Every time you go to a 24 hour race or one of those new fangled 'bike festivals' there are clubs and groups and teams of people everywhere. Hundreds of them, but they're hardly ever mentioned on here.
There must be a load of people on here that ride for some kind of club or team, however loose or disorganised!
Who are you? Where do you ride? and Why?!
Well I 'ride' for the shop I used to work for, who are affiliated with a club of 100+ members, but do virtually all my riding with people from other 'teams', all of whom I know through racing.
The exception being 24s and that, where I tend to ride with my 'team' who can be found here.
In my experience people join official 'clubs' as they have found a sport and pastime that they passionately love.
Then for some bizarre and inexplicable reason they then feel the need to express this by removing all spontaneity from it, straight-jacketing it by establishing utterly pointless rules and regulations, then sucking every last vestige of enjoyment or pleasure out of it
Its a peculiarly English trait
Well thats one very negative way of looking at it Binners 
Another way might be sharing your passion with like minded people and just having a bit of fun 
We've got a forum and facebook page for locals riding in the Lake District. There's quite a few members but not many regular riders. No committe meetings, rules or other rubbish, just a few mates getting together, riding bikes with the occasional beverage afterwards. Happy days!
We reformed Mendip Cycling Club in memory of a guy who died who had been it`s driving force years ago . In only 3 months have 30+ members and money in the bank
It happens a lot Binners but it's not always like that.
LVIS as posted previously has no rules, official positions or even any regular rides. It's a bunch of mates who get together for cycling, other sports, social stuff and racing. Seems to work well for us.
In my experience people join official 'clubs' as they have found a sport and pastime that they passionately love.Then for some bizarre and inexplicable reason they then feel the need to express this by removing all spontaneity from it, straight-jacketing it by establishing utterly pointless rules and regulations, then sucking every last vestige of enjoyment or pleasure out of it
Its a peculiarly English trait
GBUK
only two rules:
you bring beer money
you only find out what GBUK stands for after the second ride 
interesting binners.. you obviously didnt get my email about being an honorary member of 'Team Sexy party'
there are no rules other than if you're not having fun then you're either lacking pies or lacking images of pert boobies on your mobile device.
members include:
myself
yeti
torminalis
mrsconsequence
goatboyisheretopleaseyou
my friend matt
my other friend matt
other honorary members are:
b'mitch
deadly darcy
jamie
emsz
there are no joining fees but i will judge peoples worthyness on the pictures of boobs they send me.
In my experience people join official 'clubs' as they have found a sport and pastime that they passionately love.Then for some bizarre and inexplicable reason they then feel the need to express this by removing all spontaneity from it, straight-jacketing it by establishing utterly pointless rules and regulations, then sucking every last vestige of enjoyment or pleasure out of it
Its a peculiarly English trait
*cough* woollybacks *cough*
I opened a shop and then used it as an excuse to start a club, started with shop MTB rides, then set up a formal club with committee, started running weekends away, we now do some racing, got 40+ members, started doing a kids club at the end of last year, and a road group goes out each sunday.
It's great, met some great people, we get people new to the sport involved, and encourage people to try new things like enduros, racing, etc.
Don't see any negatives to having a proper club, we've got a pretty relaxed code of conduct, and only had one 'problem' in 3 years.
We have no committee just a secretary and a treasurer to sign cheques we meet in a pub if we need to discuss something so it`s not regimented
I'm a Belgian.
South Gloucestershire Mountain Bike [SGMTB]
http://southglosmtb.wordpress.com/
4 members and one of those left for Australia
If your around the North West'sh area of South Glos and looking to hook up we mostly ride in the Wye Valley by crossing the old Severn Bridge.
Mail us.
Can I not join Team Sexy party then Philly? 
I remember seeing a bunch of particularly joyless, lycra-clad riders out riding in Wales. We were sat having a smoke at the top of a climb. Not one of them smiled. It looked like a chore.
The bloke at the back stopped - it was his first time riding with them - and said "****ing hell! I wish they'd just bloody stop for a natter from time to time"
I remember looking on that 'clubs' website, where there were pages of rules. Including one of them regarded how much your bike must cost.
That's always coloured my view of 'clubs'
Clubs are peculiar concepts. For some people, "joiners", they're an bvious extension of their hobby; for others, "separatists", they're a dante-esque waste of a life.
My view: rules are there to help people with very little imagination. I worked quite hard when secretary of a small Manchester club to simplify the rules and not get bogged down in tedious shit.
Irony is, I only ever ride alone these days.
i have a very close affiliation to The Sweary Northerners, when i am well enough to ride.
ton - how's it going? Am in the process of a-fib diagnosis right now.
bugger mate, when did that happen?
http://www.lbrcc.co.uk Formed the club just last year with riding mates. We are affiliated to BC and RCTT.
Club riding is just an extension of my riding in general and there's always someone to ride with unlike buddy groups.
I have racing partners which is a bonus, no more billy no mates.
Though I do off road with an informal group and I'm also a fellow Belgian.
i ride with this lot
and
http://www.gosforthroadclub.com
having said that I also ride on my own and with other friends and on extra rides which aren't much to do with the clubs.
I normally race in the club colours depending on if it is road or mtb. I often see people at road races wearing the same club top as me and have no idea who they are! It's a big club and I tend to only ride with them once a month.
http://www.steppingstanes.co.uk/
http://fanylionracing.ning.com/
There are local bike clubs I could join but have had similar experiences to binners re the politics and have-been-there-done-that and am at an age where I just want to enjoy my biking.
Having said that it does`nt matter what the "sport" is there is politics/crap to be found in anything to do with committees!!!!
Trekster, you still ride with Stuart?
+ 1 for the above, really not into clubs and committees, been there done that not for me no thanks !
@ton
Had 5 days of ectopic beats last Dec. Got ref to cardio. Wore 24hr monitor. Caught a skipped beat. Showed 5 secs of a-fib at the same time.
Going through process of finding out if any structural changes to heart - results of echo in a week. Been told to exercise by cardio, which is good.
Need to find out if it's caused by anything and what the progression is like.
How's yours?
people do realise that just because some clubs are a breeding ground for petty officialdom that not all are, right?
I'm in the NW Alps riding group, 5 members so far but we are a bit "unique"‘so not everyone fits in, a few have fallen by the wayside
Hit the North is actually a club. There are 2 members.
ourmaninthenorth
still in perminant af mate.
going back in on the 5th of march for some more ablation.
the small of burning heart tissue is fantastic.............cant wait
@ton
sorry to hear that. hope ablation works out this time. good luck.
yeah, good luck to you too mate.
hope you dont get it stuck in perminant, and hope you can keep on exercising.
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