NRVBA Spring Social at Rising Silo, 9 April

Celebrating spring weather, bikes, good food, and good company! Meet at Rising Silo Brewery on 9 April from 5:30 PM to 7:30 PM. Current NRVBA members and their families are invited! Pizza will be provided while supplies last!

Burkes Garden Centry & Metric Centry are ON: Sat 24 Aug

The usual Burkes Garden Century and Metric Century are on the schedule for 2024 now. The ride is back on the usual weekend and all the details are available here. The registration link isn’t up yet but you can sign up to be emailed when it is. We look forward to seeing everyone on the fastest, flattest, funnest century in these mountains!

Meet your new 2024 board!

As a result of our annual elections meeting, your new board are:

• President: Tripp Shealy

• Vice President: Christian James

• Treasurer: Joel Goodhart

• Secretary pro tempore: Jon Dubovsky

• Advocacy: still forming the group but so far Tripp Shealy, Joel Goodhart, Jenn Million

• Ride Coordinator: still forming the group but so far Mary VanSteenberghe, Dave Abraham

• Webmaster: Jon Dubovsky

We look forward to a 2024 full of great cycling advocacy, events, and fun. Many thanks to the 2023 board members who served well and have stepped aside to let others take on the roles: Jenn Million, David Lehn, Joe Carley, and Lauren Varboncoeur!

Burkes Garden Century & Metric are slightly different this year!

Due to organizational and volunteer challenges, the Burkes Garden Century and Metric Century are being run differently this year. Most of the details in the original post still apply with the following changes:

1. No entrance fee or online registration: the ride is being run as a regular club ride; this means you MUST sign in with the ride leader at the start (full century or metric) in order to keep our insurance company happy. If you’re not an NRVBA member, you can come ride one ride with us before our insurance requires you to sign up to the club — let this be your one guest ride!

2. The convenience store in Gratton (at the turn to start the climb into the Garden) is still closed. Plan to be able to get from Rocky Gap to your lunch stop in the Garden without any stores in between.

3. There are NO port-a-potties this year; the only restroom stops are in Rocky Gap (Woody’s Grill convenience store, available only to paying customers) and in the Garden itself at the general store and Maddie’s Place (the usual lunch stop). Please be good representatives of the cycling community to the folks running and using those stores.

4. SAG support will be limited or non-existent, depending on volunteer status. Don’t count on it.

5. Road signage and marking will limited or non-existent. Download the route or print a map!

Burkes Garden is in flux!

We’re having trouble getting enough volunteers to run SAG and registration and such. We’ll post here when we know more details about the event!

Burkes Garden Century & Metric Century, 19 Aug

This century (102 mi) and metric century (62 mi) has become a tradition for the New River Valley Bicycle Association since 1997 when a long-time member initiated this ride for a casual outing to avoid campus traffic on Move-In day for Virginia Tech. This ride has rapidly gained popularity as a fast, easy century for anyone who loves to ride bicycles. Many novice cyclists enjoy this century as their first, while advanced riders test their hammering ability to plug out 100 miles at a fast pace.

The ride is lightly-supported with SAG vehicles, regular port-a-potties, and gas stations for food at Rocky Gap (21 mi & 83 mi), Gratton (41 mi & 63 mi), and lunch stop at Burke's Garden (56 mi). Bring cash in some small bills since the stores can get overwhelmed changing $20s for riders.

Please note that the lunch location for the event has changed from the previous Burke's Garden General Store: Mattie is now operating a catering business independent of the previous General Store and we will be lunching at her new location. The address is 920 Goss Mill Rd. Tazewell, VA 24651. Once you get into Burke's Garden, if you go counter-clockwise around the bowl it will be towards the end of the loop. If you go clockwise then it will be towards the beginning of the loop.

The century ride leaves at 8:00 AM from the gravel parking lot (across from the duck pond, near the Narrows Library) at the corner of Monroe Street and Mary Street and travels along Wolf Creek up to Rocky Gap.

Metric century riders can join the fun at the Rocky Gap High School in Rocky Gap at 9:15 AM.

All participants continue to Tazwell and climb over Rich Mountain into Burkes Garden where local cuisine is served at the Burkes Garden General Store. (Have you ever had a fried green tomato sandwich?) Climb back out of the Garden and enjoy a gentle downhill cruise back to Narrows. A whopping 1% downhill grade for 40 miles to make you turn just a bit faster!

Route: https://ridewithgps.com/routes/15346597 or http://nrvrc.org/cyclingguide/rides/burkes.html

Registration link will be posted here when we have it.

NRVBA Spring Gravel rides: 22 April, various times

It's that time again - NRVBA's Spring Ride hosted by Rising Silo on Saturday, April 22nd!

There will again be three route options - 20 mi, 32 mi, and 58 mi. All are on mixed terrain with the longer routes having more gravel than the shorter. Tires intended for gravel are preferable but road bikes will be suitable.

The 58 mi ride will begin at 11:00 AM, the 32 mi at 2:00 PM, and the 20 mi will begin at 3:00 PM.

All routes end back at Rising Silo. Please stick around after for food and drinks. This is great time to chat with folks in the cycling community and give a thank you to Rising Silo for graciously hosting us again this year!

Just a reminder that, per our insurance regulations, you *must* be a member or first-time guest of the club to participate in group rides. Memberships run January 1 - December 31 so now is a great time to join/renew to get the most bang for your buck! Save yourself time the day of and also complete the Electronic Ride Waiver pre-event. The waiver needs completed just once per year!

Route links:

• 20 mi: https://ridewithgps.com/routes/19418147

• 32 mi: https://ridewithgps.com/routes/27259262

• 58 mi: https://ridewithgps.com/routes/36551632

NRVBA Litter Pick-Up, 22 Apr, 9:30 AM

Our Litter Pick-Up is scheduled for Saturday April 22, 2023.  Meet at 9:30am in the parking lot at the south end of the First & Main Mall.  Our section of road is Den Hill Rd., from the intersection with North Fork Rd. out 2 miles.  Please wear long pants, long sleeve shirt, sturdy shoes, and bring gloves.  Vests and garbage bags are provided.

Free Bike (and Parts) Swap, 15 Apr, 9 AM - 1 PM

BICYCLE SWAP

When: Saturday April 15, 2023; 9am-1:00pm.

Where: Atlantic Union Bank parking lot, 601 N. Main St. (corner of N. Main & Turner St. Blacksburg, VA

This is a FREE Bicycle Swap to buy, sell, or trade bicycles and bicycle-related goods. It will be held on the Atlantic Union Bank parking lot (corner of N. Main & Turner St.)

This is open to all individuals who feel this would be an excellent opportunity to benefit the community and to promote bicycling, while thinning out their unused bicycle goods.

Bring your unused bicycles, components, tools, clothing, accessories, any bicycle related items.

No commercial vendors or businesses permitted.

To provide for a safe and concerted event, we ask that a few guidelines be followed:

1. Only bicycles and bicycle-related goods are to be offered.

2. Please observe and follow the traffic, parking, and set-up logistics.

3. All sellers are responsible for providing and staffing their own table(s), chair(s), displays, tents, etc. and providing their own sales necessities (cash, billing equipment, etc.).

4. You may start setting up at 8:00am.

5. Prices may be set at your own discretion.

6. Please be respectful of the grounds, the bank patrons, and all the other vendors & participants.

7. Anyone interested in having a guaranteed seller’s space at this event must contact:

Ed Hokanson

edh@email.com

540-239-6231

by 6:00pm Thursday April 13, 2023.

(please include your phone number(s) and the items you will be bringing).

Failure to follow these guidelines will result in your exclusion from the event.

This is a free event

Thanks for participating

New memberships open 1 Jan 2023

Memberships are from 1 Jan to 31 Dec of the purchase year, so new memberships will open up for purchase on 1 Jan.

Mountains of Misery 2021 RFP is out

Request for Proposals is open for the 2021 MoM event.