Hello, looking for some inspiration from the STW Hivemind about the London cycling scene for road clubs (but don’t need to just be road-focused). I’m in the greater Islington area, so have previously ridden with Islington CC – great club, great people, but with something like 900 members the club is just way too big for an introvert like me.

Ideally looking for something smaller, close-knit and that will push me to ride harder, without being all about ripping legs off, which seems to be the Rapha CC ethos. I’m happy to get involved with marshalling and volunteering and all that – I just want to find some good folks to ride with (good people is more important than good riders as my fitness does need work!)

Any thoughts? Many thanks.

all about ripping legs off, which seems to be the Rapha CC ethos.

I thought the Rapha CC ethos was about sitting in cafes in expensive clothes talking about cycling while your Carbon wonderhorse was locked outside, not actually riding a bike?

Anyhoo, sorry can’t help with your actual question.

all about ripping legs off, which seems to be the Rapha CC ethos.

It isn’t at all and the bonus of a big club is you’ll always find a decent little group to ride with. On a weekend, there’ll be a dozen different rides from long stuff out to Windsor or into Kent/Surrey right down to a couple of hours around Regent’s or Richmond Park to keep it local. And it’s never huge bunches. Last Rapha ride I did in London was about 8 of us and it was lovely. One guy brought a musette of homemade cake to the ride which he shared out with everyone.

London is a weird one for clubs, it’s got about 5 Super-Clubs (London Dynamo, Dulwich Paragon, Islington, Rapha etc) and then this ever-changing little collection of smaller clubs.

Op, come and have a ride with London Phoenix – very the Saturday 8:30 which is pretty Social at first.   There are 4/5 groups over the weekend ranging in pace and drop/non drop with annual trips etc arranged also. ‘Phoenix has about 300 members all over London, but each ride is usually about 10 people in size and rarely gets up to 20, whereby sometime they are split to 2 groups to avoid potential issues with other road users.

We ride from Whetstone at specific and advertised times and everyone’s a lovely bunch with plenty of riding and social activity.  PM me if you’d like more detail / a chat, or contact one of the Secs on the website.]

Welcome to London Phoenix CC

We also have the best Kit design 😉

CC London is popular near me.
Watto is sound.
Be warned Phoenix are very quick! 😉
http://cc-london.com/index.php/about/

Be warned Phoenix are very quick!

We have some fast riders and racers for sure.   Saturday pace is non drop 50-60k circa 26kmph, stops as necessary and Cappuccino’s and panettone at the end.

At the other end the early Sunday is 100k minimum average 33kmph + drop ride.     There are rides in-between, Regents park laps, specials such as Blue Egg Halstead, Chilterns rides etc.   You make your choice…

I’ve learned a lot from LP who have some very charming, experienced and accommodating people.  Hell, if you want to go slow OP I’ll come with you, that’ll sort it!

Dulwich Paragon are a good bunch but ride out from opposite side of the city to you.

What Kryton Said. I rode with LP for 7/8 years, great riding, made some great mates, went on some awesome trips and suffered on their chaingang many times.

Cappuccino’s and panettone at the end.

One guy brought a musette of homemade cake

And here is why roadies are all just plain wrong.

It’s just coffee and cake.

North London would be London Phoenix and Finsbury Park. South of the river of course there is the might Twickenham 😉 (other clubs available too). And always London Dynaslow if you like Richmond Park 😉 Closer to home is RPR, but they are Johnny-come-lately’s. And fast as…

Some great suggestions, thank you.

Need a few more weeks on the turbo and then spring I’ll do some testing with CCL and LP.

Do people join more than one club these days? I.e. Rapha and another? Pleasantly surprised to hear good things about RCC.

Come and join the Fridays one night – super friendly, absolute plodder pace, no drop.

https://www.fnrttc.org.uk/2020-rides

Do people join more than one club these days?

You can join any number of clubs that you want, but if you are racing with BC regs you need to observe the first claim / second claim business.

without being all about ripping legs off, which seems to be the Rapha CC ethos.

Thats simply not the case, nice to see you’ve made wild supposition based on some media internet warriors boredom tapping on a Thursday night whilst waiting for their Mum to finish making them beans on toast for supper…

BC regs are you can be a member of more than one club, but you can only compete in any one discipline for one club.

900 members is not a club, it’s a movement! We’re about 200 and that’s big enough to know about a third of the members well. We’re also over a 125 years old, but not the oldest. Hello http://www.delaunecc.org/ in south London.

RCC is fine. Like any club it will have a core and those are the ones you’ll see week in week out. I race the same riders all season. And there’s a club in any distant city, which is no bad think if you are travelling. Kit’s not bad, either 😉

My friends are members of Dulwich Paragon I think and have nothing but praise for them

900 members is not a club, it’s a movement!

So true, we capped our membership at 600, and it’s harder to join now. Still the same old people volunteering to run things though 🙁

80/20 rule. And for bigger clubs it’s the 95/5 rule when it comes to volunteering. We give a volunteer discount for members. And the blue hoodie of authority.

Hackney CC is exactly what you are after. Small club, close to you, rides every Sunday at 8 am with a choice of rides depending on how challenging you fancy it to be

https://www.cyclingclubhackney.co.uk/

Article on the Fridays:

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/bike-blog/2019/aug/05/carpe-noctem-joy-cycling-through-night-ride-coast

+1 to the volunteering – if you do find a club and settle in well do think about contributing in some way. At my club (Woking, deliberately not a fast / race club, we reformed in 2012 after Brad and the Olympics as a first club for newcomers to take up road cycling) we have about 300 members. 50 or so per week on the various club runs in 6-8 groups to not clog the roads up, and it’s the same few that always seem to lead the rides. And as these are generally more experienced cyclists, we’ve all gradually got a bit fitter and faster, yet ethos is that we always have a social ride at around 20-21kph and 40 miles. To have a leader for this means that leaders capable of riding faster / further sometimes have to drop down for it, some don’t mind but when it’s my only big ride of the week I don’t want to do it every 3 weeks.

So that’s my request, if you do lead rides for your clubs, consider offering to lead a slower / slow group occasionally and give the person who usually does that a week off riding further and faster hiding in the wheels.

As for clubs, no personal experience other than a dislike of Dynamo following an incident at RL a couple of years ago. I’m sure they’re a good club but when riding as a group in club kit and you behave like knobs, then the club will be tarred by your brush.

Another vote for volunteering if you can with a club. Ilkeston CC has gone from 0 to 400+ members in two years, but it’s the same hardcore 10-20 who captain rides and Marshall events. (And I know I’ve been slacking recently!)

Some great stuff here, thank you. I think trials with CCL and LP in March will be the thing to do.

At dinner with friends two more were suggested: Hub Velo, which is run by the shop. And Dirty Weekend, which seems to be pan-London. I only trust STW recommendations 😉(obvs), so does anyone have any knowledge of them, please?