Think about the big STW shouts now occurring, and consider the following:
Who knows the skills/fitness of the riders coming? Or whether the ride leader has selected a safe/sensible route with bail outs that matches the skills of the riders? Or whether a slow rider might get lost or injured and not be missed by the others? And who's got appropriate first aid skills, or leadership qualifications per se? Who's carrying insurance? What if some unfit dood turns up on a supermarket bike? what if someone is wearing lycra?
Last month was Rivington, currently the centre of controversy, with land owners under pressure to close the area to mountain bikes. Appreciate we have a right to be there at the moment, but is hitting it with such big numbers on a Sunday sensible?
This month, the Howgills. There's a generally enthusiastic friendly vibe on the thread which is great, but it might give the impression this is a nice ride in the country. Ermmm, you'd struggle to find a more remote area of England. Proper backcountry territory, few bail outs, if rider or bike breaks, they're potentially in very serious trouble, and at that point their problem becomes a shared problem, whether the other riders like it or not. If you're the injured person - how do you know the other riders are going to make the right decisions to get you sorted out? If you're completely in control and carrying all the right kit, bikes in good nick etc, how do you know some nutter is not going to turn up and ride beyond their capabilities, injure themselves and leave you with a liability to fix in the middle of nowhere?
If I were a lawyer employed to get some dosh for someone injured badly as a result of one of these rides, there's some interesting liability issues here presumably....
All of this is pretty manageable where there's a small well established group of responsible riders taking on 1 or 2 newbies on a ride, but a mass meet up where the above all applies is not the same game surely?
Just wondering in light of all this - isn't it more sensible to pick trail centres for these rides?
[ducks for cover at this point]
Guess we are going to have to put disclaimers up. Generally there are warning about how long, steep and technical the rides are and we wait for slower riders, it's not a race. The first aid thing would be the same if you were out with your mates unless you know doctors and nurses i.e. they may or may not know how to deal with an incident. I dont think we should worry too much about it, it's not a club there are no designated leaders just people who know the route - or not as the case may be 
mind you, it could have been worse...
