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Slow news week....
so, now for something completely different!
 Bicycle
Quarterly; Oh The Joy - As mentioned late last year, I gave myself
a Christmas gift of a Vintage Bicycle Quarterly library, inclusive
of all back issues, a current subscription and both Jan Heine's
The Golden Age of Handbuilt Bicycles and his latest book, The
Competition Bicycle A Photographic History. Today, the
Spring 2009 issue arrived and as always it was chock-full of
interesting articles and wonderful images, to include the ubiquitous
presence of tandem bicycles.
The
Spring '09 edition focuses on cycling in Europe during the 1930's
and 40's and features a still photo of a tandem taxi racing team.
The wealth of information in the back issues of VBQ regarding
tandems and tandeming has been well worth the cost of the library
alone, particularly for an enthusiast who has a deep affinity
for the more simple times when bicycles were more common than
the automobiles. Again, well worth a look for anyone looking
for a restrospective on historic cycling, technology or current
studies and book reviews.
Speaking
of Retrospectives
- One of the forums I frequent has been all a buzz about the
risks associated with cycling ever since Lance Armstrong broke
his collarbone. While tempted to weigh in I have, instead, elected
to reminisce about the early days of cycling in my youth. This
was a time when just about every kid rode a bike to school, families
would go out for rides around their neighborhood and nearly all
the local newspapers were delivered by kids like me who ride
bikes. Funny how today the bikes have been long gone and now
so too are most of the local newspapers: I believe this is called
progress?
Anyway,
lest I digress further...
As
I pondered the past and cycling's rightful place in history I
was reminded that helmets, risk and the other current trappings
of 'cycling' just weren't a part of my memory. We rode our bikes
in street clothes and knew how to ride with traffic, just as
we all knew how to walk against traffic. Our bikes all had mud
guards and kickstands and in the Northeast we nervously anticipated
that annual safety check the local police would perform at the
Tisdale Elementary School before they would trade our registration
card for a brand new, shiny reflective registration decal.
As
I leafed through and pre-scanned my Spring '09 Bicycle Quarterly
I saw several photos of tandems from the 30's that reinforced
my recollection of cycling in Europe and urban centers in the
Northeast US... Yes, people rode bikes! Cyclists were,
in fact, the exception and not the rule as it was rare to see
someone training on a bicycle outside the confines of a velodrome.
In fact, and with this in mind, I did a Google image search on
the phrase, people riding bicycles and found images
of, well, people riding bikes. These were all kinds of people
riding all kinds of bike and for a variety of different reasons
but most in street clothes and not wearing helmets with a few
helmeted cyclists dotted about and, yes, even a photo of naked
people riding bikes (be forewarned). However, when I searched
on images using just the term cyclists I was both
shocked and surprised to find the results were dominated by helmeted
racers, club riders and naked people riding bikes with just a
few 'civilian cyclists' represented. There were far more cartoons
and, well, just a lot of naked people riding bikes.
In
an effort to shake off both the images of body-painted and nude
cyclists and as well as the packs of helmet-clad cyclists, I
sought refuge at You Tube with a two-part video reproduction
of a 1955 movie produced by the British Rail film board entitled
"Cyclists Special." What would it be like to hold a
tandem rally like this!?
Cyclists Special, Part I
Cyclists Special, Part II
Of
course, as fate would have it I also stumbled across another
interesting video that chronicled cycling in all of its various
forms during pre and post-war Europe, where tandems, recumbents
and even semi-recumbents were all in evidence as were a few other
more bizarre cycling creations: not much has changed aside at
least in the variety department.
Cycling in its many forms
Thinking
back on the Bicycle Quarterly I decided to build a small collage
of cycling images from the 30's 60's and 70's, the latter all
pulled from Bob Hufford's exceptional collection of Schwinn Lightweight
Bicycle information, including scanned images of every consumer
catalog from the 60's through the late 70's. For your enjoyment
that is, if you're old enough to remember. Click on the smaller
images to see larger ones and be sure to check out the prices
on those tandems!!
And,
lets not forget what the prototypical mountain biker looked like
in Marin County, circa 1976..
From Charlie Kelly's Website
circa
1977.. with the likes of Joe Breeze & Gary Fisher
REMINDER!!! It's Open House Season
SUNDAY March 22 - Mt Airy Spring Demo
Days (MD)
SATURDAY
& SUNDAY March 28 & 29 - Tandems East / Tandem Expo (NJ)
Tandems East Introduces Hokitika -
Tandems East is introducing its own house-branded line of tandems
to fill the gap left when Burley Design began to implode a few
years back now.From the TandemsEast.com website, "With the
departure of Burley Design Coop Tandems in 2006 a void was left
in the steel tandem marketplace for tandems in the $2000 - $3000
price range. We believe the Hokitika 2-BE-ONE fills this void.
A good quality American made tandem for the first time tandem
buyers." You can find additional details HERE.
 MTBTandems
Introduces US-Made Twenty-Niner - Good friend and mountain tandem bike empesario
Alex Nutt of MTBTandems.com in Canton, Georgia, has been associated
with Sherwood Gibson of Ventana USA for several years as one
of Ventana's top tandem dealers. Along the way, Alex has become
a big fan of 29" wheeled hardtail bikes and recently collaborated
with Ventana to bring design & fabrication of MTBTandems'
Fandango branded frames back to the US with their new 29"
hardtail model. You can find additional details and pricing HERE. CLICK on the
thumbnail photo to see a high-res
photo of the first production model.
 Dave
Porter Turns His Attention Back To Tandems & Cycling - Before moving into classic automotive
car restoration Dave Porter made some very exciting frames including
a national record-setting track tandem. Dave recently decided
to see if he couldn't replicate his success and has embarked
on a new track tandem project that you can read about HERE. His Tandem
Project web page is quite comprehensive in that it takes you
back to the late 80's and gives you the back story on his first
tandem, through the entire frame fabrication process of the new
tandem and as of yesterday reports on the maiden test ride. Pretty
exciting stuff for the geeks among you. Sponsorship Opportunities:
As a self-funded project, Dave would welcome offers of sponsorship
and/or donations from component manufactures or enthusiasts for
the planned Tandem Hour Record attempt in Colorado Springs later
this year. The riders are to be John Frey (50) a former amateur
Hour record holder and Josh Reddoch.
Sebring Tandem
Rally (Florida) Canceled -
We learned through frequent T@H & BF contributor Bill Cotney
that the 2009 edition of the annual Sebring Tandem Rally was
canceled. Some of the regulars may still gather for unsupported
group rides from the Kenilworth on April 4th and 5th.
Covered
Bridges Tandem Weekend (Ohio) -
Doug Crush recently wrote to let us know he will once again host
the Covered Bridges Tandem Weekend on September 12 and 13 in
Northeast Ohio. No website but you can download the information
sheet HERE.
Co-Motion Offering
Topolino Wheel Option on Racing Tandems - Co-Motion recently announced
that it would begin to offer the Topolino AX3.0T tandem-specific
wheelset as an upgrade option on its race-level Robusta, Supremo
& Macchiato tandems. Although pricing wasn't posted to their
Web site just yet, I suspect the up charge would be a a couple
hundred dollars as the Topolino wheelset MSRP is about $400 more
than the Rolf Prima-Vigor tandem model that they would replace.
The added cost nets buyers a set of wheels that are 300 grams
lighter than the already fairly light Rolf's and what I would
characterize as a much more plush ride based on our past year's
experience riding both the Topolino AX3.0Ts and Rolf's on our
personal tandems.
Editorial: We
thoroughly enjoy and appreciate the performance and ride qualities
of our Topolino and Rolf wheels -- they look awesome too -- and
would encourage anyone looking for these types of wheels to consider
putting a set on their tandem. Just recognize that beyond the
marketing there is reality. In this regard, the caveat I would
apply to folks who are interested in high-end racing wheels but
who will use them for daily use and training is, if you ride
them every day they're no longer 'racing' wheels in that any
performance benefit they might offer on race day will be lost
since, well, that benefit will have been assimilated into your
daily riding effort. Additionally, high-end racing wheels from
folks at Rolf, Topolino, Bontrager and Shimano-Santana are expensive
to buy, expensive to repair and must be returned to the manufacturer
or an authorized dealer in most cases for any type of service.
Therefore, hitting a pot hole on a recreational ride where a
conventional set of wheels would have been more than adequate
and appropriate can become a costly experience and put you off
your tandem for a week or so UNLESS you happen to have that second
set of conventional wheels as a back-up. Just some food for thought.
We have a lovely set of White Ind / Velocity Deep-V wheels as
well... Just in case.
A visit to Calfee Design - Ben Marks recently took a tour of
the Calfee facility at LaSelva Beach, California. You can read
the article HERE
and see a slide
show where you'll find Craig in his jumpsuit hard at
work on a tandem, underscoring that you're as likely to find
Craig in the shop working on YOUR tandem (e.g., he's had his
hands on ours a couple times), teaching folks how to build tandems
in Ghana, visiting bamboo suppliers in Taiwan or meeting with
consumers at the NAHBS or other shows around the world: Yes,
I think quite highly of Craig. Now, speaking of Calfee the business,
one of the things you'll read in Ben's article speaks volumes
about Calfee and the depth of their expertise with composites,
"Much of the activity revolves around the arrival of as
many as half a dozen broken carbon frames per day. In fact, Calfee
has quite a good side business going repairing the frames of
its competitors. The fact that so many cyclists look to Calfee
Design to get the job done right should tell you something."
Like I said, this speaks volumes about Calfee.
The Geek's Weekly
Potpourri of Bloggishness
Four more weeks in the walking cast = 10 weeks off the bike.
Not good. In other news, I'm continually amazed at the lack of
objective 'reporting' that seems to come across the Blogs. I
swear, "I read it on the internet so it must be true"
will be the downfall of civilization as we know it. Print reporters,
love 'em or hate 'em, have always been the front line for the
truth and were held to a standard for gathering facts and reporting
the truth. While they may not always gather or present all of
the facts, what they do print is usually fact-based and fact-checked
by an editorial staff. With Blogs, it's hit or miss and I'm sorry,
there are just too many folks -- young and old, liberal and conservative,
agnostic or devout -- who prefer 'truthiness'
of things to the truth, particularly when the truth may take
some time and effort to ascertain. The latter just doesn't cut
it in an instant-gratification / short attention span world where
everyone is in such a hurry to get to the 'end' that they forget
to enjoy the journey.
Registration Opens for Tennessee Tandem
Rally on Monday, March 16
- Albeit a bit later than usual, registration for the Tennessee
Tandem Rally will officially open on March 16th (EST) with the
posting of the downloadable registration form to the TTR Website
which you can find HERE.
As in past years, attendance will be limited to 50 teams. If
you're interested I wouldn't dawdle too long: GTR sold out in
about a week or so this year, once you factor in the pre-registration
window with open registration for the balance of the remaining
slots filled in about 2 days. A lot of the folks who missed out
have already been tapping on the box office windows for TTR and
last year's attendees have been given a heads-up to look for
the form being posted on March 16. Fair warning, that's all.
Bamboosero Bikes Now A Reality - Craig Calfee recently launched a
new enterprise called Bamboosera Bikes to advance the production
of bamboo bicycles in places of Ghana and anywhere else where
inexpensive, easy to assembly transportation can improve peoples
lives through both industry and the movement of people and commerce.
Check it out HERE.
Tandem Folks in the Bloggosphere: Seth
& Kathy Krieger, FLA -
Seth and Kathy are tandem enthusiasts who are doing a cross country
tour on the installment plan. You can learn more about them on
their blog which you can find HERE.
Dancing Bear Bicycle Bash, April 3-5
Townsend, TN -
Matt Alexander and Tennessee Tandem Rally gluttons for punishment
Tim & Sharon Patterson have teamed up once again to put on
a posh weekend of cycling in Townsend, Tennessee, Gateway to
the Smokey Mountains National Park. You can read a great
article about the weekend HERE
or check out their Website HERE.
Celeb Matt Damon = Ace Stoker? Yup, fellow tandem-geek Henry
Able forward a link to a SkyNews article where Matt Damon took
out from filing in South Africa to participate in a 110k cycling
event call the Cape Argus Cycle Tour to raise money for the Make
a Difference Charity. You can read more about it and see
photos of Damon stoking for his brother HERE.
MTB Tandem World Championship @ Cool,
California, Oct '09
- I think we may have already posted an item on this new event
but it bears repeating because it's, well, pretty cool. The
event will be held in conjunction with the Mountain Unicycle
and Single Speed Championships in NorCal the weekend of October
9-10, offer cash prizes for for the Co-Ed Class, and also provide
awards and prizes for Male & Female teams as well. You can
learn more about it HERE.
How Tandem Cycling Changes Lives - It's no secret that a tandem can
allow people to cycle who might not otherwise be able to ride
due to various handicaps. Here's one story about just such
a person, Peter Quaiattini of Calgary who has been sight impaired
his entire life and a tandem enthusiast since age 8. More
importantly, it was though tandem cycling that he met his wife
who was a volunteer tandem pilot with the Trailblazers Tandem
Cycling Club in Toronto. You can read his entire story
HERE.
HEY! That's a photo of US?! - The internet is a strange place
in that every now and again a digital image of you hosted on
someone's public photo album will show up in someone's Blog,
personal website, discussion forum or even a commercial site...
and often times in violation of copyright laws, i.e., without
the permission of the photo's owner or a model release from the
subjects of the photos. Sometimes it's harmless, sometimes
it's not but it's always a bit disconcerting when you first make
the discovery. Such a discovery occurred this week when
a Bicycle Radar posting about a bike shop in the UK used a photo
of some friends in just such a way. I first saw it in my daily
search engine feed and shortly thereafter saw a posting on Facebook
from a friend and one of the subjects in the photo who was equally
surprised when they became cycling icons in the UK. Thankfully,
it was a nice photo used in a positive vane; however, it's still
a no-no given the commercial nature of the site and business
being promoted.
The Geek's Weekly
Potpourri of Bloggishness
WooHoo..
I've been able to get around pretty well without crutches
in my walking cast this past week and have even taken to moving
about the house without the cast in an effort to get some mobility
back into my ankle. My calf muscle did not take kindly to the
rude awaking after 6 weeks of Zero use and the ligaments are
also complaining. However, it feels like progress just
the same. Still haven't decided if I want to keep my knee-walker
as insurance against a future injury because sure as the sun
rises, if I sell it I'll probably need it. Seriously though,
if you ever have a lower leg injury or surgery where you cannot
put weight on your foot and would like to avoid the loss of your
hands due to crutches, the iWalkFree is worth investigating.
It draws strange looks and comments, but it really allows
you to function without feeling like an invalid. End of
pitch and, no, I have no financial interest in the firm. I'm
just appreciative for having been able to keep walking on my
'peg leg' and not be a burden to my wife as I was able to take
care of my chores and do most of the things I normally do about
the house and at at work.
It's Open House
Season At Tandem Dealers - If you've been thinking about tandems
and wanted to learn more, see some hardware and perhaps take
some meaningful test rides, now's the time to do it. Unfortunately,
tandem speciality dealers are far and few between and only a
couple put forth the effort to host these events and, in that
regard, it's the folks who live within a few hours of Philadelphia
and Washington, D.C., who are best served:
March 22 - Mt Airy Spring Demo Days
(MD): - Larry
Black at Mt. Airy Cyclery in Maryland will host his 18th annual
Spring Demo Day featuring bicycle rides, food, displays,
demos, and fun. There will be group rides, recumbent and tandem
bikes on display and available to test ride, special needs equipment,
local cycling club members on hand to offer tips, and plenty
of food. Although a bit thin on details compared to their newsletter,
you can find more details at their Website HERE.
March
28 & 29 - Tandems East / Tandem Expo (NJ): A must-do
event with guest speakers from Co-Motion (Dwan Shepard), Rolf
Wheels (Rolf Deitrich), daVinci (Brian Davis), Seven Cycles (Joe
Wignall), Cane Creek (Eric Smith), Your Cycling Italia (Bill
Speckman) and master personal trainer Jeff Baker from Vineland,
NJ. As always, your host and co-owner of Tandems East,
Mel Kornbluh, will kick things off with his Tandeming 101.
Oh yeah, and there will also be more tandems on display than
you'll ever see in one place short of a very large tandem rally,
refreshments and test rides are encouraged. You can read my post-expo
report from last year at this URL
and find more details regarding the Expo at Tandem East's Website
HERE.
Friends Don't Let Friends Ride Alone - Here's a great story out of Tucson,
Arizona that speaks volumes about the value of true friendship
and how, once again, a tandem can have a tremendous impact on
someone's life. You'll find the story entitled Quite a
ride with compassionate friends HERE.
Canadian Triathletes Undeterred by
Sight Impairment
- The Blind Guys Tri Team is made up of 30 Canadians who range
in age from 16 to 66 with varying degrees of sight impairment.
While training in competing in triathlons is hard enough
-- with or without sight impairment -- finding 30 tandem bicycles
was yet another challenge this team had to meet. You can read
their story HERE.
NWTandemRacing.com Makes VeloNews - Regular readers may recall an early
item here at thetandemlink.com regarding Henry Abel's new tandem
bicycle racing website, NWTandemRacing.com. Well, word keeps
getting around and Henry got a HUGE boost in exposure on March
3 when VeloNews ran a comprehensive article on the site. You
can find it HERE.
 North
American Handmade Bicycle Show Winners! - CyclingNews
ran a very comprehensive series of articles on the NAHBS held
in Indianapolis, IN back on Feb 27 - Mar 1 and in Part 3 focused
on the winners of the "Best ____" awards. Taking top
honors for the tandems was Stephen Bilenky's lugged homage to
the Jack Taylor tandems of years gone by; resplendent in its
deep red and cream colors. The CyclingNews Gallery can
be found HERE
and the tandem gallery from the NAHBS show is HERE.
However, there was actually a second best tandem, but this one
stole the Best Titanium Bike category. Kent Eriksen's coupled
somehow eluded a few cameras but some diligent searching by yours
truly has uncovered a few photos HERE
and HERE.
Tandem Folks in the News: Michael Armstrong,
Portland OR - Michael
Armstrong manages the City of Portland, Oregon's climate protection
agency but, more importantly, he's a tandem enthusiast of the
first order. He's also one of this year's Alice B. Toeclip
Award nominees. You can read about and see photos of Michael
and his family HERE.
 Big Ass Chard from Adler Fels Winery - I've got to give credit where
credit is due to Gary
Koenig whose column is carried by the Denver Examiner
for this discovery... and it's a Big Ass find, literally. Adler
Fels Winery apparently has a brand called Big Ass wines -- full-bodied,
robust, soft, warm California wines -- that features some brilliant
labels. Their Big Ass Chard (as in Chardonnay) label makes this
the ideal gift for your next social, off-bike dinner party with
your tandeming friends. We'll have to see if it's carried locally
as the only thing we can buy direct from Adler Fels is the poster
as direct alcohol sales are a no-no to Georgia residents.
The Geek's Weekly
Potpourri of Bloggishness
Well, it's
weight-on-wheels, er leg this week and by golly it feels good
to waddle; walking is next... albeit in my walking cast. Debbie
rode off to enjoy a beautiful afternoon ride today whilst I didn't
and, well, that's tough. With any luck I'll be able to soft pedal
a stationary bike this week (unbeknownst to my ortho) and that
will hopefully give me an indication of how long rehab / recovery
is going to take.
What to know where the Stimulus $$
Might Be Going? Long-time,
good friend Hank passed a long a pretty slick Website URL that
allows you to search a data base of potential spending
stimulus projects. It's pretty interesting to see how funds could
be used in our area. Just searching on "bike"
and "bicycle" I was able to find 240 projects totaling
about $863,395,288 allocated to 33 different states. For perspective,
that's about 0.11% of the $787B stimulus package. You can find
the Stimuluswatch.org Website HERE.
Note: Be sure
to read the disclaimers and FAQs regarding this any any other
site related to stimulus spending, e.g., from StimulusWatch.org:
"StimulusWatch.org
was built to help the new administration keep its pledge to invest
stimulus money smartly, and to hold public officials to account
for the taxpayer money they spend. We do this by allowing you,
citizens around the country with local knowledge about the proposed
"shovel-ready" projects in your city, to find, discuss
and rate those projects. These projects are not part of the stimulus
bill. They are candidates for funding by federal grant programs
once the bill passes. Learn more by reading the FAQs."
FAQ Example:
"The data on this site comes from the U.S. Conference of
Mayors' MainStreet Economic Recovery Report. If a city did not
include its "shovel-ready" projects on that list, you
won't find it here. However, this does not mean that cities that
are not included here do not have projects they'd like to see
funded. Once the stimulus bill passes, cites will make requests
for federal grants, and we will likely see grants to projects
not listed on this site."
North American Handmade Bicycle Show
@ Indianapolis, IN on Feb 27 - Mar 1: If you love bicycles and live any where near
Indianapolis, IN, you owe it to yourself to attend this year's
North American Handmade Bicycle Show. This is a show for anyone
who appreciates or wants to learn more about the art of hand-made
bicycle frames and to see some of the most amazing bicycles you've
ever seen as some 100 artisans gather to show and discuss their
craft. You can find all kinds of great articles and find photos
at the NAHBS Website HERE.
Attendance at Friday's show was 1,700, far exceeding last year's
1,230 or so at Portland, OR. For those who can't make it to the
show, be sure to search out some of the coverage and photos that
will pop-up on the Web over the next several days, like the ones
you'll find at Urban Velo's Web site HERE,
HERE
and HERE
Interested in Being A Tandem Pilot
For Sight Impaired Stokers?
The United States Association of Blind Athletes (USABA) is working
in partnership with the Blind Center Veterans Administration
Hospital in Palo Alto, California to match up local tandem owners
from the South Bay area with sight impaired vets. You can read
more about the program and find contact information in this article
posted HERE.
What Comes To Mind When You Hear "Custom
Paint Job?"
- One of the joys of having a love-affair with bicycles is taking
the time and investing a few bucks (or sweat equity for those
with the skills) to differentiate your machine from all of the
others in the world. As it is with all other wheeled vehicles,
a custom paint scheme is certainly a great way to do that. Of
course, custom paint is a fairly wide-open field, ranging from
simply picking a special color, specifying a multi-color or fade
paint scheme, or in the case of a Co-Motion Roadster recently
delivered by Jim's Bicycle Shop in Cincinnati, Ohio.... it could
be a tandem where the front half was painted to mimic a Holstein
cow while the back is covered with a field of sunflowers. You
can see a photo of this eye-catching machine HERE.
Iowa Considers New Law To Protect Cyclists - While some states have adopted 3-foot
laws in an effort to protect cyclists from passing motorists,
Iowa's Senate pass a new bill this week by a vote of 30-17 that
mandates a 5-foot clear zone and other provisions. The bill is
now in the House for consideration. You can read more about it
HERE.
No Job To Big - OK, this is yet another entry that's
not specific to tandems but that may be of interest to tandem
enthusiasts since getting a proper fit for non-standard sized
teams is often times a challenge. You can find a nice little
article on Co-Motion's Blog about one of their customers, a 7'
tall, 325 gentleman HERE.
Tandem Folks in the News: David &
Marcia Sykuta of Springfield, IL - David & Marcia are recumbent tandem enthusiasts
who live and ride throughout the Midwest. They are now working
with other cycling enthusiasts in their community to develop
a permanent bicycle advisory group for their community. You can
read about their efforts HERE.
Redlands Rotary Ride Offers Tandem-Friendly
Pricing! WooHoo,
yet another event where the organizers are reaching out to families
by offering discounted registration rates for tandems as well
as a family pack. This year's Redlands Rotary Ride in Redlands,
California will be held on March 28th in conjunction with what
will be the 25th running of the Redlands Bike Classic, California's
oldest professional stage race. You can read the short article
in the Redlands Daily Facts HERE,
visit the Redlands Rotary Ride website HERE,
and learn more about the Redlands Classic HERE.
Tandems and Weddings: A Classic - While there are all kinds of stories
about couples who have incorporated tandem bicycles into their
wedding plans, I believe this may be the first time I've ever
seen a couple ride a tandem into their indoor wedding reception
as the MC introduces the new couple to their guests! Just plain
fun and you can find the video HERE.
Tandem Club of America Continues Its
Slide Into Obscurity
- I received my 2009
TCA Membership Roster and, as I have done for the last six years,
I thought I'd share a quick look at the Tandem Club of America's
(TCA) demographics. As always, my hand-tabulated counts from
the membership listing were entered into my spreadsheets and
looked at on a state-by-state basis as in comparison to data
from last year's Membership Roster and, where noted, to the first
analysis I conducted back in 2002. You can find my highly unscientific
analysis HERE.
In summary, and
based on what was published in this year's 2009 Membership List,
TCA membership at approx 914 is down about 9% compared to last
year, with a net reduction of 92 members. In fact, the drop-off
in 2008 is nearly the same as last year where we saw a net reduction
of 91 members.
Looking back and
comparing membership to 2002 when I first started following the
data, overall TCA membership has fallen by 543 or about 37%:
States like Texas have dropped dramatically from 71 members in
2002 to just 37 in this year's Membership roster.California has
gone from a very healthy 111 members in 2002 to 68 members this
year.Florida and New York have also seen quite a drop-off in
membership during the past year.
Editorial: Given
there have been almost no changes in TCA staff, sans the folks
who maintain the membership and hospitality homes lists up to
date, and that there have been no changes in the way that TCA
promotes itself or the services / value it offers membership,
there is no reason to believe the net downward trend or the short-lived
new membership trends will be reversed. TCA continues to cling
to a model for enthusiast clubs that has not changed in over
a decade and only survives because of long-term membership loyalty
which, frankly, may also be tested in the next year. After all,
even the nominal $15 membership fee may start to look excessive
in terms of the value it delivers as members re-evaluate their
household budgets and expenditures.
The Geek's Weekly Potpourri
of Bloggishness
Although I'm still
grumpy, on the whole it's been a good week if only because I'm
now allowed to put some weight on my broken leg. It will be hard
to resist the temptation to over do it, but I'm mindful that
I must as the last step I want to take is a step backwards. I
am, however, tempted to spend some time soft pedaling on my stationary
training bicycle just to get some range of motion back in my
ankle and to remind my calf how it works.
Facebook... I
don't really get it. I've signed up and continue to collect and
connect with friends in a way that somewhat mirrors my address
book. I made the mistake the other night of building some photo
albums without realizing I was sharing out those photos 'real
time' until I started to almost immediately receive feedback.
Once I realized how it worked I quickly purged just about anything
that wasn't just a photo of us. Anyway, like I said.. I don't
get it but it's good to see some faces that I haven't seen in
a while and I will continue to check in when I find myself with
absolutely nothing else to do. Also, don't expect to get any
beads from me unless you're a gal who flashes your tee-otts in
the true spirit of Mardi Gras.
Archives: 2001 - 2002
- 2003 - 2004 - 2005 - 2006- 2007 - 2008 - 2009
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