Is it better to have a riding partner or ride alone?

scottbramwell

I want to know whether you reckon it is better to go out riding with a riding buddy or if its better to go out an explore on your own?

supersonic

Personal preference. I prefer alone, but always take a phone and let people know you are out.

cooldad

I much prefer riding with others, but we do end up resting, chatting, knitting etc as much as riding. Not for everyone, especially serious riders. More about having a bit of fun.
Met most of them on here in rides.

The Northern Monkey

I like both.

On my own I can pace myself and set my own goals, when I'm with others I'm conscious that I'm not a fast climber and feel like I always hold everyone up.
Luckily the chaps I ride with are aware of this now lol.

cooldad

I spend most of my time catching up as well. Tough, they get the benefit of my charm and wit when I finally get to the top. Once I get my breath back anyway.

delcol

both for me..
lucky though last year the 2 crashes i had that left me borken and mangled i had someone with me to pick me up then take the p155...

i tend to get more miles in and get a better work out if i go alone though....

Ouija

Alone. Always alone. Most of the other people i know who occasionally cycle practically run screaming if i suggest coming with me for a ride. Phrases like "we'll just pop over Dalby forest to Pickering or go over the moors to Whitby" seem to make them go a ghostly white, lol. Thing is, if your a reasonably serious cyclist, 40, 50 even a 100 miles doesn't seem that much to you anymore. You tend to forget that to them just cycling 5 miles seems like a big deal, so you come across as a bit of a cycling 'nutter'. I mean for craps sake, i just popped out in the middle of the night to do a quick 10 miles while i was waiting for my computer to finish some updates .....
..... that and the fact the extra 10 miles would take me over 300 miles for this week, lol (sometimes you ride for the silliest of reasons).

delcol wrote:

i tend to get more miles in and get a better work out if i go alone though....

Yeah. I think if your not doing it for 'social' reasons you tend to focus more on 'the numbers' and setting yourself goals.

Briggo

delcol wrote:

i tend to get more miles in and get a better work out if i go alone though....

Depends on who your riding buddies are I guess, with my mate who I ride with regularly I probably ride further, a slight hint of competativeness always helps.

But yeah sometimes as a larger group we can end up just chatting and breaks up the routine, I certainly don't not enjoy riding on my own though, sometimes it is nice to just get out there and focus 100% on the riding and not having to think where others are.

diy

I ride alone most of the time. I find this is best for the type of riding I do. I'm mostly training for long endurance rides, so really don't have time to ride with slower riders. I have a riding buddy I ride with and we are well matched. He is faster up hill and I am faster down, so we are well balanced. I have ridden with other riders, but I simply find that my pace drops too much, such that I can't honestly say the time spent equals a good training ride.

I like riding with people who are slightly fitter than me as it pushes me on.

MountainMonster

I like a mix of both, it's nice being out with other people, but there are other times i'm just not in the mood for waiting, being waited for if I feel the need to stop.

.blitz

Works both ways. I have a tendency to f**k off and explore when I see an interesting trail which can be quite irritating if in a group

Riding with someone who is better than me has its advantages but by the same token riding with someone who is just turning the pedals really gets me down.

oodboo

Alone if I want to go and just clock up some miles. With friends if I want to have fun and push the limits a bit. Good to know someone you know is there to pick up the pieces should the worst happen.

Mojo_666

I like Both, sometimes its nice to go solo but more often than not I prefer the social ride so do that 90% of the time.

njee20

Thing is, if your a reasonably serious cyclist, 40, 50 even a 100 miles doesn't seem that much to you anymore.

Find new people to ride with then!

I do most of my riding alone, although rarely go out on my MTB alone. Prefer riding with people, particularly on the MTB. Got a great pool of good riders, all of a (reasonably) similar standard, can still be sociable while being quick!

Northwind

Both are good, there's ups and downs to both though (like, taking 3 hours to get round Glentress red because you have to stop at the end of every descent for a chat and a faff with the bikes, is good in some ways but bad in others... Sometimes the social side is good, sometimes other riders will motivate you or encourage you, other times they'll hold you back or frustrate you. But lying in a heap with nobody around to help is mostly just bad.

Just do what you like!

lochussie

It can be annoying riding with slower riders and having to stop all the time. I try to use it as interval training, beast a section then chill out till they catch up.

Rushmore

lochussie wrote:

It can be annoying riding with slower riders and having to stop all the time. I try to use it as interval training, beast a section then chill out till they catch up.

+1 for this...

Anonymous

More fun with a bunch of like minded people who just like having fun.

Less with a bunch of racing whippets who leave you behind and don't wait for you to catch up or get annoyed with you for being slow, and talk only about their choice of lycra and the weight of their components :P. I say that mainly as someone not fit enough to be in their gang

Our rides are just relaxed, anything goes and doesn't matter if some are slow and some are fast. People are happy to wait.

I'm happy to ride on my own on occasion. Did that for years before finding groups here. It's easier to explore, but then on the other hand if you ride with many different groups and get different people coming along each week as our bunch do you find new routes that people know of and you may not and would have taken years to find by yourself.

Just don't ride with Audi drivers in Surrey Hills if you ride a Specialized

oodboo

deadkenny wrote:

Just don't ride with Audi drivers in Surrey Hills if you ride a Specialized

Just to add to that, don't ride with white van driving santa cruz riders in Hamsterley either. What a pair of nob heads they were.

cat_with_no_tail

I like to ride on my own, do things at my own pace, change the route when I feel like it to make it longer/shorter, session bits if I feel like it. Stop and have a rest when I want and so on.

I'd not mind riding in a group, but I've tried 3 of the local groups, and found that none of them do the same kind of riding as me. I prefer to find the easiest way to the top, so I can enjoy the way down. All the groups round here seem to be about climbing, and are quite happy to slog 2hrs uphill just to come down a fireroad.

robertpb

I mostly ride solo but don't mind riding in a group provided its not too big.

I was put off large groups in the winter of 85 when we went out with 32 riders, nearly froze to death waiting for the slow riders to catch-up. I tend to ride pretty light on clothing so I soon cool down, just can't get those muscles working once they're frozen.

allen.coulson

If you have no firiends then ride alone!

Bikehawk

I work shift so go out during the week, can be hard to find anyone else to ride with. I've ridden a few times with guys from work and it was fun, tended to push myself on the downs a fair bit harder than when on my own resulting in a few disagrements with trees etc . In saying that I really like to go out by myself and go at the pace want. I generally tend to push myself harder on the ups than the downs though as very aware that there no one about if something goes wrong.

stubs

Used to ride with quite a large group but its been whittled down to just 3 of us with another when he can get time off at the weekend. Prefer small groups for off road riding and much prefer being on my own for a road ride. Off road I am a lot more careful on my own taking less risks but tend to be a bit more of an explorer on my own sometimes in a group its hard to get everyone to agree to trying that never seen before track.

Anonymous

Smaller groups are better.

And a valid point that off road on my own I'm cautious about doing something nuts especially if the person who will find me will be the walker the next morning after I've been eaten by wolves.

Prefer a group where someone may at least be bothered to go look for me and maybe even call the ambulance.

cooldad

deadkenny wrote:

Smaller groups are better.

And a valid point that off road on my own I'm cautious about doing something nuts especially if the person who will find me will be the walker the next morning after I've been eaten by wolves.

Prefer a group where someone may at least be bothered to go look for me and maybe even call the ambulance.

We'll call an ambulance from your phone, calls aren't free you know.
True though, my last crash had one guy driving me to hospital then getting me home, another taking my car and son home, and another taking the bikes home in his van.
DK ended up in intensive care one ride, wouldn't want to be alone in those circumstances, although if he had been he probably wouldn't have tried something quite so heroic.

Chunkers1980

Last time I checked 999 calls were FOC

stubs

Emergency 112 calls are free as well if you cant get a signal on your network a 112 call will use any available mast irrespective of network.

cooldad

I was joking. We'd never leave DK to get eaten by wolves. Bears maybe, that would be interesting.

weirdNumber

I usually ride alone because of my shift work. When I was out today I was concious that I was in the middle of the peak district, miles from anyone and that if anything happened it would be a while before people came looking.

I tend to do better on the climbs if I have others to push me though. On my own I find it a little easier to get off and push :oops:

Frodo1095

I like doing both, but having said that was riding with friends last weekend when I had a serious crash and was knocked unconscious for 5mins and then needed a lot of assistance to get out and then be taken to A&E.

I guess if it is just general riding then I dont mind riding alone, for steeper more technical stuff then I now feel better to ride with friends.