99% on my own. I think I'd like to ride socially more, but right now time is tight so I'm less keen to compromise on the riding and I'm much less flexible with when I can get out.
This is all to do with babies and family life though (me and former riding mates) so really I'm happy to ride on my own if the alternative is stopping riding altogether, plus I know it'll be easier and better in the future. Just a phase, not really a preference!
100% of my riding is solo. There are very few people I can bear (i have aspergers) so finding one who likes the same sort of cycling I do would be pretty much impossible.
If however I was in any situation where I was held up and waiting for 10 minutes I would just ride off and get on with the ride.
"easy ups, fast downs, plenty of breaks, chatting sh*t the whole way round and lots of coffee"
Yup. If you're in London/ SE/ SW, get in touch. My ideal ride would feature a pub halfway or at the end.
I often ride alone or with my 6 year old. This is mainly because with kids it's hard to make any plans to ride with anyone else.
The mates that did ride with me got put off as apparently I ride like a loon. Which is far from the truth, it's just years of riding Vs newer riders with less confidence.
Local club seems to be who can get to the pub the quickest!
It used to be 95% of the time for me but I made an effort to ride more with others. A lot of that was inviting other people out - yes, that meant I was always doing the arranging, but it was rare we couldn't work out a convenient time.
There there a couple of riding groups I go out with. One is an early ride from my old workplace, which is organised by people still there. The other is the local shop which has 3-4 groups going out early every Saturday, different speeds and overall very friendly and relaxed.
It sounds like you just need to find the right bunch to ride with - there are probably others near you who'd love the odd ride with company.
Only a few of my rides are solo and they tend to be the spur of the moment mid-week local rides. I'm in a few groups (fb, whatsapp, meetup, etc) and will sometimes go on the organised group rides, sometimes people will come on my rides. I quite like the social aspect. Generally it's pretty informal rides and there is usually a good setting of expectation in terms of pace/difficulty or if it's going to be a 'social' ride ie easy pace and lots of chatting. Also getting to know the main protagonists means you generally know what the ride will be like based on who's leading/organising and who's going. Most often it's me and a regular riding buddy who are both very similar in our riding. Sometimes it's just the two of us sometimes others will come along too if it's an open invite ride. It's funny as I know if X come along on the ride it won't impact the pace/dynamic, similarly if Y comes, but if X and Y both come it's hard to keep any momentum going as they are stopped chatting all the time. Or if Z comes you know they will ride off the front and set off again when everyone catches up, you know those rides will be a good work out. Different mixes of people can give the ride a different dynamic, and I like that, I don't always want the same type of ride. On occasion I have had to alter my ride route and/or pace to suit those who've come along, but mostly I get to do the ride I intended and with good company so it's all good. The only thing that really frustrates me is faff, in particular unnecessary and/or serial faff, though thankfully on the whole most people I ride with aren't too bad in this respect.
Yeah, similar. Got a few mates who ride back home, but most do a lot of messing about here and there, so can't really justify the drive to bum about for an hour. Other mates live much further away, so it' a rare treat I get to ride with them.
One of my mates loves riding, but somehow it' taken him over 2 years to buy a proper bike, and he's still fannying about now!
I tend to do a trip in spring half term for a few days. Previously I've been on my own, up early ride, eat, ride, eat, sleep etc. Last year a few mates and mates of mates came along. Was nice to have company and ride with new folk, but my God, the faffing was endless! Didn't actually start riding until after 12 most days! Sometimes I just want to get it done.
For me, riding can be a therapeutic thing. Time with myself, not thinking about much, going at my own pace, sitting on rocks and looking at stuff. I need that every now and then.
Most my rides are on my own. I usually ride with friends once a week which is great company and good fun. We all wait for each other and theres no expectations of pace of skill levels. Just good social riding. Over the last year or so it's become less and less people who regularly come out.
i generally ride alone. Partly as due to taking the boy to football and rugby both mornings at the weekend, or the garden needs doing, or something else
so i pop out when i can, and it's unlikely someone else will be ready. And if I want to change my route I can, and no-one cares.It's me time.
I'm also not the biggest fan of cafe stops; don't see the point of wasting half an hour as I don't generally eat cake, and it gets in the way of cycling (see above points...)
I don't really have friends per se, so most of my riding is done alone - been out a few times with a work colleague who I (think I) get on with, and is a faster/fitter rider than me so I enjoy the challenge of trying to keep up! Been out with my next door neighbour for some local rides lately and he's a decent enough rider that we have a laugh so that might expand in the summer.
I think once you get into adulthood, if you're not friends with people you knew when you were younger then you don't really tend to make new friends; that doesn't bother me especially as I don't seem to get on with many people, and even fewer get on with me!
Hey you just made me laugh out loud there fella. That sounds exactly like my experience when we go out with a large group. We are mixed abilities and ages ranging from 20s to 40s. Theres a couple of us older dudes who know what we have come for which is to ride. The younger lads obviously less organised tend to do the things you described whilst me and my older mate stand around getting cold waiting for them to sort themselves out to the point of getting back in the car especially somewhere like Llandeglla where it can be pretty cold at 9am.
I usually end up riding alone and to be fair i enjoy the freedom and peace to set my own pace including a fair bit of road riding to the trails while my mates just want to go downhill as fast as possible and take on the biggest jumps and drops. I do enjoy a trail but i also enjoy just riding for the sake of riding down quiet lanes. I also dont have the time restrictions as far as childcare or the missus so if im not working which is 3 days a week and the weather permits im looking for somewhere to ride.
Family commitments stopped it in the end but I’ve got the time these days to do it again.
Are you in North Wales?
I'm not too far away, I'd class Llandegla as my local bike park (there are closer but I prefer Llandegs).
I ride in a group when out on the MTB,that said I've not been on it since June!
People comment about waiting round at the beginning of a group ride,what we do is arrange to meet up & RTR (Ready to Ride) at a certain time,so if you take half an hour to faff around before starting,get there earlier.We usually ride in groups up to 6 people maximum.I've been in a couple of clubs & they're great for going away for a weekend or a week in the Alps,but invariably on the weekend rides,the more riders the slower the progress,mechanicals,punctures etc...
I tend to spend most of my time on the road or 'Gravel bike' & I go on my own,I often call in for a brew & catch up at one of my mates houses on the way round,so even though I'm out on my own it still ends up being sociable.
Loved P-Jays rant - i think reading everyone's replies has made me realise I'm not looking for a big group ride. The thought of it sounds like hell. One or two people who ride the same and will look out for each other sounds perfect. That's what it's usually like on the rare occasion I do get to ride with my friends. Case in point, the last ride around the Marin one of them buckled the hire bikes wheel. There was no question of us leaving him to walk back to the car on his own, we hopped off our bikes and walked the two miles back with him.
I've recently moved to the edge of the Peak District and it feels like a un-tapped resource. I have no one to explore with - I've done two rides following a GPS route around Roman lakes area, it was awesome but would rather have someone along for the ride.
It's starting to sound like a lonely hearts column now. 🙂
Look at it this way, lifes full of arseholes. Why invite them on your rides? I prefer to ride either by myself or my old man/brother - that is it.
A fair chunk of my riding is solo, but that's because of Zwift and school collections. I take advantage of days WFH so my lunch hour is Zwifting, or i finish early and jump on the Turbo at 3.30 after collecting my lad from school. That means my riding buddies are at work.
Often on either Fri evenings or Sat i ride with one of my mates, it's truly a brilliant ride each and every time. We get on really well together and have a blast. It's nice having company that's for sure. Fri evenings are less so at the moment as it's winter.
There's a local group who sometimes ride Wed nights here... they also roadie on Sunday, but neither of them times work for me anyway so i rarely attend
I've tried and mostly failed to arrange rides at Swinley on here... but the couple of people i've met up with have been really good to get on with... I'm guessing i wasn't though as none have asked for another trip 😀
The trouble with riding alone is that sometimes your brain won't shut the hell up. You thought everything was hunky dory and you had nothing to worry about, hahahah well let me tell you, why don't you spend 2 hours obsessing over something trivial that happened at work today.
My god, bike faffing.
I bloody hate it.
I used to arrange an all ability/social rides every month through the summer, starting from a forest carpark not far from my house. Everyone got emailed a GPS pin or detailed directions to the carpark. Leaving for the ride at 6 sharp. If you want to faff, get there early.
Every ride *someone* would dick around for ages, getting dressed, building, cleaning then servicing their bike. Asking to borrow tools and so on. Usually the same two or three every sodding time.
One time it got to about 6:30 and i just got on my bike and rode off. 2/3rds of the group joined me, the rest slagged me off on the club forum.
I don't organise anymore.
Other bugbear was the elite racers who turned up and expected it to be a hardcore training session. Shooting off on their own at every opportunity. Usually missing all the good bits, then complaining that they just spent 3 hours riding on gravel roads and kept having to come back to find the rest of us. More than once had to go and find them following a phone call.
"We got to a tarmac road at the end of the gravel trail, where are you lot?"
"We turned off onto a singletrack about 2 km before then. I'll send you a GPS pin, and you should be able to make your way to where we are going..........You'll have to use the road for a couple of km though."
"Can't we do the singletrack bit as well."
"Only if you know where it is. You'll not find it otherwise."
Knobs.
Most of them were also incapable of uploading the GPS trail to their computers either.
Same club that used to crash all the time.
Don't miss it.
CBA with faffing or cockrotting so it's solo every time unless someone *really* wants to tag along and put up with the relentless, scorching pace.
lol Rocketman, everytime an older guy passes me at Cannock on a fatbike I wonder if it's you.
I’ve recently moved to the edge of the Peak District
GPS route around Roman lakes
Ah, you'll have no shortage of folk if you post up a ride around there. In fact there used to be a stw Peak Pootle thread. I'm away from that area now, but there was no shortage of riders around.
It has to be actual proper mates. The kind who’ll <strike> be concerned if you crash and want to make sure you’re ok. <strike> laugh their heads off and take the piss all the way back to the car.
