Calendar of Events 2012

Johnson City Cycling Club - JCCC Events

Tri-Cities Road Club - TCRC Events

The Kingsport Bicycle Association - KBA Events

Local Events

April 21st, 2012 - The Jacob Francisco Memorial Century - Johnson City, TN

May 26th, 2012 - Pedalfest - Johnson City, TN

Rides & Tours

April 14th, 2012 - The Assault on the Carolinas - Brevard, NC

April 20th-21st - The Redbud Ride - London, KY

Local Races

June 2nd -3rd 2012 - Johnson City Omnium - TN - Road Race, Time Trial, and Criterium

North East Tennessee Mountain Bike Association - NTMBA Events

Cyclocross Events

Photos

Facebook Photos of all our Cycling Events

The making of a "LOGO"

After cycling almost 4,000 miles in less than 6 months; I have taken upon myself to create a Cycling jersey and a logo for our "unclub" cycling club. I am not sure why I took this task upon myself, but I guess I figured that if I have six (yes that is a number 6), people living at my house depending on me for cooking, driving, cleaning, counseling, nurturing and love, why not add the cyclists from my unclub to the list? And let's not mention my two part time jobs as a Spinning Instructor and a Secretary for BSF. I didn't mention that.

The Cycling shirt was easy to do. I know what cycling shirts look like, I have collected quiet a few for the last few years. One afternoon I sat down in front of the computer while talking on Facebook, and with my left hand, I drew 3 Cycling shirts, showed them to the cyclists, they voted, and voila! We have now a jersey design for our Johnson City Cycling Club Unclub!
Then it was time to make the logo. I have made logos for companies before but it was in another language and I was not sure if "logos" in English had the same meaning.
While cycling the state of North Carolina, (which by the way, it is a piece of cake), I met a lovely sweet girl named Kim. She offered herself as a sacrifice to our unclub to help me with ideas to create the Wheelbillies logo. I hesitated a little bit thinking, "what am I going to do with my life?, I might get bored if she takes over that job!", but I told her to go ahead and surprise me.

Kim's logo:


Kim surprised me! I think she did a great job. I wanted a wheel because of our lovely unclub name; and i wanted a cyclist, because that is what we do. We ride our bicycles. (really?)
I sent her creation to all our wheelbillies with some suggestions like: we need a hillbilly looking cyclist on a bike, corn like jugs tied to frame with lots of duct tape instead of water bottles, a long-barrel shotgun instead of a frame pump, and a pig chasing him, named Murphy. (Thanks Dan G for the great ideas). I only got one email back saying "yes" to her great design.
I was back to zero again, I must make a logo for our unclub. I decided to look for the meaning of the word "logo" and this is what I found:

Logo: A logo is a graphical element (ideogram, symbol, emblem, icon, sign) that, together with its logotype (a uniquely set and arranged typeface) form a trademark or commercial brand. Typically, a logo's design is for immediate recognition.[1] The logo is one aspect of a company's commercial brand, or economic or academic entity, and its shapes, colors, fonts, and images usually are different from others in a similar market. Logos are also used to identify organizations and other non-commercial entities.

I got very excited about this, "LOGO", it has the same meaning as it did when I was creating logos in another language! What a relief!
I put my brain together, drank tons of coffee, and for the next 2 hours I sat on my computer and hammered that brain until I came up with THE LOGO!
But there was a new problem, I shouldn't have drank so much coffee. Instead of ONE logo, I was able to come up with 6 logos. Yes, the same amount of people at my house that I take care of.
I burst into tears of vexation, and now I need your help to pick the logo for our unclub:

Unclub Logo # 1


This one was my first creation, but It was missing something, so I kept drinking coffee


Unclub Logo #2

And here, I drank too much coffee and my wheel almost disappear, now it looks like the cap of a moonshine bottle.


Unclub Logo # 3


My four year old wanted to be part of this creation, so i let her helped me.
She needs some coffee.


Unclub Logo # 4


Almost perfect!


Unclub Logo # 5


What more can I say, I think I have arrived!


THE Unclub Logo # 6



I'm sorry...NOW I HAVE ARRIVED!!!
I think... so please vote!

Now..if you are still not sure, I was thinking of incorporating the mountains in the logo. So please make suggestions if you are not sure. Thank you!

AN UPDATE:
I received an adorable email from one of the cyclist and this is what she said:
"I like Kim's logo, I think it represents what we do, where we live and the two riders show the friendship we have while we are out there". I think she is right!
So after that, I decided to work on Kim's logo and see what I could do to make it more appealing to the people that liked the other logos. And this is what I have:

and for the cycling shirts, this is what I came up with:

I think I like it! What about you?

I went crazy again and created another shirt....just for you to know, I got bronchitis and I'm stock inside the house so what else should I do with my time besides reading?

I made 2 other jerseys!

Decisions, Decisions, Decisions

I hate making decisions, but I must make them if I want things to run smoothly (or go my way).

I have spend countless hours ( about 4) thinking about our new cycling shirt design. I moved water and earth trying to come up with ideas for our shirt (actually I moved my office chair few inches trying to reach for the pop corn that my kid # 3 was eating) and finally when I ran out of options, I talked to Dan G. (on facebook of course), and he enlightened me, now I can make the right decision.

Choice # 1

The Fruity Shirt:

You are not allow to make a comment about the drawing. I sketched this while typing to Dan, eating Pop Corn, note book on my lap and using my left hand. You only can comment on the colors and the stripes.

Choice # 2

The Pop Corn Shirt:

I actually thought about this shirt prior to the Pop Corn eating. The fact that I ended up eating Pop Corn had nothing to do with this design. My kid # 3 asked me if we were going to be selling Pop Corn in North Carolina and I didn't smack her. (for the record).

Choice # 3

The One that Most of Us likes Shirt:

And the winner is........ well... this is the moment when you are supposed to go to the bottom of this page and click on COMMENTS.

Moving Pictures

I love taking pictures. It is a passion of mine. I have to capture every special moment in a photo. I like to see other people's pictures as well. I also like to think what is behind the picture, why did they choose that place and what was happening at that moment.

I risk my life everyday just to capture a moment in a picture. You see, I take pictures while riding my road bicycle with the Cycling club. Did I mention that sometimes we are riding 35 MPH or more and If i see something that got my attention, I will reach behind my back where I keep my small Sonny HD 1080 Cybershot Camera in the right pocket of my cycling shirt and snap a picture of something cool like my fellow cyclists riding or urinating.

I warn them about my obsession before I take the picture, but I think they know that by now. I took the above picture without even looking. I was still riding and i heard them talking about the "pee stop". They slow down and I immediately grabbed my camera from my back packet, put the camera on my right shoulder for stabilization and snapped, got my picture. Is been taking me few months of practice to be able to do that. I don't recommend it unless you are willing to crash.In fact, I don't recommend taking pictures or eating bananas while you are riding your bicycle. That is a picture of one of our fellow cyclist who recently crashed while eating a banana on a rainy day. Who would have thought that eating a banana can be this dangerous!? He actually fractured his acetabulum (hip socket) in many pieces. He gave up on bananas, thank goodness!