Retrobike Area Groups 2013

[drystonepaul]

Retrobike Area Groups 2013

There will be a few changes to the area groups for 2013. This map outlines what they will look like.

The main changes are the creation of the new Lincolnshire, East Yorkshire and South Yorkshire Area group.
Anglian now becomes a stand alone group and the East Midlands expands to take in Staffordshire.

There will also be a few changes to the Area Event Coordinator (AEC) and Deputies (DEC) for these areas too.


In summary here are the area groups.

MacRetro: - the whole of Scotland and islands

North Wales: - Anglesey, Gwynedd, Conwy, Denbighshire, Flintshire and Wrexham

South Wales: - Powys, Ceredigion, Pembrokeshire, Carmarthenshire, Monmouthshire and the Valleys

North East, North and West Yorkshire: - North and West Yorkshire along with Northumberland, County Durham and Tyne and Wear

North West: - Cumbria, Lancashire, Greater Manchester, Merseyside, Wirral and Cheshire

Lincolnshire, East and South Yorkshire: - Lincolnshire, East Yorkshire, South Yorkshire and Rutland

East Midlands: - Nottinghamshire, Derbyshire, Leicestershire and Staffordshire

West Midlands: - Shropshire, Herefordshire, Worcestershire, Warwickshire, Gloucestershire and Oxfordshire

Anglian: - Norfolk, Suffolk, Essex, Cambridgeshire, Northamptonshire, Bedfordshire, Milton Keynes, Hertfordshire

South West: - Cornwall, Devon, Somerset, Dorset, Wiltshire, Bristol and Avon

South East: - London, Berkshire, Hampshire, Isle of Wight, Surrey, Kent, West and East Sussex

 

[Matthews]

Can one ask why?, and who's stupid idea was it to split Yorkshire up (yes I live in West Yorkshire and regularly meet up with fellow yorkshire folk from East Yorkshire, (East Riding if you want to go Retro).
Don't know which bright spark came up with the split but I bet he's well South of Yorkshire. :x

 

[chrisv40]

It has been on the cards for a long time but came to a head recently when we were discussing changes to the Lincolnshire and Anglia group.
Basically we had two absolutely massive areas where it was practically impossible to give fair coverage to the areas over the course of a years riding.
Hopefully this will make it a bit easier for all the AEC's and deputies and give you even better rides for 2013.

Don't worry about missing any rides over my way Matthew as I'm sure myself and Vern will cross promote events for the coming year.

 

[marc two tone]

Can one ask why?, and who's stupid idea was it to split Yorkshire up (yes I live in West Yorkshire and regularly meet up with fellow yorkshire folk from East Yorkshire, (East Riding if you want to go Retro).
Don't know which bright spark came up with the split but I bet he's well South of Yorkshire. :x

The main reason is to kick-start north lincs as there is some good riding there that has laid dormant for too long. on the back of that theory, south yorks has been equally quiet, rotherham, sheffield, doncaster-to define south yorks for my purposes (bear with).
those two patches above have a good road network to link them without the humber estuary getting in the way. any other area has been folded in for convenience based on the fact there is an AEC/depAEC prepared to drive to whole thing along. local knowledge helps too

I know it may seem odd right now but, the regional alterations have been well discussed and 'method to madness' has been well justified. lower lincs and anglia have their own crosses to bare so north lincs has been absorbed into chris and andy's care.

The benefits.....

chris can focus harder on east riding, humber and north lincs.
andy plus other capable hands can help open the region up and get it plotted.
The boundary with west and north yorks is never too far away for even more ride options, such as tribal team-ups/themed rides.
kaya can breath easier with less pasture to tend to(that's where i come in to it) north eastern regions and up to scotch border can possibly be exploited further.

above all, the choice for ride location and degree of difficulty is going to be increased. variety and quality is going to be a big thing for 2013.

keep watching folks

 

[drystonepaul]

Don't know which bright spark came up with the split but I bet he's well South of Yorkshire. :x

Don't worry, we haven't put a fence up. You can still ride with whoever you want.
It was a long mooted collaborative decision based on the reasons given by Chris and Mark.

I was part of the process in terms of clarifying and then posting up the announcement so I'm happy to take the blame.

I could perhaps point out that I lived in South Yorkshire for seven years, East Yorkshire for two years and my Dad was born and raised there too.
I am half Swedish though so technically well north of Yorkshire.

 

[Matthews]

Swedish doesn't count as there's water in the way, you could say the same about Lincs though at least it's flatter, suppose I'm gonna have to start checking 2 area groups for rides now ! life never gets simpler does it .
Matthew

 

[chrisv40]

I'll be making sure you don't miss out with a pm anyway Matthew

Funnily enough I always thought Lincs was flat until a couple of years ago when we went for a 20 odd miler in the Lincs Wolds, the ride got nicknamed "one more hill" and I swear there was more bloody climbing than in the Peaks.

 

[slmracing]

It's straight forward to me, the map has changed but most of us still live in the same place, look in each section, choose the ride that suits you then off you go, does it really matter what area group you are riding with, the main objective is to increase the number of people actually attending rides.

Car sharing would help, we could do with coming up with a way of getting people to communicate better, just a thought

 

[chrisv40]

Car sharing is a must for me, I'm fortunate to live pretty close to Ben and to be honest without him I couldn't have afforded to attend as many rides as I did this year.

I think its something that needs promoting better this coming year.

The trouble is getting more than 2 bikes in most cars, I might buy a third roof carrier for next year and get another rider to share the fuel costs too.

 

[slmracing]

I am looking at buying a vw caddy van, diesel, to save money, but the trouble is you only have 2 seats, bidding on a T4 transporter at the moment but I doubt if I will get it, they fetch silly money.