Members and guests of the Eastern Pennsylvania Chapter of the Christian Sport Bike Association met for breakfast on Saturday July 6, 2019. At the breakfast, a motion was made by Chapter President John Lasure Jr., seconded by Chapter Vice President Chris Roddick to promote Russ Buggé, also known to many as “Rusty Bucket”, to the position of Recon & Route Coordinator for the Eastern PA Chapter of the CSBA. The motion carried and Russ has been immediately inducted into his new position.

Russ joined our chapter in 2015 while we were on one of our monthly rides. He had passed us riding in the opposite direction, but looking for a group to ride with he decided to quickly turn around to catch up to us. He joined the rear of the group and followed us to the next stop where he then introduced himself and we welcomed him. He explained that after a multi-year hiatus, he had just gotten back into riding, but he was having no success in finding a group that suited his interests. He knew he was a back-road rider with a sport bike, but he didn’t know any other like minded riders. It also turned out that he is a Christian and on that Saturday in 2015, not only did he find a group to ride with that shared his riding interests, but he also got the added bonus that we were a Christian group with a message to share, which is just what he had been looking for.

He continued to ride with us throughout the remainder of 2015 and at the beginning of the next season he expressed interest in learning our ride routes. Of course we obliged and he began to faithfully recon each monthly ride route prior to ride day to ensure that the routes were clear of detours or any other unexpected issues. In addition to that, he voluntarily began to assist us at our rides by leading a group of riders every month and in the absence of senior leadership has shown his capability to take charge by conducting the rider meetings. He places a strong emphasis on rider safety, honors our chapter qualities and values, and has demonstrated his commitment to the CSBA mission.

We give thanks to God for His wisdom and His Blessings….

Well where do we begin…The 2019 CSBA Blue Mountain Run was scheduled to take place on May 4, however a series of events during the weeks leading up to that date resulted in the need to postpone the ride until May 11.   While reconning the route with Russ about two weeks prior to ride day and only about a quarter of the way through the route, Russ noticed that his fork seals had begun leaking all over his brake caliper and onto his boots.   Amazingly Russ continued on with the recon and we completed the route, however that bike would be out of commission afterwards until it would be repaired.   Luckily Russ was able to borrow his brother’s bike and a week later, Russ decided to do another recon of the route, as we had decided to make some road adjustments to the original route we ran the week prior.  As he completed the route and began to head for home, a driver in a car honked and approached him at a red light to let him know that his rear brake light was not working.  As it would turn out, the light was not working because the entire tail light assembly, including the license plate was missing and had apparently fallen off somewhere during the ride.  Now that bike was no longer able to be used for the ride and his third bike at home needed a new water pump.   Frustrated with three bikes down and with the likelihood that neither of them would be ready in time for the ride, Russ notified me that he would not be able to attend this one.  Then I received a text from Mark that his bike was also getting fork seals replaced and that he was unsure about whether or not he would have it back in time for the ride.   Meanwhile John was out of town on a business trip and was fairly certain that he would not be flying home in time to make it.   So we were down 3 out of 4 ride leaders just a couple days before the event and with 20+ riders expected to attend, we decided to postpone it a week for the safety and enjoyment of everyone.  Unfortunately not everyone who planned to attend the original date could make the new date.

On Saturday January 7, 2017 we held our first event of the new year.   This year we changed venues for our January Breaking Bread Luncheon and held it at Red Robin Gourmet Burger's in Quakertown, PA.

Those who followed us last year know that several of our events scheduled throughout 2016 were plagued with many weather challenges and for this first event of 2017 we were again faced with the same outcome.   As many woke up to find snow falling with some roadways becoming too slippery for travel, we were faced with the decision of whether or not to cancel the event. Fortunately for the Lehigh Valley the impacts were minor and we were able to hold our first luncheon with 13 members and guests in attendance.   Meanwhile, a few of our guests from southern areas were unable to attend as a result of more severe impacts from the winter storm in their perspective areas.

Starting at 1 p.m. people began trickling in and most were there by 1:15 p.m.   In attendance were John L, Nelson, Lisa, Erin, Rusty, Rick, Jim, Zori, Ana, Becky, Brianna, Chris, and John D. As we all arrived, John L. distributed some wall calendars, magnets, and other CSBA goodies to everyone. We greeted one another, gave our blessings for the New Year and then sat down to recollect on the past year's experiences.

First I would like to mention that the CSBA Community Service Project Outreach is proudly sponsored and supported by our partner – Keystone Opportunity Center. Their collaboration with us has been phenomenal over the last few years and we look forward to continuing our relationship with them.

This years community service outreach project took place at 216 N. Main Street, Souderton, PA, which was a three bedroom house that the tenant had just moved out of the prior weekend and our team was selected to perform some light duty tasks to prepare the home for a new tenant. The project took a majority of the morning to complete and once all attendees were present, we broke up into teams to complete the following tasks:

Welcome to the new look of the Eastern Pennsylvania Chapter of the Christian Sport Bike Association website.  Our first website was designed back in 2010 as a tool to promote the mission of the Christian Sport Bike Association and develop the capability to communicate with individuals located beyond our local community. With the release of the new website we maintain that same goal, however, over the course of the last 4 years several new key programs have been implemented by our Chapter which we felt needed to receive more attention than what the old version of the website provided. In addition, we wanted to create a new platform that integrated well with the popular social networks such as facebook and twitter as they continue to expand in popularity.