Central Otago Gravelleurs

Good evening team.

PLEASE NOTE - RIDE POSTPONEMENT.

Unfortunately we only have 3 people signed up for the Werewolf’s & Lunatics Full-moon Ride tomorrow night.

People away, work, other rides and sickness it appears.

So I’m making the call to postpone the ride to another date. Disappointing but it is what it is.

Thanks to the 3 who ticked the ‘GOING’ box.

Hopefully see some of you riding over the weekend somewhere.

Cheers Foggie

Our Cromwellian Chapter were being stalked by this beastie😁 on the LDT (the possum, not Bruce) 😂😂.
Watch out for dangerous critters, they’re coming for you 😂😂.

Gravelleurs doing some volunteer trail maintenance to keep one of our favourite tracks in good nick.

Big shout out to Bruce Jones for coming along and getting stuck into the Jackson Creek slips. Cheers mate.

Good morning COGs community and welcome to the first day of spring.

Celebrating Central Otago Gravelleurs First Anniversary.

🚴🏼‍♀️🚴🏻‍♂️ Year One - What A Ride! 🚴🏾‍♀️🚴🏽‍♂️

In September 2021 I founded the Central Otago Gravelleurs hoping it would be a hit with local riders and help further develop cycling in our awesome region.

I recognised there was a gap that needed filling between the MTB groups, road groups and cafe riders. Hence Gravelleurs was formed.

I couldn’t be happier with the outcome and a massive THANK YOU to all of you who have been part of this journey.

Some stats from our first year:

🚴🏼‍♀️ We have had more than 60 organised rides.

🚴🏻‍♂️ Our FB page has 367 followers consisting of 43% women and 55% men, with an age range of teens to octogenarians.

🚴🏾‍♀️ We have had engagement, including guest riders, from Alexandra, Cromwell, Clyde, Dunedin, Wanaka, Queenstown, Mosgiel, Invercargill, Christchurch and Auckland.

🚴🏽‍♂️ We have had thousands of post engagements on FB.

🚴🏼‍♀️ We have collectively cycled thousands of Ks, within and outside of our region. No idea what vert metres we have climbed or what our carbon credits should be 🙂.

🚴🏻‍♂️ We have improved our physical fitness and mental well-being.

🚴🏼‍♀️ We have formed friendships and for some, relationships.

🚴🏽‍♂️ We have encouraged people to start riding bikes or come back to riding.

🚴🏻‍♂️ We have developed a logo, a uniform ride jersey and even a gravel equation - n+2 x Gr + e [α+β+γ] = HP.

🚴🏾‍♀️ We have learned new skills.

🚴🏽‍♂️ We have encouraged some of you to try night riding for the first time through the Dark Ride Series.

🚴🏼‍♀️ We have stayed motivated to ride throughout winter partly through the Winter Series.

🚴🏻‍♂️ Between us, we have bought tens of thousands of💲💲worth of new bikes, gear and equipment, helping to feed the local economy.

🚴🏾‍♀️ We have drunk gallons of coffee, eaten a mountain of cake and for some, Burger Afloat burgers😁.

🚴🏽‍♂️ We have volunteered to assist local trails with their maintenance and promotion.

🚴🏼‍♀️ We have raised funds for local projects with our Egg Ride NZ and the Alex Primary School sensory garden project.

🚴🏻‍♂️ And we are ending up our first year by exploring how to become an Incorporated Society with charitable status, in order that we can do more in the community; and with an opportunity to bring a cool gravel event to the region - ‘The Gravel Rush’.

I am really looking forward to the next 12 months and what it will bring us as a group.

You are an awesome bunch of people and have all helped to bring my vision to life. Just epic.

The attached pics are the first two taken of our group, on our first organised group ride out to Drs. Point - history being made!

Have fun, keep enjoying your rides and here’s to the future of COGs.

Foggie

Our lovely Cromwellian Chapter Out and about in the wind around the Lowburn hills tonight.
Well done team.

Morning COGs community.

As a result of the issues we had with Whatsapp I have set up a group chat on Messenger.

We were using this chat for the Cromwellian group and it worked nicely.

So I’ve changed the name to COGs Group Chat and added a bunch of you to it.

Let me know if you are not included yet and want to be on it. Conversely let me know if you don’t.

I’ll communicate through this forum ie the FB page and also the group chat.

Hopefully we are now more secure.

Foggie

Evening COGs community.

WORKING-BEE ANYONE?

As you are all aware the Lake Dunstan Cycle & Walking Trail is one of our home trails.

There are quite a few small slips and rocks fallen on the trail after the recent weather events.

I’m working on a plan with the Trail Manager, Shayne O’Connor, to put a working-bee together and give back some volunteer hours.

My thinking is we could sort the Clyde end up to Byford Creek about 6ks along.

If you can spare a bit of time and would like to join me to give a bit back to our trail, then please indicate in the comments or PM me.

Once Shayne and I have a plan, then I’ll publish as an event.

Cheers Foggie.

Evening COGs community.

Update:

This morning our WhatsApp chat was spammed with a dodgy video and yesterday we got spammed by a bit coin thing. Both +62 numbers, wherever that is.

I can’t figure out how to secure the tech, so I’ve deleted the account in the interests of our safety.

Maybe we can figure a better system for comms??

Cheers Foggie

Morning COGs community.

WARNING:

I set up a Whatsapp link to assist us with group communication.

Unfortunately it appears to be hacked somehow with at least two overseas people/scammers trying to get responses.

The latest being a dodgy video from a +62 number wherever that is.

So unless anyone can help sort the tech I am going to try and delete the whatsapp group.

Are there any members of the group who know this stuff?

Foggie

Great to see a small but perfectly formed group out in Bannockburn tonight to say Au Revoir to Alan.

Good luck with your new adventures mate.

Hi COGs community.

Over the past year COGs has grown in numbers, built a recognised identity, our own logo and even has a ride jersey.🙂

And it now looks like we have a way forward in terms of becoming an Incorporated Society.

What this means; is that we will be able to consider delivering events such as the Gravel Rush, fund raise more efficiently and generally do good stuff for cycling in our region.

We need a minimum of 10 signatories to get us over the line as an Inc Soc.

Probably 3 of whom would need to be officials - ie President, secretary and treasurer.

Being a signatory does not mean any time or financial commitment from you.

💥 Please indicate if you would like to be part of this ride and become a signatory.

So far we have the following who have expressed interest to be a signatory:

Myself - I will happily stand up as President.
Roz
James
Jeff
Tony
Lisa
Peter
Donny
Bruce
+ 1

We can have more, as it proves we have a solid core group.

COGs will NOT be the format of a sports club per se, but more of a community well-being and social group, doing great mahi for cycling in our region.

Cheers Foggie

Well done David & his little mate Reggie the Daschund. 🚴🏻‍♂️🐶

Our lovely Cromwellian Chapter had another great ‘God of Trig’ ride tonight.

Well done team, you are awesome.

The original workings out from back in the day 🙂

Evening team.

I am going to close the bidding on this fundraiser at 9pm tonight.
Eddie Griffiths has it if there is no more interest by that time.

Cheers Foggie

https://www.facebook.com/114576264163305/posts/367661665521429/

Morning COGs community.
We got a mention in Robin Capper’s blog. Met briefly up on the LDT last summer.
A great blog too.

https://rcd.typepad.com/personal/2022/02/alexandra-and-dunstan-trail-time-out-2021-22-alexandra.html

Alexandra and Lake Dunstan Trail | Time Out 2021-22 Alexandra Whenever I've driven, or been driven, along SH8 between Cromwell and Clyde could not help but gaze at the bits of farm and access trail on the other side of Lake Dunstan (right of photo below) thinking they'd be good to ride. In 2021, after some remarkable engineering, it became possible, no essenti...

Good evening COGs community.

As you maybe aware I have started some fundraising for the Alexandra Primary School Sensory Garden. This is for their neuro-diverse learners to enjoy.

We have a fund raising ride organised for October and already have some funds in the pot with the sale of a bike.

Below is some brand new, never used, old branded team kit from back in the BikeNZ days.
The top is (M) XXL and the bibs are (M) XL. Would suit someone about my size.

This stuff would have been around $250 to $300 worth of kit.

So if you are interested bid away and make a decent offer for a bit of NZ cycle sport history.

Foggie

Sometimes there’s a challenge between physical and mental well-being and making sure you get a balance between the two.

Only two-thirds to a half of the physical power, speed and recovery I would normally have and missing my team mate, Leece, but an essential head-space spin today.

Covid is a wicked thing and understanding recovery is essential and different for everyone. Slow, steady, low HR zone and small gains!

Some good advice in this link:
https://www.bicycling.com/health-nutrition/a33634077/exercise-myocarditis-and-covid-19/?fbclid=IwAR2SXTkPNIsS0UcXLprbdalhFg5tTcgyj1xXw-twG00LpEgcVloCF4Kfees&fs=e&s=cl

Some great info in this UK based video, for all cyclists and motorists to understand. It does reflect the situation here in NZ too.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=h1U0BloMOx0&fbclid=IwAR3S6Eq1Q_XYP3p1VjJGvATgl0GizYC_hHNRkMtaE4GEj_kM38MIWoiey0A&fs=e&s=cl

Why don't cyclists use cycle lanes? It's very common to see cyclists riding in the middle of the road when there is a perfectly good bike lane on offer to them – but why, and is it even legal? ...

https://www.facebook.com/100137882316628/posts/364678352529245/

Hi COGs Community.

I’ve tried to be clever and link us all together using WhatsApp😲

I think I’ve set it up right but who knows.

The link is below.

My understanding is that it will be easier to communicate if we have sudden changes to rides etc.

Foggie

https://chat.whatsapp.com/HiCCE5XD8r46A1raFbEl9e

COGs WhatsApp Group Invite

It's now easier to send Central Otago Gravelleurs a message.

Evening COGs community.
Please let me know if you would like a ride posting.
I’ll hopefully be back soon but in the meantime happy to organise for you.
Foggie 🚴🏻‍♂️🚴🏼‍♀️🚴🏽‍♂️🚴🏾‍♀️

Morning COGs community.

Some of you missed out on this fun this morning.

Well done Lexi and David - great skills and improvements.

Never stop learning!

https://www.facebook.com/100137882316628/posts/360937866236627/

Morning COGs community.

Unfortunately we are under attack again from somewhere in Asia/India.

The scammers post links to live streaming of events.

Because I post our rides and other COGs related sessions as events, we then get spammers sending links.

I have deleted and blocked 5 this morning.

DO NOT click on any of these links. We do not live stream any of our rides or sessions.

They are an absolute pain in the a..e but an issue we have to deal with on this platform.

Foggie

Good morning COGs community.

Some exciting developments for our group.

We exist as a group to further develop cycling in our region and for the social good of our community in and around Central.

Some stuff we’ve achieved:

✳️ We have had more than 60 organised group rides since I formed the group in September last year, and many individual rides too.

✳️ We have had guests riding with us from Auckland, Wellington, Invercargill, Dunedin and Christchurch.

✳️ We have covered thousands of kilometres between us.

✳️ We have created great friendships & even relationships.

✳️ We have had much banter & laughs.

✳️ We have kept motivated through the winter.

✳️ We have developed our skills & encouraged people to try new things such as night riding.

✳️ We have enhanced our physical and mental well-being.

✳️ We have encouraged people to try different styles of bikes.

✳️ We have been inclusive of any ability, style of bike, fitness or age demographic.

✳️ We have bought bikes & gear locally, and consumed many coffees, cakes and burgers (Donny) adding to the economic development of our region 🙂.

Furthermore, a small group of us have been investigating the possibility of running a social gravel event with a community festival approach and a nod to the regions history.........The Gravel Rush

We have decided that the best way forward is that Central Otago Gravelleurs becomes the entity to deliver The Gravel Rush and other events, including fund raisers for good causes in our region.

To do this, and as a natural progression for COGs, we are exploring setting up as an Incorporated Society and also applying for Charitable Status.

This doesn’t affect you in any way other than we need 3 or 4 officers of the society and at least 10 members (we have many regular riders/members already).

To be clear membership will be free to you all. And we don’t want to change the feel of COGs in anyway.

In terms of the ‘officers’ we need a minimum of a Chair/President, Secretary and Treasurer. And any other committee members who wish to help out.

I am happy to step up as Chair/President if that suits the group.

For me, this is an exciting development and I believe a great asset for the region, particularly if we can get involved in some social responsibility projects.

Contact me if you would like to be part of our COGs committee.

Foggie

Small but tidy crew out and about tonight. Well done team!

Morning COGs community.

Our time to give back to the local community is here.

A regular meeting place for our evening rides through the lighter months is Alexandra Primary School. And a couple of our regular riders are teachers there.

They have a project being led by their neuro-diverse learners to establish a calming and stimulating sensory garden in the grounds of the school.

The whole project is estimated at around $30,000 with the central feature being a water fountain with an estimated cost of $1600.

I think we could aim to raise funds for the fountain.

My idea is that we do a charity ride from Smiths Way on the LDT all the way through to Alex and finish at the school - approx distance being 70k or thereabouts.

We would need to sort transports to Smith’s Way however I could ask a couple of the local tour companies to assist with that.

Maybe if we all put in a nominal amount to do the ride, ie $20 per head, then we could make a good start?

Before I sort a date and create the event can you please indicate your interest by commenting below.

Many thanks Foggie