Greater Eugene Area Riders

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Join host Tom Butler as he shares a minor challenge of organizing the first-ever Cycling Over Sixty annual event, set for September 14th. Tom explains how this year will be a laid-back event.

Fresh off his third Cascade Bicycle Club Seattle to Portland ride, Tom reflects on the personal goals he set for this cycling challenge and shares how he measured up against his expectations. Tom’s assessment offers insights into goal achievement after picking up cycling later in life.

The episode features an engaging conversation with Bob Lewis, a ride leader from GEARs (Greater Eugene Area Riders). After Tom's recent positive experience riding with the group, he sits down with Bob to get more information about GEARS. They dive into the club's culture, the unique aspects of cycling in Eugene, and the crucial but often overlooked role of ride leaders in creating safe, welcoming group experiences.

This episode captures how local cycling clubs and group rides form the backbone of bike culture, providing community, mentorship, and camaraderie that keeps cyclists of all ages motivated and connected. Whether you're already part of a cycling community or looking to find your tribe on two wheels, this conversation highlights why group riding remains such an essential part of the cycling experience.

Thanks for Joining Me!

Consider becoming a member of the Cycling Over Sixty Strava Club! www.strava.com/clubs/CyclingOverSixty

Cycling Over Sixty is also on Zwift. Look for our Zwift club!

Please send comments, questions and especially content suggestions to me at [e-mail]

Follow and comment on Cycling Over Sixty on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cyclingoversixty/

Show music is "Come On Out" by Dan Lebowitz. Find him here : lebomusic.com

Episode Transcript

Tom Butler (00:04):
This is the Cycling Over 60 podcast, season three,
episode 36, the Greater EugeneArea Riders, and I'm your host,
tom Butler.
I want to start out with a plugfor the first Cycling Over 60

(00:31):
annual ride on Sunday, september14th.
You can find all theinformation about it at
cyclingover60.com.
Look for the annual eventsection there.
Even if you don't come do theride, please take a look at the
event page.
I'd love to have feedback onhow to make the page better.
This first event is not going tobe anything fancy.
It's mostly self-supported, butthere are plenty of great stops

(00:52):
along the route.
This year is just a laid-backopportunity to get out and ride
together.
Plus, it starts what I hopewill become an annual
celebration of cycling as a wayto be active later in life.
I'm taking a bit of a risk, soI'll need people to be prepared
to be flexible.
I've been told by Pierce Countythat they have targeted the
middle of September to have abridge called the Spiked and

(01:14):
Ditched Bridge completed.
So having a route on September14th that goes over the bridge
is a bit of a risk.
With a week to go, if thebridge isn't going to be opened,
I'll have to change a couple ofroutes.
It doesn't change the startingpoint either way.
I figure why not go for it,even if there might be a bit of
a change?
I've always seen taking a bitof a risk as like a fun

(01:36):
challenge.
If you can make it on September14th, please, please, go to the
event page and fill out theregistration.
I need to have an idea abouthow many people are going to
join us and if you're willing topitch in to help with the ride,
please email me.
You can find my email in theshow notes.
There are several small tasksthat you could help with and
still ride.
I'm going to be working outsome details, probably all the

(02:00):
way up to September 14th, but Iwill communicate along the way
with everyone who registers.
A big shout out to TacomaWashington Bicycle Club for
embracing this event andproviding support.
A listener named Steve inCorvallis, oregon, sent a
message asking for informationabout the cruise bike that we
had a motor put on.
I just want to remind peoplethat the text link on the

(02:22):
podcast doesn't give me yourcontact information.
So, steve, I need you to emailme so I can respond, and again,
you can find my email in theshow notes.
My Cycling Over 60 journeystarted by training for the
Cascade Bicycle Club two-day207-mile ride from Seattle to
Portland.
In July I did the ride for thethird time.
Last year we did a 14.3mile-per-hour average pace.

(02:45):
This year we did a 14.3 mileper hour average pace.
This year we had a goal ofdoing 15 miles per hour average.
One of the biggest threats tobe able to do that could have
been the heat on day two.
It was around 100 degrees withthe heat coming off the pavement
.
But we actually did 15.9 milesper hour on average for day one
and 16.7 miles per hour on daytwo.
I know this might be strange tosome, but to others you'll know

(03:08):
exactly what I'm talking about.
That 15.9 miles per houraverage killed me.
We were so close to 16 milesper hour.
In fact, as we were approachingthe end for that first day, I
thought we had more miles thanwe did and I thought for sure we
were going to make the 16 milesper hour average.
And when I found out we onlyhad a little way, I just picked

(03:31):
up the pace as fast as I could.
We actually ended up at 15.94miles per hour.
But, man, I wish I would haveknown earlier that we were
getting close to the finish.
I'm certainly thrilled with thatresult and there were a lot of
things happening that made thatpossible.
But the biggest thing was thisis the first year that Garen was

(03:52):
able to ride at a pace that wassomewhat of a challenge for him
.
At one point he turned to meand said that his legs hurt.
I was like welcome to the club.
It also was the least he hadprepared for the STP, so that
was part of it.
But he was able to ride fasterthan he had the other two years
and I spent a lot of timedrafting behind him.
I did pull some, but I reallybenefited from him pushing the

(04:15):
pace.
Cool thing is, on the first STPwe did, I asked him a lot of
times to slow down.
This year I only needed to backoff when climbing hills.
That was a huge indicator of myincreased power.
At one point we were going 19miles per hour average over a
segment that is about 13 mileslong.
I realize that isn't a hugedeal to many serious cyclists

(04:36):
but it is a real improvement forme.
I think it is reasonable thatmy focus on functional threshold
power, or FTP, after I got theSwift set up last winter
improved my ability to stay onGaren's wheel longer.
Ftp will again become a focusthis winter on the trainer.
Thanks to a listener named Jimfrom Texas, I now have a set of
power pedals.
I'm going to be talking moreabout them in another episode.

(04:59):
For now I will say that I lovethem.
Thank you, jim.
I think there is still apossibility to improve my STP
performance and I still want toconsider doing the STP in one
day, but I would need to see abig improvement to get there.
Between the two days we were onthe road, both moving and at
rest stops, for a total of 17hours.

(05:19):
So that is too long to make itin one day.
Next year we will not attemptone for sure, so I have a couple
of years to see if I canimprove enough to consider it.
I should mention that our secondday had about 30 miles that
were assisted by a greattailwind.
That was awesome, except thatit created a situation where the
heat impacted us more.
We spent that time withvirtually no headwind and we

(05:41):
could really feel the 100 degreetemperature that my bike
computer measured for thatsegment.
If STP isn't moved to earlierin the summer, heat is going to
be a consistent issue.
It is not getting cooler aroundhere.
So all in all, I was reallypleased with the STP this year.
We had a friend, chris, join usand we really enjoyed his
company.
Despite the fact that Chrismostly rides a mountain bike and

(06:04):
he prepared for like two weeks,maybe even less, on an older
trek he borrowed from me Chrisseemed to have no problem with
the ride.
It should be interesting to seewhat Chris could do if he was
on a bike of his own and he putin some serious training time
for STP.
As I said over and over again,my cycling journey and STP is a
big part of that said over andover again.

(06:28):
My cycling journey and SDP is abig part of that really shows
what is possible when you getout there and you become active.
I believe that the local bikeclub is truly an essential
component to a community's bikeculture.
I've become really interestedin how clubs can stay vibrant.
Recently I did a couple ofgroup rides with the Greater

(06:50):
Eugene Area Riders known asGEARS.
As the name indicates, it's aclub in Eugene, oregon.
I see GEARS as doing a lot ofthings right.
Bob Lewis was a ride leader onone of the rides.
I did, and he did a great job.
So I asked Bob to come on thepodcast and talk about his
cycling and gears.
I also wanted Bob to talk aboutthe role of ride leader as well

(07:11):
.
Ride leaders provide a reallyvaluable service, in my opinion.
Here's our conversation.
I want to welcome Bob Lewisfrom the Greater Eugene Area
Riders, also known as Gears tothe podcast.
Thank you, bob, for joining me.

Bob Lewis (07:25):
Glad to be here.

Tom Butler (07:26):
I want to ask a bunch of questions about Gears
and the role of a ride leader,but first off, what is your
earliest memory of the bicycleRiding around my neighborhood in
Kentucky, indian Hills?

Bob Lewis (07:42):
I had a lot of rollers.
I thought they were real bighills at the time.
I didn't move to Oregon until2019, so I did some riding on
the hills and Indian Hills.
I always lived on that side oftown and, yeah, they didn't seem
so big to me.
I had a used swim bike and Ithink I left it out in the
driveway and my father ran overit.

(08:03):
That was kind of a traumaticexperience, but he got me
another one and I took bettercare of it, okay.

Tom Butler (08:11):
Yeah, that's one of those things.
That's a learning experiencefor sure.

Bob Lewis (08:15):
Yeah.

Tom Butler (08:15):
Now did you have a bunch of kids you could ride
with?
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Bob Lewis (08:20):
I had a friend, Jimmy Swain, a year younger than me,
just lived right across.
I could see his house from myhouse.
He was the first guy when wemoved into the neighborhood.
It was a fairly newneighborhood when we moved in.
I met him the first day I movedin, I guess.

Tom Butler (08:41):
I think that's some of the funnest memories is just
being out as friends on a bikeand the freedom that it gives
and everything.

Bob Lewis (08:45):
Yeah, we were able to ride around.
You know they're building.
Neighborhood got expanding, youknow, over the years and we
were able to get some, get somematerials and build tree houses.
And you know scrap, yard scrapsin front of the houses and
whatnot, the houses that arebeing built, you know that kind
of thing that's awesome, forWere you pretty consistent with
cycling throughout your life,not?

(09:07):
really Well.
I got a bike when I was incollege, a 10-speed, and I rode
it to and from class.
During the summer I'd ride itaround town in Frankfurt, and
then one weekend I decided toride up to a little town called
Midway, which is midway betweenFrankfurt and Lexington, on the
railroad track I guess, andanyway.
And then I got on the newlyfinished interstate I-64 there

(09:31):
from midway to Frankfurt, androde the bike on the interstate,
you know, with no traffic,because you know they'd finished
paving it but they hadn'topened it to traffic yet.
You can really fly on a bike onthe interstate.
That's awesome.
I just, you know that sectionbetween Midway and Frankfurt.
Just, you know, slight rollers.

Tom Butler (09:49):
Now, how far would that have been?

Bob Lewis (09:51):
It was probably 10 miles.
It's about 10 miles from Midwayto Lexington or to Frankfurt.

Tom Butler (09:58):
And so after college , did you stay on a bike?

Bob Lewis (10:02):
I still had that bike .
I carried that bike all the waythrough, I guess I finally and
the I had a.
It turned into a five speedbecause they told me they
couldn't find a part for youknow, it was before the internet
and all that and they said theycouldn't find a part for the
front derailleur.
So I just had a five speed fora while and I'd rode it around.
You know, I grew up, I droveright up to Amsterdam, just
around the neighborhood and thenwhen I retired the first time

(10:26):
in 2006,.
And they bought me a giantCypress.
So it's a fairly heavy bike butit's got three gears on the
front, six on the back,handlebar shifters, sitting up.
And so my youngest daughter andI she was in between going from

(10:46):
college, she just graduatedfrom college and then was going
to grad school and I had justretired and so we rode around.
She got the book about horsefarms around Lexington, Kentucky
, so we did a lot of those anddid some rides around Frankfurt
and whatnot.
So that's kind of got me backon the bike.
And then I joined the BluegrassCycling Club out of Lexington,

(11:10):
but they had a ride every Mondayin Frankfurt.
So you know that worked outwell for me.
And then they also had one inMidway, which was, you know,
about 10 miles from my house.

Tom Butler (11:20):
So I just loaded it in the car and rode there and
then the rest was history, Iguess at that point it sounds
like you kind of discovered thatyou really liked spending more
time on the bike yeah, yeah,yeah.

Bob Lewis (11:35):
And you know in frankfurt area, per sales,
midway lexington, you know theyall got a lot of rollers there's
, could they river goes throughthere, so there's some hills if
you want them.
You know, from from myneighborhood I can kind of like
here in in Eugene I could be outon a country road and you know
a couple of three miles farmroads, you know, not a whole lot
of traffic.

Tom Butler (11:56):
So now is that a place where you're shut down in
the winter time, or?

Bob Lewis (12:01):
Yeah, yeah, in Kentucky, the club there they
don't track any.
They don't have a lot ofscheduled rides.
Between the end of October andthe first of March they have
some rides.
I mean there's days you canride and you know I rode a fair
amount with the weather's good,but yeah, you get a lot of ice.
There's a lot more ice and snowthan we do here in Eugene

(12:22):
Gotcha.
So you know I don't want toinvite your snows.

Tom Butler (12:26):
So when you look back at your cycling, do you
have some special memories.

Bob Lewis (12:29):
Oh, yeah, yeah, you know there's a road, shedrick
Ferry Road and you know anytimeit's got a ferry in it that
means there's a hill.
So you know you got to go downto the ferry and you're going to
go back up a hill.
In Frankfort there was thatroad.
It was always kind of dauntingwhen you first did it, the first
time you did it, and then afterthat, oh it's just a hill.

(12:50):
You know they have a Horsie 100that the Bluegrass Cycling Club
sponsors every year Memorial Dayweekend.
They start in Georgetown,kentucky, which is just north of
Lexington, and they'll eithergo east toward Bourbon County or
west toward Frankfurt.
And you know it's got a lot of.
You know a century or half5,000 feet and you know I
usually did it to measure it 100, you know 62 miles, 63 miles.

(13:14):
Now they have like 1,500 ridersthat come from all over the
country to ride in a Horse Speed100.
But those rides were, you know,very memorable.
Certainly they had some ladythat was a racer.
She did a lot of racing but shesponsored hill rides.
I still show them on Facebookfrom Bluegrass Lightning Club.

(13:35):
They do a hill ride on Mondays.
They go down to the ferry roadsand go back up, they go up to
the hills.
You've got the distilleries.
There's a section called GlensCreek road that goes along where
oak row, well, green down thestories are.
There's a they've got a newplace called castle and key
distillery that took over one ofthose old distilleries and, you

(13:56):
know, spruced it up and made itlook pretty.
You know you're riding alongthose smell all the bourbon, you
know, and that know in thewarehouses in my mind.

Tom Butler (14:05):
I'm picturing rolling green hills that you're
riding through and white fencesyeah, yes, yeah, a lot of horses
and a lot of cows.

Bob Lewis (14:16):
You know there's a lot of agriculture.
You know used to be a lot oftobacco.
You know not so much of thatanymore but uh, you know there's
still a fair amount of.
You know, obviously aroundlexington, bourbon county, uh,
for sale there's a lot of horsefarms.
You know still out there.

Tom Butler (14:30):
You know big cars and horse farms also don't think
of a ferry ride in kentucky.
I'm pretty familiar with theferries up here in the seattle
area.

Bob Lewis (14:41):
Well they've got a, they've got an active ferry
there that you go to FayetteCounty, which is Lexington,
kentucky, and it goes across theKentucky River and you end up
in Madison County, richmond,kentucky.
So there is an active ferrythere and I think there's
another one down that goes overthe Cumberland River down at
Southern Kentucky.
That's, you know, operational.
So there are a couple offerries there.

(15:02):
And there's also one that goesover Mississippi River and far
western Kentucky.
Kentucky's got a very, veryterrain.
You get on far western, it'spretty flat and you get up in
the mountains and you get somepretty good.
You know about the size of theCascades, or maybe a little less
.
But I guess there's anothermemorable ride from Kentucky is
there's the.
You know they've got an oldrails trail road.

(15:24):
You know you go going through acouple of tunnels.
Uh, you know they're haulinglumber, I think, out of the, out
of the holla.

Tom Butler (15:32):
So do you know of like a cross Kentucky ride,
because it does seem like thatwould be.

Bob Lewis (15:39):
Well, I don't know.
If you know a map, it's prettyfar.
Yeah, you know it's.
I think it's like 400 milesacross the whole state.
There is a, the trans am, Ithink, goes through kentucky
transamerica route.

Tom Butler (15:54):
There's some roads that it, you know, goes, one,
you know, north, south and Ithink there is a east west route
through through kentucky I mean, that sounds like a a fun
adventure to take, a, you know,to take a while, and again
because you're gonna experiencea lot of different terrain from
western to eastern Kentucky.

Bob Lewis (16:10):
Well, like I say, around central Kentucky, you've
got the Kentucky River there,but then there's also a lot of
distilleries.
They've got tours.
You can go through Shaker Town,the Shaker Village there in
Mercer County it's right therenear On the River Place to visit
.

Tom Butler (16:28):
So at some point you decided to transition to the
West.

Bob Lewis (16:32):
Yeah, I've got two daughters that transitioned
before I did.
My oldest daughter came outhere for graduate school, never
left, got two kids, and then myyoungest daughter got a job in
2013 teaching at the university.
My wife retired before I didand then I retired for good in
2015.
I retired in 2006.

(16:54):
That's when I got the firstbike and then I uh, went back to
work.
After my, they called me up andsaid you want to come back to
work?
And I said my daughter gone tograduate school by the end so I
didn't have anybody ride bikeswith at the time.
So I took them up on that andstayed for another nine years
wow.

Tom Butler (17:11):
So when you say they bought you a bike when you
retired the first time, who wasthe?
They?
My daughters.
Okay, okay, nice good kids.

Bob Lewis (17:22):
I knew I had a.
That bike I had was a fivespeed, and then they figured I
needed something to do when Iwas retired.
And they were right.

Tom Butler (17:28):
What are you riding now?

Bob Lewis (17:31):
I've got a specialized diverge.
Okay, my daughter and I boughta used Trek back I don't know,
it was about maybe 2010.
She wanted to have a bike whenshe came to visit to ride and so
we bought it.
It was a trek road bike and youknow, I just had to jack the
seat up a little bit when I rodeit, but I ended up riding it a

(17:51):
lot more because it was a lotlighter than that that uh, uh
giant that I had.
So I ended up making that myroad bike.
And then I had a.
I hit a pothole one day and Ididn't think anything about it
and I took it into the shop toget them.
You know to work on it, do alittle maintenance on it, and
they said you know you had acracked bracket, lower bracket.
I said no, that's when I boughtthe new bike in 2018.

Tom Butler (18:16):
Are you happy with it?

Bob Lewis (18:18):
Yeah, my son-in-law had got a new bike and he said
do you want a new set of rims?
You can put some, uh, lightertire Cause you know I can get up
to 42, 43 inch tires on it.
So I, uh, I've got a wheel setthat you know I can put gravel
tires.
I got gravel tires.

Tom Butler (18:34):
On 42 inch tires I usually run 31 on the one I've
got on the road, but I can alsorun gravel.
So when you moved out, did you?
Were you looking pretty quickfor a club to ride with?
Well?

Bob Lewis (18:48):
we moved in 2020.
So I was looking for I wasriding myself by myself, right,
you know, covid, because thatwas the beginning.
You know, right at thebeginning of God.
I don't know if the bike club Idon't even know I'd ridden with
them.
We bought the house in 2019,and we came out here and spent a
month and a half and I rode Idon't know four or five rides
with them in 2019, with the club.

(19:09):
So I knew, you know, and Ithink I went ahead and joined
too.
And then, you know, when COVIDhit, I did riding by myself for
probably six months and thenthey started to have some group
rides.
You know, you kept far awayfrom each other and all that.
So, you know, when it became alittle safer to ride out, you
know, when they figured out thatoutdoors was probably okay, you
know, and I started riding withGears.

Tom Butler (19:31):
Would you say that Gears is pretty similar to the
club into Kentucky or?

Bob Lewis (19:37):
Well, I think the club in Kentucky has more
members.
It's kind of similar to Gears.
You know, we would like tothink we have a lot of people
from the surrounding cities.
We certainly Springfield andEugene, both contribute to our
club and we've got a couple fromJunction City and a couple from
Cottage Grove.
I don't know if they haveanybody from Crestwell or not,

(19:59):
but in Lexington they have aride out of Frankfurt every week
.
They have one out of Midwayevery week.
They have one out of Midwayevery week.
They have one out ofNicholsville every week.
They have one out of Richmond.
So they you know a lot biggerorganization, gotcha.
But as far as you know thegroup rides, you know they're
very similar.

(20:19):
I did a lot more Pace Line Iwrote.
You know they do letters ontheir rides.
You know they got C-R line Irode.
You know they do letters ontheir rides.
You know they got C ride is,you know, fairly slow, 10 to 12
and then B and then AB and thenA and then EF.
I think was extra fast.
I don't know.
I never didn't know what itexactly was.
I never didn't do.

(20:41):
I usually did at B or A D pace.
You know we do some 60, but wedid double pace line.
You know we'd have 15, 20people and we'd do double pace
lines on roads and then singleup when a car comes.

Tom Butler (20:54):
Yeah, so you were moving pretty good, I imagine.

Bob Lewis (20:58):
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
You know when you do pace lineit helps.
You know you've got the synergyfrom that group and you know
you just stay on the front aslong as you can.
You know you rotate over andyou just got to.
You know it's a little moreconcentration Right, a single
PaceLine, but certainly becauseyou got somebody on your right,

(21:25):
somebody in front of you andsomebody.
I understand that your executivedirector at Gears.
It's a paid position.
Yeah, I don't know what histitle is, but yeah, mike
Cantrell, he runs the website,updates the sign-up.
We use Sign-Up Genius forsigning up for rides, so he
updates that.
He kind of keeps a rollingcalendar on Sign-Up Genius Seven
days.
We post a PDF of the ridesmonthly and then we also add

(21:46):
some rides during the month butwe try to give people an idea
what's coming up it seems likehaving the consistency of that
paid position would make a bigdifference for a club yeah, yeah
, I mean you know he's got he'sbeen a ride leader, he, you know
been with the club for a whileand uh, he's still, you know, he
still leads rides.
He leads a lot of 10 to 12 ridesnow.

(22:07):
But yeah, he's got thatinstitutional knowledge and you
know it just kind of helps theboard rotate over.
Well, the president's beenthere I think three years now,
but you know we do have a kindof a turnover on the board, so
this kind of helps continuity ofthat.
We kind of tell them, oh, thisis is why we have done things in

(22:32):
the past.
And then you know he's, youknow he'll listen to.
You know there's always newideas coming up.
So he's you know pretty goodabout helping us out there too I
had a great experience ridingwith y'all there.

Tom Butler (22:39):
It was really fun and I plan on doing it again.
I'm looking forward to havingan experience of throwing my
bike on a train and bringing thetrain down and going for a ride
.
I think that'd be kind of a funthing to experience.

Bob Lewis (22:54):
We had a couple of riders from the club that rode
the train up to well, I thinkthey met, they got trained in
Portland and did the Seattle toPortland ride a couple weeks ago
and they did it all in one day,though it was, you know, 200
miles all in one day.
You know that's not anything Iwould be doing anytime soon, but

(23:15):
, yeah, the training makes itnice to you know, and there's
some people that you knowthey'll ride up to Portland and
ride down, you know, back downthis way here, portland and ride
down down this way here.

Tom Butler (23:24):
Yeah, my son-in-law was trying to talk me into doing
STPN one day.
If we were going to do that atmy pace, we'd be on the road for
like 17 hours.
It started at 5 am yeah, thepresident.

Bob Lewis (23:41):
She said they had a 145-minute break.
Wow, okay, try to keep going,future president.
But she said they they had a145 minute break.
So, wow, okay, try to yeah,keep going, yeah nice, wow.

Tom Butler (23:52):
Well, I really appreciate you volunteering as a
leader, as a ride leader now.
It just makes a huge difference.
I felt like that ride that Iwent on with y'all and I
actually went on two rides I Iwent on Saturday and I felt like
they were both really wellcoordinated and so thanks for
being a ride leader.

Bob Lewis (24:13):
Yeah Well, yeah, I did.
I started to be a ride.
I was a ride leader in Kentucky, uh, before I moved out here.
And then I, you know, I didn't,I didn't tell anybody I was a
ride leader for I don't know theyear or something.
And then literally diffy, I gotto get talking and then he kind
of learned that I'd been a rideleader before.

Tom Butler (24:32):
So he, he recruited me I think that's the nature of
a local bike club is to kind ofbe on the lookout for people to
recruit.

Bob Lewis (24:40):
Well, I mean, you know, that's, you know, we can't
have rides if we don't haveleaders.
Insurance kind of requires usto have a leader, so yeah, it's
a kind of an ongoing dilemmamaking sure you got enough
riders.

Tom Butler (24:53):
So what originally drew you to it?
Did you, did you feel like yourbackground?

Bob Lewis (25:00):
You know I kind of got comfortable with in Kentucky
and also here, kind of gotcomfortable with the rides.
You know the roads that we'regoing.
You know the turns you make.
You know I just recently got aWahoo, so I never had a smart
computer that gave me turn byturn.
I used, you know, cue sheets.
I have a clip that hangs on thefront of my bike.
I can do cue sheets.

(25:20):
But you know, having that Wahoomakes it a lot better for for
leading a ride.
Now, you know, just knowing theride, knowing the routes and
and the training.
Uh, I think you know you can'tvery well expect a brand new
rider to a location, to I mean,some people can do it, but you
know they have a good sense ofdirection.
But right, I don't want to gettoo many people lost.

Tom Butler (25:42):
Right, how does that process go with Gears?
Do you do same time every week?

Bob Lewis (25:50):
I'm the ride coordinator Okay, ride leader
coordinator.
So I've got a sales spreadsheet.
It's a calendar basically, andin the middle of the month for
the next month I'll just look atour local rides.
You know, rides we've done inthe past.
You know, from what I canremember we've done what people
you know somebody will say, well, I want to go to, I wouldn't

(26:12):
mind leading a ride to Deerhornsometime.
You know they'll give me someinput on you know where we're
riding or so, well, this was areally good ride, yeah.
And then the way our local onour website we've got them
divided up, like the hundredsare north and then we've got
some to the west.

(26:33):
We've got, you know, gothundreds 200, 300, and 400.
And it depends on you know whatquadrant you're in.
So I try to spread it around,you know.
So we're not going to.
I'm going to the north everytime.
Don't go to Coburg every time.
You know we spread it out.
You know you want to go toCoburg, you want to go to
Creswell, you want to go toBonita.

(26:54):
You know you want to just godifferent directions.
You know, go, spread it around.
That being said, we do doMcKenzie View a lot, but that's
just kind of a go-to ride.
But you know we've got slow-momoney so we've got a group of,
that's a set group of rides thatthat uh, gary swanson, who's
kind of used to, has led that inthe past.

(27:14):
He had all these these fourrides he wanted to do, and I
finally convinced him on a onthe fifth month.
Why don't we put a differentride in there just to mix it up
a little bit?
So, because he was just doing arowing, every four they come up
a different spot in the month.
But anyway, he agreed to that,fortunately.

(27:35):
And then on Tuesday we have thefree front, Fox Hollow.
We just ride up to HendricksPark, then up Fox Hollow and
back down and that's like 26miles and 1,900 feet elevation
and that's a 10 to 12, you know,kind of a fairly slow pace.
You know it's up a hill, soit's, you know you can't go real

(27:58):
fast up, you can go fast downit.
And then, uh, we have uh,another 12 to 14 pace.
It's called hill ride and theleader of that gets to pick how
hilly they want it to be.
Some days we'll do I think it'slisted as 25 to 50 miles and

(28:20):
usually they're somewhere around2,500 to 3,500 feet elevation.
You can go to the west and gethills galore.
So the leader just tries topick a route to get the most
feet and the least amount ofmiles.
Gotcha, it seems like they dothat sometimes.

(28:43):
Sometimes they'll give you alittle break and let you go a
little on flat ground every nowand then.
And then on Thursdays andSaturdays we have, you know, 10
to 12, and sometimes they'llgive you a little break and let
you go a little on flat groundevery now and then.
And then on Thursdays andSaturdays we have 10 to 12, 13
to 15, and 16 plus.
Hopefully I have troublegetting enough leaders to ride

(29:04):
those sometimes, but then that'swhere we try to spread it out
among the four quadrants forthose two days.
And then our gravel rides.
A leader will just say, hey, Iwant to do a gravel ride, and
tell us where they want to go,where he wants to go.
And then we also do some longerrides.
Some riders will come up with along ride.

(29:24):
They want to say they want togo to uh, cottage grove or go to
brownsville somewhere, and youknow we'll throw those in on the
schedule, uh, either friday orsaturday or sunday generally.

Tom Butler (29:37):
So that's kind of what are you seeing with gravel
rides?
Are you seeing popularityincreasing with gravel rides?

Bob Lewis (29:44):
yeah, we, you know a lot of people.
You know, like I have a wheelset, I can switch it, switch out
to do gravel.
You know a lot of people youknow, like I have a wheel set, I
can switch it, switch out to dogravel rides and a lot of
people have bought, you know,specific bikes for gravel and uh
, yeah, it seems to be.
Uh, uh, you know we'll get.
You know, depends on there.
There again, you got to watchthe fire season and all that,
but it's it.

(30:04):
Uh, you know there's a nichethere.
You know, for for a rider.
I know we had sunday week ago.
Sunday we had I don't knowseven or eight that went out.
Uh, did a gravel ride that day.
So you know we have maybe twoto three a month.
So it's worked out pretty well.

Tom Butler (30:27):
How would you characterize the importance of
making rides friendly to newpeople?
Is that something that youspecifically think about?

Bob Lewis (30:36):
Oh, yeah, yeah, and that's a challenge.
You know we want them to signup on the Sign Up Genius.
You know, because they clickthat they've read the waiver and
you know liability and all thatstuff.
But you know, a lot of timesyou'll get a new member that
just shows up at the ride andthen you've got to hit them with
a paper copy of the waiver andyou know it can be a little

(30:57):
intimidating for you know ifit's a new rider.
And then I think the deal isthe first time they ride they're
covered, but after that, youknow, they're not going to be
covered on their insurance.
So we just want, you know, wantto tell them that.
And then they, you know, wantto explain to them about the
pace groups.
And you know, are they in theright?
You know, did they sign up forthe?
A good one for their speed?

(31:17):
Because it's it's uh, you knowwe've discussed maybe we ought
to have a, a test track.
That you know.
You, if you can do a certainspeed on this stretch of road,
then you know you're good to go13 to 15 pace.
Or, you know, because somepeople, you know ride by
themselves, you know they maynot even have a, you know, cycle

(31:39):
might not know how fast they go.
You know that trying to matchthem up with the right pace
group is, you know, a trap.
You know you want to make sureyou, you know that that's that's
going to be key for them too.
And you know we recently uh,discussed, we're going to next
month, we're going to try tohave some on Saturday, some 13
to 15, but but not very long.

(32:00):
You know, 20, 20 mile rise,cause you know a lot of people
with families they can't committo a two-and-a-half, three-hour
ride.
You know maybe they have anhour and a half they can spend
on a bike.
So trying to see if that willhelp you know people out, we're
going to add a.
We're going to try to add someMonday evening rides, trying to.
You know people that areworking.

(32:21):
You know we've got someThursday night rides, tuesday
night rides.
Now we're going to try Mondaynight rides too.
So just to give people thatoption to try to help.
You know those are our peopleat work that can't do our
Thursday morning rides or ourTuesday morning rides or Monday
morning.
You can't meet everybody'sneeds but you try to do the best
you can.

Tom Butler (32:42):
It seems like the composition would be quite
different between, like, aThursday morning and a Monday
evening.

Bob Lewis (32:49):
Oh yeah, Well, age is a little different too.
You've got a lot of retiredfolk on the morning rides and
then the evening rides are more.
You get some of the youngerpeople in there and then you've
got a mixed cross-section ofpeople on those 13-hour rides

(33:11):
especially.

Tom Butler (33:14):
Do you feel like you're seeing younger people,
people in their 20s, beingactive with the?

Bob Lewis (33:21):
club.
We're getting some 30s.
We've got one kid that's afreshman.
I guess he'll be a sophomore atOregon.
He started riding with us whenhe was in high school.
I think that's a challenge,trying to hit that demographic.

(33:45):
And you know, try to hit thosethat demographic.

Tom Butler (33:49):
Now, what are you thinking about when it comes to
making rides safe?
Do you?
Are there some specific thingsthat come to mind?

Bob Lewis (33:57):
Ride leaders.
You know we try to give amoment for safety.
You know, on our rides we tryto remind them.
You know we had one of the rideleaders commented that you know
, when we said car back andnobody, you know they stayed.
You know nobody singled up.
You know, and we try toreinforce the fact that.

(34:19):
Oh, by the way, when we say carback, you know, especially if
there's cars coming from theother direction, you know cars,
you know, do a pretty good jobof giving us three feet, but if
there's a car coming in theother direction, it's.
You know, on these narrow roadsit's hard to do that.
So we, we just need to becognizant, you know, try to.
We try to remind our riders ofthat.
You know we try to hopeeverybody has a mirror.

(34:41):
You know I recently got a, abike radar.
It's actually called.
It's from trek, it's called carback, it's from Trek, it's
called Carbac.
Somebody said what's your radar?
I said Carbac.
He said where?
Anyway, there's other ones outthere too.
I think Garmin has one, but itworks pretty good If you've got

(35:02):
riders behind you.
It's not quite as it doesn'tthat kind of blocks your view of
a car as approaching.
But if you're in the very back,it works real, real good.

Tom Butler (35:13):
So what's the signal when you've got a car behind
you from that?

Bob Lewis (35:17):
I've got it set up where it beeps at me.
It's also on my Wahoo.
It's got a line on the side.
It's green.
If nobody's behind me, it turnsorange.
If somebody's behind me, it'sgot a little.
It shows the car as itapproaches.
Okay, and it's.
You know, it's pretty, it'spretty slick.

Tom Butler (35:33):
Did you buy that with your computer or?

Bob Lewis (35:36):
No, I bought.
Well, I bought.
I just bought the Wahoo earlierthis year.
Well, last week, when did I getthe Wahoo?
I've had it maybe less than ayear, and then I bought the car
back.
Uh, a little bit I think Imight have.
Yeah, I got the the radarbefore I got the wow okay but it
, but it syncs, it syncs up toit.
It's a trek brand but it, youknow it.

(35:59):
It'll syncs up with the water,just fine well, I'll have to
check that out.

Tom Butler (36:03):
I've not seen that.
I'm kind of in the market for anew bike computer.

Bob Lewis (36:08):
I've got some Wahoo element.
It's pretty small but you knowthe screen is.
You know you can make thescreen, you know you can put any
variables you want on there.
I've got it where it's got thetemperature on there and
elevation, gain, gradient, speed, distance.
So you know it's kind of a fullscreen but it's kind of nice to

(36:31):
know some of those things.

Tom Butler (36:33):
Now I think you're saying that the like, the
element of riding on rural roadsis pretty much the same or very
similar, at least betweenKentucky and the Eugene area.
Did I hear that right?
Yeah, some of the roads herehave better shoulders than ones
in Kentucky, at least betweenKentucky and the Eugene area.

Bob Lewis (36:47):
Did I hear that right ?
Yeah, some of the roads herehave better shelters than ones
in Kentucky.

Tom Butler (36:53):
Okay.

Bob Lewis (36:56):
There's a road called Crow Road here that doesn't
have a lot of traffic on it, butit does have, maybe a
two-and-a-half-foot shelter onit.
I've got to watch where it'sbroken in spots, but other than
that it's, you know, not fairlygood.
It's kind of nice to be able to, you know, get away from
traffic do you find the driversto be courteous?

(37:19):
yeah, yeah, here they're they're, you know you still get some
yahoos that honk at you and, youknow, scare you to death
because you know you're, you'reall over as far as you can get
and they still honk at you.
But sometimes they honk at uswhen we're in the way and that's
understandable.
But you know, sometimes theyjust honk at us.
But you know, usually the youknow, in Kentucky too, we, you

(37:39):
know, had a few yahoos.

Tom Butler (37:44):
But by and large they.

Bob Lewis (37:45):
We were there and kind of tried to give it space.

Tom Butler (37:49):
I was in eastern Oregon, in Enterprise Oregon.
I don't know if you're familiarwith that area, but I had a
unique experience which wasthere was a cow that had gotten
loose and they were trying tocorral it off the side of the
road.
So it was pretty much trying toget away from being corralled

(38:16):
and so I stopped my bike rideand helped kind of corral a cow.
So I felt that was a uniqueOregon experience.

Bob Lewis (38:26):
Well, you can probably get that anywhere.
You know, anywhere there's cows, yeah, I guess so.

Tom Butler (38:31):
How do you handle mechanical issues on a ride?

Bob Lewis (38:36):
Well, I think you know we tell riders that they're
responsible for their flattires and mechanical.
But, that being said, you knowI've never seen a situation
where you know we've got membersthat are pretty good bike
mechanics and they'll stop andhelp and uh, you know, one guy
works, works at a bike store andhe, he'll change it.
He'll just get in your way andchange your tire for him because

(38:58):
you know he does it so muchfaster than anybody else could
possibly do it.
You know you got the hands.
But but yeah, and you, you know, if somebody does that on the
channel, somebody who just staysback with them, and you know
make sure if they can't get itgoing, you know they've got got
to.
You know make a call, make surethat they can get a cell signal

(39:19):
and you know, get, get a sagsupport from their house or
something.
But uh, yeah, it's been.
You know it's real.
The club is real good about, youknow, helping out and trying to
.
I know they, we were riding,riding here recently somebody
had a flat tire and I guess it'sone of those tires that you
can't get off right or on andyou know it took him a while,

(39:42):
said, uh, I guess he had a hisuh inner tube that had one of
those short stems and it washard to get the pump on it, and
a guy that helped me commented.
He said I'm going to alwaysmake sure I got the long stems
from now on.
Apparently they had a heck of atime getting him going.

(40:02):
He finally showed up and thenwe've had some incidents where I
think on that ride you went ondown at Cottage Grove, one guy
was going out.
He wanted to go on an 80-mileride I think he made it 20 miles
and had a flat and he didn'thave an inner tube and his patch

(40:22):
kit didn't work because theglue was all dried up.
Okay yeah, yeah.
Last thing on our newsletter Iput out and said hey, uh, folks,
make sure you got a good innertube and you want to make sure.
I think we had another incidentwhere a guy had inner tube but
it was so old that he, when heunwound, that it was, you know,
a mess.
So I think one guy they said hehe had his inner tube, that he

(40:47):
got out and had seven patches onit or something, I think you
know.
So you know you know, invest ina new inner tube.
You know you're out on the road.

Tom Butler (40:58):
I could definitely see, you know, myself getting in
a situation where I've just notthought about my patch kit, you
know?

Bob Lewis (41:05):
Oh yeah, that's why I kind of said, said well, maybe
I'll just put that in thenewsletter yeah, my article
would put a newsletter and saidyou know you might not check
your glue and you know, makesure you got a good entertainer,
but make sure you know how totake the tire off yourself.
You know that's that can be anadorning task if you got a.
Well, some of those tires wejust you know size such that

(41:27):
they're hard to get off thoserims, oh yeah.

Tom Butler (41:32):
Now do you see Eugene as a kind of unique area
when it comes to cycling?
There's the university there,yeah it's a university.

Bob Lewis (41:41):
You know we got the multi-use path, you know,
granted, there's a lot ofwalkers and and e-bike on it,
but it's, you know, it's prettyiconic.
You can ride along the river,you know, for 15 miles or so, I
think, around trip, uh, you gotthat.
And then you know we've got theFern Ridge trail that you know

(42:01):
goes out, goes out away fromtown, and then, uh, just, you
know the, you know you got Fox.
You know you got fox holly.
You got lorraine highway.
You got gimple to get out oftown going to the to the west,
and then you got more hillsafter that.
So, you know it's, it's got some, you know, and we go south.
You can go to, uh, pleasanthill.

(42:24):
You know we go there a lot.
Uh, you know, go down toCreswell, got a nice bakery at
Creswell.
That's always a highlight ofthe trip is going to the and
then riding back on the 99 is notreat.
But you know you may as welljust try to get the heck off
that road, isn't it right?
And then I said a lot ofpersonal best on that road

(42:46):
trying to get off of it.
You know we've said a lot ofpersonal bests on that road
trying to get off of it.
You know we've got a lot goingon between you know, the build
and then I got the mill racepath over in Springfield that
you know goes out to ClearwaterPark.

Tom Butler (42:57):
It seems like Eugene has kind of a reputation.
I mean kind of in my head.
I think of Eugene as being abit of a fitness town, you know.

Bob Lewis (43:06):
Yeah, with the track and field and you know, yeah,
they, they got a lot of runnershere and you know there's a fair
amount.
You know there's a lot of uh,different bike over.
You know the doors have somerides.
Uh, I know Clink's has a rideon Wednesday night, I think, two
, two Wednesday first and thirdWednesday nights.
And then there's a group calledVelo that's I don't know if

(43:32):
they're a club, I don't knowwhat they're doing.
They have a ride usually onSaturdays.
And then there's the time trials.
They have a group that doestime trials in the spring,
different roads.
So I think I've heard there's acycle cross group.
You know that.
I think it started in the fall.
So there's a lot going on asfar as different opportunities.

(43:55):
And then there's the mountainbike.
You know that we are I don'tthink our insurance allows us to
have group rides, mountain bikerides, but you know there's
certainly a lot of mountain bike.
You know got trails here inEugene and you know there's
certainly a lot of mountainbiking.
You know got trails here inEugene.
And then my son-in-law goesdown to Oak Ridge.

Tom Butler (44:13):
He really likes the mountain biking down there.
Now Eugene, I think, is maybe50 miles from the coast or
something like that, but itdidn't sound to me like there
was options that were reallybike friendly to go from Eugene
to the coast.

Bob Lewis (44:30):
Do you know if that's the case or not.
Yeah, the 126, you know, goesto Florence.
That's probably the most directroute to get to the coast but
it's, you know, curvy and windy.
You got a tunnel you got to gothrough.
You know narrow road, not muchshoulder, so it's not conducive

(44:51):
to that.
When you go up to Corvallis, Iguess you can go to Palomath and
then go US-20.
It's not too bad, but it gets alittle narrow when you get
closer to Newport.
Of course then you got to getup there from here.
So, yeah, it's a little narrowwhen you get closer to Newport
and of course then you got toget up to get up there from here
.
So, yeah, it's, it's, uh, uh, Ithink the Corvallis Club is

(45:18):
going to do a ride,coast-to-coast ride there.
They ride to the coast and back, I think on a weekend or
something.

Tom Butler (45:24):
And you're climbing up out of the valley to get over
to the coast.
I imagine there's a bit ofelevation Got to go over the
coast range.

Bob Lewis (45:33):
I think it's 1,000 feet elevation or 300.

Tom Butler (45:37):
So you've got all that to deal with but I bet
that'd be a fun ride to do theuh texas 4000.

Bob Lewis (45:45):
I don't know if you've heard of that group.
It's out of the university oftexas and they raise money for
cancer and they go from austintexas all the way to alaska and
they come through eugene everyyear and so they have different
routes.
They go on.
I think they've got one calledthe rockies and they got one,
the the one that comes throughhere.
They came up the coast and cutacross from florence and they

(46:07):
rode on 126 as a group.
There's like 25 of them thatrode on 126 all the way from
florence to eugene.
But you know they're young andthey had SAG support, Right.
They go from town to town.
They either stay in campgroundsor they spend the night at the
Y here.
When they stayed in Eugene, wefed them on Tuesday night and

(46:34):
then we rode with them towardCoburg.
They were going north toward.
They were going to spend thenight in Albany or Salem maybe,
but anyway we rode with them fora little while on the way out
of town.

Tom Butler (46:49):
That's pretty cool.
I'll have to check them out.

Bob Lewis (46:51):
Some of them were graduate, you know, getting
ready to go to graduate school.
Some of them, you know, werestill in college.
It was kind of interestingtalking to them.
And then one of the guys I'vebeen following him on Strava,
you know they'll do 80 miles aday.
You know, one day they did 100.
I think one day he did 200.
You know he's young, okay,ultimately he's got 4,000.

(47:14):
You know they take turns doingsag and that kind of thing, so
they're riding every day.
Okay, that right, you know theytake turns doing sag and that
kind of thing.
So they, you know that ridingevery day.
Okay, you know they take somedays off too.
I think it's like they take 60days to do it.
So but uh, anyway, yeah,they've got about 20.
I think they can come up infairbanks well, they must come
up.

Tom Butler (47:32):
If they're going up the west coast, they must come
up through this area at somepoint up through the seattle
area.

Bob Lewis (47:37):
Yeah, yeah, they went up through yeah area at some
point up through the Seattlearea.
Yeah, they come up throughSeattle and then they end up in
Canada and then they cut acrossover to.
Alaska.

Tom Butler (47:47):
Wow, what a ride.
That's an adventure.

Bob Lewis (47:51):
And then, like I say, there's another group that rode
to Rocky Mountain.
One went called the Ozarks.
They went up through Arkansasand up that way.
So yeah, Texas 4000,000.
Okay, yeah, but so it can be.
People have ridden 126 to get,you know, from Florence to here.
But I wouldn't want to, I'dwant to make sure I had a group

(48:13):
with me and a car behind me.

Tom Butler (48:18):
Yeah, that makes a big difference.
For sure.
Does the club hear about whatis happening with public
planning for cyclinginfrastructure and things like
that Biking scene evolving inEugene?

Bob Lewis (48:30):
I don't know if you were on the 13th Street.
They made that a bikeway,two-way bikeway, kind of
protected, and they did the samething on High Street.
I think they're going to do iton Lincoln Street it's coming up
next.
So they're you know they've gotprojects in the hopper.
You know, of course, federalfunding being what it is, you
know I don't know if they'redepending on federal funding, it

(48:53):
might be a challenge.
But I know the city of Eugene.
You know they were talkingabout having to maybe close down
Amazon's swimming pool.
I think they figured out a wayto keep it open.
But you know, that's always achallenge.
That's a challenge too.
But they do have some projectson the calendar.
I think there was a when we rideout north out of town, we kind

(49:15):
of go through some neighborhoodsout of town and we kind of go
through some neighborhoods andthere was talk about making a
road, uh, a path, a bike path,to kind of skirt along a quarry
and get, you know, cut out someof the neighborhood for us.
But uh, I think uh, richardhughes said it was probably
going to be two, two years nowbefore that gets gets, you know,
developed.
So things, things got kind ofgot pushed back a little bit.

(49:38):
Now I think there's still you,there's still some things in the
works.
There's also maintenance theyneed to do on you know, there's
some bumps on the roads it wouldbe nice to get rid of, right.

Tom Butler (49:52):
So it seems like there may be a bit of a desire
to have good bike bikeinfrastructure at the city level
, and it's just a matter offinding the funds to do it they
recently had a survey of wheredo we need bike racks.

Bob Lewis (50:07):
You know so that's.
You know they're.
They're trying to get someinput from that.
You know we're we're kind ofcrowdsourced.
You know, asking where's a goodplace to put a bike rack.
You know, of course, hopefullyget get the kind.
You know I've they've got someout to put a bike rack.
You know, of course, hopefullyget the kind.
You know They've got some outat a bakery that I don't use the
bike racks because I've gotdisc brakes and the way the bike
rack is configured, you knowyou put it right there on your

(50:28):
disc brake or on your disc andthat's never good.
Hopefully they'll.
You know they're older set ofracks.

Tom Butler (50:37):
Do you have a particular route that is like a
favorite of yours in the area?

Bob Lewis (50:46):
Well, when I was riding by myself when I first
got here, when I first movedhere in 2020, I started from
home and I'd go out.
There's a road called Kirk Road.
It's just no traffic, hardlyany traffic.
It's a rollers.
You know you've got farmland,so it's kind of nice when you
stop it, no traffic, hardly anytraffic.
It's a rollers.
You know you've got farmland,you know, so it's kind of nice.
When you stop at TerritorialRoad which you don't it's kind
of a lot of traffic on it.

(51:08):
But then you just turn aroundand I came back home, you know,
out and back kind of thing.
That was kind of nice.
You know the McKenzie G-Ride is, you know we do that a lot.
It's very scenic, it's, youknow, along the McKenzie River
you get glimpses of the riverand very well shaded, not a
whole lot of traffic, you knowit's got the rollers going there
too.
So, yeah, I don't know, I don'thave any, I don't like I guess,

(51:30):
Okay, okay.

Tom Butler (51:32):
Have you had a chance to do much cycling in
different areas?

Bob Lewis (51:40):
Well, I mean, you know, in Kentucky, obviously,
and here and my daughter teachesa study abroad class from the
University of Oregon they startout in Denmark and then they
show the students you know theinfrastructure in Denmark, which
is really good for bikes, andthey take them down to the
Netherlands and Amsterdam.
I think they used to go overSweden to Malmo, but I don't
know if they're doing that thisyear and then they go down to

(52:04):
Amsterdam and then let's start aU-track and then they go to
Amsterdam.
This year she's going to go toAmsterdam and go to end up in
U-track.
But I was able to join her in2019 for the last half of that.
I flew in and got the U-track,got off the airline airport,
went of that.
I flew in and got to Utrecht,got off the airline airport,
went to the train, got on train,got to Utrecht and then she was

(52:25):
there waiting for a bike for meand then, you know, she had a
place for me to sleep in Utrechtand then I was able to ride
with a group along the AmstelRiver and we got some road bikes
for that and rode up toAmsterdam and then got a city
bike after that and then I justrode around the town while they
were doing their classes orwhatever.
I just went on a self-guidedtour and went to the Royal East

(52:46):
Museum, the Heineken Museum, sawa lot of windmills.
That was a fun trip.
That sounds great.
I got to stop and see my nieceand they were living in London
at the time, so I got to see hercoming and going Nice.

Tom Butler (53:02):
I'm processing this.
Are you saying that yourdaughter teaches a course where
they bicycle around?

Bob Lewis (53:11):
They basically are showing the students the biking
infrastructure in thoselocations.
I think they also have includedin the and then they have a.
You know, I think they alsohave included in the past.
They have some professionals.
I think some people from thecity of Eugene and whatnot have
gone, you know, to see because Imean it's pretty amazing what I
saw, you know, and I didn't seein Denmark, but I saw some

(53:34):
pictures.
But you know, in Amsterdam, youknow, they got a road, they got
a bikeway, that's, you know,red, and then they got a walkway
, I mean, and they got theseroundabouts.
You know it's very clear whereeverybody needs to go.
You know they got a lot ofbridges and you go to the train
station and there's mostlystacked racks that put your
bikes in.
I mean, it's just, you know.

Tom Butler (53:56):
It's a different environment, that's for sure.

Bob Lewis (53:58):
I mean it's just, you know, it's a different
environment, that's for sure.
Yeah, she told me.
She said now, Dad, when you goto Amsterdam you can wear a
helmet, but you'll be the onlyone, probably, you know, riding
around town and I did see a fewpeople that were on road bikes,
probably going for a road bikeride after Helmets.
Park, you know, go around 8, 10miles an hour Right and street.
You know, go around eight, 10miles an hour Right, it's pretty

(54:19):
close.

Tom Butler (54:21):
Well, that's quite a gig to uh, you know, be paid to
go over and and and bike around.

Bob Lewis (54:29):
Got like the last time.
She and her husband, uh, did itlast time and it was during
COVID.
You know that was not.
She didn't have a real.
I mean it was she had a goodtime.
But I think you know there weresome people that caught COVID
and put them in segregated roomand so that was.
That was a little daunting.

Tom Butler (54:49):
So does she teach urban planning or something that
connects her to that?

Bob Lewis (54:55):
Yes, she's smart growth urban planning.

Tom Butler (54:57):
Okay.

Bob Lewis (54:58):
That's her public policy.
She's in the planning, publicpolicy and management section of
the school of architecture.

Tom Butler (55:06):
Okay, Wow that's awesome.

Bob Lewis (55:08):
She's a good professor there.
They kind of take turns.
There's another her boss.
At the time he had been doing aclass for a while and then he
kind of turned it over to herand I think he did it the last
time and so now it's her turn.
They do it like every otheryear, gotcha.

Tom Butler (55:24):
That's very cool.
What advice would you give tonew members who are a bit
nervous?
Maybe they're eveninexperienced?
What would you say to themabout joining their first group
ride?

Bob Lewis (55:38):
Well, you know, they kind of start on a slow group.
You know, even though you thinkyou're a fast rider, I mean you
just, you know you, justbecause you're fast doesn't mean
you have to go fast every ride.
I found that out.
I've done some.
You know, I've led some 10 to12 rides and it's very pleasant,
you know just try to, you know,try to get on the right speed

(55:59):
route.
You know that's the main thing.
But you know, start with a slowone and then you can work your
way up.
That's no problem.
You know we have what we callslow Mondays, which is, you know
, kind of a late back.
You know 10 to 12.
You know everybody's.
You know, and we have a no-droppolicy.
So you know we, you know, makesure we hurry everybody around,
but you know, start with that.

(56:19):
You know we have 10 to 12 rideson Thursdays and Saturdays.
We try to encourage our rideleaders, you know, to try to be
welcoming.
And then in the club, you knowthe other members are good about
, you know, introducingthemselves and welcoming people.
So you know it's just somethingyou got to try to do.

(56:40):
You know, even though you'reintroverted, you know you still
need to try to welcome people.

Tom Butler (56:44):
Yeah, well, I talked to Erin, one of your club
members, and she talked about,you know, getting on a bike and
being very inexperienced andjust how welcome she felt by the
club, and I just thought thatthat was a great story.

Bob Lewis (57:00):
Did she tell you about her India ride this year?

Tom Butler (57:02):
Well, that's what I had her on talking about that
adventure.
So that was a pretty impressivechallenge for her to take on.

Bob Lewis (57:08):
I kind of followed her blog and it was, yeah, she'd
been on, yeah, she was talkingabout going to Nepal before and
you know that kind of fellthrough.

Tom Butler (57:17):
But she and.
Jackie did that, that in yourride yeah, well, good for her,
you know, and good for the clubfor for encouraging her when she
was starting out that's I uhmet her at the end of her ride
today and gave her.

Bob Lewis (57:30):
We give out uh socks, if you, when you get a thousand
miles with the club in a year.
And in spite of the fact shewent on her India trip she got
her 1,000 miles.
I guess Saturday is when shegot them, but I was on a
different ride, so I was over inthe air where they started the
ride.
It was over in Springfieldtoday.

(57:52):
I had to go over there and getmy car serviced and I swam at
the pool over in Springfield.
I looked at my wife and saidwife, oh, I got my socks with me
, I'll see if they're there, andthey they showed up by the time
I got there.
It worked out very well that'sfun.

Tom Butler (58:06):
I'll have to reach out and tell her congratulations
for getting her socks.

Bob Lewis (58:11):
Oh yeah, yeah yeah, she pretty proud, pretty happy
to get those.
That's pretty big.
You know, it's a bit.

Tom Butler (58:16):
It's like I say, especially when she was gone for
four weeks or that was a longtrip that she went on now do you
talk about as a club, or do youhave some thoughts personally
about how you can encourage morepeople in the eugene area to to
get on bikes and ride?

Bob Lewis (58:36):
yeah, well, you know we're like I say this you know
we had a meeting with uh.
We were talking about gettinguh, uh, intro to gears biking.
Get a couple.
You know, on Wednesday night wewant to try to couple of
Wednesday nights.
Try to do it last, uh, the 16thof of July, the 16th of July

(58:57):
and it was 100 degrees, so wecanceled that one.

(59:18):
But just try to put it out thereto the community and say, hey,
if you're interested in gears,come and we'll just take a ride
on the river path and take aslow ride and talk about it and
see how you feel.
And then, you know, I told youon Wednesday night we're trying
to offer a 13 to 15 pace.
You know, not too long, not toohilly, but you know I'll try to
give an opportunity for that.
I mean, that's the challenge istrying to meet people at the
right spot.
You know, like I say, somepeople, you know you tell I went

(59:39):
on a 25-mile bike ride andthey'll say, oh, my gosh, that's
so long.
You know, right, you know, onceyou start riding, you know
that's a short ride, right,right.
So, but you know, for a newrider, you know that's you, bob,
I want to thank you for takingthe time and talking about your

(01:00:03):
cycling and talking about Gears.

Tom Butler (01:00:06):
I think Gears is just a wonderful example of a
bike club that is doing a lot ofthings right.

Bob Lewis (01:00:14):
We'd like to have some more members because that
helps.
But you know, I think, what didwe count up?
We had four rides Saturday.
We had 54 people ridingSaturday on rides, different
areas.
You know we had three differentpace groups and then plus we
had a group that went up.
That's the one I was on.

(01:00:34):
We went up Cold Mountain June.
It's just a hill close by.
I went, I rode 45 miles and itwas 3,500 foot elevation and
some of them four of themstarted from Alton Baker Park
and they went 71 miles and about4,000 feet elevation.
So I didn't want to go that far,that that long a distance, but

(01:00:56):
it was still all I had to go upthe same mountain, you know.
We still all went up the samemountain as well.
They called it Mount June andit was.
Yeah, it was.
You know, Wahoo's got you havea display showing the gradient,
approximate gradient.
You know, I don't know how.
It's pretty close, but when itgets above 10% it turns red.

(01:01:17):
I glanced down there a coupleof times and I saw a lot of red
on that hill.
Okay, we got, you know, you getup to the top and it kind of
flattened out and I saw 4% grayand I felt like I was going
downhill.

Tom Butler (01:01:31):
Plays could actually work.

Bob Lewis (01:01:34):
You find out.
On those kinds of hills, youcan find out.
You can go three and a halfmiles an hour, you know.

Tom Butler (01:01:40):
Yes, that is my experience for sure.
Well, again, thanks so much forcoming on and talking about it.

Bob Lewis (01:01:46):
Look forward to seeing you on our ride soon.

Tom Butler (01:01:49):
Well, like I said, I'm really wanting to do more
rides where I just hop on atrain to bring a whole group
down and ride together.
That'd be pretty fun.

Bob Lewis (01:02:00):
All right, talk to you later, yep, take care now.
Bye-bye, bye.

Tom Butler (01:02:12):
Talking to Bob about his cycling experiences and
learning more about gears justinspires me more to get a local
group together and go down andride with Gears in Eugene.
I think this kind of group ridevisitation program could be
really fun and it would be anopportunity to cross-pollinate
ideas between clubs.
I'd love to hear what you thinkof the idea.
I want to thank all of you thatvolunteer as ride leaders.

(01:02:34):
It's so valuable to be able toshow up for a new ride and know
that somebody is there to makesure you have some guidance on
the route.
For example, down in eugenethere was one road where the
shoulder had a lot of cracks init that a bike wheel could fit
in.
Having a heads up about thatwas reassuring but also
potentially avoided a nastycrash.

(01:02:55):
I also want to thank you rideleaders out there for making
group rides friendly forinexperienced riders, whether
you have an active club nearbyor you just get out and explore
on your own.
I hope that your cyclingadventures are exceptional and
remember age is just a gearchange.
Bye.