AHBC Community

2020 is the year of COVID-19. As we are maintaining social separation to combat the spread of the virus, we come together in alternate means to remain a community of those who include cycling as healthy physical and emotional persuit.

We are grateful to our members and friends who participate in these endeavors.

As a way to remain engaged with each other , we have undertaken a number of contests and the sharing of memories. This accumulation of shared information is the result of efforts by individual club members. Board members may be leading some of these efforts but all members are encouraged to initiate their own contests, games, and memories and to share those with members.

Bicycle Bingo

Bicycle Bingo Winners Fall 2020 -- Kris Ami, Don Ami, and Elizabeth Berry

One square of the AHBC 2020 Bicycle Bingo invited members to write a poem or a story about cycling. We have some wonderful contributions to our Community.

UNTIL OUR NEXT RIDE

by Elizabeth Berry

I wake this morning and skies are gray
I check the forecast, home I must stay
It's so hard to wait on this day
But I will do so patiently, until our next ride

Some days are hard, with so much to do
But desire is gone because nothing seems true
It's people that matter, a crowd or just two
So I hang on again, until our next ride

A week could go by and conditions not good
Too wet or too hot or I should or I could
But I think of nothing else and it's so true
I always look forward to our next ride

Who will I see and who will I meet
What news will there be and hopefully neat
It's one day at a time and I'm grateful besides
I get on my bike with a smile, TODAY WE ALL RIDE

PANDEMIC CYCLING

by Kris Sudrovich-Ami, as plagerized from Mikes Bikes Shop, Palatine Illinois


During this unprecedented year of the Coronavirus Pandemic, all of us bikers have had to modify our lives in many different ways. We have made many adjustments to stay healthy and will continue to do so as we navigate to the end of the pandemic.

The other day at our local bike shop, I saw the following sign that I think is a good reminder of how bikers can continue to survive these challenging days. I want to share with you and ask that you print it and hang in an area that you can notice regularly. Hopefully, it will bring a smile to your face, as it did to mine! Keep riding your bike!

ATTENTION!

Avoid crowded spaces

Keep a safe distance from people who sneeze and cough

Ride Your Bike

Expose yourself to sunshine

Don't use public transit

Ride Your Bike

Avoid recirculated air

Boost immunity with fresh air

Ride Your Bike

Missing exercise class

Staying home from work or school

Ride Your Bike

Maintain a positive and prudent attitude

Ride Your Bike

Bicycle Lights

Don Ami

Lights
also posted on the Safety page

Bicycle Stories

Are you missing all the great biking stories we share around the Zero-Miles tables, Deerfield's Bakery, and at the many other "REST"aurant stops on our club rides? Are you missing all the great conversations with our bike friends while riding as a group?

Let's keep this tradition going while we are social distancing and riding alone; sharing stories just as we would while around the lunch table or with our riding friends.

Please write and share a short story. It can be a short story, a poem, a journalistic report, a pun-filled fable, whatever style you want. Please include photos if you have them. Send them to Roger at ahbccommunity@gmail.com

A response to Bicycling Magazine

by Don Ami
The following article is from Bicycling Magazine: Why I won't replace my old hybrid bike

Don wrote this in response:

My first really good bike was a Centurion Dave Scott model. I bought it used from my friend Rick. It was a lightweight steel racing bike. This was the first bike I ever rode that actually allowed me to keep up with Chris and Dave Van Dornick in the front of the group. I remember Chris saying that the new bike suited me. I rode that bike several years until I crashed it into a centerpost riding the trail up to the Botanic Gardens. I was riding next to my girlfriend at the time and chatting away. As you know I rarely have anything to say. I never saw the post until just before I hit it and cracked the frame at the head tube.

The bike I replaced it with was a Trek 2120, my first carbon bike. I remember debating with myself for over an hour in the bike shop if I should spend that kind of money. The bike finally won. I kept it until I bought my Specialized Tarmac. Believe it or not the 2120 is still on the road. I sold it to Andrew Kirby and he rides it to work every day. Like the bike in the story it is now a 25 year old bike still doing what is asked of it.

I think we all likely have such feelings about our first serious bicycle. Some of us still ride them.

The long time members may remember the centerpost crash. They will probably smile when they remember how it ended. Geri McPheron was riding behind me and she told the story for years about how I walked away from it. I saw the post right before I hit it. I was riding with my hands on top of the handlebars and there wasn't time to grab the brakes. What happened next looked just like an athlete using the pommel horse. My hands stayed on top of the bars while I got my feet out of the pedals and literally vaulted over the handlebars and centerpost landing on my feet on the other side. When I stuck the landing the judges gave me a unanimous 10! This wasn't planned as there was no time for that. It was strictly my self preservation instinct kicking in. I remember shortly after the crash a forest preserve policeman stopped and put my broken bike in his trunk and gave me a ride to the Botanic Gardens to wait for a ride back. He told me I wasn't the first person he saw hit a centerpost but most of the time when it happened they had to sweep up body parts. Now that's a happy ending.

The Adventures of a Cyclist Wannabe

by Pete Schmelzer
I learned to ride a bike by jumping on my big brother's big bike and coasting down the hill.... read the rest of Pete's adventure

Hard Times for the Bike Club

by Pete Schmelzer
A few years ago when my family was cleaning out the Glenview home of my dad`s cousin.... read the rest of Pete's adventure

Good Things can Happen.

by Kris Sudrovech Ami and Don Ami
In April 2002 after working there for 21 years, I abruptly was part of a... read the rest of Kris and Don's adventure

A Hot Day in July.

by Gary Gilbert
It was another hot day in July 1995. I realized the rest of the way was downhill and began to grin... read the rest of Gary's adventure

My First Bike and Barge Trip.

by Vince Kelly
We were sitting next to Carole Dinello at the club banquet in 2009 when she said..... read the rest of Vince's adventure

How It All Started.

by Paula Matzek
You`re surely familiar with that wide-eyed look that you get when you tell a non-cyclist or a newer cyclist that you just rode 35 miles ..... read the rest of Paula's adventure

My First Fall with Clipless Pedals.

by Tom Drabant
Around 30 years ago I decided that my knees and joints had had enough jogging, so a friend, Bob Fox, suggested that I try biking. Bob was, and is, an avid bicyclist having a number of bikes in his possession including a Kestrel, Cannondale, Lemond, and an old Motobecane..... read the rest of Tom's adventure

Off the Clock.

by Carol Ranachowski
While growing up in Chicago, I was not very athletic. I was not interested in sports, nor was I very good at any of them. As a child, I had an old Schwinn 10-speed which I used solely as means of transportation. Once I was old enough to get a driver's license, my bike was left to rust in the garage.... read the rest of Carol's adventure

My first racing pedals.

by Alan Medsker
After my [re]start of biking at the age of 50, I dutifully bought a new road bike to replace the antique that I had purchased from my brother in high school... read the rest of Alan's adventure

My first organized bike ride.

by Dave Martin
Our club used to ride to Milwaukee for a weekend when the VanDornicks led the ride. We would ride to Milwaukee on Friday. Ride loops on Saturday and then ride back on Sunday. I went on a couple of these, but I'm sure that many of the club members went on more of these than I did...... read the rest of Dave's adventure

The Interstate in Fifty-Eight

by Roger Hitchings
Growing up in the country on a farm, we did not have sidewalks or even paved roads to ride on. So I did a lot of tricycle and bike riding on gravel and dirt..... read the rest of Roger's adventure

Guess the weather for the date of the cancelled 2020 Bike Swap

Swap Weather Contest Guesses and Results

Photos of members as youth or at least much younger than today

We were once young(er)

Some more recent times

Your photos can be added to these albums, please share them to web@cyclearlington.com