Subscriptions are due for payment to David Jones, 22 Turks Road, Radcliffe, M26 4PU no later than October 1. Any member who has not forwarded subscriptions by this date will not be insured. At this moment in time, premiums cost the same as last year i.e. £13.50 individual and £22.00 for a family. These prices will be confirmed by the middle of September. Please make cheques payable to Bury Tandem Club for the V/H.
Beryl is considering organising a week's tandeming in Southern Ireland for some time next year. The countryside consists of rolling hills and is therefore perfect for our cycling requirements. If sufficient response, further enquiries will be made. Please contact Derek on 0161 764 1239.
Derek Pritchard and Peter Gaines recently completed the Coast to Coast ride. On one particularly harrowing section, they met up with a solo cyclist who used them as a TOW for about 20 miles. He talked to them during the ride and Derek said he was an extremely pleasant gentleman. The upshot was that, a few days later, a cheque for £100.00 was received from the rider. It turned out that he was a businessman who contributes to selected charities. After the Coast to Coast ride was over, he located us through the Club's web site and mentioned that he wished to make a donation to our organisation. John was then able to advise him as to how this should best be done. It's nice to know that we cyclists still look after one another.
To date, the sum total of our collection in Bury town centre and our sponsored ride to Southport is nearly £2000.00. Peter Carr would like to thank all club members for this absolutely outstanding achievement. This amount of money should see us through the current year.
Our fundraising efforts have gone swingingly this year and the total raised is higher than ever before. Because of the high costs of tandem maintenance, however, the more money we can raise, the better. For this reason, Peter Carr would be very interested to hear from anyone who has any new ideas about how we could raise more money in the future. He is prepared to do the work necessary to put any viable schemes into practice. If anyone does have any new ideas for future fundraising, please contact Peter Carr on 0161 681 5652.
A big thank you from all club members to Steve Troughear & his partner Joanne for organising the highly enjoyable Barbecue held in July. Everyone who attended had a fantastic evening . It is nice occasionally to have social events such as this and it is also a good opportunity to introduce club members to our partners or families. Even the weather was reasonably kind!
I always find tandeming highly enjoyable but have been wondering for some time now whether communication while riding is as effective as it could be. I realise that prolonged conversation can be difficult while tandeming, but all I'm suggesting is the odd comment here and there. Tandeming is about working together. Without verbal communication, working with a visually impaired rider is practically impossible. For example, the rear rider may wish the front rider to slow down or to change down a gear on a steep hill. Tell the front rider what you want and they will very likely oblige. On another occasion, the front rider may feel that the rear rider is putting too much effort into pedalling and will be exhausted before the ride is finished. It is very difficult for visually impaired riders to know instinctively how much effort to put in the way a sighted person does because we cannot perceive the gradient or overall length of the hill we're climbing. I think all visually impaired riders would be only too happy to modify their riding style if told to do so by their partners. Visual impairment is something which sighted people in general find difficult to understand fully and I'm sure that we visually impaired people don't understand fully what tandeming is like for a front rider either. If we all talk to our partners more, however, I feel that this level of understanding will increase and that tandeming will become a much more enjoyable experience for all. To illustrate the need for communication while riding, I thought a series of articles would be useful regarding any problems experienced by both front and rear riders while on club runs. If anyone would like to contribute an article on this subject or even just a few ideas, please phone me on 01204 840860.
Would every member rack their brains for new potential front riders. Names to Derek urgently please or some of us will be sitting at home on Sundays!