Trading Concepts

Bob Smith

Anne and I almost exclusively ride a tandem which means we rarely ride alone. On weekends we would try different routes and almost always stop for lunch. Maynard’s Market and Restaurant is one of our favorite lunch stops. It is located in downtown Tucson in the Train Station on Toole Street across from the Congress Hotel. The train station is an active station with Amtrak service. It has been completely restored. Maynard’s back patio is part of the station platform. It is great setting and the deli sandwiches are fantastic. While at Maynard’s one of the staff invited us to join the Meet Me at Maynard’s Fun Run and Walk on Monday evenings. Someone who moved from Colorado Springs started this group about a year ago borrowing the Jack Quinn’s Tuesday’s Fun Run Concept.

We belong to Tucson Chapter of the Greater Arizona Bicycle Association (GABA) and have yet to ride with them. This year through a friend I worked with at MCI during the mid 90’s, we hooked up with an informal group that only rides on weekends. The group calls themselves Tucson Bike and Breakfast http://www.mindspring.com/~doumas/Cycle_Tucson/ Their weekend only rides are announced via weekly emails. All rides start from the Flag Pole at Old Main on the University of Arizona Campus. The emails announce the start time and route for the Saturday and Sunday rides. The routes are all fully laid out on the web site and each route has a dedicated locally owned restaurant stop.

Our first ride with them was one of their shorter routes and the restaurant was near the mid-point of the route. Our toast and coffee prior to the ride was about perfect even considering the 6.5 mile ride to Old Main. Our second ride as a whole different experience. The restaurant was near the end of the 50+ mile ride. At breakfast I queried Steve Wilson the ride leader and he informed me that rides were actually Second Breakfast Rides. From then on we had a regular breakfast prior to heading out to Old Main. The rides were generally 8-20 riders and distances varied from 30-60 miles. The rides started rather early around 7-7:30 and generally finished before noon. The group was very friendly and the pace was typically 14-15 MPH. The routes go in every direction from the U of A Campus and the restaurants were great fun. We will definitely be riding with this group again next winter.

I’m considering borrowing the Second Breakfast concept from Tucson much like they borrowed the Fun Run concept from Jack Quinn’s. These rides will fit in between the Saturday Fitness Ride and the Tour de Latte. Distances will be longer and faster pace than the Tour de Latte and slower than the Saturday Fitness Ride. The idea is to ride together as group and not drop anyone. I’ll start a Second Breakfast message board and begin developing route sheets and breakfast locations for each route. If you are interested in this weekend ride concept please join the message board on the club’s web site. I’d also like suggestions for locally owned breakfast restaurants. You provide me the restaurant and address and I’ll design a route specific to that restaurant. Initially, these rides will be summer only rides and will appear on the ride calendar randomly throughout June, July, August and September and start at 7:30 or 8:00 in the morning.