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🙄footpath exploration day
whereas most road clubs will have been doing roughly the same thing every Sunday morning for decades.
You mean 89yr old Men who can ride for 100miles and wipe the floor with younger men every Sunday morning? 😆
I'm a very happy member of the Manchester Mountainbikers. Great bunch of people, made some good friends out of it, had some great weekends away. Was brilliant at Sleepless with 30-40 of us all in different teams, bumping into each other out on the course, great motivation to keep going (I was in a pair). Not encountered any club politics at all, but have been on some amazing rides around areas I wouldn't have been without them. Taught me how to fix my bike and give me regular advice on it. None of my 'lifelong' mates ride so it's good to ride with others.
Don't ride with them every weekend, some weekends I'll go off and do my own thing, but it's nice to look on the web and have a selection of rides to choose from.
The £20 fee doesn't even enter into it for me. I've pissed £20 up the wall this evening in 2 rounds of drinks at a meeting. If it means that if I come flying down a descent and I hit a walker it's all covered, that's great.
antigee - interesting post from BMC guidelines, not seen that before. Nice one
I agree with Mr Poddy!
We live in an over-regulated country, I don't want to be told I must wear club kit (I hate jerseys), don't want to be told what to do either. Prefer to be answerable/responsible to myself.
I've done the club thing from my running days, been there, done that, don't want to go there again. I'm not knocking clubs, just don't see the need for them these days.
In any case, life is much more fun meeting random folk from a certain forum 😉
DIdn;t Richpips cancel an event planned on the forum after legal advice about responsibilities?
he can probaby comment for himself but.....
Richpips tried to "not" organise an event
the problem was that the idea was too popular and it couldn't be "organised" without killing the idea
it was still brilliance, but he put it up on the net....Gumball anyone?
We are a BC club similar to the Hit The North team for exactly the same reasons. There are only 6 of us at the moment and all focused on organising the race series. Any social rides are separate.
I don't want to be told I must wear club kit (I hate jerseys), don't want to be told what to do either
then don't pick a bossy club :o) Some of us wear club shirts out of pride but nobody makes us, and we do the rides we fancy (or in my case, every one I can get due to chronic addiction)
Some non-clubs are more organised and have a more autocratic style than clubs. Some non-clubs also have "rules" about not being a club or wearing shirts etc - usually run by anarchists who pay income taxes, vote, counciltax, have good jobs and organise stuff and subsidise stuff.
organised rides with good routes, trips where you're not booking up Alps and risking 1500 euros etc that all your mates can make it and the insurance aspects for bombing down trails etc, plus some (or quite a lot) of free club wine at christmas meal - ours is £25 - exhorbitant!!!
I've been reading this for a couple of days now and I just don't get it?
I am also a member of MMB and for ME it works, The membership fee pays for itself after a trip to the LBS to get the discounts, thats the biggest bonus in my eye's.
Some people on hear seem to think that if your a member of a club then your not allowed to ride without them or to ride on your own and you have to buy and ware a club jersey, this simply isn't the case. Even if you are on an organized ride whats to stop you taking a different trail if you want? Nothing! We're not in the army you know, we are allowed to do our own thing.
Also some have mentioned a problem with hierachy. Well I can asure you there is nobody at the club that would try and pull rank. Let's face it we are all mountain bikers and enjoy arseing around on our bikes whatever the dicipline.
So for me it works, however i understand that its not for everyone and i totally respect that, there was a time when a club wouldn't have been best for me. But there is one thing I wouldn't do and thats bitch about someones club on a forum, especially when you have never met anyone from it. whats the point? nobody has put a gun to your head. Just don't join, Easy!
I'm also a member of the Manchester Mountain Bikers and it's been the best £20 I've spent all year. I've actually saved myself a hell of a lot more than £20 based on advice and help I've had from from the club. The club has negotiated discounts with certain cycle stores that apply to members and they have also invested membership money on club lights to loan to members who can't afford they type of money required to experience a good night ride.
The club is extremely active, take a look at the calender on the website to see how often and how varied the rides are. There is always something on whenever you get some spare time and fancy getting out. The rides are very well organised, you just turn up and don't have to worry about routes etc and they ride as slow as the last rider. Everything is taken care of and you feel looked after.
I rode Sleepless with the club and I'm having a riding weekend in Scotland next month too. I've made a lot of new friends and as mentioned earlier saved so much money on advice and riding tips. The club also runs training and improver rides too, and considering how much riding centres charge for this, I'm more than happy with what I've got out of my membership dues.
I don't want to be told I must wear club kit (I hate jerseys)
Did we not sell you a Trolls jersey this year CG? 😉
Although they are optional, well, currently they are......
EDIT
WUN-UNDRED!
ALthough they are optional, well, currently they are......
no one will mind if you ride topless :o)
Have you got a link to the MMB site? Not being lazy, my company internet won't let me search for it.
Oh yes they will Simon!
😯
i get BC license, insurance, heavily discounted bike spares and race entries.... for a tenner! oh, and not forgetting the discounted club tickets and free drinks. Being a student, i can't buy expensive bikes but i can atleast buy many many drinks!
Sorry, here's the link: http://www.meetup.com/Manchester-Mountain-Bikers/
Ta.
My work computer blocks it as it thinks you are a dating agency! Is that also included in the £20?
it's not a charge, it's a requested donation. Most seem to be happy to contributeIndeed,as was I after Mr Barnes 'muugged' me for £2 in the pub after last nights ride at Clapham. 😉
It was worth it just for having rode a piece of singletrack that I hadn't been down before!
I don't know why I bother really as the club is too stingy to spend any of the cash :o)
this thread has prompted me to consider joining MMB again- i was previously registered on the site but never came on any group rides and my 'membership' lapsed once the charge was introduced, but i'm thinking i need to meet/ride with more local riders and this would appear to be the best way of doing so...
Harry_the_Spider - we use meetup.com which is a social networking site which is why you will be blocked.
another very happy MMB member here. it's quite interesting that some of the people that enjoy only riding by themselves or with their small, regular group of mates come on here and slag the club/clubs in general off. MMB was all started by people who didn't much enjoy that - some people want to meet new people to ride with. the amount of people i have chatted with in the club who feel the same is enormous.
it was free to join at first but when numbers grew the decision was taken to cover for liability. £20 was charged because the idea was to get indvidual liability insurance through ctc for each member but it turned out that the ctc are crap and it would have taken a considerable amount of time & effort for someone to manage membership. we do now have leader liability insurance. this means that there is a bit of money left over in the club fund. it doesn't belong to anyone and if someone has an idea on how to spend the money it is put to the vote. as mentioned we've recently ordered club lights and are looking in to picking up helmet camera's and stuff like that. i imagine over the next year or so we will have marquee's etc.
as for the jersey's, i too was a bit skeptical about having a club jersey. but it turns out that it's way cooler than the majority of shirts available in the shops. it was designed by one of the members.
Uplink/all
MMBs insurance is much more there for the scenario where someone comes after one of us (ride leader or committee member) for a [u]serious[/u] claim. I hate the litigation culture as much as the rest of you but that doesn't make it go away.
Compensation lawyers actively target hospital casualty departments now. My current appointments card has an advert from one of them on the back of it touting for "no win no fee" business. (Accident happened on my ride - I did wonder if I could sue myself?)
WRT what your solicitor told you, there are very few people in this world who have "nothing to lose"..... Your house, your pension, (your sanity?) It's a highly unlikely scenario but not impossible. When you start talking about big bucks rather than 3grand, a compensation lawyer is not going to flinch at taking you down the path of bankruptcy if they can get their commission.
If you had a partner/son/daughter who ended up paralysed as a result of a bike accident, from a financial point of view, you may have no alternative but to claim against eg a bike club/ride leader/friend of your sons.
For those of you thinking this is all a bit over the top...remember the succesful claim over the bouncy castle a couple of years ago?? (This claim for £1million was initially successful and then lost at appeal), or the claim against the bike mfr when a wheel "spontaneously collapsed" a few years ago.....or the handlebar failure.
CTC charge £75 to cover MMB organisers against a third party claim. Without this insurance, the people who lead rides for the club and the people who run it are vulnerable. It's a no-brainer.
As far as paid Clubs go - well that's just a personal thing innit.
Bogtrotters and MMB are both top people to ride with in my experience.
and for £20 you'd struggle to buy a laminated map + guidebook
ditch_jockey - MemberI wonder if they"re AALA licensed?
As I understand it, and I might be wrong, if you charge for providing mountain biking activities (as opposed to transport/food etc) then you come within the AALA regulations.
Nope
AALA license is required if you're offering activities on a commercial basis to under 18s.
We don't.
Beat you to that one Fluff!
Damn
You're faster than most normal human beans Rocky 🙂
Like someone said above, just because there is some organisational structure in a club doesn't mean that club trips are run on military lines. As a member of the club all that stuff is (or should be anyway) invisible to you so why care? If there are boring meetings being held do you have to go to them?
And I can't really see that £20 is seriously an issue for anyone on here- it's a few beers or a fraction of the petrol for a weekend away.
just because there is some organisational structure in a club doesn't mean that club trips are run on military lines
Exactly
Ours are based on a crossover of aspects of chaos theory, some swarm intelligence and elementary cat herding.
As an aside, I personally find the regimented structure of forums whereby I have to type my replies into a small box with limited fonts doesn't really fit with my freewheeling, rebellious attitude to life. 😉
Mr Poddy - yes, you are correct in that I do have a Trolls freeride style top and it is used to scare dog walkers. I now have a matching (skull and crossbones) bell on the singlespeed 8)
It's not a money thing as a reason for not joining a club. I don't race and have no intention of doing so. I like to pick and choose who and where I ride without feeling obliged to attend certain club events.
I am happy to organise rides on here and don't worry about public liability. My lbs are brilliant, they give me a discount cos I spend so much but I do take them cakes sometimes.
Why should I join a club?
Why should I join a club?
I don't see why you "should"
Why do you ask the question ?
"Why should I join a club? "
because your a number....
ride in a loose group with no rules 😉
Join the SGMTB ultra niche with three members.... it was four but she went to Australia.
because your a number....
strictly speaking as a member of a club you're a fraction
Having been too uninterested to read anything else, we charge a fee to join. It covers petrol costs for the year. So you don't have to pay for it later.
Cool, eh?
We charge £8 a year, but as it's a club affiliated to a company you have to be an employee to join. We've got around 40 members.
We're lucky though in that we get loads of dosh from the company which subsidises all our petrol by 50%, buys magazines, lets us get nice toys, subsidises training courses and other such stuff.
The £8 membership fee therefore saves you quite a bit over the year.
We're not a club, have no membership fee, and therefore we kill and eat anyone that gets injured so they can't sue.
I am in my own "solo night riding club". I charge myself £2 a ride. No idea what the club uses the money for though .....
'I've noticed that the ST people don't get involved in these "forum rides" at all, probably specifically for this reason'
Nope. We don't get involved in forum rides because a) We probably don't get to hear about them until it's too late (not everyone has the time to sit around reading the forum all day 😉 and b) Weekends tend to be packed with other worky stuff like shows, demo weekends and the like.
Feel free to invite us on rides and if anyone's free, we'll try to make it. I'm riding with the Quantocks gang in December - but needed three months to find a spare weekend...
tons ride next Sunday in Calderdale chipps? You could review the 3bikes he rides on the ride. Rumour has it he has a caddy following him with bikes ready for him to chose from like a set of golf clubs.....