you know, so she pulls in, and I get the thing unstuck and the offender out of there, and I was like, sh you you probably just blew through 80% of your battery dragging through this. No wonder you've been having a hard time. Yeah, and then off she went, but I she she's not gonna have enough battery for the rest of that ride. Yeah, I always wondered how she and the tie like there was so much, like it was rubber just coating the bike because it had been just being scraped off by that fender. Now, if there's something seriously wrong like that, and the thing is that some people don't recogni she she didn't have no idea. Yeah, she had no idea that was a problem.

Kristin 29:24

Right.

Steve 29:25

But there there are roaming support vehicles. She could have a mile in stopped, and the sort of the the sag wagon would have easily been able to help her with this. Yeah. But yeah.

Kristin 29:39

But she didn't know. She didn't know, you know, and I think it's probably because she rented the bike the night before. Yeah, yeah. Thinking she was gonna get this done, which uh you know, it's I think the thing with charity riders, to your point, is they're not necessarily cyclists, they're people who are using the bike as a means to raise money, to you know, channel something.

Steve 30:03

And so it's in the charity rides that you see these type of riders.

Kristin 30:07

Yeah, exactly. What are some of the other things we've seen at the tent over the years?

Steve 30:12

You know, one of the greatest ones I had was somebody came rolling out with a broken spoke. She broke a spoke between the start and my tent, six miles in. And I I, you know, I I don't always carry this, but for whatever reason, I had blank spokes and my spoke threader tool.

Kristin 30:29

You happened to bring both of those things?

Steve 30:31

I I I was fully kitted that year, right?

Kristin 30:34

Okay.

Steve 30:35

So I mean, I cut a spoke to the right length, threaded it. I mean, I replaced her broken spoke in her wheel on the spot on the side of the road, and she was off.

Kristin 30:45

And you didn't necessarily need to replace it, did you? I mean, couldn't like I couldn't. I could true the wheel.

Steve 30:50

I could true the wheel so she probably had rim breaks at that time. That was that was a while ago. And so I probably could have true the wheel so it wasn't rubbing the brakes.

Kristin 31:00

Oh, is that right?

Steve 31:01

But I had the equipment there and I was like, I'm just gonna know she's she was doing the full thing. She's got two days near 200 miles of like, let's get you set because nobody was gonna have that. Like that that was gonna be a hard fix at even the the big stops.

Kristin 31:17

Yeah, and let's talk about that. Okay, so with charity rides, the best ones that we've been to have been very well supported by shops. Usually by local bike shops, by local bike shops who volunteer their time. And I will say, one of the things I hear a lot, not from the bike shop, but from like other cyclists will tell us their observation, is that people will arrive the day morning of or the day before when you're checking in and go to the tent where the bike shop is and basically be like, can you just fix this all? Like, can you just make this all better? Or the the best story I heard was somebody was like, I bought this, I bought this. Can you put it together for me?

Steve 32:01

Right, right.

Kristin 32:02

I mean, and the bike shop does. Let's, you know, they they really do heroes' work to get these people up and running. But I would say don't don't do that. Don't, I mean, even you, like a week or two, a week before the PMC will start getting the I took my bike off the wall and I think it needs a tune-up. Right. And you're gonna do your best to accommodate that, but you have a queue of customers, and and it's not fair to them, you know, to skip the line. So as much as possible, you do want to have your bike get on that bike a couple of weeks before. I remember being on um the first the first PMC I did. I'm on the boat back, I'm talking to this young couple, and and I had said something. We were talking about training and getting ready, and and he, young guy, was like, Oh, yeah, yeah, no, I totally, you know, I train, I train. And his girlfriend was like, he does not train. He just pulled that bike out of the garage yesterday and banged out 200 miles. And I was like, I hate you so much. That is not the situation for me.

Steve 33:05

Uh yeah, and the other thing I'm gonna say is don't, you know, I I have this is the time where I start getting the PMC's in August, and I start getting appointments for late July for as people kind of plan for the PMC. Yes. They're like, let me get on your calendar. So my biggest tip there is don't get a tune-up from your local bike shop and then not ride the bike before your big event.

Kristin 33:30

Oh, yes.

Steve 33:31

I even from me.

Kristin 33:33

Yeah, yeah.

Steve 33:34

Right. I want you to do a ride before your big event.

Kristin 33:37

Yeah, you just want to make sure everything's there's no weird noises, everything's in the right place.

Steve 33:43

Like just most of the time you could it'd be fine if you did that. Yeah. But it's just not recommended.

Kristin 33:50

Right. It's just just again, help the poor mechanics that are dealing with whatever. I mean, we've done, I will say also, we've done support at smaller events. The bike shop is not there to take your bike that is a complete disaster and and turn it and fix it. Like you've seen that we had a local event, and these bikes that were coming in were like dangerous. Yes. And you do as much as you can, you have the parts that you can, but it's that is not.

Steve 34:22

But I have a line of people. Yeah, that's what I'm saying. That's the event starts in 40 minutes.

Kristin 34:27

Yeah. That is not the time. Right? I get it. Again, you take it out and you realize something's broken, you didn't plan ahead. But I think with charity rides, really a good, you know, what, a good offense is the best defense. Like make sure you just prepare. Give everybody a chance to help you out. Make sure batteries chart are charged, make sure lights are charged, make sure I feel like you give away a lot of those little those little coin batteries at your at your tent, right? I don't know why this isn't shifting because your battery is dead.

Steve 35:05

Oh, I've done that at the tent of change change shifter batteries. Yeah. Yeah. Well, one person like kind of knocked their shift lever, pulling out the DI2 wire, wasn't sure why it wasn't shifting. Yeah, all those kind of things.

Kristin 35:17

Yeah, I mean, accidents happen. So it's that's the point is try to prepare as much as possible so that the bike shops can deal with the real Oh, and lube your chain.

Steve 35:26

Oh my gosh.

Kristin 35:27

Oh, lube your chain!

Steve 35:29

This is gonna be this is this this is uh a pet peeve of every bike mechanic and certainly half the people on the ride. You you ride by there are there are people who are tone deaf to their bicycles. They just don't they don't hear those things. They don't they don't hear the fender rubbing, they don't hear that their chain squeaking, right? They don't hear their their brakes rubbing. Um, but yeah, all of us who go who who ride by you and you just your chain is just so dry and squeaky, we're like, Well, you and I talked about this uh at Bikes by Cancer, right?

Kristin 36:04

Because you said at one point, he's got a chain, chain. Like you pointed a couple of them out, and I was like, wait, is it that you can just hear the chain? Like you shouldn't. And then I started listening to my bike, and I was like, Oh yeah, I don't hear the chain. Like I hear the click of the you know, the hub when I'm coasting. But when I'm paddling, I don't hear the chain going through the cassette or through the crank. Anytime you said it to me, it wasn't going, it's just that you could hear it like that, like you could hear it going through. Oh, yeah.

Steve 36:38

So there were there were a few, there were a few that were dry, were not squeaking, but yeah, they were they're but you were like needs loop.

Kristin 36:46

Needs loop, needs loop. Yep. Anything else? No, let's move on to fundraising. Yeah. Honestly, the hardest part. Yeah, the hardest part. All of these other things are completely in your control. Yeah, right. And this one's not. It's not. So the big thing with PMC is that when you sign up for it, you commit to a certain level of fundraising, right? So for you, that's $2,300. For me, that is $2,020. So it's I'm at like $5,000 that I have to donate. I have to, and if you don't hit that minimum, you pay the difference on your credit card. And it happened to you the first year because we moved a little money, we tried to move some money between it. Didn't happen in time, and so you got charged for it, wasn't a lot, but you were like, What is this charge? And I was like, You did say you would do that, and their motto is commit, you'll figure it out with fear.

Steve 37:51

Not every in other words, that that means not our problem.

Kristin 37:55

Basically, we are on a mission and we are unapologetic about it. Now, right, our friend Meg, who runs Bikes Fight Cancer, they do not have a fundraising minimum. Right. And they raised a crap ton of money. So, you know, it's not that it's required for all rides.

Steve 38:17

So I guess that's the the big one is when you're signing up for a ride, no, no, if it's like the PMC where you have to make up the difference, or if is it just the entry fee, and then they want you to try and fundraise on top of that. Uh, if it has a minimum, what happens if you don't make the minimum? These these are all different, so definitely know that aspect of your ride.

Kristin 38:36

Yeah, and the thing is a lot of them, there's a registration fee that's meant to cover the expense of you.

Steve 38:43

Yep.

Kristin 38:44

And then there's your fundraising. I think it is important to know how much of it goes to charity. So one of the things about PMC is that 100% of rider-raised funds goes to Dana Farber Cancer Institute. I'm sure they're all, I'm not gonna question any of them. I'm sure they all have very high.

Steve 39:04

I would say probably charity bike rides are they're probably pretty good. Yeah. Um, and I think charity navigator is a place you can look to see how b good it is.

Kristin 39:14

Yeah. And I've heard some good strategies for fundraising. I know I think it was Johnny from Bike Side Cancer, who's a fundraising powerhouse. I think he told me years ago that he sends out a letter to every past donor with a self-addressed stamped envelope to basically say, like, you can donate. So I mean, he's which is super smart.

Steve 39:38

It is. I don't see I I don't like people asking people for money.

Kristin 39:43

No kidding.

Steve 39:44

Right? I just don't like it. I don't like it, and other people have no issue with it whatsoever.

Kristin 39:49

So I think it's in part because I'm gonna go on record that we're pretty tight, like even deciding where we're gonna donate, you know, we don't donate to everybody that asks us. Right.

Steve 40:01

And I like your strategy. You look at you look at who's sort of running behind on their donations, yes, so and and donate to them or the like uh the younger crowd who's just starting out, the teens and uh and the so forth.

Kristin 40:14

Yeah, I mean, because it started to feel like it started to kind of feel like oh, I donated to you, so you donate to me, and it all starts to feel very weird and and incestuous. So yeah, I started, I did two things. I do establish a budget for us on how much we can donate. And then I look at, yeah, anyone under probably 21 gets a donation. Gets a donation, and then I start looking at people's fundraising. And if they haven't hit the minimum, then I donate to them. The other thing I started doing is we have a cashback credit card, and so I build up all the cash back over the year, and then basically I make my donations, then I go into the credit card and I say apply our cash back to our donations. Oh and so that kind of helps establish my budget too. But I think that's why we we struggle with the fundraising. I like to give a thing. That's my that's my thing. Like if you donate, I'll send you a sticker, I'll send you a thank you note. In the past, I've done watercolor dragonflies. My biggest mistake was the year I made the the chain. Yeah. And it they were great to make, right? They were a postage nightmare because they're not flat. Right. So I did a whole set of them only to have them all returned to me for under postage, and so I had to redo them. So that was not that was not great strategically. Your strategy, which worked out last year, was an old-fashioned fundraising chart.

Steve 41:50

Oh, I did the like the thermometer, you know, and and and and trying to get to the top of the thermometer and and yep.

Kristin 41:57

That actually worked. That would actually work really well. Yeah, it did actually.

Steve 42:00

I gotta put that back up on the chalkboard.

Kristin 42:02

Get that back up, but I guess you should do them. Yeah, they're great, they're a great opportunity to support, you know, causes that are near and dear to you, and they're a great way to meet a community of riders.

Steve 42:13

Oh, there's a big ride this weekend uh out in the Cape. Uh MS ride. I had a lot of riders come in for tune-ups for this that, yeah.

Kristin 42:21

Yeah, the MS ride best buddies was a couple of weeks ago. There's the Alzheimer's ride, there's the brain tumor ride. Like we have a lot, we have a lot of ride. We have a lot of charity rides around us, and as I said, they're they're not just a great way to support a cause, but I think to really build a community. Like we're gonna, I'm gonna go for a ride tomorrow morning with with our team from PMC. And when else would I see them? Right. All right, let's get into some of the listener questions. Okay. So our friend Chris, yeah, who was out on the trail, he was attempting to complete the tour divide.

Steve 43:02

Tour divide, which he did, he did complete.

Kristin 43:04

He's already done a this is his second year.

Steve 43:06

Yep.

Kristin 43:06

He left us this voicemail.

Steve 43:09

Hey, cycling together, friends. Uh, this is Chris calling from the Flathead Range in the Canadian Rockies during Tour Divide. I queued up a couple episodes of yours before I left, and I've been able to enjoy some of your great conversation and and information. Well, I've been out here on my own, so thank you very much. I have a question for Steve. It's about brakes and disc brakes. Say hypothetically your brake calipers were encrusted in mud or you couldn't see them, or you couldn't you didn't know what to look for. How can you tell if your brake pads are done? Can you tell through noise, brake feel, any other symptoms that could tell you that, you know, maybe it's time for you to stop and uh change your. Pads or brand to shop and have them look at it. Thanks. And uh I'll look forward to next episode.

Kristin 44:06

All right, Steve. What should our friend Chris who maybe we should add a le second level to it, which is his Instagram is blind guy biking. So when he says he can't see it.

Steve 44:16

Yeah, he's virtually impaired.

Kristin 44:18

So that's one reason he might not be able to see, but I think in this case he can't see them because they were literally caked in mud and he didn't have a way to clean them.

Steve 44:26

Yeah, but he has shown in the past where even when they're not caked in mud, he can't look into the brakes to see the thickness of the pad. He doesn't have that ability. Yeah. So I mean, this is a really tough one. Um what wears down disc brakes the most is moisture and and mud and perfect and dirt.

Kristin 44:48

Wait, where was he riding?

Steve 44:50

And I mean, and and it can happen really, really fast. Yeah. Um, over the course of just a single ride.

Kristin 44:58

Yep.

Steve 44:59

Um there, I don't want to get too technical here, but they're basically, we're just gonna go down to two different types of brake pads. One is organic and one is uh metallic or centered. The organic pads they have their strengths, but they wear down quite quickly. The metallic pads wear are are much more hardy to that abrasiveness of mud and grit and so forth, but they and then they have their downsides as well. So if you're going to be riding in anything muddy, it is definitely recommended to use metallic pads. That being said, this is difficult because we just we early in the episode we talked about how people are tonally challenged with problems on their bike. Totally challenged. And if that is you, it can be difficult because somebody who's very aware of the different things on their bike audibly will say that tone, that scrape noise, that braking noise is slightly different than it used to be. And so what's going on? And of course, most of us can visually look at our pads and see if they're debt worn down, right? So, but it it that's like the best way is is the sound that they're making. So you're kind of listening for that difference between what they normally make, and of course, if they're covered in mud, they are going to make a different sound. Yes, they are, right? So uh hopefully there's a distinction there between sort of a breaking noise with grit and a metallic noise. Because what happens when the pads wear down really thin, you'll start to reach the thickness of the spring that's in between the two pads. Yes. And then event and then before and then after that, you'll literally get down to the metal backing plate, which is now rubbing up against the rotor. So what will happen first is that little thin metal spring will start rubbing the rotor. Okay. And that will make a metallic scraping noise. And that is sort of your first indication that there's a there's a problem. The other thing is that while hydraulic disc brakes self-adjust so that the throw of the brake levers remains pretty much the same. When you really get down to the end of the pad, there is more throw in the levers.

Kristin 47:20

Okay. Because it's past what's kind of normal.

Steve 47:22

You've sort of past the volume of what's the oil in the master cylinder. And so now you're really kind of, yeah, they can go, they can start going down close even close to the bar. Um, so that that's another big indicator that your pads are very thin.

Kristin 47:37

When my bike starts to make funny noises, I say she's talk, she's just talking to me. She's just trying to tell me something. I just don't always know what she's trying to tell me. Like something down there is making a funny noise. Something downstairs, and I come to you and I say, She's making funny noises.

Steve 47:52

Noises are mechanics' worst nightmares in some cases.

Kristin 47:56

Are they?

Steve 47:57

Because sometimes they're just like there are so many noises that people come to me with and I go, Yep, I know what that is. And then there's so many. It's like, well, it could be this and this and this and this and this, right? And you just sort of have to one by one by one start in some cases, even popping other parts in and out to try and see if it works.

Kristin 48:20

I don't bring the bike.

Steve 48:22

No, but what's happened recently.

Kristin 48:23

Oh no.

Steve 48:25

What's happening recently is, you know, AI. Oh. Well, AI told me that noise is this.

Kristin 48:33

AI is incorrect. I think you had one where you were like, AI is incorrect. I'm telling you, we're gonna have a show called Steve v. the machine. And I maybe we should like submit for questions. And basically, I want I want to ask AI the question, and then I want you to tell me if the if the answer is reasonable. Right. That's my that's my goal. All right, we also got fan mail. Fan mail is through the through your podcasting app. You can actually click on leave a voicemail or leave a uh just a text message. Unfortunately, we don't know who they're from, so feel free to say this is Betty from New Jersey. But anyway, the question was hello, how do I find a beginner's bike group for women in New Jersey? Thank you. Okay, I'm gonna split this into two, right? Number one is how do you find a beginner's bike group? And she didn't specify mountain bike or road or whatever. The first place I would say is your local bike shop.

Steve 49:37

Yes, right? Oh, 100%.

Kristin 49:39

Your local bike shop. They can, if they aren't doing something, because it does take a lot to run these groups ourselves, they will know who they'll they'll know the which group to go to, which website, which whatever, to plug you into who you need to be. And also check the interwebs. I will say I did do some researching about New Jersey. Um, there are a couple of groups that I found. There was an all-on cycling club of New Jersey, um, which seemed to be, if I remember correctly, I did this research several weeks ago, kind of all-inclusive, probably more geared toward road. There was the major Taylor Cycling Club of New Jersey.

Steve 50:17

I've heard of them.

Kristin 50:18

If you are a mountain biker, there's the New Jersey Mountain Bike Facebook. I actually joined that group and I've been like they are posting all the time, different rides, different questions about different trails. So, I mean, the cool thing is we are in a with all the ways people can connect and communicate with each other, finding your people, I think, is a lot easier. Yeah, it might have been.

Steve 50:42

And once you start finding people, that leads into finding other people and it just blossoms from there.

Kristin 50:48

We just had the other day, I got an email from our friend Bob. I was being CC'd because apparently he met a person in the woods and somehow got talking to her, and she was like, I want a mountain bike. And he was like, Let me connect you with all these people, including Kristen from See the Bike Guy, who has her women's rides. So it's like, all I got was this is so and so with the dogs, and Bob then writing to say, like, so I think the other thing is we bike people want to connect you with other bike people. Oh, yeah, you know. So, but that's where I for New Jersey, those are three groups that I would start with. We will put them in the show notes, and thank you for leaving us a fan mail. All right, I want to talk about one more thing. So, unfortunately, sadly, we had an act, we had, see, I nearly did it. We had an incident last week where a teenager was killed riding his bicycle. Let me say I don't know what kind of bike it it was, it doesn't matter. This is really about how the press handles these accidents. So the headlines throughout the internet went something like teen cyclist dies after being hit by SUV. Right. This drives me crazy.

Steve 52:11

It does drive you crazy.

Kristin 52:12

It drives me crazy. And there actually was, let me say, a group called Active Travel Academy in England that, in collaboration with the University of Westminster, produced basically reporting guidelines for the media that said there are ways you should talk about these incidences, and there are ways that you are not. And number one is um you shouldn't be calling them accidents, right? They're collisions, they are um, they are crashes, they are, you know, there are ways to talk about it. But when we say accident, it it just doesn't really I haven't thought about the axe the word accident, but you're absolutely right there. The other is we often refer to the person on the bike being hit by a car, right? An SUV and a vehicle versus a driver. Right. And what they said is basically the research tells us that language matters as it helps shape how we see and treat each each other. So for instance, referring to drivers rather than only their vehicles helps us helps remind us that behind every vehicle, be it a car, a cycle, a motorcycle, is a person making decisions that affect the safety of others. And that is, I will say, um, will you will see me comment on things. I commented, I shared this recently on this very article. I said, words matter. He was he was hit by a driver, he was not hit by an SUV. And it's because we're we're trying to remove that layer of the the yes, you can be hit by an i by a self-driving car. This was not that situation. So anyway, it's all of it's on all of us to push the media to do better with how we talk about these interactions. I don't like interactions either. Anyway, all right. Well, that's it for us. Should we wrap this up? Well, let's wrap it up. All right, cycling together with Kristen and Steve is a production of Steve the Bike Guy, an independent bicycle shop in eastern Massachusetts, and Sundon Marketing, a full-service marketing communications agency.

Steve 54:18

If you like the show, please leave a review or share with a friend for show notes, links, or to leave a comment, question, or topic suggestion, visit cycling together.bike.

Kristin 54:27

You can follow the shop on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok at Steve the Bike Guy.

Steve 54:32

All right. Thanks, and we'll see you next time.

Kristin 54:34

Bye.