Hello again all in KPRC, A blast from the past - or maybe just a very slight breeze ? I gather I qualify for a free bus pass in just over two years - how time flies. What fun ?
No, I don't want to travel over past exploits (well, not just yet). I would just like to add a few memories and thoughts on the club. I have kept up cycling - a bit of racing too - over the past 45 years in a couple of other clubs - other areas of the country where I was living at the time - so quite a few memories. The best memories should come from teenage years. Not always so in many cases but in mine I was lucky. I joined the Phoenix in (I think but a bit hazy) in 1965, purloined by Bert George in Frank Carpenter's cycle shop in Surbiton. I was picking up a new razzy 10 gear job courtesy of parents. There were a few clubs in the area (still going I believe) I probably could have fallen in with any of them, but I was lucky - Bert was there so I was conscripted into the Phoenix. The KP is one of those fairly unique clubs that offer racing - and fun - social club rides. (sometimes they turned into road races - but part of the fun). If it was not for the long standing members also keeping the wheels of administration going along with newer members it would have fallen into demise like so many other clubs. Well done to you all.
Of all these years in many miles of biking, my fondest memories belong to the KP. Just the right mix. There are only a relative few clubs that are in the same mold today - far and few between in this age where one man and his proverbial internet sponsor can form a 'club' for purely racing purposes only. What good is this for youngsters? Very few will ever make the grade either because they are not good enough or because naturally interests will wander elsewhere.
The difference between these types of club is that relatively few positive memories will remain on those weaned on purely 'racing' clubs. The fun side is also as important. There may be those now who wonder why I started racing the way I did - a little unconventional at times !? - Older club members at the time tried to persuade against some of my -well, unconventional exploits. They were acting quite properly in doing so. Why did I start cycling ?(at about age 12 with a home made fixed wheel bike that lasted unti the 'razzy' bike mentioned above) Because I wanted to - nothing more, nothing less, I enjoyed riding a bike - the further the distance the better. No thoughts of interval training then ! I started racing in club 10's and 25's and thought that extra speed may then have to be an option - so I got a little faster, but I still had this 'thing' about going further and further mile wise. Just because I wanted to. The main point is that I did what I wanted to at that time - how many other clubs would have gone along with this - especially nowadays. Not many. That is why the KP will always hold my fondest memories as a club over the years of biking (despite a couple of other clubs that were good I have mostly cycled solo.
Thank you all for keeping this club going, Tony Whitmore.
