Hi,
I’m intrigued by the ‘Some other yes’ and ‘Some other no’ answers to today’s Singletrack Poll of ‘Are you in a local cycling club?’

Here’s your chance to expand on your answer. (Sorry I didn’t have room for ‘I am in a club, but it’s not local’ and other answers. 🙂

Yes, I am a member of a club (not really a local one though).

I pay my dues to contribute in some small way to the maintenance of some of the trails I ride fairly regularly as I haven’t yet managed to make it to a build day.

slainte 😀 rob

No. But I can see the point for some folk.

no, thought quite hard about it, did a couple of their rides and training sessions and decided road riding is a solo/close mates activity and i dont really have any interest in doing it with others. (mtb is my social riding)

also part of me is very against any kind of ‘pay to ride’ feeling such as £3 per evening on the tuesday sessions and a memebership fee i dont really want to pay.

not in a club at present though was many years ago (for MTB’s). Local club is a bit to Time Trial with all it’s rules. Would like to get involved in a roady club that does a bit of everything. House move shortly may allow this.

No but I do see the point of clubs I’m just not prepared to put in the time needed to get anything out of a ‘club’ (regular attendance on rides, competing etc).

Yes…sort of.

Involved with with several different MTB and road groups locally, all of which have regular scheduled rides, team jerseys, facebook pages and/or email lists.

But none of them are “clubs” with membership dues, or committees or any of that stuff.

Yes I am and enjoy it muchly. You can be involved as much or as little as you like.

Joined a club purely so that I could do their confined TTs. Dont plan on doing anything else with them though.

No, I am not in a formal club, but part of an informal group of about 20 cyclists that sometimes ride together, and then again sometimes don’t. Three meet up’s per week Tuesday, Thursday evenings and Sunday mornings if you can make it great, if you can’t never mind.

Can’t see the point of anything more.

Some other yes, I ticked that as

a) I ride with a ‘club’ with a website, forum, clique/heierachy etc etc, but no membership fee. They’ve just introduced a voulentary memebership fee, I’ve not paid up because I seen no benifit in it for me and my £20 isn’t going to buy enough 3/4 to dust to armour any trails, and I heard from a 3rd party that the ‘club’ has managed to wind up both the local trail building collective and the FC.

b) I’ll probably join the local roadie club when I go back home in October, then again, I’ll probably not pay up unitll next year as this one’s almost over, and no one’s ever satisfactionarily (sp?) explaind to me why I have to pay to ride in a roadie club.

c) I’ll be shouting “arrrrgggg” accross the Berkshire/Surrey border with the Trolls, who seem like a propper MTB club at a reasnoble cost (free).

[edit]
Mym membershiop fee gets me all this…………….

?Membership to a dedicated Yahoo! sporting group providing access to a community of approximately 200 cyclists in the ******* area.
?A quarterly club magazine posted to your home
?The ability to claim a club discount at local cycling retailers.
?Affiliation to important UK cycling bodies such as British Cycling, Cyclists Touring Club, West London Cycling Association, Cycling Time Trials, ******* Track Cycling League and ******* Cyclo-Cross League which permits you to enter events & competitions.
?A calendar of club events promoting activities across multiple disciplines of cycling including, road racing, track, timetrials, audax, sportives, cyclo-cross and touring.
?An organized Sunday club-run taking in a local café stop.
?Invitation to various social activities including an annual prize presentation.
?Access to the club coach and a group of highly experienced cyclists willing to help develop your cycling skills.
?First-Aid training (subject to the club maintaining 10% of the club membership as trained volunteers in Sport First Aid)
?An opportunity to have your cycling achievements published in ********’s weekly local press.

I’m in two. One a road club which is good for racing and has some good social aspects. The other is a MTB group who ride together. There are some blurry lines between the two and also some splinter groups that I ride with occasionally.

Not long joined up with one, predominantly road but may be some ‘unofficial’ off road get togethers…over winter perhaps.

Opportunity to ride in a group, sniff out new routes and hear about events.

I guess I can benefit from being out with stronger riders too.

define local

Same as elliptic with some cross over with his “clubs”.

I’m still the local rep for IMBAm, as far as I’m aware, but other than that I just ride bikes with my mates

My local club is the Bogtrotters. I’m not sure I’m into riding with 30 other people down busy Lake District footpaths on a Sunday afternoon. 🙂

Yes I’m in a local club (well fairly local). It’s great, we train Wednesday evenings, social rides Sunday mornings, race cross in the winter, organise regular track days, have a really cool junior section with structured coaching sessions and generally have a laugh. Club kit is great – never have to think what to wear!!

Yes, our club Huddersfield Star, is fairly well balanced for all sorts of cycling with many folk have a ago at more than one. Eg the mountain bike group usually turn out for the the club 2 up club evening ten TT every year.

chipps – I work here

Hi,
I’m intrigued by the ‘Some other yes’ and ‘Some other no’ answers to today’s Singletrack Poll of ‘Are you in a local cycling club?’

Here’s your chance to expand on your answer. (Sorry I didn’t have room for ‘I am in a club, but it’s not local’ and other answers.

our ‘club’ uses the word in a very loose sense.

(no fees, no agm, no agenda, etc. We’ve even been told off for using our club’s name when we enter races – as we’re not a ‘proper’ club…)

I’m the chairman and founder of our local road club.
We race road, TT, cyclocross and XC.
We host our own open road race and TT. As well as reliability trials and charity rides and open days.
Tonight I was racing, Thursday I’ll be taking out absolute beginers.

I also hook up with a mountainbike specific club over winter.

Interesting. I am club secretary for a NW Road club. We arrange TT’s, road, cyclo cross and MTB races. WE also have mid week/weekend rides for all levels of the club. Recently found that we cant get marshall’s for our events from the club (membership in excess of 150). It was put to members whether to continue to promote events and the reaction was either apathy, or a widespread objection to having any ‘duties’ as club members. A few “whats in it for me” responses and a general feeling that only the members that race should be involved in racing.

We have numerous social events which are poorly attended and the majority of members just seem to want to use the club to arrange ‘club’ rides and wear the kit.

I’m a member of a fairly new local club that grew out of a loose affiliation of riders linked to our LBS. I must admit I preferred it when it was less formal, and while I occasionally ride with the club, I still prefer to ride with the less organised, more relaxed bunch on the periphery. That might well be more about me and my ability to commit to their ride times, but some of the local big hitters get on my tits a bit too.

. I am club secretary for a NW Road club. We arrange TT’s, road, cyclo cross and MTB races.

Which NW mtb races are these?

Yes – Local club.

Used to be a member of a commercial (bike shop) club but have since left and joined a dedicated cycling club who race road, TT and cx.

They are poles apart in terms of training and organisation. My new club is run by cyclist for cyclist rather that run by a cyclist who wants to make money from cyclists.

big_n_daft – Member

. I am club secretary for a NW Road club. We arrange TT’s, road, cyclo cross and MTB races.

Which NW mtb races are these?

MTB Midweek Madness