[Closed] Rides alone 99% of the time - sound familiar?

You don't want a ride, you want a bimble.

I'm all for bimbling.

Edit:Yes, usually solo rides...

Yeah, that's happening to me at the moment despite having a boss and coworkers who enjoy their riding, but also being part of a couple of local groups.

I put it down to my schedule being totally dictated by baby, so lots of early starts, but also because I'm already 'training' when others are still doing their winter base miles. I just hope it's not because of my horrible chat...

Clubs don't really work for me either as they seem to be very much 'same time, same place' every week.

Being a loner does let you mess around with lots of tricky exploratative routes at least, I rarely ride the same route twice!

For the last year or so the vast majority of my riding has been solo. I have a couple of riding buddies that all got back in to MTB's at the same time and have ridden together for the past 12 years or so. The both have decent bikes but don't chop and change like I do.

Anyway, for various reasons mainly around family and work we seemed to be getting out less and less to the point my bikes could sit idle for a month or two. I decided last summer to start making more effort just to get out even if it was on my own. This was linked to a general fitness kick and getting bored of just running.

I enjoy it now TBH. With a 4 and 1 year old it's great just to pinch an hour or two to myself and blow out the cobwebs. It's a good job as my pals are getting out even less than last year to the point where one is considering selling his bike.

Yes finding someone you get along with and matches your riding pace is a hard task. Local fb groups are good. Try searching for the name of your nearest big town/city and cycling.

Try asking on here by starting a thread with the location in the title. I've met a few from here. Most people are friendly but it's a bit odd the first time you meet, kinda like a cycling date.

You could do a bit of Strava-ing, have a look at the leaderboards and find some locals who are riding at a similar pace to you, then befriend them in a creepy way. 🙂

I too ride solo for 99% of the time as well, oddly for the exact opposite reasons you do. I HATE faff, I'm time scarce so if I'm out for a ride I want maximum riding time. Set off on time, push on up the hills, fast back down, maybe a coffee and a cake at the end but only at the end as it means people can leave if needed. If I have 3 hours set aside for bike riding, I want to be riding my bike for 3 hours.

This year i've done most of my riding with people from this forum 😀

Start a thread on here with your location and suggestion for a ride.

That's how I've met others.  Sooner or later you will find some that can slow down slightly or speed up slightly to suit you.  I've also found my fitness improved as most of the others were way fitter than me.

I much prefer to ride alone, go at your own pace, explore, stop when you fancy, especially now I've been off the bike for a while.

The few times I rode with mates they'd complain we'd been out too long and they had to get home, were knackered etc, etc. One ride a mate was constantly stopping to have an email conversation about some work he was trying to drum up then his phone rang and even tried to book me in for a job he couldn't cover and I didn't want when we'd stoppedin the woods for about the tenth time, that was the last time we rode together.

All the above sound very familiar, Chestrockwell's in particular.

I never used to ride solo. I love riding with my mates, but their priorities mean that I've only had one 'non solo' ride in the since November. I enjoy riding with others but it is difficult meeting new people with who ride the same style and pace. Large group rides don't suit as there is way to much 'chat & faff' going on. I enjoy riding solo now , but I (and my wife) do worry a lot more about stacking it badly with no one else around.

As for trying to arrange riding trips away,  even just overnight seems impossible . I might have to be ' the strange dude on his own' on a guided Alps trip this year.

I'm lucky enough to have a pretty big group of mates who ride,but it's rare more than 2/3 of us go out together.

Frankly if I was in the OPs shoes I wouldn't bother, they're not mountain bikers, they've just been a few times and enjoyed it, it's not the same thing.

In my experience unless someone is willing to commit to a weekly slot, even if it's "Sat or Sun, but I need to be home for 2pm" type thing, then you'll do your nut trying to convince them to go, so don't bother.

We've got a pretty big whatsapp group for arranging rides, ask who's out this weekend and it's a ghost town, cut and paste a smutty joke in though and it's all action.

TBH I'm happier riding solo at the moment, it's less hassle and I can do what I want - not get dragged to some god awful trail I don't enjoy or spending hours in a kind of auction trying to find a time that suits everyone.

I've learned to enjoy the quiet time, nice ride, no chat, no worries, chill. It's a bit less enjoyable on a big ride, or a ride that's a bit more remote or new - some company helps there with either confidence or motivation.

too old too slow here to have riding companions

I ride alone the majority of the time.  I'd prefer it if my mates rode bikes, they generally don't (and the one that does is a pure roadie and so far ahead of me in terms of fitness it'd be no fun for either of us).

I'd prefer it if I had someone to ride with occasionally, however I like playing by my own rules and riding how and where I want.  However, having had a couple of decent offs in the last few years off road, selfishly it might be better for me if I rode with someone off road.

Generally as you go through life you find you pick up baggage. The problem, as you've found, is that everyone has different baggage.

Advantages of riding alone: you can do what you want for as long or as short as you want. You can make things up as you go along without annoying anyone else.

Disadvantages of riding alone: unless you are particularly driven, you tend not to push yourself. You might not try something new.

I'd say 70% of my riding is on my own, 25% with my wife and 5% with a group.

I enjoy riding solo now , but I (and my wife) do worry a lot more about stacking it badly with no one else around.

Set up the strava 'beacon' thing if you're that concerned.

Depends what you’re after.

With two small kids, I don’t get a pass to go out on the weekend on the bike very often. I do have days off in the week, and (when it’s not snowmageddon) I get out then, but of course none of my friends who have bikes are free. However, my main reason for going out on the bike is fitness/headspace so I don’t necessarily miss the social side that much.

Sounds like you have some flakey friends.

We have a couple of Whatsapp groups, which is a nice way to encourage people out. I have also used Meetup a bit too.

Go on then, I’ll ask.

Where you based OP? What riding you into?

Other than my yearly Night Rider Series where its a 'race' i generally don't ride with anyone. Work/Kids/House work/Laziness/away from home mean I cant always commit to riding. Summer is easier as i'm off once the kids are in bed! But I've only ridden with others, outside the 'racing', maybe 4 or 5 times in the last couple of years, and twice that was met somebody on the trails and tagged along as it was a new place that I'd never ridden.

Although I am trying bloody hard to arrange something with tdog as he isn't far from me but its a mega****in nightmare I tell ya!

Edit: balls, cant write f e c k i n g without the swear filter kicking in. when did that happen?!?!?

See if there are local club rides or lbs shop rides - there will be something that's loosely organised near you.  Or you do the organising and announce a local ride on here and you'll get some folk.

Fully agree with what some have said about faff - I do like just pulling the bike out the car and riding off. Could just do with a clone of myself to go riding with.

I'm that annoying mate with no kids and to much time on his hands, but still I can't even seem to book my friends months in advance.

I'll give the FB groups another go and try to get past the awkwardness of the "bike date". 🙂

We’ve got a pretty big whatsapp group for arranging rides, ask who’s out this weekend and it’s a ghost town, cut and paste a smutty joke in though and it’s all action.

The bunch I usually ride with use an app called Teamer.  Someone puts a ride up: time and a meeting place, possibly a direction to head in. You can either say Yes or No.  No extended discussion and counters:  "can we meet earlier/later/tomorrow/ do shorter/longer/ go here instead"  As is often the case, removing the options makes the decision to commit easier:  "There's a bike ride happening.  Do you want to ride your bike or not?"

It also helps that there's an established Tuesday ride and an established Saturday ride, which helps to get into people's mental calendars (and their other half's), as a given to be worked around rather than the other way around.

50 % group ..the other is mostly on my own during the week ..

The average age in our group is about 60 and on a Saturday we go out for the day ..no time restrictions and always pretty relaxed ..we have all got at least 20 years of trail riding under our belts but we ain't bothered about breaking any records ..its as much a social thing / out for a laugh as anything else ..

We are based in Northumberland ..where you might already know that the scenery is crap and the riding rubbish ..but feel free to join us anytime if you are up this way ..😉

Anyway, group rides can be a total pain in the arse.

I've been wanting to get this of my chest for a while anyway so I'm prepared to smash my square peg into this round hole.

Couple of weeks ago, "Do you want to ride Blade at Afan?"

Firstly, I don't really like the trail, I SUCK at technical climbs, partly because my BB height appears to be subterranean so I smash every rock on the way up and partly because I don't enjoy climbing, I don't mind admitting it, I do it because I have to and because I probably should, so the long technical climb start is about as appealing as a hot poker down the chapsie.

"Oh, I need to start later, got a chore to do first"

So I weighed it up, a late start, longish drive to get there, longish trail, I'll be back late, it's no drama but it pretty much means I won't be taking the kids out that day so I'm not keen, I try to bow out, but I'm persuaded with a promise of a 30 min earlier start.

I arrive a little early, everyone else arrives at the original time with a look of bemusement that makes me think I was the only one who got told the earlier time.

Anyway, eventually we start, I HATE being the guy who has to moan to get others started, I HATE being on the other side of the fence, but it's getting on for lunchtime now...

We start, I'm already in a mood I can't shake and I'm not really keeping it to myself so I'm hardly being the best company. I try to lead us out, but it's no good, they're moaning to pass thanks to my glacial pace, so I let them pass and we fall into the usual pattern for me - they shoot ahead, but they stop 4/5 times on the way up - I'm slow, but I rarely have to stop, but I do, because you can't just ride past (unless it's on the trail oddly, social convention is funny sometimes) as I think they're waiting for me. Finally we reach the top.

Now we reach the second thing I dislike about Blade, it's not really maintained so the first sort of flat, descent is an endless chain of massive puddles, ambient temp is about 3c and it's blowing a gale, so now I'm cold, wet and tired.

Then we actually get into the technical descent, I really like this bit, but I've got MR KEEN behind me, he wants to race, which for him means falling behind until we have to brake for a turn / obstacle which he can't see and doesn't know the trail well enough to expect, so I assume he thinks I'm just doing it for fun and slides almost, but not quite into me every braking zone, I should ignore it, but I can't so I'm cocking up my riding a bit - sure enough I go into a rocky s-bend thing too quickly, overshoot the end, and hurt my arm landing heavy (old injury) he takes this as an opportunity to get past me, I'd be pissed off if I was competitive, but I'm happy to have a bit of space.

We get to the bottom, I'm cold and wet but mostly I'm in so much pain I want to throw up and we're about as far from the centre as it's possible to be at this stage. My 'Friends' take a look at me, and promptly ride off chatting leaving me behind trying to keep my breakfast down.

We climb back up to the crossroads where I'm less than politely asked if I'll be making my own way back now, oh god yes, as quickly and efficiently as possible. So it's a bye from me - well I had to ride the next bit first, I made a point of 'proving' I could actually ride a bike by jumping everything there was to jump and trying to look as cool as possible whilst freezing and mostly riding one-armed, I don't think anyone noticed, but it made me feel better and ****ed off down the old Skyline descent.

I was in a huge piss, think PMT mixed with a sort of psychopathic rage and you'd be close, but even though I only got colder and my arm only hurt more, I enjoyed it, I loosened up and started to really be one with the bike again. I was asked "see you at the bottom then?" Yeah right, I changed and got back on the road pronto.

My 'Group' Ride mostly consisted of riding somewhere I didn't want to ride, when I didn't want to ride, either chasing, or being chased by other people rather than talking to them, and then in a not very subtle way, being told to leave So my weekly bit of de-stress and mind clearing turned into a total head-****. The week after I avoided the whatsapp group and snuck off for a little ride, just me and my mate Apple Music, rode a trail I ride all too often, but you know, I like it, I didn't set the strava world on fire, but you know - I didn't feel the need to "try to maintain speed through this transition with a couple of pedal strokes and nail this jump" to shave a second off, I chatted to some riders, hell I even gave some of them a polite amount of room even though I could have gone much faster (they were there for their first visit on a day-trip, it was probably my 100th lap or more)  I pulled a wheelie and laughed at myself about it, and got a flat on a blazing fast run of a strava section and gave no shits about it other than it was a shame to have to walk the last 200 metres to the Van.

Hell, as Jean-Paul Sartre once said, is other people.

I'm old and selfish these days so rarely ride with any group over 2 or 3 people any longer as I really can't be bothered with other peoples faff.

I either ride solo (which gives me total flexibility) or I ride with people I trust to know their stuff - they know how to maintain their bikes, get off the hill solo if required, etc

People ride WITH other people.........

ive one mate who rides and he hasn't been out for ages but it's brilliant when he does.

Ive got used to riding alone and it's my time where I can switch off and just pedal. Love riding on my own.

My work schedule means I'm normally on my days off midweek; a rare day at a weekend means a visit to my sons - normally I'll find a few hours or a day at short notice to ride. I send mates a group invite but most of the time they can't (don't want to?) come....

The flip side is I can listen to music and get lost in the flow and that works well for me.

A group ride as described by P-Jay above would be my idea of hell..the difference being between that and the group I ride with is that we are mates ..we go away on mtb trips every year as we have done every year for about the last 10 years ..and see each other most weeks ..

I think you have done well to keep that bottled up the way you did ..personally I would have told the lot of them to go **** themselves long before now !

Solo mainly. Love going at my own pace, finding my own trails and generally destressing.

But i also Love riding with mates... usually roaring with laughter most of the way round with plenty of stops. Beer also helps.

A group ride as described by P-Jay above would be my idea of hell..the difference being between that and the group I ride with is that we are mates ..we go away on mtb trips every year as we have done every year for about the last 10 years ..and see each other most weeks ..

I think you have done well to keep that bottled up the way you did ..personally I would have told the lot of them to go **** themselves long before now !

I'm sure their side of the story would be equally damming, it seems these days that a good day out is as good as a bad day out is bad if that makes sense? I'm still pretty pissed off to been given my marching orders, I was in a bit of a state tbh.

About 60/40 solo/group for me. "Group" is mostly just with one other person though.

OP - maybe start another thread on here "unfit riding buddies in Xyz"?

P-Jay - Are you one of those guys who rides with a group but secretly hates everyone else? Sounds like there's some proper passive-aggression going on there anyway.

For me there's no such thing as a group ride, only a ride on which mates come along.  It has to be actual proper mates.  The kind who'll be concerned if you crash and want to make sure you're ok.  Or will even cut the ride short to help you.  If I haven't got any of them to hand I'll go on my own.  Nothing more awkward than feeling obliged to be part of a group for the sake of it.

I don't care how fast my friends are because the reason I'm riding with them is for the company, not the speed.  If I want to train I'll do it on my own if I need to.

Still trying to get P-Jay out for a local spin though cos I reckon he's a decent bloke 🙂

I can relate to a lot of what has been said above, most of my cycling is on my own purely because I am short of time and want to make the most of the time I have. Saying that I do a regular evening ride and it is good fun and a good group but I am constantly amazed by how much some people faff.

I arrive dressed, bike in the car or on the rack, I take bike off car, put on shoes, gloves, glasses and helmet, put pack on and I am good to go. Often I do all of the above and turn around expecting the others to be at about the same stage and 1 hasn't even got his bike out the car yet, he is showing somebody else something on his phone. Another has his bike upside down and it oiling the chain and fiddling with his gears, another has his shock pump out and it setting his suspension up.

Eventually we get to the start of the trail and somebody decides his tyres need a bit more air, normally this person doesn't have a pump so borrows one and slowly pumps his tyres up. Once he is finished somebody else decides his pack needs re-packing as something is sticking into his back...

Right, we are all here and ready so lets get on with it...nope, matey now needs a piss because we have been stood round for so long. When we do eventually get going, somebody at the back pipes up that he needs to be back by 8 o'clock....

Hey OP, you described my ideal ride.

I used to lead a group ride weekly. Medium pace but  never leave anyone behind.

Plenty of little stops to session jumps etc for a few minutes, beer or brew at the end.

Family commitments stopped it in the end but I’ve got the time these days to do it again.

Are you in North Wales?

P-Jay – Are you one of those guys who rides with a group but secretly hates everyone else? Sounds like there’s some proper passive-aggression going on there anyway.

Nah, I'm usually pretty cheery, but I will admit to letting things snowball into darkness when things start going wrong.

If there was a point to my rambling rant it's that breaking your neck to ride in a group can mean a less enjoyable ride than a solo when and where you want, even if, all things being equal, you prefer to ride in a group.

Still trying to get P-Jay out for a local spin though cos I reckon he’s a decent bloke

Total arsehole I'm afraid. Fancy a TC Saturday? I fancy it's too wet for real riding.

Maybe not 99% for me but more like 80%, I would say. I have a mate who I do get out with maybe once every ten days and, like me, he’s an ex trials and enduro rider so I suppose that we like the same type of riding. In other words, finding and (hopefully) eventually cleaning obscure lines down some gully or steep hillside plus a few techy climbs.

Some people don’t “get” this whole cleaning thing (my son is one of them) but a nice clean ride through some tricky section can be the highlight of my day - conversely, giving away a stupid comfort dab or two really pisses me off...

A clean ride from my Greek village down to sea level, so a 400 metre descent on old mule and goat tracks is still, for me, one of life’s rare pleasures.

In that Greece I’m out on my own pretty much all the time (much to my wife’s concern) but it’s that or not ride at all. I do have a mate out there who rides a bit (he actually bought a house there because we were there) but he doesn’t spend nearly as much time there as me and isn’t into the technical sort of riding as much as I am.

He only lives ten minutes from me back here too, and gets out a couple of times a week with  another mate of his. I’ve suggested that they give me a shout when they’re going out but they never do - two’s company, I suppose plus I think they don’t like being dragged out of their comfort zone. I’m not really fast enough anymore to get out with the forty-something enduro bros. because I’m 65 now and just an old fart, I suppose.

But I frequently love being out on my own, especially on a nice singlespeed. Just alone with my thoughts, I can go wherever the mood takes me and not have anyone else to take into account. The only thing is, if a clean ride happens and there’s no-one there to witness it, did it even happen?

This is my riding buddy for 90% of my rides but only on sunny days. Late arrivals & faffers argh!!

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My riding buddy moved to south of France - so we're riding down to his place in May 🙂 but def 99% tout seul otherwise 🙁

Excellent write-up P-Jay. More entertaining than many a Singletrack article 🙂 Some groups are good to ride with, others not so, is my experience. Only seem to ride with my kid or dog lately though. Both of whom are a joy to be with (apart from when the dog goes missing).

Nah, I’m usually pretty cheery, but I will admit to letting things snowball into darkness when things start going wrong.

To clarify, I meant passive-aggression on both sides, not just you!

Seen it before with riding groups, some people just rub each other up the wrong way.

Total arsehole I’m afraid. Fancy a TC Saturday? I fancy it’s too wet for real riding.

Yeah I'm up for it.  Should have tarted up the Patriot by then so I can let rip at Cwmcarn.

I don't ride in a group, mainly because I don't know a group or have enough time. I like riding with a mate, or a small group (say up to a 3), it's a nice number and the ride is good fun as well as good company

I met a mate for a local pootle on saturday night. It was cold, damp, slushy and dark, still had a good time. Slow riding with a bit of banter, combined with a hip flask and a thermos.