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Welcome to Valley Riders Thursday, March 14 - Dinner Ride to Westwood BBQ Saturday, March 16 - Monthly Meeting at Seven's, 8:30am Come early for breakfast 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 TalkDinner Social in Feb. 2019
POSITION FILLED!!!
THANK YOU DENNIS! You are the perfect person for this position. I really appreciate your help and will help anyway I can. Let me know if you need anything, you are one of the good ones. PREVIOUS POST! Let me begin by thanking the members of the Valley Riders for having confidence in my abilities to lead this group. Now that I've been doing this the last couple of months I realize that I can't do it all alone. I would like someone to step up as the Ride Director. What does a Ride Director do? I am not completely sure as I've never been one. What I need is: 1) Map out the rides - I discovered it's not that hard, point 1 start, point 2, point 3 and then you can put it into a GPS or email to the person leading the ride. 2) Help find people to lead rides. It doesn't have to be just one person or you leading. Talk with our members and find a few people that at least will put it in their GPS and guide the group. 3) Provide me with some information about the rides. Points of interest, possible restaurants, road conditions. Yes, this take a little research but you'll find it interesting and you learn through this method of discovery. Please email me if you want to talk about it. I have a lot on my plate and I'm afraid if someone doesn't help I'll burn out. I don't want to burn out. Thanks, Sindi Jan 1, Frozen Bun Memorial RunRide 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. |
Meetings
New Location for our monthly meeting. Sat. March 16, at Seven's Restaurant, 25 Shaw Ave, Clovis
NEXT MEETING IS SATURDAY, March 16, 2019 - Seven's Restaurant Meeting Update from Feb. 16, 2019 We had a full house at out February meeting and here is an update. We had 27 members attend this months meeting and it was great seeing some faces we hadn't seen in a while. We had been missing Verne and come to find out he had a serious vehicle accident and was laid up. John Cunningham will be laid up for a few months with a surgery on his foot this week. It was good seeing Rich and Alan had his wonderful wife Sandra at this months meeting. Always good to see Doug as he and Coral will be off to Arizona in March. Good time had by all. John T announced the birthdays and Anniversaries and we had several to celebrate. Sorry, I forgot to sing Happy Birthday. We'll have to sing it twice next month. The meeting continued with an informal discussion about riding in the rain, the weather conditions and a good time to check over your bike lead by John C. Jerry talked about the importance of riding and that there are some very good rides planned and he hoped people from Valley Riders would participate. He said the ride to Death Valley was not cancelled but postponed into March. Watch for more information. One of the topic of conversation included the need for a Ride Coordinator or Captain. Dennis Aston volunteered and would be coordinating his ride responsibilities with Valley Riders and Post 509 where he also coordinates rides. He mentioned a ride calendar link that he will share with the group that has all rides. Dennis mentioned the ride coming up to Cambridge on March 9, the ride to the Pinnacles on March 30 and that the ride today was cancelled due to bad weather. Watch for emails from Dennis. Thank you so stepping up to this most important position. As it was noted last month the members has suggested we move from the Yosemite Fall on Ashlan and 99 to try out a new location, Seven's Restaurant on Shaw Ave in Clovis. Moving to a new location was not an easy decision, but there was concern about the price of the food, and sometimes the quality was just not that good. After discussion it was decided to try this location and let the member decide at the next meeting. We met this month at Seven's, a vote was taken and the majority wanted to move to Seven's. Thank you for taking the time to consider this important issue. Going forward we are meeting the third Saturday of the month at Seven's Restaurant. 25 Shaw Ave, Clovis, CA. We have told them to take our orders as we come in, not wait till 8:30am when our meeting begins. We weren't clear when we made the reservation. Thank you again. Other Rides: Dennis reported that the Post is holding a Rider Safety seminar on March 23. It's free of charge but you should contact Dennis to reserve your spot. These education opportunities don't happen often so it's recommended. On April 12 a 3 day, 2 night ride to the USS Iowa is happening. Talk with Dennis about this ride. After we had a little fun with Rider Q and A time we had our treasurer report for Terry and we have just over $400. We held our 50/50 drawing and Alan was the big winner and with such a large group he won $75. Congratulations! Everyone had good conversation and catching up since we have all been held inside with the rain. Next month our meeting is Saturday, March 16 at 8:30am at Seven's Restaurant. See you there. Remember!!! Next Meeting: Saturday, March 16, 2019, 8:30am - SEVENS Restaurant, 25 Shaw Ave, Clovis Dinner Ride Social: Thursday, March 14, 2019, 5:30pm - Westwood BBQ Lane Splitting
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. I am always looking for pictures from rides or write-ups from your experiences to add to our website. We no longer have a monthly newsletter and the website belongs to Valley Riders. Send you articles and pictures to Sindi, smcguire@csufresno.edu. In addition if you know of rides that may be of interest to our members send me a copy of their flier or all information.
Regular schedule Monthly Meeting the 3rd Saturday of the month at 8:30 am, Seven's Restaurant, Minnewawa and Shaw in Clovis. Fun, information, ride updates, prizes and plenty of good conversation. Join us.
Information LinksMotorcycle Safety Foundation provides helpful information for safe riding.
Valley Riders Printable Brochure Riding In A Group T-CLOCS Pre-ride check list Pretend You Are Invisible Riding With A Passenger Protective Gear Information VideosMSF offers several videos for the new and experienced rider. Click on any of the links and find the video on the right of page.
Welcome to the Ride Basic Rider Course Group Riding Street Rider Course I |
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)