The Cross Canada Cycle Tour Society March 2018, Volume 35, Issue #3
President’s Report John Pringle
Cheryl – Legacy & Education Funds – Janet
Cheryl Campbell died recently, and the Victoria cycling world, and in particular, CCCTS, is all the worse for it. Cheryl, for years, organized the Monday “Pedal Pushers” day rides, principally for novice or seasonal riders. She carefully designed rides that began in the spring for those with bodies coming out of winter hibernation. By late summer these same riders could take on the Himalayan foothills, as some of her students may have done on that classic Club tour out of Chengdu in 2009. Her gang were constantly amazed at the way Cheryl could design rides, week after week, and yet come up with new routes; “… new little parks and wilderness areas I never knew existed in the Victoria area …” claimed one. Another noted that “Cheryl led a wonderful entry level ride for many years … She taught many people, including myself, the skills and rules to safe cycling.”
Little known is the fact Cheryl not only gave back through the Pedal Pushers, but she took the time from a busy teaching schedule to design our current CCCTS logo: And such a good looking logo it is. Thanks so much Cheryl. I met you only once, but was most impressed with your caring interest in the Club; in part evidenced by the fact you not only led day rides, but led them with the safety of your riders in mind.
A memorial Service will be held Saturday, March 10th at 2:00 p.m. at McCall Gardens in the Sequoia Centre, 4665 Fallaise Drive. Condolences may be offered to the family at www.mccallgardens.com .
Legacy and Education Funds: It has finally happened – the Board finally “got its act together”, and has agreed to fund the National Capital Region Chapter’s 2018 budget. Monies are slated for the following projects:
- GPS Workshop ($200.00), based on the successful, recently-held Lower Mainland workshop organized by Bruce Daykin, Max McClanahan and Jenni Linnea;
- (Potential) Ride Leader’s Seminar ($180.00) – aimed at attracting and developing day ride leaders;
- First Aid Course ($600.00) to share 50% of the enrolee cost for a minimum of six members;
- Bicycle Maintenance Workshop ($650.00) – courses to be given by the very able CCCTS member, Angus Macintosh;
- CANBIKE course on bicycle safety($275.00);
- Pedal Play ($500.00) – a mobile bike rodeo held in cooperation with EnviroCentre to teach Club and other community members on both safe and “green” riding practices; and
- Helping with Bikes (HWB) ($3,500.00) – to assist a registered charity to rebuild bikes for those such as recent immigrants who require “bikes for transportation” in their new home.
Congratulations to the National Capital Region Chapter for their organizational skills in getting such a well-rounded and most purposeful budget together. It was a pleasure to grant these monies; monies that will be used to enhance the pleasure and safety of cycling for both Club members and the Ottawa community.
Janet Whitehead – new Board Member. As most who read this column know, we’ve found it most difficult to either attract members to the Board or to do non-Board tasks on behalf of the Club. We’ve asked for volunteers for any number of tasks, and only once have we received a favourable response. And this was from Janet, who was then elected to the Board in November. She answered our appeal to manage our education/legacy fund: A most interesting challenge one would’ve thought. Yet Janet was the only respondent, and of course, we accepted. Interestingly, I believe she’s the only non-retired Board member. This has not slowed her down. Not only did she Coordinate the last Croatia tour, she’s busy organizing another Balkans tour. Not stopping here, she’s recently offered to take on the currently-vacant Board’s Safe Riding file after she’s organized the education/legacy fund process. As most successful managers know – give an important task to a busy person; it will get done on time and to perfection.
Thank you Janet for making room in your busy life to serve the Club.
Welcome New Members
| Trudy | Merritt | Surrey | BC |
| Karim | Salamatian | Victoria | BC |
| Linda | Lawson | Richmond | BC |
| Wilfred | Tam | Burnaby | BC |
| Tim | Musclow | Nepean | ON |
| Beverly | Franks | Irvine | CA |
| Jim | Heiser | Irvine | CA |
| Shirley | Nelson | Maple Ridge | BC |
| Priscilla | Archer | Surrey | BC |
| Irene | Neave | Maple Ridge | BC |
| Lynn | Harding | White Rock | BC |
| Rudy | Roelofsen | Vancouver | BC |
| Barry | McLean | Nelson | BC |
| Dan | Brimm | Coquitlam | BC |
Upcoming Tours
2018 Oregon Coast and Willamette Valley
Upcoming Hub and Spoke
2018 South Okanagan Hub & Spoke
2018 Manitoulin Island Hub & Spoke
In Memoriam
Doug Hamer passed away February 23 2018. He was a lifetime cyclist. He cycled with the Brampton Club in London UK before moving with his family to Toronto where he cycled with the Brampton Cycling Club. Doug and his wife Hee travelled around the world in 2004 then after settling in Victoria in 2005, he joined the CCCTS Victoria.
Doug moved to White Rock in 2012 and was soon diagnosed with cancer. He had a strong will power to live but he was told in August 2017 that the cancer has recurred. He decided not to take any more treatment. He preferred to have a better quality of life for the time he had left by golfing and drinking beer with friends.
In the end, he chose to go gracefully with medical assistance in dying. That gave him the control of when and how he wanted to go. He had two beers and listened to a couple of jazz songs “Blame It On The Blues” and “I Believe in Miracles”. He was joking right to the end and offered to kiss the doctor but the doctor said “Sorry, it isn’t professionally ethical to kiss” – that’s him wanting to go with a laugh. He was at peace when he closed his eyes.
How Bike-mechanic Apprenticeships Could Tune Up the Cycling Industry
High-end bikes demand high-end service, say shop owners and mechanics
By Ash Kelly, CBC News Posted: Feb 20, 2018
Jessica Brousseau and Jeffery Bryson at the Bikeroom. Brousseau is now an instructor at Bikeroom and the head mechanic at a soon-to-be-opened mountain bike rental shop in North vancouver. (Jeffery Bryson)
A rise in demand for high-end services and skilled labour has some bike mechanics and service shop owners calling for a formalized apprenticeship program in British Columbia.
Supporters argue that working on bikes is a skilled trade that cannot be learned in the classroom and that a standardized experience-based program would signal a level of experience to potential employers and consumers.
“I think now that we’re getting into such high performance bikes and more and more people are riding and more and more people want the best ride … it’s opened up a ton of room for high level service,” said Dave McInnes, owner of Bicycle Hub, a service-only shop in North Vancouver.
Improving trust
McInnes believes an apprenticeship program would raise the skill level of mechanics and increase trust between shops and the consumer and help increase the perceived value of shop services.
“There’s that idea that I think car shops, any specialty shop fights, that idea that you start throwing big terms around and people are just screwing [the consumer] and there’s not a lot of trust sometimes,” he said.
McInnes said consumers are used to below market value shop pricing, which results in lower wages, even for skilled mechanics.
“People come to expect those rates and they kind of get used to having crappy service and it’s hard then to then break out of that.”
Dave McInnes, owner of Bicycle Hub, believes an apprenticeship program could help raise the bar for the entire bike service industry and even improve trust between shops and customers. (Ash Kelly/CBC)
Jeffery Bryson, who owns the service-only shop Wheelthing as well as Bikeroom, a North Vancouver-based bike mechanic training school, said some shops might push back at resulting wage increases.
But he believes apprenticeship programs could actually improve bike shop profit margins because they would be able to turn over more jobs faster and with better quality work.
He points to existing apprenticeship programs where car and motorcycle mechanics learn about productivity measures, profitability and business accounting.
“An apprenticeship program should be, in my mind, a timeframe, hours. It shouldn’t be, ‘Hey, I took this course, I’m a mechanic,'” said Bryson.
‘I could have started way younger’
Another benefit of formal training hours could be that more women move into what’s long been a male-dominated industry.
Jessica Brousseau got her start as the only woman working in Dream Cycle in Vancouver. She said if there had been an apprenticeship program she would definitely have taken it, and that it may have given her the confidence that she had to work hard to find on her own.
Brousseau is now the head mechanic at a bike rental shop set to open in North Vancouver in the coming weeks.
“If I had this, like when I was in high school, I would have totally went for it … I didn’t know it could be a thing for me to do. Now I’m 35 years old, I started in my 30s to do all this stuff. I could have started way younger,” Brousseau said.
Bikeroom students learn how to break down the business side of bike shops. Jeff Bryson, owner of Bikeroom mechanics training school in North Vancouver, says up and coming mechanics need to know about the numbers behind the business to help productivity and profitability. (Ash Kelly/CBC)
Career mechanics
Most bike mechanics earn their stripes the grassroots way, working up from the shop “grom,” an endearing term for inexperienced, young mechanics.
Others, like Graeme Toffelmire, choose to become mechanics later in life.
Toffelmire shifted gears after years as a musician and hopes to make a real go at being a bike mechanic. But he’s found most shops aren’t interested in comprehensive staff development.
“There’s this idea that they just need you to be really good at a few things to make the most profit,” he said.
Toffelmire said if a shop makes more profit turning over simple flat repairs and brake tunes, mechanics may not get the chance to learn to work with high-end suspension or more complicated jobs, which limits career growth.
Newsbrief
Published at least ten times a year by The Cross Canada Cycle Tour Society, a non – profit organization for retired people and others who enjoy recreational cycling.
Items for the NEWSBRIEF must be received by the 28th of the month. The Editor reserves the right to edit for clarity, brevity and suitability of publication. The views expressed in the “NEWSBRIEF” are not necessarily those of the CCCTS or the Editor.
Submissions for NEWSBRIEF should be emailed to derailler@gmail.com
Please be sure to notify the office of any changes in your personal contact information; be it address, phone or e-mail.