News

We're pleased to announce that club member Lloyd Hepburn has volunteered to serve as the new ride leader for the weekly Sunday ride in Mount Pleasant.

The ride will resume this Sunday, May 2nd, at 8 am, leaving from Mount Pleasant Towne Centre as usual. The ride will be unchanged with all of the usual stops and route remaining the same.

Due to water main construction on the Ben Sawyer causeway, we will ride on the road itself until the path reopens.

All unvaccinated riders are asked to ride behind the group.

Thanks to Lloyd and Bob Markisello for bringing our weekend scheduled rides back online.

COVID-19 is still a risk and like any other risk associated with cycling, individuals must take responsibility for themselves. Participants should wear face covering or maintain physical distance as they deem necessary.
Where: 1700 Towne Centre Way, Mount Pleasant, SC 29464. Park at the Mount Pleasant Towne Centre parking lot in front of Men's Wearhouse.

Time: 8:00 am

Distance: 30-40+ miles

Speed: At your own place, but it usually separates out into 15-18 and 19-22+ mph groups

Route: Coming soon - we're planning on rolling out our club Ride With GPS route library to current members before the end of Q2.

Details: Meet at Men's Wearhouse in Mount Pleasant Towne Centre and ride through the Old Village, to Patriots Point (with an optional bridge climb), across the islands and back to Towne Centre. Three short breaks to regroup and socialize.

We're excited to announce that we're gradually resuming our our weekly club rides, starting with the Saturday James Island/Folly ride. It's going to be brisk but sunny tomorrow, with little wind. Come join us!

COVID-19 is still a risk and like any other risk associated with cycling, individuals must take responsibility for themselves. Participants should wear face covering or maintain physical distance as they deem necessary.

All riders are expected to physically distance before and after the ride, and during stops.
Where: 1291 Folly Rd, Charleston, SC 29412. Park at Island Plaza shopping center along the Grimball Rd side of the parking lot in front of Gold's Gym.

Time: 9:00 am

Distance: 30 miles

Speed: at your own place, but it usually separates out into 15-18 and 19-22+ mph groups

Route: Coming soon - we're planning on rolling out our club Ride With GPS route library to current members before the end of Q2.

Details: This is the route of the traditional Saturday morning club ride which takes you through James Island out to Folly Beach and back. The route highlights quintessential Lowcountry features like the beautiful marsh land along Sol Legare road and the waves of the Atlantic when you get to Folly Beach. The regular ride stops at the County Pier on Folly Beach for a break and re-grouping, then again at the pocket park on Folly Road on the way off the island. (NOTE: The county pier is closed until 2024)

The election for officers went off quite smoothly, as expected.  I am pleased to announce that *all* the nominees won their positions.   Thank you to all who supported the club by voting.  

The new officers are:

President:Stewart McKeever

Vice-President: Brano Ritter

Treasurer:David Champagne

Secretary:Paul Keefer

Member-at-Large:Bruce Snyder

There will be no Oyster Roast this month.  The executive committee voted not to have the gathering because, at the time of our vote, spread of COVID-19 was alarmingly high and the vaccine rollout was not going as fast as hoped. Even though we had a fun time at our party in December, only half of the members who said they were coming actually showed up.  It's reasonable to believe that fears of exposure could have discouraged many.  In the absence of a membership party where we induct new officers, the new committee members will take over March 1st, 2021 and will continue through until the February membership meeting in 2022.  I sincerely hope that the pandemic is behind us at that point and that the club is back to normal operation.

With COVID-19 cases and deaths surging all over the nation and the pace of vaccinations not as fast as we had hoped, we are, regretfully, cancelling the event for 2021. If you chose to carry over your registration from 2020, you will be receiving an email to set up your refund.

The executive committee did not make this decision lightly and we are really disappointed, but we do not feel that it is appropriate to gather under these circumstances. Perhaps we will be able to schedule a fall event if things begin to get better, but in any case, we will plan for a 2022 Spring Century better than ever.

We had a great time at our Holiday Oyster Roast on Saturday, December 5th.  About 27 Coastal Cyclists members and guests socialized and celebrated safely outside in James Island County Park. This was our first outside holiday party, as far as I know. 

Huge kudos to Bruce Snyder and David Champagne, who got the event started, organized it, and cooked the oysters.  The oysters were fresh and tasty and there were plenty of them.  Thanks, also, to Colleen Cloud, John Bayard, Rick Jess, and Nancy Whirley for showing up early and staying late to help with setting up, serving pizza, passing out drinks, and cleaning up afterward.  Everyone cooperated with our COVID safety guidelines by wearing masks (when not eating), facing only one way while consuming the oysters, and keeping a safe distance at all times.  The weather was perfect with a slight, comfortable breeze keeping us all well-ventilated, but not too cold.  We'll do it again in February.

We've been using the cloud membership management software, Wild Apricot, for several months now just to manage our member sign up and expiration notices.  We've also used it to send email blasts to members.  

This platform can go way beyond that, so you'll find that https://coastalcyclists.wildapricot.org now has all the content that our https://coastalcyclists.com website has, plus more features.  In the fairly near future we will probably move the main website to this new platform, thus unifying almost all our communication and subscription efforts.

Keep an eye out for more content and more news as we beef up our online presence.  Check out the forums for a good way to communicate with other members.