Examples of good websites for Cycling Clubs

ratsbeyfus

Hi

My cycling club is looking to re-build its website as the current one is very clunky (it's based on the 'NING' platform). Discussions are spread all over the place and easily lost; the look is old-fashioned; the phone version is pretty basic; most members ignore it despite being a sociable and seemingly tech-savvy bunch.

We have someone in the club who has the skills, patience and time to build us a new website, and he's asked us to find him some examples of other club's websites that we like... basically, I'm asking for some help here with my 'homework'. So, if any of you know any good cycling club websites that are well used by the membership than please let me know. Particularly, I guess we could divide up the requirements into:
- good looking websites;
- websites that have a good architecture - easy to navigate, scalable for mobile devices, etc;
- websites that have good functionality (e.g. forums, diary).

Thanks in advance for any help you can offer!

Omar Little

I'm not a member but i've been impressed with Stirling Bike Clubs' website when i've been in races they've organised - they usually have an event page with details of the race (eg http://castle.stirlingbikeclub.org.uk/ ) and they also engage in alot of social media stuff, photos, videos, live updates etc. Their club website looks pretty good too http://www.stirlingbikeclub.org.uk/

dstev55

I'm not a member but this is a local club to me and their website is top notch.

http://beeston.cc/

ratsbeyfus

Thanks both - funnily enough, the beeston.cc one was held up as a an example of a good website by the web-developer-member! The member/non-members area on the Stirling site looks good - our ning set up doesn't allow non-members to see too much which is a shame I think.

ronnierocket

One other thing to think about is what you want the website to do. e.g. Facebook group pages do a lot of the communicating these days instead websites or forums. They are more immediate than forums and easier to interact with e.g. organising rides, looking for marshalls, posting results. You could do a pinned post which tells people all the basics about your club. You could get a way with a more basic website but do most of interaction via other means.

ratsbeyfus

Yep - we have a Facebook page which gets quite a bit of use by members, and discussions break out on Strava and, to a lesser extent, Twitter. Inevitably things can feel a bit fragmented, with different members preferring different platforms... I guess my hope is that the website would be easily enough to use that it would become the no. 1 choice for members to communicate through... but that may be because I'm not on Facebook!Saying that, I'd be prepared to join it if became the main online meeting place for members. Is that how most other clubs stay in touch now?

Omar Little

A forum still has a place. We have a general rule that 'official' club stuff - like the Sunday club run, summer chaingang, winter turbo, club TTs, kit orders (things like that) then the details get posted on the forum rather than the club facebook page.

Ben6899

http://www.islington.cc

Bobbinogs

You could have a look at ours as it seems to work well:

http://www.cheltenhamandcounty.cc/

ratsbeyfus

Thanks again - like the simplicity of both of those. The Islington website looks very fresh, and I like the calendar on the Cheltenham one. Our club colours are yellow and green... yes yellow and green... could be difficult to make our website look as appealing.

on-yer-bike

http://www.southborough-wheelers.co.uk

Best one I know

ratsbeyfus

Thanks oyb - more food for thought.

frostorama

You could take a look at our club website, http://www.woodmancotewheelers.org. One of our members built the site using WordPress as that's his business.

We have some pretty good features:
- Searchable route archive;
- Automatic feed from Instagram based on hashtags;
- Chat facility for members using BuddyPress;
- Integration with Strava for routes etc;
- Club members can create rides and have them automatically shared with other members;
- Electronic club ride signup so we know who is attending a given ride;
- Private committee area for drafting content before publishing to the wider site;
- Media library for photos etc.

Take a look, if you want to know more drop me a line.

Dan

Club Captain - Woodmancote Wheelers

ratsbeyfus

That's a very smart looking website - I'll show it to the committee and see what they think. Thanks for linking to it!

Martin bikeradar

Hi. I've been organising our club's online activity for several years now. It's thriving and serves our club well to doing the following...

1. Make your club's website essentially a place for new members and a resource for very occasional visits. Info, what's it all about, static stuff like membership forms or maps of regular routes and TTs, club records, google calendar perhaps, etc. It'll be low maintenance.

2. Have a separate forum site - not unlike this one - for day-to-day stuff, linking from/to the club website. Don't have a club Facebook or twitter: as it fragments info sharing and can swamp you with unwanted stuff too: they're too sophisticated for most people. Make your forum the one and only place for Club everyday info. Not everyone wants to be on sites like FB. But a forum: you can control, police, edit, kept simple, will be universally accepted by members. Never lose sight of the fact that you're a cycling club, and it's all about the bike and riding first and foremost. The social stuff? Leave that to your social secretary.

3. Encourage groups of members within who have a particularly active interest or focus to begin a forum elsewhere or an email group, so it doesn't swamp the Club one. But encourage them to keep occasional updates on the Club forum. Keep the main club forum the beating heart and one-stop info shop of the Club online, and a way to signpost people to these offshoot sites and forums. Keep it simple and it'll be inclusive and well used.

4. Your forum site will very likely be free. But host it somewhere good and pay to have it backed up securely. It'll quickly become a useful resource and history of the club and you wouldn't want to lose it.

matt-h

I think ours www.vcventa.co.uk is a great website
Matt

philbar72

give ours a look.

www.kingstonwheelers.co.uk

its been updated recently.