So,

Who rides in a mtb club?
Who rides is a joint darkside/mtb club?
Who rides in no club, just mates?
Who rides in a darkside club, but does soem MTBing (I hate that phrase)?

Pros and cons of each?

Thoughts in general?

I just ride by myself.

Me too

I ride in a club at uni where there is lots to ride out the door, and plenty of people to ride with all the time.

I ride on my own at home.

I will probably join a club when I move to Leeds in a coupe of weeks.

I'm a member of a road club, some of the members race while other just ride for the social aspect.

I race off road, and when not filling in for other teams I will ride in my club kit.

I ride in a road club and a mtb club but both don't really mix.

Sometimes clubs are good. They motivate you to get out and ride, provide a social aspect, push you to do things you wouldn't have done on your own and introduce you to new things.

On the other hand they can increase faff and you have to ride at the pace of the slowest rider.

I ride with clubs and solo. Occasionally just with mates (the club are my mates anyway but I have other biking friends). Depends what's going on and what kind of mood I'm in m ore than anything else. Been doing more road riding and solo stuff recently as I'm feeling fit and want to do long rides.

The road club is a proper club with membership fees and committee (gosforth road club). The mountain bike club (Newcastle/Midaircrisis) is more informal and all you need is a bike and a helmet.

Who rides in a mtb club? me & 86 others 🙂
Who rides is a joint darkside/mtb club? Where's my crucifix ?
Who rides in no club, just mates? What are mates ?
Who rides in a darkside club, but does soem MTBing (I hate that phrase)? see above

On the other hand they can increase faff and you have to ride at the pace of the slowest rider.

more rests YAY!
The advantage of a club is always having other keen people to ride with. I understand some (many?) clubs degenerate into political infighting or senile decay – but that's the members' responsibility to avoid!

I am a member of a road/mtb club. After a email list discussion i stopped going out earlier in the year. been out the last couple of weeks though.

Pros, if, and it can be a big if, the other riders are fit you can get a decent kicking. But if the make up of the groups doesn't gel with your reasoning for riding it can be a pain. If your new to an area it does help show you where the trails are.

cons, there always seems to be someone who thinks they are god on a bike, when they aren't, and will insist on telling you so.

there always seems to be someone who thinks they are god on a bike, when they aren't, and will insist on telling you so.

anyone like that would be rapidly disabused in our club :o) Most pretend they're hopeless and then prove the lie (though in my case it's accurate)

I ride with a club, benefits include:

1/ people to ride with both locally and at away rides, and also race with at the Enduro events
2/ Membership includes insurance / permit necessary to ride at Swinley
3/ access to the club equipment (tralier, EZ-ups, camping equipment – either at events or borrowed for private use)
4/ at the larger events, someone goes up about 5 days before the event, ropes off half the field so we don't have to camp near any common people 😉

The club is MTB specific although there are occasional unofficial club road outings

I also ride with 2 or 3 ad hoc groups of people as well (friends from home, work, other loose social associations)

I'm a member of an MTB club. It's great for the social side of the sport as well as being useful for big race support and organisation.

That same club does do road rides as well.

My best mate is also my training partner and he isn't in the club above.

I'm not attached to a road club at the mo, but I am with the LVRC and I do my road racing with them.
Because I race road, cyclocross and all types of mountainbike racing it pays to be witha club IMO.

Most of my team are into both mtb and road do there's no real conflict though it's a very informal team. Plenty of clubs do both.

I ride in a uni club.

It's both MTB and Road.

I like it- I've always ridden with "just mates" in the past but having a whole club, even a small one like ours, behind you means there's always someone to ride with but it also introduces ar eally excellent social scene to the riding, and as such some of my uni club mates are the best friends I've ever had.

It's brilliant for new riders- using the experience of old hands that they'd not normally be able to get. It gives you proper back up at races as there's always people drafted in, and we're looking at organising races and events next year which I think'll be a laugh.

Contrary to popular belief, once you get off the internet most people insist they're shite riders (myself included, even if I do come of as being god's gift on here) and will surprise you.

As for the road/mtb thing- it does mean we can switch between disciplines easily, but the two don't mix. Trips are harder to organise and the only real gelling is a social things, but due to the size of the cycling scene where we are we can't have 2 seperate clubs.

I'm a member of a large MTB club which has a larger presence on the road these days. I ride with some people from the club (and a lot of people not from the club) because they're my friends, and nothing to do with the club!