Team RWB

BILL CULLINS: Team RWB connects veterans, community

SAN ANGELO, Texas — Team RWB (“Red, White and Blue”) is a new fitness community in San Angelo that’s helping to transform the way that America supports its veterans when they return from combat.

You’ll be able to recognize them by their uniform — a red Team RWB shirt with the large Eagle logo on the front.

The San Angelo Team RWB community is part of a larger national nonprofit organization that currently includes over 4,400 veteran and active duty ambassadors and 7,300 civilian athletes and advocates in 36 states.

The team’s mission is simple — to enrich the lives of America’s veterans by connecting them to their community through physical and social activity.

Team RWB was founded in 2010 by Mike Erwin, an instructor at the West Point Military Academy. Today the regional Team RWB chapters and local communities of the team work to help veterans and the community connect through physical and social activity.

Activities in each chapter and local community include weekly fitness activities, monthly social events, and participation in local races and events together.

Nicole Vasquez, an Army veteran and organizer of the San Angelo RWB community, says “Team RWB is not just for members of the military or veterans — everyone is welcome. 

“We are about building a community and we cannot build a community of only veterans. We need friends, family, caring citizens, business owners. Everyone can fill a role.

“The Team RWB slogan ‘It’s Our Turn’ means it is our turn to serve veterans. That opportunity to serve is open to all members of our regional community.”

One of the core beliefs of Team RWB is that mental and physical benefits of exercise can greatly improve a veteran’s ability to cope with issues related to post-traumatic stress disorder.

Research such as that done by Dr. Michael Otto, professor of psychology at Boston University, indicates that many returning veterans suffer from not being part of a close-knit team after their military deployment ends.

Dr. Otto notes that “Team RWB makes use of its community and athletic members to provide information, training, and companionship to veterans who want to recharge themselves both physically and mentally.”

“It provides a team to veterans who may have left part of their sense of connection in the war zone, and it provides the same sort of team to those civilians who have been looking for a way to give back to the veterans who have served so loyally.”

Vasquez agrees, saying: “Physical fitness and sports are proven ways to bring people together and set the conditions to build meaningful relationships.

“These activities provide veterans with renewed camaraderie, a sense of purpose and shared accomplishment. In addition to being an excellent way to connect on a social level, physical activity is proven to be therapeutic and healthy for both the body and mind.” 

In addition to group workouts during the week, local Team RWB members will also be participating in multiple upcoming events such as local running events, Tour de Burma today, the Lake Nasworthy triathlon on July 14, Goodfellow triathlon on July 27, and the Wool Capitol triathlon on Aug. 18.

You can connect with or join San Angelo’s Team RWB community several ways. The group has a Facebook page at facebook.com/groups/TeamRWBSanAngelo that provides updates on local activities and events, and the local coordinator periodically sends out emails notifying members of upcoming Team RWB activities.

Full information on the national Team RWB program is available at teamrwb.org, and the local contact for the San Angelo RWB community is Timothy Masshardt, timothy.masshardt@gmail.com. 

Ride On, San Angelo, and remember — join Team RWB and ride or run to support local veterans.


Upcoming Events

June 8: Tour de Burma cycling ride, sanangelobicycleassociation.com
June 15: Flippin Sweet 5K, roadlizards.org
June 22: Stop, Drop, and Roll run, roadlizards.org
July 4: Christoval VFD 5K, roadlizards.org
July 14: Lake Nasworthy Triathlon, roadlizards.org
July 27: Goodfellow Traithlon, roadlizards.org
Aug 18: Wool Capital Triathlon, ironheadrp.com

BILL CULLINS: ElectricRider can give cyclists an extra boost of speed

In 2010 Fabian Cancellara, one of the top professional cyclists in the world, was accused of having a hidden electric motor on his race bike.

He was riding so fast and with so much power that rivals asked the sport’s sanctioning body (UCI) to investigate.

 After inspecting his bike, the UCI confirmed that the Swiss rider did not have a hidden electric motor — he was simply a very fast and strong cyclist.

However, if it had been discovered that Cancellara was using a high-performance electric motor on his race bike, the odds are good that ElectricRider, a local San Angelo company, would have been the supplier.

ElectricRider, located at 1301 Pulliam Street in San Angelo, is one of the world’s largest distributors of electric motor conversion kits for bicycles and the associated lithium battery packs.

Mike Dierker, co-owner and sales manger, said “we ship conversion kits and batteries nationwide and worldwide.
“The motors, lithium cells, and associated components are imported and assembled locally into conversion kits. We build the wheels with electric motor hubs in our shop.”

Cancellara’s rivals were right to be concerned about the potential speed and power increases that could have resulted from a hidden electric motor — there’s a video on the ElectricRider website showing a test rider hitting a top speed of 52 mph on one of their electric bike conversions.

An average recreational cyclist can typically sustain a power output of between 100-200 watts for an hour, while top professional cyclists have recorded power levels of 500-600 watts for an hour.

In contrast, the Phoenix II conversion systems offered by ElectricRider have a maximum power output that ranges from 900 to 2,880 watts depending on the specific model.

Dierker says “the average customer for their electric bike conversion kits is someone who wants to supplement his/her ‘pedaling power’ with assistive electric technology that is simple, inexpensive, and emissions free for bicycle commuting or touring.”

He notes that “a converted electric bicycle is still a bike — it can be pedaled normally even with the motor installed.”

“Much of the growth in sales for our product has been for the physical therapy market. Customers purchase systems so they could recover at their own pace after surgery or a serious health issue, but still be riding their bike. Trikes (3-wheel bicycles) are generally what is used for that type of application, so you don’t have to worry about further injury or balance issues.”

ElectricRider may be well before the curve related to equipping bicycles with electric motors even though major bicycle manufactures such as Specialized are starting to manufacture electric commuter bikes.

Specialized just released their new Turbo eBike which retails for $5,900, so the conversion kits offered by ElectricRider are a much less expensive option that will yield the same “electric power or pedal” hybrid results.

ElectricRider was founded in 2002 by Dave Dierker. After purchasing an electric bike conversion kit from a company in Taiwan and seeing how difficult it was to order a good product from overseas, he decided to start his own company.

Fast forward to today and they’re selling conversion kits, battery pack generators, and related equipment to customers worldwide from their San Angelo facility.

For those of us who will never be able to produce the “pedaling power” that Cancellara does, adding an ElectricRider conversion kit to our bicycle may be the answer to mixing fitness with riding further and faster.

To learn more about ElectricRider, visit their website at www.electricrider.com.

On a related note, there’s an upcoming local cycling event scheduled for June 8 that might be perfect for an ElectricRider converted bicycle.

The event is the Tour de Burma, a bike tour event organized by the San Angelo Bicycle Association that will start and finish at Family Power Sports on the Houston Harte frontage road.

The tour starts at 8 a.m. on June 8th, and will offer four different routes covering 5, 24, 40, or 62 miles. An ElectricRider-assisted bike might be just the ticket for the 40- and 62-mile routes since they both go over the challenging hills of Burma Road.

Full information on Tour de Burma is available online at www.sanangelobicycleassociation.com/events/tourdeburma.html.

Ride On, San Angelo, and remember — if you want to ride fast like Cancellara, either train really hard or go talk to the ElectricRider folks!


Upcoming events

• June 8: Tour de Burma cycling ride, sanangelobicycleassociation.com
• June 22: Stop, Drop, and Roll run, roadlizards.org
• July 4: Christoval VFD 5K, roadlizards.org
• July 14: Lake Nasworthy Triathlon, roadlizards.org
• July 27: Goodfellow Traithlon, roadlizards.org