Is it worth joining a club?
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+1 Don't know how much your nearest club charges for membership but in my case it's only £15 and I'll more than make that back by using the club discount at my LBS (saved £150 on my new bike so 10 years membership paid for
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Slow1972 wrote:Fair do's Sampras, our club does training rides without cafe stops so we're back for lunchtime. Otherwise sometimes I ride out with the club run and turn back before the cafe stop if I want to ride without stopping. But your point is fair enough, but it's also different to saying "I'm not in a club because they are all "dickheads" who prance around in club jerseys".
To be honest, one of the benfits I have found from being in a club is I have found some club mates who (much like you) want to get out do a few hard hours with an early start and home by mid-morning so as not to impinge on family life too much. But you've got that option already so i can understand your position. Most of my old mtb mates had dropped by the wayside and, coupled with a move away from having trails on my doorstep, that's why bought a road bike and joined a club.
Oh god yeah, I absolutely see the benefit of joining a club. You learn loads, meet new people and if you ride with the right groups your level should shoot up. I have the same view about tennis clubs which was pretty much my life before cycling. I also appreciate there are good and bad clubs out there, same as everyting in life. When my life calms down a little I'll look into it I'm sure, but at the moment I'm lucky that I have a few good riders as mates if I really need the group riding stuff. My goals for this year at least are to do more Sportives, another trip to the alps and take it from there. I'm aiming to get as fast as possible in the Sportives and for that I know I need more group riding.
I have a slightly obsessive nature when it comes to anything fitness related, and tend to throw myself into it 100%.0 -
Garry H wrote:pneumatic wrote:Garry H wrote:pneumatic wrote:As Groucho Marx (?) famously said: "I wouldn't join any club that would have me as a member." 8)
Seriously, though, I would love to have the incentive of regular rides in a pack that would actually stretch my riding capabilities, but the pace thing is a very delicate issue and you'd need a massive and really well-organised club to deal with all abilities.
You can't find a suitable club in Fife! How fast are you man?
It is not a question of how fast, more of how slow!! :oops: 21.4kph on the Winter Steel bike; 25kph on the Summer Carbon joyride. But on the Etape Caledonia, mercilessly exploiting the passing chaingangs, I reached an exhilharating 27.4 kph over 135km.
You should pop over the bridge, there's a suitable club there for you
Depends which Bridge: I'm an 80 mile round trip from EBC and a 35 mile round trip from DW: the training would be done just getting there!!0 -
Garry H wrote:pneumatic wrote:Garry H wrote:pneumatic wrote:As Groucho Marx (?) famously said: "I wouldn't join any club that would have me as a member." 8)
Seriously, though, I would love to have the incentive of regular rides in a pack that would actually stretch my riding capabilities, but the pace thing is a very delicate issue and you'd need a massive and really well-organised club to deal with all abilities.
You can't find a suitable club in Fife! How fast are you man?
It is not a question of how fast, more of how slow!! :oops: 21.4kph on the Winter Steel bike; 25kph on the Summer Carbon joyride. But on the Etape Caledonia, mercilessly exploiting the passing chaingangs, I reached an exhilharating 27.4 kph over 135km.
You should pop over the bridge, there's a suitable club there for you
What! - There are bikes in Dundee??
-Spider-0 -
Oh I do love forum postings that get out of hand... my dickhead quote was not aimed at ALL members of clubs but mere to highltight on a previous comment to my post about not being a club member would/could lead to no racing or in that vein and therefore it was very amiss of me to 'snub' membership of my local club..... thats what I describe as 'dickhead' thinking in my book and if that is an example of the calibre of people inside clubs who have controlling interest, I am not interested.
Anyways apologies to those who got wrong end of stick.0 -
OK, you not being a member may not lead to there being no racing but if everyone thought the same then it would so why is it dickhead thinking :?0
