I actually think the faffers and those who are late are a bit rude and clearly don’t value my (or indeed their) time.

+1

And applies to life in general. I am always early, for anything – and if I’m not going to be, somebody there will already know.

I use to have a Boss that was always late, so I adopted a 5 mins rule – if he hadn’t turned up by 5 past the meet time, I was gone. I’ve used this rule for +20 years now at work.

I also worked in Germany and they have the 15 mins rule – but I haven’t the patience to wait 15 mins 🙂

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Academic_quarter_(class_timing)

Some people just can’t get anywhere on time.
Used to ride with some people who were always late .. race meetings they’d be arguing why they should be allowed late registration. (and a couple of places they had a 30 min drive vs 2 1/2 hours for us)

Most people I think a wheels rolling tends to work better and especially as someone else said you have to ride to the meeting point.

Tough love is often the best cure. A particular couple spring to mind. Always late for the meeting time so we switched to a wheels rolling time. They were still late for this. A couple of times, we’d already set off by the time they got there. They got better, but still weren’t ready on time.

What finally cured it, was them watching us ride away from the car park while they were still unloading.

Try having kids! (For those with kids.. you KNOW! )

ABSOLUTELY NO IDEA of time keeping… yet adamant YOU’RE the one in the wrong for stressing!

Tbh… I’m happier stressing about leaving EARLY, then stressing about being late.
I hate being late for anything..

DrP

Being late can be a bit of a wind up.

Not MTB but we had it with an ex colleague. If a colleague is kind enough to pick me up and drive into somewhere like London, I’ll be waiting watching out of the window or outside if it’s warm. If meeting at the yard I’ll be early.
The ex colleague would need an ‘I’m here’ text or be late. If you wait, you could guarantee they’d turn up as you drive away. 15mins might mean a massive delay as traffic builds, not being able to get parked and eventually late home.

More MTB related I used to ride with someone who would often be late, not have air in his tyres, shock, whatever but would always want to do the shorter ride due to having to get back by a certain time.

Being late or faffage from time to time is being human, doing it all the time is being an arse.

Being late or faffage from time to time is being human, doing it all the time is being an arse.

Absolutely.

Having a mechanical or a puncture can happen to anyone. Turning up with a bike you know isn’t working without being there early enough to have a chance of fixing it in time to set off at the agreed time is ignorant.

Same as a couple of prev posters – I’m pretty much always early if I’m travelling somewhere on my own. If the other half is involved then we are occasionally a bit late. I hate that and it causes arguments.

However, we’re talking a few minutes and I’m always apologetic.

One group ride we kept getting text updates from a couple that were joining us that they were “a bit late”, then “stuck behind a tractor”, then “nearly there”. Nearly an hour later they arrived.
We were freezing. I was thoroughly pissed off. One of them started to chat and faff, he got told that we were setting off in 2 mins and he needed to sort his shit out. He couldn’t understand what the issue was.
I dont invite him on rides any more and only invite his partner on the understanding that I no longer wait for people that aren’t at least present by the time we are supposed to set off. It’s worked so far.

If you can’t be arsed to make the effort to get somewhere when everyone else is getting there, just say so from the beginning and there’s no drama. We’ll go on our ride and you can go on yours.

How about on trail faffing? People who have to play with their layers, or their suspension pressures, or their tyre pressures (and they always need a gauge to do this, not a quick squeeze), or their layers again, or adjust their helmet straps, or dig out a snack, or adjust a seat post or brake lever position (probably with a tool that requires assembly and digging out of a pack)… at every gate, or top of climb, or turning… At least with car park faff you can just sit in your car and wait for them to get it over with, but on the trail you’re left hopping from one foot to another trying not to scream in frustration!

You can have faffing at the end of the ride too. I once had a puncture about 10 mins ride 40 mins walk from where we had left the cars. The guy whose car I had gone in said he’d go and fetch the car to pick me up rather than mess about fixing the flat. He was so long faffing about changing and sorting his bike that all the others had left and I had walked back to the car park.

Kids is the reason that our Monday Night Pub Rides start at what some people regard as the weird time of 8.15.

Did start at 8.15. Bloody kids growing up and gaining some independence means they start a bit early for me nowadays. The arseholes. 😁

I did laugh heartily on boxing day this year when the biggest anti-Faffer in our group arrived after the 6am roll-off slot and announced he’d forgotten to even bring a water bottle for a 100km ride. I had to loan a bag and now have the opportunity to faff as much as I like for at least the next year.

I once took my roadie friend on his first mtb ride round a muddy trail centre, he had to keep stopping to take pictures of his clagged up bike to send to his Dad!

can’t be arsed to make the effort to get somewhere when everyone else is getting there

This sums it up for me.

I don’t mind a little bit of lateness or faffing in the carpark every so often, but I want to maximise my time on the trail in the time I have available between work, family and domestic commitments.

I despise avoidable faffing on a ride though.

Whats that? Your gears don’t index right? Should have looked at it at home. Brake pads need changing. Ditto. Surely you don’t need to adjust your suspension pressure for every single descent? The list is almost endless.

You’re stealing my ride time.

Pretty much, I dont ride in groups bigger than about 4 or 5 because it seems to be that beyond that number, some kind of faff critical mass is reached and you can be sure that something is going to happen.

I’m caught between 2 extremes.

My regular riding buddy is pathologically late. I have come to accept this, and plan accordingly, started factoring in 20 mins of lateness into plans.

MrsTH, also a regular riding partner, is mortally fearful of being late. And builds 10 minutes of leeway into every part of a journey (travel time, fuel stop, any other stops etc).

I’ve spent hours waiting to start bike rides…

Faffing is part of group riding. I can fondly remember many trailside repairs and incidents over the years. If I want to just ride non stop I’ll go out on my own. When hanging out with good mates I’d probably be just as happy to spend the time faffing, tinkering and having a laugh as going for the ride.

I’m completely of the ‘it doesn’t matter’ type guy.

I have a riding mate who in the last 20 years has only turned up on time once… but 99% of our rides start at my house, so i’m sitting at home drinking coffee waiting instead of being standing round a car-park… so i really don’t mind.

I don’t ‘do’ the big groups… if i have a group of people riding, they’ve got kids too, which instantly brings instant faff time as kids are, well, kids.

I’m a lot less time poor than most though on here it seems.

Our club rides are quite social and include a fair bit of stop and go. I’m actually quite grateful for it as it allows me to catch my breath.

But turning up any trying to undertake bike maintenance at the start of the ride is unforgivable.

The bloke who always faffed the most on our rides surpassed even himself when he fitted a cartridge BB in the car park before a ride once (BITD)…………..

I like to think that I faff in a considerate way because if I have something that I know that I’ll have to tinker with before we set off I’ll get there very early so I can be done by the agreed departure time.

If you think bikes invoke faff in people you should spend time with climbers. Especially trad climbers eyeing up a route they might find a little spicy.