What's the point of combining the Sunday Tourist B ride with the Sunday Country Cruise Ride (out of Aldershot no less). Surely anyone wanting the CC ride could just do it - where is the Toronto based ride?
And what happened to the Holiday Monday rides to Jake's in Unionville which have been a club tradition for years and years. The last time I organized one of these rides there were over 30 attendees.
And why aren't there more rides out of Finch, which is the most central and best attended start location? Some years ago I did a survey of Tourist members to find their preferences and Finch was the preferred start location.
And why are there remote starts at all for the Toronto Tourist group? We already have remote starts for Country Cruise and Wednesday Wheelies - we should have a regular ride that starts in Toronto in pretty much the same place every weekend that people can rely on, like we used to have for 20 years.
Neale your complaints were addressed last year by the program coordinator.. Nothing has changed, Finch rides have become too busy with traffic and new alternatives have been brought forward, We have moved on from 20 years ago and have redone our routes.. The idea of a combined Tourist and Country Cruise Tour is a great idea for the longer riders to meet and get that " cycling club feeling" that is not generated by individual ride programs. The TBN Board and myself (touring director TBN) have full confidence in the volunteers who are doing new and great things. All the feedback I have received has been positive except for your posting. Hope that you have a great cycling season with or without our rides.
Dennis Szilvasy TBN Touring Director
The biking routes taking off from Finch are limited and repeating. I personally like new routes with safer road conditions and good scenery. Taking off from Vaughn subway station is a good idea other than Finch, besides the Yonge subway line has frequent maintenance work at St Clair diverting train operation to annoying bus. Taking off from GO train stations open up new biking routes, more choices.
I like once a while meet up with other ride groups at the lunch place.....
Dennis
You sound like someone who has never done a ride out of Finch.
If Finch is so unsafe, why are any rides allowed at all, and if Finch is so bad, why are Finch starts the best attended Toronto start location?
FYI - I restarted the Sunday Tourist Rides a few years ago after they completely disappeared. I did this by first conducting a survey of members to find out what they actually wanted - the first time in the over 25 years that I've been in the club that someone asked what people want.
The results of this survey supported the following:
This worked very well actually, and there were over 35 riders out to the Holiday Monday Unionville ride for lunch at Jake's after we restarted the Sunday Tourist rides - a ride that no longer exists.
We also actually had some new younger people come out, and who kept coming out, because they had some faster people to ride with. This also is no longer happening.
When I handed these rides over to the person who is currently running them, the first thing that happened was the routes and and start locations were changed. There was no discussion, no consultation with members, and no interest in the findings of the survey. This type of thing is what led to the end of the Sunday Tourist rides in the first place
To say that my issues were dealt with last year is not true. My issues were ignored last year with a promise that there would be more rides out of Finch this year - I had even volunteered to lead rides out of Finch. Instead, we get more of the same, except worse now because we have a totally pointless joint remote start ride with the Country Cruise group and no Toronto ride. Why pointless? - because anyone who wants to ride with the Country Cruise can just sign up for the Country Cruise.
I remember years ago when there were two regular rides out of Finch every Sunday - one at 8:30 and one at 10:00. Everyone knew these rides would always be running and the attendance was great. Lots of good riders and a challenging ride and workout if you wanted it. We try to reestablish this when we restarted Sunday Tourist ride..but we failed.
Sometimes i think about the intermal workings of bicycle club that has 150,000 members. They dont have the complex levels we have & i have been on a few of their rides. Both evening & day rides.
The day ride started with meeting at the train station, train all the way to the start, ride & ride back 80 km. Stops for refreshment & group all the way.
Another day ride: Meet at 11 am ride to the lunch at restaurant & lunch was at least1 hour, then ride to ice cream, ride to coffee, the landscape was very picturesque hills. Vineyards & terraced hills.
TBN isnt a competetive club but the events seem to fit everthing into a morning ride instead of whole day.
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