“self contained” is how I heard mrs antigee describe me to one of her friends

occasionally ride with a local club but that would be about 2% of total riding

just planning a 5 day road/gravel Victorian Alps trip for next month “billy no mates” style and looking forward to it – most of the multiday trips in groups I’ve done have been with people I’ve known over 20years and takes no effort to be sociable

I don’t mind. I do two types of group rides.

One is social weekend warrior and it’s basically bunch of friends having a laugh. There’s faffing, and sometimes too much of it, but each ride varies. Might be a couple of us, might be 10 or more. Big does end up with more faff, though often we’ll get folk new to the trails and it’s great to show them about.

Then I do night rides that are basically no faff and depending on the group it may be fast and virtually no stopping, or an average pace and limited stops. It’s still more social than a road ride though.

However I also enjoy solo rides. I can get out at my own pace and enjoy the countryside, plus usually I’ll do some exploring. Finding new trails, or trying different routes. Maybe a challenge doing a bit of distance.

What I don’t like though is official clubs, with rules, committees, money involved and people too much up their own arse to be any fun to ride with.

I much prefer riding in groups, leading a group or riding in a pair.

The obligation forces me out when sometimes I would stay on the sofa and always encourages me to push harder. I am a much better rider as a result of the people I ride with.

I started “proper” mtb riding about 4 years ago. All the guys I’ve become friends with during this time have been mtb’ing since the sport first appeared around here.
So every group ride shows me how massive skills gap is between me and the rest of the gang… 😳

However most of my social rides are with one person, who knows my abilities very well and doesn’t mind waiting for me at the bottom of the technical descents (he also warns if he feels some tracks can be “too much” for me). But I kindly wait for him on the top of some technical climbs 😉

Ride on my own every day, sometimes with my 15yr old but he is faster than me so it is depressing.

Messing about on trails in the woods is better fun with a few mates.

Thank f@@k I’m normal as well !! I enjoy going out by myself, I either chill out on my rides or sometimes I go bonkers.. either way I just prefer it that way.

+1 😀

All depends on the people involved!

I’m 70 or 80% solo, maybe even 90% – but a lot of my riding is last-minute and during most people’s work hours.

It’s great to catch up with mates for a big ride out though, and showing people the trails I know or getting guided by others is part of what riding’s all about to me.

PS – yes OP you are anti-social but that’s OK so long as it’s not bothering you

I mostly ride by myself, just prefer it. I find if I ride with others theres too much standing around talking and not as much riding! I occasionally ride with mates but we’re not all at the same level so theres more stopping and waiting etc.

I’m a 50/50 split. Road riding I prefer to be out by myself, with a group there’s a huge amount of stopping to faff and I just end up getting cold. Much prefer to be able to press on and get the miles in.

Mountain biking I much prefer riding with mates. It’s a bit more faffy than a solo ride, but most of the MTB’ing I do isn’t to get miles in, it’s to fart around on black sections and do DH. Much more fun with a group of mates. Sadly my riding buddies all live 3+ hours away now, probably explains why I do so little MTB’ing these days! 😕

I’m a sort of half way house, I like to ride on my own sometimes, really enjoy the occasional big group ride too.

But my best rides have been with two or three close riding buddies, guys on the same wavelength ie enjoy a bit of hike a bike, not bothered by a bog crossing or two and we’re of a similar skill level/fitness too.

Where it becomes annoying, is if I mention that I fancy a route somewhere, and then some folks want to to do it slightly different, or start later, then they come and turn up late, faff about etc…

The annoying part is that it always seems to be one or two of us that plan stuff, I wouldn’t mind if these other mates planned a day now and again, they can then chop and change as much as they like, but they don’t.

I am planning one such ride on saturday, first trip down to the lakes, but only 3 of us going as I can’t be arsed with the faff, and want an early start due to the lack of daylight.

So don’t anoyone tell them, right!

I mostly ride alone or with a couple of others. Last week in Singapore I rode with a dozen others and had a great time like I did last summer in the alps with a load of my UK mates etc. I quite like riding bikes mostly so quite happy to ride with people or alone (depending on the people of course).

I ride with people but the day i went riding the same usual trails on my own, it felt very weird, like something was missing.

Generally happy to do both but in groups of no more than 4. The amount of faffage increases massively per person, what with waiting around for slower people and mending punctures etc. One night ride we had just before Christmas resulted in 3 stops for punctures. We cut the ride short because it was getting so late.

I think I’m happiest riding in a pair and I’m fortunate that my main wingman (my brother) is very similarly matched to me in pace and skill.

enjoy both but as above, in small company – can be distant folk, doesn’t have to be well known, but upwards of 5 or more – feels a bit odd.

Happy – often – go solo or with one or three others.

As above, I mostly ride alone but enjoy riding with one or two others. Nice to have a chat and a bit of banter. Also good if you want to try something big, new, scary or super-steep (and of course to take snaps when it goes wrong).

A bit of both, depends on where we are going.

Local stuff I’ll ride with or without company, its nice to stick the headphones in and just ride wherever you want.

Road trips are however useless without mates.

I once saw someone on here ask the question: ‘what’s the most annoying thing about mountain biking’ and someone said ‘other mountain bikers’ which i agree with at times. I enjoy doing most of my rides alone but also enjoy the social aspect of riding with others. I ride with a group that has very many members and enjoy meeting new characters.

I think I enjoy riding alone because I can go at my own pace and just do my own thing. Some of my friends seem to treat it as some kind of competition.

I generally ride in a small group, 4 or 5 of us at most, and we’re all of a similar level of ability. Bigger groups off road are a pain, you end up stopping all the time to wait for someone, fix a puncture, etc.

I don’t generally ride on my own, I’d rather go running.

I do 70% of my mtb with a mate the other 30% solo and did one group ride last year where there was 5 of us. I can be anti-social myself but wouldn’t mind finding some other people to ride with now and again. Although don’t do Facebook so these days makes it difficult. I’m also one of those types that likes exploring trails, pushing up runs I’ve not done before to scope them out and I don’t think a lot of people could be bothered with that plus I hate feeling like I’m being rushed when on the mtb which it can do when out with a group.

I hate road riding with a group, there’s always a couple of people just treat it as a race or want to get a Sunday ride over ASAP so ruin my enjoyment of being out on the road bike so 90% of it is solo.

Complete mixture for me: I’ll head out for a ride on my own if there’s no-one else about or I fancy something different; sometimes it’ll be me and my wife; sometimes I’ll be in a group.

Ride wise it’s probably a 40:50:10 percentage split. Distance wise it’s more like 60:20:20. Last weekend I did a 96Km ride on my own on Saturday and a 19Km ride with my wife on the Sunday, both rides off-road. I enjoyed them both.

On the road I’ve started to prefer riding alone or with my wife but not against riding in a group.