ALS Double Day Ride : More Than Just a Ride

Since 2004 we've had the pleasure of supporting the ALS DoubleDay Ride. Known better as Lou Gehrig's Disease ALS is a neurodegenerative disease that usually attacks both upper and lower motor neurons and causes degeneration throughout the brain and spinal cord. A common first symptom is a painless weakness in a hand, foot, arm or leg, which occurs in more than half of all cases. Other early symptoms include speech swallowing or walking difficulty. The disease is mostly a mystery with most of the major breakthroughs happening in the last 10 years. It is through the fundraising from rides and events such as the ALS DoubleDay that have lead to these breakthroughs. Which means that the people riding this event are truly making a difference in the lives of the people currently affected by this disease.

While raising hundreds of thousands of dollars over the years, the most amazing aspect of this ride are the people that participate in the ride, whether riders or volunteers. This is by no means the largest ride that we support, but it is one of the most passionate. Over the span of five years, I've had the honor of meeting many people that are suffering from ALS. Due to the nature of this disease most of those people have passed away leaving friends and family that continue to ride and raise money to fight ALS. Teams like Team Grick, Faber Flyers, Crazy 4 Carl, and Team Rhino (among others) bring out large groups of people that all have a direct connection with a person living with ALS. Becuase of the direct connection that most riders have with the disease there is a strong community feeling to the ride.

Each year I see amazing feats of cycling completed by DoubleDay Riders. These accomplishments aren't amazing by professional standards, no one is winning any Olympic sprints or breaking the hour record. No, these are normal people on normal bikes riding distances that just months before they never thought they could do. They ride on new bikes, they ride on old bikes and some of them ride on bikes that, well, probaby shouldn't be riden at all. But they do it, they don't complain and at the end of the ride they smile and know that they've made a difference. Each year I do repairs on bikes to make sure that they can finish the ride. I've never had to tell a person that their bike was broken and they couldn't ride. It's been close a few times and some people have had to finish the ride with just one gear, or with inner tubes working as return springs but everyone has been able to finish the ride if they wanted to. And most people not only want to finish, they insist on it. I've heard people say that their Father, brother, uncle, neighbor, friend didn't quit living because they had ALS so they were going to finish the ride at any cost to honor the strength of their loved one, living or not. It is because of this close connection to ALS and the amazing strength of everyone involved that this continues to be the ride I look forward to supporting most.

The ride has grown over the years, now up to over 220 people, raising over $110,000 as of the end of July. This is a small number of riders and on paper, from a marketing standpoint, it might not make sense to travel to Conway to support this ride. It's for this reason I want to personally thank Gregg's Cycle and the Gregg family for continuing to support our efforts in donating our time and materials to the ALS DoubleDay Ride where the motto is, "Nothing Less. Cure ALS."

Support Report : Benaroya Research Institute Triathlon at Sefair

For the fifth year in a row we were out making sure that the competitors in the Benaroya Research Institute Triathlon at Seafair had enough air in their tires and all their bolts were tight. Getting up in the dark, trying to get ready for a race and having your bike ready are not always easy, so we do what we can to help the process. Armed with pumps, extra tubes and tires, cables, housing and other bike supplies a crack team from Gregg's Bellevue Cycle was on the scene. We find that just seeing the green Gregg's Tent at an event helps the participants feel calmer and more secure about their bike. Having a chance to come over and have the Pros look at it often puts many people at ease.

This year we were also out at the Expo and packet pick-up the day before the event. Everyone that did the event was required to show up out on First Hill and pick up their packet. They also had the chance to bring their bike by the Gregg's Tent and have a safety check performed. This was the first year that this service was offered so it was a bit of a slow day. But the people that took advantage of it were happy for the opportunity.

Check out some photos!

Gregg's Picnic 2008

July 13th marked the Gregg's company picnic. Now in it's, I don't know, 20th year the Gregg's Picnic is hitting it's stride. Always a great event, the participation has gone up and down over the years. This year was a banner year for participation. We have somewhere in the neighborhood of 150 employees this time of year and most of them made it. The reason for this great participation? The reasons are numerous; great food, good morale, good people and (this was the ringer because we've had all the others before) competition between the stores.

That's right a little competition to get people out and having a good time. This year there were three organized games. We had the ever popular Egg Run (we used fake eggs, don't want to waste food!), the always hilarious Three Legged race, and the end all, be all of picnic games, the Tug-O-War. With the Tug-O-War came bragging rights and this year the winner of the event was Gregg's Bellevue Cycle with what was a dominating performance. The Alderwood team won their way into the finals with an Egg Run victory and the first pull between Bellevue and Greenlake left the Greenlake team bewildered by the thrashing the received at the hands of what looked to be an undermanned Bellevue team. Bellevue, fresh off their victory over Greenlake, dispatched the Alderwood team just as easily. While Alderwood was licking it's wounds the Greenlake team, though the use of video, found a possible rule infraction and demanded a re-pull against the might team from Bellevue. This re-pull was granted and the pull was set up. Greenlake demanded to switch sides as well, trying to get the odds in their favor. As the judges hand was raised and the crowed roared the pull was on. But it was not to be for the team from mothership. It was a more competitive pull but the team from the upstart Bellevue store triumphed again. So the trophy will reside in Bellevue for this year and I'm sure that it will be hotly contested for years to come.

It was a great time and it just goes to show how Gregg's Cycle, even when competing with each other, is a great family store with great family.

Wamu Family 4th and Bikes

Lot's of bikes!

For the second year in a row we were out at the Family 4th manning the bike parking area. The area last year ended up being too small and they people from One Reel did it right this year, expanding the area to fit what we estimate at close to 800 bikes by the time the fireworks started. The annual 4th of July event draws thousands of people and the parking is, as you can imagine, a nightmare. It's great that organizations like One Reel is looking to diminish the impact of their events by offering bike parking. And we're happy to be able to help.

So what are we doing while we're down there? Well, we're not responsible for the safety of the bikes, but we do watch the area the whole time, answer any questions that the riders might have about bikes or the event and fix things on the bikes that might have gone wrong and prevent the rider from making it home. So, we're not doing tune-ups but we are taking care of some fixes that people might need to make it home. Some of the things we fixed this year included flat tires, a crank arm that had migrated off the bike, a couple of brake cables and some other random stuff. All in all a great day to hang out at the park, help people out and, eventually, watch the fireworks.