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Welcome to Valley Riders Saturday, December 1 - Holiday Christmas Party at Cosmos Sunday, December 9 - Tour Meux Home Museum, noon Tuesday, January 1 - Frozen Bun Memorial Run Thursday, January 10 - Dinner Ride to Old Spaghetti Factory March 9 - Ride to Cambria on the Coast Lots of fun events coming up. Glad you are planning on attending. Find the Monthly Calendar on the Rides Page |
Valley Riders
Welcome to Valley Riders, an independent riding group that enjoys riding, socializing over great food, and the company of like minded bike enthusiasts. We have a diverse group of members as well as motorcycles. As long as you enjoy riding you'll find a place with Valley Riders. We are located in the Central Valley of California less than 2 hours from Yosemite (60 miles) and 2 1/2 hours to Pismo Beach (150 miles). Our base is in Fresno, which allows for some great mountain riding as well as coastal rides.
Our members live in Fresno and the surrounding areas including Madera, Kingsburg, and Lemoore. As a new motorcycle riding group we meet the third Saturday of the month at the Yosemite Falls restaurant located at Hwy 99 and Ashlan Avenue in Fresno. We meet at 8:30 a.m. for breakfast, talk, and to share information on upcoming rides. Often we will plan a ride following our monthly meeting to some fun destination.
Our members are made up of Military veterans, school teachers, truck drivers, retired and working folks. Our rides may be only a few hours to more local destinations such as museums, a chocolate factory or interesting restaurant to longer rides to the coast or mountains to beat the heat. No matter where we go we have a great time. You may also find great overnight rides to destinations such as Tahoe. Many of our members have ridden to national parks, motorcycle rally's, and several have experienced the Ride to Wall in Washington D.C. You don't need to go on all the rides, you just pick your favorites and enjoy the company of good friends and the freedom of the road. Valley Riders began in March of 2014.
Our members live in Fresno and the surrounding areas including Madera, Kingsburg, and Lemoore. As a new motorcycle riding group we meet the third Saturday of the month at the Yosemite Falls restaurant located at Hwy 99 and Ashlan Avenue in Fresno. We meet at 8:30 a.m. for breakfast, talk, and to share information on upcoming rides. Often we will plan a ride following our monthly meeting to some fun destination.
Our members are made up of Military veterans, school teachers, truck drivers, retired and working folks. Our rides may be only a few hours to more local destinations such as museums, a chocolate factory or interesting restaurant to longer rides to the coast or mountains to beat the heat. No matter where we go we have a great time. You may also find great overnight rides to destinations such as Tahoe. Many of our members have ridden to national parks, motorcycle rally's, and several have experienced the Ride to Wall in Washington D.C. You don't need to go on all the rides, you just pick your favorites and enjoy the company of good friends and the freedom of the road. Valley Riders began in March of 2014.
Small Talk
Parkfield ride Sat. Oct 27. Good time!
Lane Splitting Information
There has been a lot of talk about lane splitting and we found some good articles and information. CHP Lane Splitting Tips Article: https://www.americanmotorcyclist.com/Home/News-Story/california-highway-patrol-releases-lane-splitting-tips CHP link: Download Lane Splitting Safety Tips https://www.americanmotorcyclist.com/DesktopModules/EasyDNNNews/DocumentDownload.ashx?portalid=3&moduleid=4097&articleid=11778&documentid=445 I hope you find this helpful. Thanks to Dennis for sharing this info. 
Following our meeting on Saturday, October 20 the Valley Riders took our members for ice cream at Superior Dairy. They have the biggest and best ice cream in the valley. We have 12 take up the free ice cream offer and enjoy the group ride. Thank you Valley Riders for a great time!
Ride to Kings Canyon, Oct 6, well almost Our intention was to visit beautiful Kings Canyon and ride along the river. Well the weather looked a little shaky so we decided to go to Three Rivers instead. Still enjoying some of the foothill as we headed East, then South. Just before we turned toward Mountain House we could see the sky was changing and later we heard they had received rain in Kings Canyon. Way to go guys for avoiding a possible slippery slope.
Lots of twists and turns as Johnny lead us through the hills. After leaving McCoy's Restaurant our first stop was Mountain House. We arrived around 10:30am so there wasn't a crowd. They welcomed us and it was a nice break for everyone and the hot coffee was perfect. We stopped again at Kaweah Dam just to stretch and take a few pictures. We were only about 10 miles from our destination on the outskirts of Three Rivers. I had not been in that area before so I excited to travel through this beautiful area. Our lunch spot was the River View Restaurant and Lounge. Great choice, it's located right on the river, we sat outside on the patio and by the time we arrived it was warm and comfortable. We ordered up and had a nice lunch. After lunch half of us walked or rode a short distance to Reimer's for ice cream. Excellent way to top off our meal. On the way back we gassed up and Johnny lead us back. We did have one small mishap. Oscar clipped Bruce into the parking lot and fortunately Bruce wasn't injured when he went down. I hope Oscar got that mirror repaired for our next ride. A big thank you to Johnny for leading, Terry for the tailgunner and everyone that made this ride so special. I've posted a few pictures so check them out. Till our next ride, be safe. Ride to Porterville Airport Oscar and I met up in the parking lot, met Johnny inside McCoy's for coffee then Glen, Big John and Beverly met up in the parking lot and before we knew it Doug and Coral had arrived. Destination Porterville Airport. It made for an interesting beginning as none of us really knew how to take a back road out to the Airport. Being the resourceful group we are Oscar took the lead and we headed off. The weather was perfect, just slightly cool for our nearly 2 hour ride through the backroads. We passed through many of the small communities that make up our valley including Dinuba, Lindsay, Visalia and onto Porterville. Oscar did a great job leading us and just before we found the airport we stopped just to get our bearings as we were just short of our destination by 4 miles. We pulled up and could smell the great food coming from their restaurant. After 2 hours on the bikes and Beverly and me in the car we were ready to eat. They were great! They opened up their large room for us. Gave us great service and the food was outstanding. My Ortega chicken sandwich and the 2 John's had burgers. They still offered breakfast and Oscar, Beverly and Glen had plenty. Doug and Coral had soup and salad. Everyone enjoyed the food, the service and especially the company. Sorry you missed it, we have to go back there again, really.
Heading back we took a slightly faster route with Glen leading and Big John bringing up the rear. I know sometimes we don't go on a ride for one reason or another, but I have to say for me it was a relaxing, enjoyable day. I could have blown it off, but I'm so glad I didn't. We have some really nice people in our group and I'm looking forward to our next adventure. Dinner Social's
On November 8 we are heading to Selma. Sal's Mexican Restaurant is our next stop located at 2163 Park St., Selma.
Please let me or Butch know if you are attending the Christmas Party! Reservations Required Soon we will be collecting money and getting a count for our annual Christmas Party at Cosmo's. They treat us so well at Cosmo's and this year will not be any different. Time to start thinking about a gift. Every year we play Steal a Gift at the party. We have a $20 limit and it can be anything. If you have never played you bring a wrapped gift, then each person takes a gift. If you like someone else's gift, you steal it and they have to pick another. Gifts can only be stolen 3 times. We've had everything from motorcycle swag to holiday sweaters to adult beverages. It's lots of fun and sometimes not so fun if you really wanted that gift. Make your plans now to join us on Saturday, December 1, 2018. We always wrap up the year in style at the Cosmopolitan. |
Meetings
Following the November meeting we will be riding to Hilmar Cheese Factory, just south of Turlock. Great for lunch and gifts.
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Valley Riders Motorcycle Group: Our group has been in existence since March 2014 with more than 65 members. The group has traveled quite a few miles in a short period of time. We’ve traveled along the Coast of California to places like Moss Landing, Monterey, Cambria, Santa Cruz, Pismo Beach, Carmel, Big Sur and Avila Beach (Annual Frozen Bun Run), San Jose (Lick Observatory), Danville (Blackhawk Car Museum), Fairfield (Fairfield Brewery), Paso Robles (Estrella War Birds Museum). We traveled to places in Central California like Hilmar (Hilmar Cheese Factory), Porterville (Stafford Chocolate Factory), and Hanford (Superior Dairy). We have also traveled to the mountains of California to places like Kings Canyon National Park / Sequoia National Park, Huntington Lake, Three Rivers, San Joaquin River Delta (Delta Loop), Kings River (Cedar Grove), Mariposa (Mt Bullion) and Groveland (Airport Ride to Ken and Linda Stark’s home). We’ve traveled to overnight places like Sacramento (Gold Rush Ride) and along the Northern Coast of California (North Coast Ride). And of course, we traveled locally within the Fresno (Forestiere Underground Gardens, Grizzly Baseball Game) /Clovis (Dan Rouit Museum) area. We can’t forget about all the great places we ate at. There are too many to mention, but our Annual Family and Friends Picnic and of course, the Christmas Party at Cosmopolitan Bar and Grill are always our favorites.
Safety is always an important element while we traveled the open roads of our country. We have had Parking Lot Practices and CPR/ First classes to keep us and our motorcycles fined tuned. We want to thank our Safety Coordinators Jerry Gregg and John Cunningham, Randy Patrick and Randy Hopkins for all the practice on our motorcycles. We would also like to thank Jerry and Jamie Slater for teaching us the proper techniques of CPR and First Aid.
by Wendy our Newsletter Editor (2014-2017)
Safety is always an important element while we traveled the open roads of our country. We have had Parking Lot Practices and CPR/ First classes to keep us and our motorcycles fined tuned. We want to thank our Safety Coordinators Jerry Gregg and John Cunningham, Randy Patrick and Randy Hopkins for all the practice on our motorcycles. We would also like to thank Jerry and Jamie Slater for teaching us the proper techniques of CPR and First Aid.
by Wendy our Newsletter Editor (2014-2017)