The rides are 20 miles long so people can’t drink too much and cause problems.

Is that widely perceived as the reason? This intrigues me. Is there some reason that people might cause fewer problems if the ride is long? I mean they might drink a lot, cause problems and go for only part of the ride. Are there other methods of reducing problems that are part of the discussion?

I truly don’t understand the things you say about pre-rides. I guess that means rides to add even more miles to the route before others begin.

Glad you and Hugh were able to join us. Not sure if the timing would have worked out, but we did have two pre-rides (6:45pm and 7:15pm) that left dt SJ at the Camera 12/SJ Rep area with 35-45 riders each.

Look at the sjbp website and facebook pages for test ride and route information.

This ride was a bit different for many reasons. We don’t normally start at a big mall (was this a 1st?), go up a hill almost immediately, nor split one ride into two rides, have a ton of stop signs to go thru, etc. Each ride was different and this one was a bit of an experiment in some ways (even though we had 2 test rides).

This ride was also unique in that the regroup #1 had a bit of a life of it’s own, it took us 10-15min to get them going. We needed more BIRDs there….Part of the reason you didn’t see a lot of BIRDs is that we split the ride and a disproportionate number of BIRDs went the steep route that was 2 1/2 times steeper than the one you and Hugh went on.

BTW, Jackie is one of many that has a son or daughter in the ride, and vice versa.

Correction is that the test rides were started about a year ago and John got involved and eventually led the anniversary ride that had 3 starting points and 4200-4500 riders. He did such a great job that he was asked to help more “globally.” So the route scouting keeps going on, with him as a part of it as well, not “retired.”

Lastly, 15-20-something miles? We’ve pushed up the mileage where that is now the normal bottom range of the mileage we ride, with 25 miles as more of an average, with 30-33 miles the maximum. This does not include the “pre-rides” to the actual rides… these are 4-12+ miles.

Looking forward to seeing more from SF, etc. Please feel free to look at the web site, to find out “How We Ride” and I’m sure SJBP is always looking for great volunteers (BIRDs and non-BIRDs) whereever they’re from. Ride On!