First club ride

AntLockyer

I might be going on my first club ride tomorrow. I'm told they aren't doing pure beginers rides in the winter and starting them up again in March however the intermediate ride is 25 miles in 2 hours. I explained my position with regards experience etc and said I thought the speed/distance should be no problem and if I get dropped so be it.

Waiting to hear back to see if I can go out with them. I really hope so I'm excited.

zebedeecp

If your having to wait for a reply to see if can go out with them well i'm not sure if its the sort of club you want to be joining. In my experience most clubs just allow people to to turn up and ride with them.

AntLockyer

Well they said if you are comfortable with the distance/time you are welcome. I just wanted to tell them I had no experience of group riding but was not a nervous or reckless kind of rider and understood the requirements on a group ride. I just didn't want to turn up with them thinking I had ridden in a group loads before.

zebedeecp

Well, I suppose I was lucky with the club I joined they have several rides every weekend aimed at different tevels of cyclists. A social ride for beginners, the traditional club run and fast training rides.

Bronzie

AntLockyer wrote:

Waiting to hear back to see if I can go out with them. I really hope so I'm excited.

Ant - Great to hear of your enthusiasm to join in a club run - reminds me why I got into the sport so many moons ago!

Hope you enjoy the experience and remember to avoid tyring to half-wheel the club-run champ or even worse knocking the club secretary off as was reported on here a while back by somebody on their first run!

AntLockyer

Well I'm going along at 10am tomorrow.

Things to remember
1. Half wheel club run champ
2. knock club secretary off
3. ride no handed
4. hit brakes with no warning

Mog Uk

Have fun, I've got my first club run on Sunday, can't wait.......

nolf

If it's as windy as it was today then you might want to leave until Sunday or next week.

Things I try and do are-
Act in a predictable way- so don't brake suddenly or really hard, If you need to put a coat on or something move to the back of the group to do it and then catch up again, same with eating food on the go.

Oh yeah don't half wheel people.

Don't worry too much about pointing obstacles out as other people will probably do that for you, but get used to the hand signals people do.

Hope you enjoy it.

andy_wrx

Point out to people just how crap their bikes are and why yours is so much better.

That'll make you lots of new friends !

AntLockyer

nolf wrote:

If it's as windy as it was today then you might want to leave until Sunday or next week..

Well I'll be riding whatever the weather so might as well do it with others.

thanks for the advice and good wishes everyone.

AntLockyer

Ouch :shock:

32 miles is a bit further than I been before but the 2300 feet of climbing was WAY more than I'd done before.

Nice people, really enjoyed it. Need sleep.

Panter

2300 feet of climbing

:shock: :shock: :shock: :shock: :shock:

Well done Sir, glad you enjouyed it, don't think I would've done


Cheers

Chris

peanut

fantastic well done. Chances are the next run will be flat or shorter. Most clubs decide their route on the day and if you have varied terrain then you'll hopefully get some interesting and challenging rides.

richk

Well done Ant. Wasn't that long ago I did my first club run, also about 30 odd miles. Didn't take too long before I progressed to the 'next level' & have now done a cuople of ~50 miles (I won't say 'easily' because it wasn't, but, I did do them & did survive ) I expect you'll soon find the same

AntLockyer

Thanks for the encouragement all.

My back was hurting very badly and whilst I felt good everywhere else I couldn't have done anymore than I did. I split up with the group with about 2 miles to go as it was a flatter route home. They welcomed me back anytime.

on2wheels

Excuse my ignorance, but what does half wheeling people exactly mean?

a_n_t

Mog Uk wrote:

Have fun, I've got my first club run on Sunday, can't wait.......

could I ask who with?

I went out a couple of weeks ago with manchester wheelers. It was the shorter of the two rides but still 42 miles in total with a few hills, found it hard going tbh! )

Bugly

on2wheels wrote:

Excuse my ignorance, but what does half wheeling people exactly mean?

excused

sitting half a (front) wheel infront of another rider and overlapping the front wheel of the other bike. Sit beside the bike or behind in the draft of the bike in front. dont half wheel.

Mog Uk

a_n_t wrote:

Mog Uk wrote:

Have fun, I've got my first club run on Sunday, can't wait.......

could I ask who with?

I went out a couple of weeks ago with manchester wheelers. It was the shorter of the two rides but still 42 miles in total with a few hills, found it hard going tbh! )

Yep it was Manchester Wheelers, just got back about an hour ago and still grinning like a fool. Did you do a dedicated intro ride from The Gateway in Didsbury ? We covered about 40miles today at about an average of 15mph, about 10 of us in the group and nobody got dropped, very good atmosphere. I'm already looking forward to the next ride.

a_n_t

Mog Uk wrote:

Did you do a dedicated intro ride from The Gateway in Didsbury ?

dont think it was a proper intro ride, just the shorter of 2 club runs. Left from the Hilton on deansgate and headed north upto Littleborough. Had fun but after quite a few years off the bike it was bloody hard work! So long as its dry i'll be out on the next one.

on2wheels

thanks for that bugly, another little piece of cycling etiquette I've learnt