About Our Bicycling Club

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In mid 1986, Herb Berger, an engineer at Northrup and living in Thousand Oaks, used to ride his bike around the Thousand Oaks, Westlake Village and Agoura Hills area on weekends.  Another cyclist, Jules Meisler, also living in Thousand Oaks and a practicing family psychologist, saw Herb one day and asked if he could ride with him. Herb agreed and they continued to ride together on weekends. Over the years more cyclists joined them, mostly through word of mouth and similar interests, and the number of riders began to grow. In early '95 the bike club thought it would be a good idea to form a bicycling club for senior citizens.  At this time most, if not all, the riders were retired and lived locally. Tom Nussmeir, a retired engineer, joined and said that his wife, Marie, who worked at the Goebel Senior Citizen Center in Thousand Oaks had mentioned to him that the Center could sponsor the club and provide advertising through the Center's quarterly catalog of classes. This was agreed to by all the riders.  A small annual insurance fee was necessary which would be added to the club's annual membership fee. The bike club needed a name, so Jules came up with "The Old Kranks" which, of course, lasts to this day.

I was encouraged to join the Old Kranks bicycling club by Steve Forman, my neighbor and fellow Krank, about seven years ago. I received plenty of coaching from Earl, my son and many of the Kranks. I am retired from two Fortune 500 companies. I'm a wine enthusiast, and a beer and cigar snob. I love to travel and am married to the same woman for 55 years and have been a Newbury Park resident for the last 20 years.