Why do most M.T.B and Road clubs charge £20.00 annual membership? I have joined a few over the years and was wondering were the money goes. I know they register the club with British cycling that’s £180.00 so if they had 100 members that’s £2000 minus the £180 so over the years the pot grows. One club I joined the first year they bought a gazebo, lights, fire pit and some grub they have been going for a few years now so they must have amassed a pretty sum by now. Same with a road bike club your allowed 3 rides then its £20.00 or ride on your tod. It would be different if they had a club house that they rented and needed the money but its just a facebook page. I know what one club as in the coffers and its a large amount so I said why do you keep on charging??? NO REPLY. Seems like I am riding on my tod these days.

Think our local cycling club has a few thousand in the coffers, they bought a few stop watches for TTs some years back…..

ours is free, sounds like I should be charging!

didn’t know there were any mountain bike clubs in the UK, only ever just ridden with mates.

If you get nothing for your membership then either get involved to do something useful with it or leave.

Why not go to the AGM/committee and ask?

don’t they have to publish accounts etc?

I know our club uses it for affiliation, insurance, event equipment, subsidised refreshments, occasional assistance for youth riders, buying team kit, advertising, website etc.

All perfectly reasonable things to spend it on really.

What do you get for your membership fee? Insurance? Membership of national organisations?

It depends on what they do.

Web sites cost to keep hosted and other general costs involved with admin (flyers, newsletters etc).

When I helped run one we had a float that meant we could put down deposits on accommodation for weekend trips and subsidize the total cost. Food etc for trips and social gatherings. Annual prizes/awards.

The ability to order club shirts and kit in bulk to sell to members at a reduced rate.

Other club kit like walkie talkies, banners, gazebos, etc.

There is lots of stuff the money could get used for, but what particular clubs do is up to them and their members.

My roadie club’s accounts are published, we have quite a bit in the bank (maybe £20k) and the idea is for that to stay static year on year – the fee has remained at £25 for as long as I’ve been a member though now joiners pay £40 and get a club jersey which seems a good deal. Quite a lot gets given to charity – much of that comes from the proceeds of our sportive – and club kit is subsidised plus a few social events each year and trips. Seems fine to me but they could drop the costs or give us more back – not sure what the bank balance would ever be used for.

You’re not quibbling over £20 over a year are you? I pay £25 for mine for access to 52 club runs a year, monthly socials, loads of other random rides and a great group of friends. On the other hand every mtb ride costs me £10 in petrol so I know which offers greater value for money!

£20 !!

Eh?

£200, but then we do get preferential treatment.

My local club is £10 p.a. but you get three free entries into the local time trial (2 quid a pop for affiliation/insurance etc) so that’s 6 quid straight back. Don’t think anyone is getting rich on the remaining 4 quid.

My roadie club’s accounts are published, we have quite a bit in the bank (maybe £20k)

😯

Why do some blokes who ride bikes together need 20k in the bank? Thats a lot of coke and hookers!

I never really got the whole club thing. Surely cycling lends itself to a more anarcho syndicalist collective approach. Roadies are a weird bunch.

We charge £17 for our club. We are affiliated to the BMC and most of the membership goes towards third party insurance. We pay for the website and run trips which are very cheap. I am a member of a cycling club and that is £25 and most of the fee goes towards the ctc and we go to events which is subsidised heavily by the club we also get a great pair of socks when it comes to enrolment time

I was talking to a rider from a large London road club recently and he said (their membership is “full”) and he said that they had an embrassingly large bank balance

Lots of ours goes on organising races, training coaches and helping building trails in cooperation with the FC.

It means when the club runs a race (national point series in our case) we can if we muck up lose money and not have to fold the club.

we get a great forum

we get more votes on the national council, meaning more voices shouting for MTB

we get cheaper quality cycling gear (club)

we get discounts from 3 excellent bike shops even if you have never shopped there before

If you build trails you get rewards

there are materials to build new trails

if you do something above and beyond you get a reward

I give a bit to help the lot.

I was talking to a rider from a large London road club recently and he said (their membership is “full”) and he said that they had an embrassingly large bank balance

That wouldn’t be a club based in South West London by any chance, would it?

my club publishes accounts and typically has a few k in the bank. the moneys are used to:

– buy things like cross/track bikes that members can borrow
– buy bike boxes that can be borrowed
– provide monies to help young members pay race fees
– subsidise club trips away/socials for members
– provide a backup in case club promotions (races/sportives etc) lose money
– subsidise club kit

its all exceptionally good value for the £5 i paid for my membership last year!

Not fair to group them all together.

I knew one that was very dubious, lots of bucket rattling that usually ended up spent on trinkets for the committee whilst others are well run groups with the subs providing stability and mutual benefits.

Will be covered at the AGM, expenses such as signs,flags etc.

We charge/pay 12 quid a year. Covers CTC affiliation for club ride insurance etc. Surplus gives us a small (500 quid or so) pot to cover one off costs (have just got a branded gazebo for events like Ard Rock where loads of us are camping together).

For that 12 pounds we get weekly organised rides and organised monthly (roughly) rides away, and obviously access to a big pool of like-minded riders for other less ‘organised’ rides.

Good value IMHO.

Its interesting how the fees vary between clubs with even the lowest fee still accumulating a balance. I wouldn’t mind paying a fee to a club I wanted to join. The last one I went to seemed to be run by people who were more concerned with pigeon holing members into categories they didn’t have ( it wasnt very big club either). Too many rules and regulations and treated like a number. It was a roadie club rather than a mtb one. I know a chap who ended up creating his own group and it runs very well with a healthy number of participants on each ride.

When I helped run one, we used the money to buy club kit, we bulk bought inner tubes and lube as well for members, running the website and subsidising the annual dinner.

I left when the resources of the club were used to rent a piece of woodland to further one member’s racing fantasies. It was all less than brilliant.

don’t do clubs now

It means when the club runs a race … we can if we muck up lose money and not have to fold the club.

This is important. Events will be a big part of it, especially for the road clubs.

Realistically, if you’re asking “where is the value in joining a club?” when it costs GBP20 per year, you’re probably wasting your money. I’ve tended to pay club dues because:

– it’s suited me very well to be a member of a decent club;
– it solves the “what shall I wear?” dilemma;
– clubs are the backbone of British road racing – it’s a small chip-in and a few hours on a wet Sunday in March to keep that rolling along for another year;
– it’s sad not to have a first claim club to put down on your application for a racing licence you’ll never actually use, again.

🙂

http://www.bikeradar.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=40013&t=13030580&hilit=club+fees

I think Reading CC is £12 1st claim, or £6 2nd claim or no racing. That’s 11.5p per club run (about 7p if you count chain gangs too).

I’ve never seen the accounts but I suspect this is probably the closest to the mark:

It means when the club runs a race (national point series in our case) we can if we muck up lose money and not have to fold the club.

You need enough in the bank that if you have to cancel the race/sportive at the last minute that you can still pay all the timing companies, insurance etc and refund riders.

On the one hand it is money for nothing, you could ride around on the road for free. But it’s less than a good quality gear cable!

I think there is value to being in a club as its as much about the members as it is about the name. I have noticed its the name that lends itself the the elitism and delusions of grandeur rather than benefiting the cycling community.

I’m off to start a cycling group 🙂 where you dont have to be a number/ category or specify your ethnicity when joining. Just ride your BSO and I wont tell you how slow you must go .

£30 p.a Primarily a road club, has various affiliations, runs various open races, tt’s and club events. A few subsidised socials each year.

notmyrealname – Member

I was talking to a rider from a large London road club recently and he said (their membership is “full”) and he said that they had an embrassingly large bank balance

That wouldn’t be a club based in South West London by any chance, would it?

That sounds like us! Quite difficult to spend money sensibly and benfiting the majority of the club, mind you our kit orders used to be about c£10k a go

Is it just the English who take what is essentially a spontaneous, fairly care-free activity, and all the more enjoyable for that, immediately form some kid of official ‘club’ then set a load of rules as to what you can and can’t do, to be discussed at an AGM, charge an annual fee, and in the process completely suck the joy out of it, awhile completely losing track of everything that it was meant to be about?

I really don’t get it at all

I prefer the Binners Monday night riders model for a club, turn up, bring money for beer. Simple rules, easy to follow

I left when the resources of the club were used to rent a piece of woodland to further one member’s racing fantasies. It was all less than brilliant.

Oh I remember that. Still good t-shirts tho 😉

Our MTB club charges £25 a year.
CTC membership/insurance takes about £17 of that I think.
The remainder goes on:
1. Free pizza as a bribe to those willing to turn up at a rides meeting and lead a ride or two.
2. Purchase of a few bits and pieces like a set of club lights to loan to anyone new to nightrides.
3. A donation to MRTs and/or air ambulance.

Nah, we have them on this side of the border too.

I prefer the Binners Monday night riders model for a club, turn up, bring money for beer. Simple rules, easy to follow

It’s all well and good until some newbie turns up, crashes and decides to test the legality of the statement “you’re here at your own risk” when someone organises the ride, or a helpful ‘member’ tries to explain to him how to ride jumps.

FWIW I’ve been/am a member of both types of club. And was a member of a ‘Monday night pub ride’ that went official, although TBH it was quite cliquey anyway so I don’t miss it.

It’ll be interesting to see how MTB clubs evolve over the longer term, I suspect the roadie model of being affiliated to BC and charging £6-10 will win out if/when someone successfully sues the leader/organiser of a regular ride.

Is it just the English who take what is essentially a spontaneous, fairly care-free activity, and all the more enjoyable for that, immediately form some kid of official ‘club’ then set a load of rules as to what you can and can’t do, to be discussed at an AGM, charge an annual fee, and in the process completely suck the joy out of it, awhile completely losing track of everything that it was meant to be about?

No, the Scots can do it too Binners!.

My old club was a bit too road orientated, but that didn’t really bother me, it was the politics and dominant figures that were playing their silly little games that did me in the end.

Now a member of GMBC in Glasgow, I don’t go that often tbh, but have met some really great friends there and really just use it for the odd ride or weekend away. For £25 I think it represents good value.

As for the club up there ^ that has thousands in the bank, our old sports club at work had that same situation, My view on it was that with the exception of having a little aside to cover upcoming expenses, a club should be looking to run down it’s funds every year.

It’s all well and good until some newbie turns up, crashes and decides to test the legality of the statement “you’re here at your own risk” when someone organises the ride, or a helpful ‘member’ tries to explain to him how to ride jumps.

Not much chance of that. In that situation we’d club ’em to death with a track pump, and bury the body in a shallow grave on the moors

Thats what we’ve done the last few times anyway.

I’ve just remembered another stipulation that you cant be a member or affiliated to another club 🙂 and that applies to riding a TT course open to non members too ie public. After reading about other clubs it seems some do offer a lot more to their members in both practical and material terms than my local one.

Whilst this has moved on a bit from Fees, what would you expect for your Fee?

I ask purely because I don’t race with my club nor intend to. I have run Rides (2) in Hampshire already with another planned Mid Oct. I’ve had in a group 20 on the first and 24 on the second event and whilst it no way represents a race, it’s organised by me incl food stops and providing travel information and GPX files for the route(s) then guidance. I don’t charge, don’t have insurance, don’t provide roadside support.

All this free of course, I chose to organise these, put some effort in to the club and get folks coming down to Hampshire to see what it’s all about. Now, we’re a bunch of roadies, lets not forget that. But a lot of us do ride CX too and as is with most clubs, eclectic mix.

I also go on rides run by the club. These follow form as above, generally we get 30 or so on Sat’s and 40 or so on Suns, mid week about 20 and early morning hill climbs about 40. There are a few who race in the club, quite a few, and I’m about to lend a hand supporting a race over in Essex.

I think, at present, I put quite a bit of effort in compared to a good number of other club members. I don’t expect anything much in return for my fee other than riding with like minded folks.

What do you expect for your fee?

Neither club I’m in has fees but one doesn’t have any affiliation and the other only CTC, we contribute to the overall running costs via donations.

On the flip-side we don’t have anything that’s subsidised or available to loan (things like club travel cases sound a great idea to me). So I wouldn’t mind paying £20 a year however I think the point a lot of people are making is it’s not the amount itself it’s that there should be a reason behind it. If I was paying £20 a year and the club had £20k in it’s account I’d question why (which is different from moaning about affordability)

We charge £10 pa for the whole family. It pays for ride leader insurance, website, postage etc. We do end up with money at the end of the year but we tend to make donations to air ambulances and the people who either are maintaining trails or help us when we break.

We’ve also paid for first aid courses, and I believe at one time race fees (when we had a racing team).

We charge that £10 to gain a little commitment from members, high enough so they think ‘do I want to be in this club?’ but not enough to break anyone’s bank. I think it is a good idea.