Announcing! FJR-NERDS 2012

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Fred W

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FJR - NERDS 2012

New England Riders Doing Stuff

(Riding and Drinking and Smoking! Oh my!! :eek: )

Aug 15th - 19th, 2012 Stowe, Vermont

Based on the positive feedback from all of the attendees last year, and their common desire of wanting to return and ride some more of the many available routes that they didn't have time for last year, we are returning to the Stowe, Vermont area for our NERDS gathering this summer. The folks at the Commodores Inn were such excellent hosts, and the Central Vermont location just can't be beat. It really provides that quintessential New England experience.

 

In other words, this will be a total "re-do" of last year's successful event with just a few new little wrinkles thrown it to keep things interesting. We have, once again, made every effort to make NERDS '12 as cost effective a gathering as possible. Our motto (still) is:

 

More NERDS Fun for Less Money!!




The hotel facility that we've made our arrangements with is the Commodores Inn and Resort. Our group rates are very reasonable, especially when considering the included full Vermont style breakfast buffet. And, by bunking up with a roomie or two (or three?) you can make it down-right Yankee Frugal! It would be hard for you to camp out for less $, but you are certainly free to do so if you want. The hotel's owner / operators are very bike-group friendly, and they will accommodate our needs and desires well.

 

A Vermont style, full country breakfast buffet is included in your room rate and is served each morning in the hotel's Lakeside dining room, beginning at 7AM. For lunches you'll be on your own, but you'll probably be somewhere out on the road at that time anyway. Lunch stop suggestions will be included in each of the ride routes.

 

We will be having an outdoor (weather permitting) group Barbecue on Friday evening, pond-side. It's suggested that folks try to plan on being there at that time if possible. It's sure to be a lot of fun and the cost will be just $20 per person (includes all taxes and gratuity, but not drinks). We're planning on having some "community coolers" setup with beer and wine (suggestions welcome), same as last year. Or you can always BYOB if you prefer. (The Inn just can't allow any BYO into the dining room due to their liquor license)

 

Dinner on other night(s) is available on premises at the hotel in the Lakeside Dining room, each evening from 5:30 to 9PM. All dining (including the barbecue on Friday) will be "pay as you go". You should also feel free to head out (in smaller groups) and explore some of the great local dining opportunities available throughout Stowe village and up the Mountain Rd.

 

One of the new wrinkles this year will be a NERDS Treasure Hunt Rally on Thursday. This will just be a low-key game, giving folks a chance to get out and explore a few parts of Northern New England they might not otherwise see, and have some fun doing it. Full details of the Treasure Hunt will be forthcoming (once we figure them all out!! :p )

 

There will again be some commemorative NERDS tee-shirts and probably more of the stickers (those were pretty popular last year) available for ordering sometime prior to the event. Details on those will also be forthcoming.

 

Fellow NERD and local Stowe area Vermonter FJRed has resurrected his little web-server and has the super informative FJR-NERDS 2012 Website up and running now!! You will find the answers to most of your questions about the event there, including info on how to "sign up" and how to get your room reservations at the Inn.

Since there will be no formal banquet, no sponsors, no door prizes, etc., there are again no event registration fees! There is a "registration" page on the NERDS web site, but that is just to get an idea of how many folks to expect, and to see what other NERDS are planning on coming this year. All that you really need to do to attend this nerdly shin-dig is to call the Inn and make your own room reservations.

 

 

 

 

One little important note about rooms:

 

The Commodores has an extremely liberal deposit and cancellation policy. They only ask for a $50 deposit to hold your room, and they allow cancellation with full refund up to 24 hours prior to your scheduled arrival. In other words, making a reservation is completely risk free. The hotel has a total of only 72 rooms, of which, based on the responses to the interest poll, we have blocked out 45 for FJR-NERDS. But if we exceed the 45 room block the hotel will gladly honor the NERDS discounted rate until the hotel is fully sold out.

 

What we are suggesting is that anyone who thinks that they might want to attend, please... do NOT wait. Go ahead and make your reservation NOW! You can always cancel and release the room later on (and get your $50 deposit back) if your summer plans change.

 

 

 

Don't miss out. We're going to have another great time in Vermont this summer. :lol:

 

 

 
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If you aren't able to make it to our groovy NERDS shindig in August, I'm sure the NE Riders get together in June will be a good substitute.

And of course, feel free to use any of the ride routes that we published last year ( << yeah, that's a link to them). One word of caution about that though, we have not (yet) pre-ridden those routes since Hurricane Irene blew through town, so there may be some road or bridge closures that weren't there last August.

 
Hey everyone, a few quick announcements:

First announcement

The NERDS ride route files have been updated for 2012. You can download them from the FJR-NERDS website here.

As promised, we are keeping the routes essentially the same as last year, with just some minor tweaks to make them run better on your GPSes (they don't end exactly at the Commodores Inn).

The only route that we have eliminated this year is the 16 Covered Bridges ride. There have been a couple of the bridges and back roads to them that have been closed from the hurricane last fall, and we haven't been able to figure a re-route yet. If we get one figured out before NERDS (and we still might) we'll be sure to let you know and add it back on there.

My suggestion to anyone using these GPS routes on a Garmin zumo is to first turn off Auto-recalculate, set your navigation mode to Fastest Time (not shortest distance) and also remove all avoidances (yes even the avoid dirt roads!) in your settings prior to importing the routes.

For folks with zumo 550's I also suggest that you do not import all 10 routes at the same time or else you may encounter memory limitation issues! Instead, transfer all of the routes to your GPS from mapsource, but when the pop-up says "New Data Found Import it" just say No!! Then once you decide on one of the routes for a day, just import that one route from your User Data. And you can delete it at the end of the day when you're done with it. Then go back into "User Data" and import a new one the next day, etc.. Importing all of the waypoints at once shouldn't be a problem. Clearing out old unnecessary track logs may also be helpful in preserving your memory too.

Next announcement:

This is actually a repeat, but I think some folks may have missed it the first times. The Wednesday campfire and cookout is being moved to behind the Commodores hotel. We've updated the web site to explain the whole deal, but essentially we thought it would be better than trying to arrange transportation to and from Ed's place in Waterbury, like we did last year. If you are going to be there, please plan on joining us. We will ask for a modest donation to help cover the cost of the food stuff.

Final announcement:

Are you a horrible procrastinator? Did you miss the deadline for ordering FJR-NERDS 2012 swag? If so, you are in luck, sort of.

I've setup an eStore where you can make individual purchases of tee-shirts and coffee cups, and have them shipped directly to yourself at home.

The prices are obviously much higher when ordered individually, and I'm not sure that you will be able to get them before NERDS, but if you just have to have one, you can get them here: FJR-NERDS eStore on Zazzle.com

You can change the type of shirt and the color for whatever you like. Just be sure to check how it looks printed as the logos don't show up very well on darker colors.

One additional note: I've set up an option for a long sleeve microfiber tee shirt (white only). They aren't cheap, at $40 a copy. :eek: But I got one of these for myself last year and it is a really nice shirt to wear underneath your riding gear. Nice and cool in the summer heat and a great under layer in the cool weather.

Anyway... the store will remain open for quite a while now, so no real rush.

That is all...

 
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I was looking for a nice glass beer mug or pint glass with the NERDS logo. With beer being the main fuel for the event, I thought that would be a staple. Am I missing something? There are so many nice items to choose from otherwise. I hope I'm not coming across as ungrateful. This is quite obviously a wonderful effort to provide all that is available to choose from. Just my beer soaked mind at work. ;)

 
Your wish is my command. I'll have some beer steins and mugs available in a day or so.

Edit - There will be both Steins and Frosted glass mugs on the eStore sometime tomorrow. It takes them a day to check that we haven't infringed on copy-writes and such.

 
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Your wish is my command. I'll have some beer steins and mugs available in a day or so.

Edit - There will be both Steins and Frosted glass mugs on the eStore sometime tomorrow. It takes them a day to check that we haven't infringed on copy-writes and such.
Now I'm wishing for new NERDS branded tupperware body panels for every FJR in attendance. :)

 
Now I'm wishing for new NERDS branded tupperware body panels for every FJR in attendance. :)
That will be really nice of you to provide. I'm sure everyone will be most appreciative.

:p
I guess all wishes aren't granted. :)
lol, u two guys :)

Jeff we'll have to meet up soon n who knows I may even wander that way during this event in hopes of a cancellation at the Commodore. I just gotta get the g/f to loosen the noose a bit ;)

 
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Now I'm wishing for new NERDS branded tupperware body panels for every FJR in attendance. :)
That will be really nice of you to provide. I'm sure everyone will be most appreciative.

:p
I guess all wishes aren't granted. :)
lol, u two guys :)

Jeff we'll have to meet up soon n who knows I may even wander that way during this event in hopes of a cancellation at the Commodore. I just gotta get the g/f to loosen the noose a bit ;)
Sounds good. Maybe I'll see you there. It's no fun without a place to stay though I'm told. Especially when it's raining.

 
Hot off the press...

NERDS '12 Ride Route Update!!

As I said I might, I was able to get up to VT this past weekend and totally test the Covered Bridges ride route. Luckily, all of the trouble spots are right at the beginning of the route. The very first of the bridges you come to is closed to all vehicle traffic, and bridges 3 and 4 you can ride thru, but the road on the other side doesn't go anywhere (at least not without a dualsport bike). What I was able to do is to re-configure the route so that you ride up to these three bridges and stop for pictures and to walk around, then make a U turn to get back on the route. Alternatively, when you see the route going in, turning around and then coming right out you can just skip those 3 bridges if you want.

I also managed to find another "ride through" Bridge that we missed last time, so now there are 17 Bridges on the route!!

The rest of the covered bridges and the route in general are fantastic! :yahoo:

WARNING!! WARNING!! WARNING!!

This is a Fred W sanctioned and approved New England ride route. Following this ride route you will encounter beautiful rural scenery, such that you would not experience on any of the other routes. But you will also have to ride down some considerably looser gravel roads to do so. Worse than the 2 unpaved Gaps roads, in my opinion.

To me, the risk is worth the rewards. For you the equation may not be quite the same. I have marked one particularly steep down hill corner in the GPS route, (it's just after the three back to back to back bridges in Northfield Falls) with a warning waypoint that should announce before you get to it. If you come into the corner too hot, the hill is steep enough that your rear ABS will be pulsing like you've never felt it before. You will marvel at how you continue to accelerate down the hill even though you are standing on the rear brake pedal. DAMHIKT You'll want to be in a lower gear descending that hill or risk going "off piste". (Luckily, I didn't)

If you are an inexperienced rider or somewhat nervous about riding in loose gravel you may want to just pass on this route. OTOH, if this kind of stuff doesn't bother you, I highly recommend it. This route will have you fully immersed in Vermont like none of the others will.

Webmaster FJRed has updated the FJR NERDS Routes web page with all of the latest info. This should be the final version of the GPS routes for NERDS '12.

 
WARNING!! WARNING!! WARNING!!

This is a Fred W sanctioned and approved New England ride route. Following this ride route you will encounter beautiful rural scenery, such that you would not experience on any of the other routes. But you will also have to ride down some considerably looser gravel roads to do so. Worse than the 2 unpaved Gaps roads, in my opinion.

To me, the risk is worth the rewards. For you the equation may not be quite the same. I have marked one particularly steep down hill corner in the GPS route, (it's just after the three back to back to back bridges in Northfield Falls) with a warning waypoint that should announce before you get to it. If you come into the corner too hot, the hill is steep enough that your rear ABS will be pulsing like you've never felt it before. You will marvel at how you continue to accelerate down the hill even though you are standing on the rear brake pedal. DAMHIKT You'll want to be in a lower gear descending that hill or risk going "off piste". (Luckily, I didn't)

If you are an inexperienced rider or somewhat nervous about riding in loose gravel you may want to just pass on this route. OTOH, if this kind of stuff doesn't bother you, I highly recommend it. This route will have you fully immersed in Vermont like none of the others will.

Webmaster FJRed has updated the FJR NERDS Routes web page with all of the latest info. This should be the final version of the GPS routes for NERDS '12.
Dang it! This route sounds like fun. :yahoo: I'm not an experienced dirt rider...but it sure sounds like fun to try.

Oh well, maybe another year...

 
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