BCF one-day license/thinking of racing?

I think a "day licence" is around £10 or so.

A full racing licence with BC Silver membership (min level required) is £66 currently.

So if you are planning to ride more than 6 races in the season, best to go with a full licence. Bit difficult to know what to do when you've never tried it, so maybe try a race on a day licence first and see if you enjoy enough to try another one.

FWIW you can enter "Go Race" events (4th cats only) on a BC Bronze membership and no day licence (Bronze is £12 or even FOC from a local club who may get some each year to give away to new members)..................but as you will see, there are not many Go Race events on the calendar.

oldwelshman wrote:

I would also suggest doing a circuit race so if you get dropped you can get lapped and try to keep up again, at least you will get some moneys worth rather than doing big course with longer laps where you may get dropped, and a lone ride

I’m not sure what oldwelshman means by ‘circuit’ but if he means something like a criterium, the circuit only being a mile or so long, I’m not so sure.
As far as I know, the rules allow organisers to take out of a race anyone who is lapped or indeed, even without being lapped, anyone they think is so far behind that they won’t have any impact on the significant final placings (often the first 15).

Although in a pack, you’ll probably be faster than your normal best (and would need to be, as I’d expect the winning speed to be at least similar to a 25 min for a 10 mile), the tight cornering and jostling which can go on around a small circuit can be quite disconcerting, and the moment you hesitate about either, you can be dropped and soon lapped. I’ve seen this happen to inexperienced riders after only 5 laps of a 25 x 1.5 mile lap race.

I’d look for a race with a circuit of 5-10 miles, and a biggish field, so you can safely assume (a) it’s not all riders at the top of the category and (b) if you do get dropped, there’ll be others that happens to too and you won’t be alone.
Alternatively, test how you are by entering one of the shorter sportives, the front riders in these are often those you might then meet at a BCF race.