Clubs should be fun regardless of their aims. I was in Twickenham CC when I lived down there and despite some seriously quick guys the rides were always good fun with plenty of chat etc.
I've been asked if I'd like to join a certain MTB club by someone I ride with, but I have to do a beginners ride to assess if I'm up to their standards, I mean FFS it's a MTB club not an elite XC team!! As you can imagine I won't be partaking.
brakes
[i ]
LVIS as posted previously has no rules, official
positions or even any regular rides.[/i ]then why is membership by invite only?
surely if there are no rules, I can just declare
myself a member?
You could really. The invite only bit is because we're mainly a bunch of mates rather than an open club and we want to keep it like that. Plenty of clubs start out well but lose their way.
In practice we've had a fair few people join out of the blue who've simply emailed and asked. I realise that it may look elitist from outside but since it's definitely not, in a sense that doesn't really matter. The main thing really is that it's very relaxed and people in it enjoy what we do.
Belong to a Facebook group (
good way to meet like minded individuals and find out about new trails etc more so if you are new to the area.
I've been asked if I'd like to join a certain MTB club by someone I ride with, but I have to do a beginners ride to assess if I'm up to their standards, I mean FFS it's a MTB club not an elite XC team!! As you can imagine I won't be partaking.
Nearest MTB club to me is [url= http://www.thewoollybacks.co.uk/ ]http://www.thewoollybacks.co.uk/[/url], and they require the same. So, I have the same attitude as you (and consequently ride alone).
I'm with www.veloclubbristol.co.uk
Joined through a mate who said I should join the club runs. Got hooked properly last year. Great bunch of people and not your typical roadies. Massive drinking sessions after the last Time trial of the year. No one takes themselves too seriously.
[url= http://www.meetup.com/Mountainbikeglasgow/ ]Mountain Bike Glasgow - Meet Up[/url]
This is the group I am in. Great laugh, all abilities. We positively welcome beginners and those out for a gentle pootle, but have plenty that hurtle down the most technical stuff.
Been riding with pretty much the same group of mates since the mid 80's.
Late 80's we formed a club NottsMBC.. did loads of races/trials etc under the club banner.
Mid 90's got VERY bored with all the organization and decided to just scrap the club/official racing but continue the regular informal rides.
Still riding to this day and I'd say the scraping of the formal club and all it's associated drudgery is the thing that's kept us all going so long. We turn up at a set time.. nothing is planned.. sometimes it's a long ride.. others it's too the local pub.. where the ride will take us is always a mystery.
One of our lot recently went out with another group.. when they asked him where his helmet was he rode off heheh.
I didn't exactly start a club, but I got some Vegan Cyclists kit printed for a few people on VeganFitness forum.
We've now got a [url=
page and a club shop on Impsport, so anyone can order the kit.
It's not really a club, like Vegan Runners or VC&AC, it's just a mixture of roadies and MTBers from all over the world. I'm the only one regularly MTB racing in the UK.
Nearest MTB club to me is http://www.thewoollybacks.co.uk/, and they require the same. So, I have the same attitude as you (and consequently ride alone).
I' m in the woollybacks and used to have that attitude to being "tested" but as riding mates dropped away and I got fed up of riding alone I joined up and did a "newbie" ride.
It's no big deal and understandable really that they don't want great days out spoiled waiting for people who are not up to it. Uber fitness is not the requirement (i'm a long way from that)but it's helpful for both parties to know that the new rider will enjoy the experience. Not all new additions have done a lot of riding so best not to find out if they're up to it 1/2 way round a ride having spent ages driving there.
We had a club back in the Chilterns. Started by a bunch of mates, did a few t-shirts/riding tops/loads of trips away. Every year we gave away "the pink pump" for services to mincing. Must have been 30+ at one stage.
Then everyone fell out. Or maybe it was just me falling out with everyone 😉 It just stopped being fun, all got a bit splinter group and I didn't miss it when I moved.
Here, ride with the local shop or a couple of mates. Struggle to see how I would enjoy myself more with a club.
So I'm with Binners. But only in a manly 'I hear where you're coming from' sort of way 😉
We have a village group in East Sussex. We started affilliated to a club, but they were all middle aged parish councillor types, so we left, and now just pitch up twice a week at set times. Its all organised by email and facebook.
We have a great age mix from 15-60, we ride throughout the year with a 2 hr night ride leading to the pub!!
We dont take ourselves too seriously, but do have some pretty good riders, including 1 racer. We have good relations with local landowners, and have access to loads of unofficial singletrack.
ton - Member
Trekster, you still ride with Stuart?POSTED 19 HOURS AGO # REPORT-POST
Not seen him for a bit, he is working darn scarf and only home at weekends and then away with his kids sailing most of them. Twisted knee and working shifts also hindered my biking last year. Started off OK so far this yr but some family stuff may reduce biking time in the near future.
The first rule of my club is don't talk about my club...
The second rule....
[url= http://www.newforce.org.uk ]New Forest Mountain Bike Club (Newforce)[/url]
We've got about 130 members with a huge variety of experience, fitness, interests and age. This is great, as by swapping between groups you get to do all sorts of different things and ride different places.
As well as fortnightly club rides in various locations around the South, we have 3 or 4 trips away each year to places like the Peaks, Brecon Beacons, Exmoor, Quantocks, day rides a bit closer to home, trips to Afan etc.
We've got 3 or 4 groups doing night rides of varying speed & distance on Tuesdays and Thursdays.
We arrange family rides and weekends.
We've got 4 teams entering Mountain Mayhem again this year.
We've got a number of very friendly pubs who give us free chips in return for regular business.
We go bivi-ing (see seperate thread!)
Some of us ride road bikes too.
We've arranged evenings of track cycling for the club.
We get members discounts at local shops.
We've got a quarterly magazine.
We also lobby for local access for cyclists in a particularly difficult area (which is why the club was formed originally, sometime back in the late Eighties I think).
Every ride has a designated pub, either during or after (sometimes before!).
There's always someone to ride with.
We're a MTB club based in Nottingham with around 80 members. Club rides are every Sunday and usually take place in the Peak District or Notts and sometimes Leics with occasional weekend trips to Wales / Scotland / Lakes etc. Helmets are compulsory on club rides (I think that's a condition of the CTC insurance). Everyone's welcome!
I enjoy riding with the club through which I've learnt a lot of new routes/trails and met loads of other riders.
EDIT: Sod it. I sound miserable. I'm not (well, not that much...).
[url= http://www.migglymoos.com/ ]MigglyMoos[/url]
The only mtb club worth mentioning in the S.Wales area 😆
As Kingtut and Clubber have said LVIS is a club in the loosest sense and there's little requirement to join or compete for the club. In fact one of the best things about it is I don't actually have to see those two more than a couple of times a year 😉
edit: that and the fashionable purple and gold kit.
[url= http://sussexmuddyarse.wordpress.com/ ]Sussexmuddy@rse[/url]
Very informal, the monthly club ride is a social/banter event. Then we have local area night rides and longer/harder rides that people post on our forum.
I think the lack of formality stops it becoming a chore.
EDIT: Sod it. I sound miserable. I'm not (well, not that much...).
Come and give it a go then! 🙂
Come and give it a go then!
Young family. Busy job. time, time, time.
Whereas I climb on the road bike from my house and I'm back 2-3 hours later.
I probably ought to sell my MTB - hasn't been ridden since July 2010....
Ride with these guys: http://www.londonphoenix.co.uk/
Quick, but a good bunch. Not raced "for" them yet, and not ridden with them in a month or so 😆
With races I tend to ride for the LBS I also used to work for:
http://www.tswcycles.co.uk/
Imperial College Cycling club, a cycling club for people in Imperial college, does what it says on the tin really. We do rides (road, mtb, some track stuff) once or twice a week a couple of us race when we fancy, and we get money from our union to enjoy ourselves on weekends away (Snowdonia tomorrow as a matter of fact) or at BUCS. We're not particularly serious and it's just a cracking excuse for a good laugh and some cycling occasionally.
Iain
