Until last April is was maybe 70/30 split in favour of group riding (some long time friends and a few newer ones). But this past 12 months or so were riddled with mysterious and not so mysterious injuries/illness which have prevented any saddle time. I've been back on the horse for about a month now and all my subsequent rides have been solo. Enjoyable as always but i tend to push myself harder when riding alone (probably to make up for the lack of decent hill where i live). I also stop a lot to maintain/build trail features as well as session little interesting bits which rarely happens on group rides. That's something i used to do a lot when i was into BMX as a youngster and i don't think it'l ever leave me.
My plan is to spend maybe another month riding solo in an attempt to get my fitness to a level where i can rejoin the group rides (always big days in the mountains and always new trails to explore) without feeling like i'm spoiling the ride for the gang.
off road there's too much faffing
Innit though. 🙄
80% just me and Mr TW.
20% just me.
Off road I prefer to ride in a small group of similar pace. The reality though is these days I ride 95% solo off road, big groups have far too much faffage.
On road shorter weekday rides by myself, weekend club rides. I like the social aspect club rides but not groups larger than 10, our Saturday group is also scary as although most are fit they have no road craft where as the Sunday group are generally more old school.
What I have noticed is that many cyclist are introvert or have borderline personality issues compared to people I meet in other parts of my life.
I love riding alone and I love riding with other people (up to 2 or 3 others).
I have been introduced to a lot of new trails, which I probably wouldn't have ridden if I was still riding solo.
Don't really ride road (am I in a minority here!?), so 99% solo for me. Unless you count hacking out on bike alongside the OH or one of our sharers on the horses 😉
Basically solo, apart from when the boy is with me on the Trailer-bike.
So, that's about 85% in company, 15% solo. 😕
Years ago I used to frequently ride with a bunch from all over the country. We'd meet up and gnerally have a great time but after a few years of doing this we basically ran out of places to ride that were guaranteed to be good and that everyone would enjoy
Some people wanted to go further afield, some wanted to stay local, some CBA and so the group fragmented. A big group became smaller groups and the smaller groups became threes and twos and ones
We keep in touch but it's surprising how few out of that bunch of 20 or so are still biking
Only on my own, but I used to ride with a couple of other guys and I miss the comradery now. Didn't miss the screwing around at the time though.
Ultimately we all ride alone.
err...Grasshopper
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I just ride, and have done for most of my adult life. Used to ride with family as the boys were growing up and they would pester me to join a club but when I relented we found we weren't clubby people so carried on as we were. I also had a mate who would do trailquests with and I still ride with him but not tq any more. When the boys grew and moved, I met a few mates on a poodle and we still ride when we coincide but with family commitments that's less often atm. Now I usually ride once a week solo, once at weekends with one pal, in the week with my old tq partner and once with me old gel, but tbh I would still ride a shopper bike with a toddler if that was what was happening
Solo mostly - I do worry about crashing and dying a slow painful death and being found several weeks later having had rabbit gnaw chunks out of my decomposing carcass.
Mainly solo as I am so limited in time I can only snatch the odd couple of hour here and there. I do enjoy the occasional wiggle/evans ride though.
Also do a few gentle rides with the my family which are ace. Both my boys are well into their bikes and long may that continue!
I like them both but they are different experiences. I do reckon though that MTBing is better suited to riding with mates than road; the stop-start stuff doesn't seem to matter so much and everyone can go at their own pace, especially at a trail centre.
I'd get hacked off on the road stopping to wait or not being able to go at my own pace.
Also I don't actually know that many people into cycling so solo is kind of the default for me!
Solo for me, but I like the thought of a club ride to increase my speed. I like racing off road, but this is mainly a solo effort, whereas road is a bit more social if you can breathe. Have a couple of biking mates but we only get together once a month for an evening ride.
Does mtb attract loners, or is it only loners who come on here?
Mixture.
Commuting is obviously solo.
Road with a club before I left London - so barely ever rode alone
Tried a new club where I've moved to but I'm not sure about them so have been doing some solo riding too, but much prefer a club run so going to try out another local club this weekend and hope they're a little more sociable!
I can still get back into London to ride with my old club though. Last weekend's Rapha Hell of the North would've been dire solo - needed some company to take my mind off the pain!
One of the great things about cycling is its versatility - solo/group/mix - do what you like
People keep talking about faff as if it's a bad thing....
What I miss the most about some of the group rides I used to do was it was a day out, on a nice day there is nothing wrong with a 2-3hr ride taking 5-6 with a lunch stop, pop back up and do a bit again have a chat fix a puncture etc. Most of the rides these days seem to be constrained by other peoples time. On holiday at the moment and had some great days where the time out has varied significantly and the distance hasn't. Not rushing round and chilling out is great.
I ended up doing more solo over the last few years and it's though to be motivated for that sometimes and I always felt like I was holding back a bit.
These days I try and ride with 3 different groups and a couple of mates, mixing things up keeps it fresh. Something as simple as following somebody else through a trail or having a bullshit on a climb makes a huge difference to me.
on a nice day there is nothing wrong with a 2-3hr ride taking 5-6 with a lunch stop
Agree, that sounds nice. However I don't want to use up 6 hours of my time when I have so many others things i want/need to be doing with a limited numbers of days not working.
Why humans decided that they should spend more days at work than not at work is beyond me, especially as we are the ones who decided it - no one made us (but that is clearly another topic)
What I miss the most about some of the group rides I used to do was it was a day out, on a nice day there is nothing wrong with a 2-3hr ride taking 5-6 with a lunch stop, pop back up and do a bit again have a chat fix a puncture etc
Nah. If I had 5-6 hours I'd want to ride for at least 5 of them. Don't mind riding slowly if I'm with slow people (have to prepare for that though), but I can't be doing with stopping all the time, it's unnecessary. Will nearly always ride with people of a comparable speed. Or I'm the slow one, so I don't have to do the waiting!
but I can't be doing with stopping all the time, it's unnecessary.
lol how very efficient 😉 stopping for such frivolous reasons as looking at the view, talking to friends and enjoying some sunshine should be frowned upon....
I'm also a bit of a loaner when it comes to riding. This is mainly due to my unsociable working hours and family commitments but also because most of my biking friends find riding with me too hard.
stopping for such frivolous reasons as looking at the view, talking to friends and enjoying some sunshine should be frowned upon....
Talking to friends and enjoying the sunshine can be done whilst riding 😕 Nice to have a cake stop in there too, I said it's nice to ride for 5 of 6 hours.
The view can be nice, but as I often ride the same places it doesn't really change. I may stop for a couple of minutes, maybe even take a photo occasionally. Where do the other 3.9 hours go!?
Could it be... are we... (gasp) different?
Usually with my OH, although I really love riding on my own as well. I enjoy taking the time to stop as and when I want to, not as and when other people want to. Neither of us like being held up or being the ones holding others up. I sometimes worry about falling off and being eaten alive by rabbits and stuff but you have to go sometime, right? 😆
Personally I don't care...Where do the other 3.9 hours go!?
Today for instance I was out for about 5hrs in total, moving time was 2hrs 22.
Me and my mate waited 25 mins in the sun for the other 2 who were held up - fine we just chatted about stuff. Over the course of the day we stopped, looked at bits of trail had some re rides, took pics of each other riding, talked to people we met along the way, caught up as we hadn't all ridden together for a long time, waited at the top, the bottom and bits in the middle, had some lunch, procrastinated and made some whooping and hollering noises. So I guess that accounts for the 2 1/2 hrs extra of hanging out with some mates, we will probably repeat again tomorrow and Sunday 🙂
Sometimes a solo explore but 90% of the time my rides are a small group of like-minded lunatics 🙂
It's a good insurance policy IME to have a riding buddy somewhere in the vicinity if you're having a go at a tricky bit of exposed tech' on top of a mountain.
Personally I don't care...
Today for instance I was out for about 5hrs in total, moving time was 2hrs 22.
I guess that's just a difference in our situations. It's comparatively rare I'd have all day to go for a ride, so on the occasions I do then I'd want to do a decent ride, not one that I could have done in 1/3 the time.
If I was living alone and had nothing else to do then I'd undoubtedly be a lot more chilled about it. Indeed when I was able to commute by bike every day I was probably less fussed by what riding I did at the weekend, there was plenty of other time I could ride. Now I basically have 1-2 rides a week I want them to be decent rides. If I have 4 hours, I want to ride for most of that time.
I've never, ever, taken a photo of someone I'm riding with though 🙂
it's only the lonely camping the night before that I'm not looking forward to
Done a few solo events and the solo camping always turns out to be quite sociable!
I ride/run solo 90% of the time these days, well plus dog. Kids means I can't stick to the structure of meeting up with a club at a prescribed time any more, I just have to grab what time I can.
Those of you worried about being eaten by rabbits...met a farmer once, chatting away pleasantly for a few minutes till his prejudices began making an appearance...He reckoned he hates badgers because if a lame sheep can't escape a badger would eat it alive from the inside, starting by gnawing into it's stomach. Don't sprain an ankle with badgers around!