Ventura County
Recumbent Riders

News and Ride Schedule
 [Last Updated March 14th]

Ride Schedule:

For our Third Saturday VCRR Group Ride this weekend (3/16) we struggled to find a good venue that avoided the congestion of downtown Ventura, or the still incomplete Port Hueneme lighthouse road, and took advantage of low late Winter temps without being blown away by Santa Ana winds. The best I came up with was an abbreviated ride from Harry Lyon Park in Ventura's Avenue district to Ojai. We'll meet at the park (150 De Anza Drive, just east of Ventura Avenue, just north of Stanley Avenue) at 9 AM. Parking may be a bit of a challenge, but bathrooms should be available. Kay and I hope to be there with coffee and munchies. We'll ride up to Ojai, splitting into multiple groups as needed for speed differentials. Some Pokey Patrol people may turn around after lunch at Subway near Mira Monte. This route is uphill going out and can be as long as 30 miles round trip; temps should top out in the mid-70s and wind should be less than 10 MPH.

This is a brief listing of preliminary plans for upcoming rides:

  • Saturday, March 16th: Third Saturday VCRR Group Ride – Harry Lyon Park to Ojai
  • Saturday, March 30th: Fifth Saturday VCRR Group Ride? – SUGGESTIONS?
  • Saturday, April 6th: First Saturday VCRR Group Ride – SUGGESTIONS?

PLEASE[!]: If you have any suggestions for group rides for Spring 2019, please share. We're always especially eager to hear from anyone who's been aching to plan, execute and lead the gang on his, her or their favorite venue.

Recent History:

3/9/2018: Our first (but Second Saturday) VCRR Group Ride in March was a repeat road trip to ride in the western San Fernando Valley. This was a nearly perfect day for this area, cool with a mix of blue sky and drifting clouds. However, most VCRRians missed this great opportunity, as only six folks showed up for the ride. With such a small group we opted to stay together on a simpler route, starting from the Balboa Sports Center and riding up and back along the busway bikepath. We rode up to a pit stop just beyond the Chatsworth Station, and then returned down a (too) short section of the Browns Barranca bikepath and the Orange Line to our lunch stop at the Victory curve. We opted for Chinese and got lucky, enjoying the hot soup, hot tea and a good low-cost meal. After a few more blocks beside the busway, we detoured over to ride the LA River trail. I was a bit surprised to see that the recent flooding had really cleaned up the river channel, leaving it looking as though it had been thorougly and professionally scrubbed. Water flowing in the bottom notch of the riverbed looked clear enough to drink. This route is about 25 miles, a shallow climb going out and a nice cruise back to the finish. We may see some pix and/or video posted by Rolly a bit later.

Lunch at StoneFire GrillClick for More Pix 2/16/2019: A small group of us (9 riders) met at Vineyard Park in northeastern Oxnard. After the usual coffee and munchies, we rode around RiverPark, then across the Santa Clara River and up the Johnson Barranca bikepath to a pit stop at Barranca Vista Park. Then we climbed the next section of the barranca MUP to East Ventura Community Park and over to the rocket ride downhill along Montgomery Avenue. After a fun slalom run along Riverview Linear Park, it was another shallow climb back up to Foothill, with the Pokey Patrol taking a little shortcut while the fun guys got another zoom down the Brown Barranca MUP. We regrouped at Chumash Park before pedaling the CA-126 bikepath over to lunch at the StoneFire Grill. We returned via Ralston Street, Johnson Drive and through the Collection for a round trip of 20 to 25 miles, with temps below 60 degrees and afternoon tailwinds. Pix this time are a bad mix of mine and Rolly's; his video (linked below) is the best way to view this ride.

Calleguas Creek MUPClick for More Pix 1/19/2019: About 16 of us met at Pitts Ranch Park to ride a slightly different route this weekend. We started up the Calleguas Creek MUP to Upland Road, where the group made its first split. The Faster Folks continued up the climb, while the Pokey Patrol rode back down the creek, with a couple of extra loops to sync up for a pit stop at the Village Commons Sports Park. After a short ride together we split again with the serious cyclists riding a longer loop down into the farmlands, while the rest of us rode Lewis Road and Daily Drive to meet up again for lunch at Presto Pasta. After a very nice and surprisingly low cost meal, we cruised back to the park. Temps were very pleasant with enough sunshine to create serious envy from our counterparts in the northeastern USA.

SURPRISE!Click for More Pix 12/15/2018: Instead of a typical Third Saturday VCRR Group Ride, Deena (aka Dr. Devious) opted to commemorate a milestone moment for her husband. She successfully, surreptitiously engineered a SURPRISE BIRTHDAY PARTY, with about 40 of his friends at Marie Callender's in Camarillo, even though most cardiologists do not recommend staging shocks for persons of his age. It was a great party, a very nice brunch as always, and a good visit with VCRR friends and more rarely seen folks. It was really fun to see Stephen caught so completely by surprise.

Cruising on GonzalesClick for More Pix 12/1/2018: About a dozen of us met at Marina Park in Ventura, to ride down the coast to Oxnard. The group split in two, with four of our Fast Folks zooming down to Oxnard State Beach before returning to Ventura. The Pokey Patrol, which oddly included five motorized trikes to put a little pressure on Deena, Kay and me, turned onto Gonzales and rode up the Johnson Barranca to a pit stop at Barranca Vista Park. The two groups met for our lunch stop at Main Street Restaurant, where we also encountered Dawn and Stephen. We were expecting slightly chilly temps, but once we were out on the road, it seemed a bit warmer than predicted. This ride venue is about 20 to 30 fairly flat miles, with the fast downhill swoosh on Seaward as a very FUN finale.

Other News:

SPECIAL NOTICE: I've purposely tried to minimize any bad news posted on this webpage, mostly relying on word-of-mouth to disseminate any pertinent news. One exception now is to let anyone who hasn't learned of it know that our longtime friend John Axen lost his life to cancer this week. We had known John since about 1980, and he was the guy who solicited me to help with maintaining this group when Cycle Scene dropped it as part of their integration with Peformance Cycling. He may have held the record for the most Great Western Bicycle Rallies attended, and was one of the most avid evangelists for recumbent cycling in SoCal until he relocated to Oregon a few years back. Kay and I, like a number of other VCRRians, will retain fond memories of rides and visits with John.

Folks who know Lynne will be saddened to learn that her trike (yellow Catrike Road or Trail) was stolen from her garage early this year. She bought a TerraTrike Cruiser as a potential replacement, but found that it's a bit large for her. We've listed the TT for a bargain price on CraigsList, and Lynne would like to find a used trike more suitable for her X-seam. Please let Lynne or me know if you might be able to help.

RIDE VIDEOS AND OTHER PIX: Rolly has posted videos from several recent VCRR Group Rides for public viewing on YouTube at this link. We are expecting to post more videos over the next few months, and, of course, your feedback is eagerly solicited. There is also a series of older video clips posted on YouTube, on 'TheVCRR' channel, at this URL. There is a VCRR photo archive on Flickr; to view it, start at this URL. Vincent has posted some of our ride pix to the Recumbent Trikes Group on Facebook (one of several).

PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE DON'T FORGET!: COMMENTS AND SUGGESTIONS ARE EAGERLY[!] SOLICITED FOR OUR REGULAR GROUP RIDES IN 2019, AS WELL AS FEEDBACK FOR THIS WEBSITE, RIDE NOTICES, PHOTOS, RIDE VIDEOS, ROUTE SHEETS, MAPS, CUSTOM VCRR SAFETY FLAGS AND/OR VIDEO FLYOVERS. We are seriously looking for suggestions for VCRR Group Rides for the Summer, either in person, by phone or email. We will continue sending email notices a few days before each upcoming ride, at least for the next couple of months. Please let me know if you want to make any changes to our email list.

If you newbies or folks who haven't ridden with the group for a while need help or more information for getting to any of our rides, please email or phone me. Our home phone number – usually the best way to talk to us – is 805-981-0339. If we're not home you can also try my cell phone: 805-201-5107. Text messages will not work on our home phone, and are seriously discouraged for the cell phone. Don't even think about Facebook or Twitter! For convenience my email link is: