Would you use our website? www.bike-ride.co.uk

gary1

Hi,

For my university project (which the questionnaire was been used for earlier) I have developed a website (just a prototype at the moment) this website is where cyclists like yourselves can arrange to go on cycling rides with one another by posting on the website and seeing if there are any other persons interested ongoing with you. This enables you to meet new cyclists and meet a variety of different ages and even perhaps help to encourage more people to take up cycling.

Although this may sound like a forum it would be hoped that it would be simpler to use,more so for the more mature riders who may find navigating forums hard and tedious. Not that I'm saying that there is anything wring with a forum,just with this idea you can search for rides in your area which you may have some free time and decide that you want to go along.

Perhaps you are not good at making friends but have an interest in cycling,this website may be of use to you.

This website would be freely available for anyone to use. Although they have to be above 18 at the moment,just for safety reasons.

If this website did make it online it would be called 'bike-ride.co.uk', although it is doubtful and may take a few months

Any feedback would be great if you think this would be a useful website and whether you would use it or do people like the use of forums other using databased websites?

thank you

shogun12345

To be honest I would probably use a site like that. sounds useful and I hope it gets up and running. Infact I need someone to ride with now for those quiet relaxing sunday rides I go on. But anyway I would definatly use your site

gary1

Thanks for your vote of confidence javascript:emoticon(':D')
Very Happy

yogi

One area of concern would be that you are meeting up with people you have never met before, are they who they say they are? You can't be too trusting these days.

SteveR_100Milers

Indeed, they may be much faster than claimed, which would lead to lots of trouble...

Brian B

yogi wrote:

One area of concern would be that you are meeting up with people you have never met before, are they who they say they are? You can't be too trusting these days.

A problem for women I suppose but not to most blokes. As with anything else never be too trusting if meeting strangers and never go alone.

I would use a site like that as it already happens on some threads on this website at present.

LingfieldXC

though most of the time I hit the roads with friends it would be good to be able to meet new people. I would use the site.

shogun12345

Yeah safety would be parmount on a site like that. you can never be too careful on the internet these days. It would be helpful for me right now tho. just started cycling 'properly' a few months ago so I havn't had the chance to make any cycling 'buddies' yet. i'm quite far away from any clubs plus there just doesn't seem to be any other cyclists around here for some reason. suppose I could cycle the 50 miles to Gosforth RC, cycle the 50-60 mile rides they do and then cycle back but in my current state that would probably turn into a 24 hour event

Maybe it would be a good site for newbies like myself to meet up and ride together but don't know, now I thought about it, if I would use it once I joined a club

SunWuKong

SteveR_100Milers wrote:

Indeed, they may be much faster than claimed, which would lead to lots of trouble...

Not only this, but worse still they could ride a rubbish bike or wear crap kit.

pedylan

I travel up to Scotland on business a fair bit and take my bike on some summer trips. Your proposed site woudl be a way of finding cyclists in areas where you might only visit once. There must be a reasonably wide market for thsi type of user.

vermooten

Coud you expand it for other kinds of activities? The basic idea is sound: a web space for people to arrange to meet up and do stuff. Could also work for ramblers, twitchers, pretty much anything where people meet up to do stuff. Dogging too I expect.

Would I use it? It all depends on how well or otherwise it's implemented I suppose, and if other people use it. Might be useful for the club website as an addition to the forum which is where rides are currently arranged. I'd be a bit wary of anything that had fields for things like 'Length of ride' i.e. anything that might be inflexible.

It'd be ace if it could be seamlessly integrated into another website.

yogi

I said about this idea years ago for this forum and the powers that be showed no interest. I can't see why you can't just have a section on this website where you just key in your location and see what grroups meet where and when.

There is a site called Bike Buddies that has a map with pin-points where people have placed ride details. There's also a section on RoadCycling.co.uk but that tends to be clubs and chain-gangs.

There's nothing to stop anyone saying we meet here, at this time and date and seeing who turns up - pretty much what we do really.

It's always difficult to get similar abilities riding together which is why we do our 'Easy Rides' once a month so that slower riders can enjoy riding in a group. Often the better riders turnout for these too but just enjoy chilling out for a change. It helps if you tell people the intended distance and what the average speed is likely to be.

Barrie_G

I'd probably have a good look at the site.

Would I use it to meet other people though?

I honestly don't know, I guess it would depend on my mood at the time of looking at the site and how much travelling was involved to get to meet them.

gary1

The distance would largely depend on how far you would wish to go. If you only wanted to go a short distance then you would hope that there would be people in the same/surrounding areas that would want to go the same distance as you.

We also have a forum for flexibility and it would be hoped that we would be able to setup cycling schools in the future for children in certain areas and perhaps help with unemployment by employing people (after the appropriate checks have been made)

Hmmm,I never thought about ramblers, I guess that they don't have such websites available to them.

andy_wrx

Sorry, I really don't see that much danger ?

You're meeting-up with strangers to go cycling with - it's not like a dating site where you're turning-up alone and have no idea who (or what !) is waiting for you, intending to go off somewhere private or to a pub or club where they can slip something into your drink.

Surely the worst could be that you're agreeing to meeting in a layby somewhere with what turns-out to be a bunch of guys with pickaxe handles in a Transit, either after your bike or just wanting to beat up a cyclist...

...but with some of the psychos on the roads, don't we take the risk of meeting someone like that every time we go out on the bike ?

And if there are a few people on the site all agreeing to turn-up at the same place, there will be a few of you all turning-up within 10 minutes or so

- perhaps just need to tell the trolls that the next cyclist to turn-up has a much tastier bike !