Adcice for starting a club.

Neil Fat man on a bike

I'm interested in starting a cycle club in my village.
I'm just wondering how to go about it......
The basic idea is to have club runs and low key family runs as the core activity but to be able to cover all aspects of cycling. So touring, mountain biking ( our village is in the Scottish highlands ) and hopefully get some folks into time trials,xc and see how it devellops. I love the idea of raising some funds to purchase 'club bikes' so that anyone could have a go without needing to purchase specialist bikes ( ideal for getting some youngsters involved ).
I suppose the big question revolves around affiliations, where do you start CTC, RTTC,BCF ?
Has anyone on the board ever started a club?
How did you do it?
What are the pitfalls?

Neil Fat man on a bike

Excellent response
read by 35 people non of whom could be arsed to respond.
Thanks guys

BlackSpur

Perhaps none of those 35 people haveany experience in starting a mountain bike club? If your attitude is like that, I doubt anyone can be arsed to respond. You need to learn the meaning of the word patience!

flybywire

Can't offer any advise there but with a day such as today surprised 35 have read your post.! most of us are out riding..

Might get some suggestions later this evening.. whereabouts are you based? Good access to local rideable off-road? Roads relatively traffic free? etc What's wrong with any existing club in your area?

Neil Fat man on a bike

BlackSpur wrote:

Perhaps none of those 35 people haveany experience in starting a mountain bike club? If your attitude is like that, I doubt anyone can be arsed to respond. You need to learn the meaning of the word patience!

:shock:
I know the meaning well enough, try looking up sarcasm

Neil Fat man on a bike

flybywire wrote:

Can't offer any advise there but with a day such as today surprised 35 have read your post.! most of us are out riding..

Might get some suggestions later this evening.. whereabouts are you based? Good access to local rideable off-road? Roads relatively traffic free? etc What's wrong with any existing club in your area?

Fair point
Based on the far North coast of Scotland/ Our nearest club would be the monument club over in Golspie or the Caithness club in Thurso, both about 70 miles away.
Local rides are great if a bit disjointed, peat roads, old drovers roads etc could do with a bit of developing/joined up thinking to link the options up a bit to get some lenght to any of the routes. Mountains, coast, quiet roads but no club.
We had a sponsered ride for the football club and had quite a good response, it could be the start of something.

woodywmb

Put your ideas in writing as a letter to the editor to local newspapers. Include your telephone number and email address and invite like-minded individuals to contact you. Shop noticeboards are also good attention grabbers. Encourage the participants in your sponsored cyce to join you for a launch meeting in someone's house, the lounge bar of a local pub or part of a community hall. Flag up your intentions on all the local and national websites, including Scottish Cycling. At your meeting, try and gather a steering committee to establish how the club will operate - office-bearers, types of cycling, contact points, frequency of rides, AGM, charity input, liaison with other clubs, discount shopping deals, availability of transport, insurance, club kit, sponsorship, registration with Scottish Cycling. Write an article on how the meeting went, outlining your aims and concluding with contact details and notice of next meeting. Submit it to your local newspaper/website. Print it out and paste it up on community noticeboards. Make it available to secondary schools, youth clubs, ramblers groups and any organisations with potential members. Your area might have a Rotary Club or Round Table which will always be interested in hearing about anything new. Get the word out ... and gauge the interest. There may be the possibility of a youth section, or a ladies section. Then again you might go for road racing, off-road trails, simple leisure outings, away days and weekends with a mixture of disciplines or even an after-work hour-long pootle among the farm lanes and paths of a countryside community.
Other clubs are likely to help by providing copies of their constitution or advising on registration fees with national bodies. Best of luck. Invite us up once you get going!

dave_hill

Neil Fat man on a bike wrote:

Has anyone on the board ever started a club?
How did you do it?
What are the pitfalls?

Yes, I started and ran a cycling club for two years; ran a field archery club for three years; and a gun club for one year.

My advice? Unless you like being hassled, backstabbed, badmouthed, worked to death and generally be made to feel that life isn't worth living any more, don't do it.

Your members will be full of fine words and good ideas, but when it actually comes to putting it into practice, they immediatey become unavailable, struck down with crippling illness or leave the club to join another one an start slagging you off.

Worst idea ever....

bluechair84

You'll find it's hard beyond just a group of mates. Myself and a few guys started a club, we have 65 members and only three people (the same three) turn up to rides.
What worked well for us was to have a regular relaxed meet. We do every Friday in the pub and appearences started at upwards of 20. We talked shit, drank beer, got club jerseys (which noone bought) and decided where to ride that weekend. The idea was that If you didn't feel up to a major ride, you could arrange your own with others as there was a wide range of abilities turning up. We also have a facebook account in which people can add our club and receive emails about where the rides will take place. The forum on the front page also acts as a great way of getting people to socialise about rides past or future. The facebook account was originally advertised by flyers in windows, bike stores and websites.
The problem came about when the beginners wanted the security of the experienced riders and so wouldn't go unless there was experienced riders out. The experienced riders got tyred of having to hold back for newbies and do full services half way around the trails and stopped advertising their planned rides. The newbies wouldn't arrange their own rides, even with the help of the club runners and stopped coming. It is now only the four original mates that actually turn up to the meet after all the other experienced riders fled the club.
I would recomend trying a monthly meet at first where four rides are planned, one for each weekend with the input of the group. These rides are then advertised by email to everyone who has signed up. If someone wants to ride something else, they can write on the forum and ask for others to join them. If it is succesful, try a weekly meet where a couple of rides are planned for different abilities.

Don't get club bikes as you are then responsible for their mainatenance and should a wheel fall off on a descent you are in for a load of shit. Better to speak to a local bike hire place and ask for club discount.
If you take the club seriously you will need someone with an outdoors based (16hr minimum) first aid course. These are not run by St Johns ambulance, I have one by REC. And you could do with someone having a mountain bike leadership qualification under their belt. SMBLA Is the one to get, mine is OTC. Then there is the problem with insurance.
Get a website up, advertise it in local shops where people can sign up to emails about rides, try setting up a regular meeting, but don't hold your breath.

Oh, and don't through in the towel after four and a half hours if no-one has signed up for the club. You can't force people to respond.

bluechair84

If i type in shit, will Bikeradar sensor me and make it 'shoot'?

dennisn

Whatever you do make safety the #1 thing on your agenda. If you don't you may find
that the "officers" of this club could be held liable if someone gets hurt or worse at
some club function or event that you(the officers) have promoted. And never take it
on faith that "no, we won't sue you". Back yourself up with disclaimers for all to sign.
Here in the states the club I belong to races every Thursday evening thoughout the
spring, summer, and fall. We carry liabilty insurance through the U.S. Cycling Federation
and the races are run under their rules and regulations. Our website might be somewhat
helpful to you. www.freewheel.com

Dennis Noward

Neil Fat man on a bike

Some great responses.
Thank you all very much.
There is a hell of a lot to take onboard.
I must admit to wondering if I'm the man for the job.
All I really want to do is go out riding my bikes ( new On-one frame on order ).
Just it would be good to enchorage a few of the local teenage quad bikers that two wheels are better than 4.
Fear of liability keeps cropping up. It always does these days I suppose.

I'm gonna keep looking into it and sound out a few likely folks and see what the response is. It's a tiny village so it will be difficult to get any real numbers, but the area is fantastic for MTB's .

Thanks again for your input.

Ta Neil

dave_hill

Does it really have to be as formal as a club? Why not just get a phone/e-mail list together that everyone has access to, then if people want to arrange runs out they can whenever it suits them?

Myself and the people I ride with do that and we get some great days out, you can usually bet on five or six turning up which I think is as many as you need riding as a group.

bluechair84

Our Facebook group is lmited to people who already have a facebook account, but it's a great forum to have where people can join and tag along with rides if only it was used anymore. Have a look into a website with an open forum on the front page where people can find out about you, where you ride and when and ask to join in. Supporting that with fliers in local shops and putting the word out should get you some interest. But it's not an easy sport for people to get into - having to own a couple of hundred quids worth of metal before you can join in for starters. And it's not like baseball in America where everyone of all abilities loves to 'have a go' on a weekend. If your looking for people to start riding with, this and the forum on Bikemagic.com are great places to meet em.
Even in North Wales with the amazing trails, we've struggled to keep people involved.
Best of luck - you should start a new thread if you get it going letting other peope know what worked well.