05/21/06: After closing Valley Bikes in Amherst last year, Valley Bikes in Hadley is now closed as well. When I talked with the owner about a month ago, he confirmed that he would be opening Saturdays and Sundays for the past few weeks to try and liquidate his remaining inventory at the rail trail location.

4/1/06 - Norm Flye has opened a new bike shop in South Deerfield called "Flye Cycles". It is located right across the street from the Mt. Sugarloaf Parking Lot at 104 Sugarloaf St. He'll be carrying Raleigh for his middle to low-end bikes, and some French bike (whose name eludes me for the moment) for his high-end road bikes. Check out the 14-lb carbon fiber for $6999! Good luck Norm, now get that web site up.

8/9/05 - In a cycling event that pitted riders from as far away as Virginia, Iowa, and Ottawa, Canada, a team from Southampton Bicycle Center, in Southampton, MA turned in the greatest number of miles in the Bike Shop Division, covering 169.1 miles in the 8-hour event. “I feel really great about this,” said Joe Pitchko, owner of Southampton Bicycle Center. “I knew we had a strong team and everyone was feeling good today; I thought we would be competitive though I wasn’t sure what to expect.”
The event was the annual New England 24 Hour Challenge, which is traditionally a 24-hour and 12-hour individual time trial and sanctioned by the Ultra Marathon Cycling Association. This is the first year that it also included “The Battle of the Bike Shops,” an 8 hour non-UMCA event for bicycle shops and bicycle-related organizations. Teams consist of two to four members and decide their own schedule of riders in the relay event. Only one rider per team is allowed on the course at any time and rider changes are only allowed at the start/finish line.
The course consists of an 18.4-mile loop through Sunderland, MA in the Connecticut River valley. When asked about riding the course, Pitchko said, “We have competed as a team before in the Mt. Washington Hill Climb, and ridden together in numerous events in the area, this was the first time we have ever competed on something as flat as this. It’s a really nice course.” Southampton Bicycle Center also had two riders competing in the individual events. Russ Loomis of Ashfield, MA took top honors in the 24-hour Men’s 50+ event with a total of 375.9 miles and his son Garrett, 15 years old, headed up the 12-hour Men’s Under 25 category with 192.4 miles.

7/9/05 - I have talked with the owner of Valley Bicycles and he has confirmed that the store in Amherst has closed. They have moved their entire operation to the Rail Trail location in Hadley. From Rt. 9, turn north onto Middle St. at the light, then left onto Railroad St.

5/19/05 - Join the Franklin Regional Council of Governments, the City of Greenfield and MassHighway for a Ribbon Cutting Celebration for the Riverside Greenway Bikepath. Refreshments & prizes while they last.
When: Saturday, June 4, 2005
Time: 9:30 AM
Where: The new bicycle-pedestrian bridge on Nash's Mill Road, across from the Greenfield swimming area

3/26/05 - Spring Rides Schedule is up. Email me with any problems, I can "snail"-mail you a copy.

2/6/05 - Our first meeting/potluck of 2005 will be on Saturday, March 5. Meet at 6:00 PM at Pat & Mike's new house at 391 West Pelham Rd in Shutesbury. We will plan the Spring Rides Schedule. No need to call and tell them what dish you're bringing, this is a potluck.

12/07/04 - The Freewheelers website (or, at least, a very small portion thereof) is now available to those with wireless phones and internet capability. Simply point your phone's microbrowser to "http://www.freewheelers.org/". If that doesn't work, you may need to say "http://www.freewheelers.org/wap.wml". Navigate the site by using your phone's "soft" keys and/or by highlighting the links and clicking the "send" button. I will fill in more stuff as next season approaches. [I think I have the site debugged, but send me feedback if you have problems.]

12/01/04 - I am in the process of looking through a new book I have called "Bicycle" (or "Bicycle: the history" as it's officially listed). It is published by Yale University Press. At 480 pages, it appears to be a comprehensive look at the evolution of the bicycle. It is broken into 5 parts: The Pre-history; The "Boneshaker" Era; The "High Wheel" Era; The "Safety" Era; and The Twentieth Century. It has quite a number of pictures and illustrations (about every other page). So far, it appears to be an excellent present for that bicyclist on your holiday shopping list.