My wide struggles with female riding friends – she has a few locally who are flaky as hell, but standard disparities are an issue. She used to race a reasonable amount so is quick (and I mean this in the nicest way) for a woman, but if she comes out with me & my riding mates, she gets the legs torn off her & it’s a bit much, so tends to shy away.

We ride together a lot, but it would be nice if her friends were a bit less flaky so she could get out more with them. She’s part of a recent ladies FB thing has decided to do a race for the first time in years as they have pushed hard for ladies entries so hopes to broaden her social circle that way too.

Most of my riding friends are reasonably local, we all used to race together & got talking. Then other friends of friends gravitate towards the social circle too.

Still enjoy the solo rides though 🙂

I’m an awkward sod so the lbs that does shop rides rides at about 7pm and because of life etc I ride either home from work or right after work so always miss out on the group rides.

Much of my riding is a 7pm group ride and I ride to work – I just start my evening ride earlier as a solo ride and then join the others at 7pm. Does make it a 5 hour epic but it’s usually fun!

I’m sure the other person will feel a lot more awkward about the ‘more than a friend’ situation and will be keen to pretend it never happened…

I think you have find a group and then be patient – Any group will have a mixture of abilities and it will take a while for you to suss out who’s at your level.

what about http://www.meetup.com ?

also try MTBCHIX on facebook
https://www.facebook.com/groups/MTBChixandTrails/

Local MTB club. Then you have to work at getting your OH involved. First step is getting him on the bike which may need some patience… If I were him and you went on POF for friends I’d be slightly miffed.

Yeah, finding a group takes work and compromise. If you want your ride done on time go solo. If you want to have a laugh join a group, persevere and try a few.

Are there any other activities which interest you, which could lead to meeting new people?
Yoga / pilates classes? Book groups?
Mrs M joined a couple of book groups a few years back, from which she’s developed a really good social life.

Just to add a mild observation, it looks a bit like you want to meet people that ride at the pace you want, in the group size you want, at the time you want, in the area you want.

And why not? 🙂

I found a good group near me, I wasn’t looking for one, and if it hadn’t worked on all the points there, I wouldn’t have joined them past the first ride. As it happens, they tick all those boxes, and they’re a really nice bunch and there’s usually a pub or similar afterwards, which isn’t something I’d do on my own.

Having said all that, if you want to go hard and fast for an hour and a half, 2 hours, it’s not going to be social. If you want a social, there’s going to be some chatting and stopping.

On last Sunday’s Cheshire 100 ride I was quite surprised at the numbers of women riding alone. I had quite a pleasant chat with one rather fit looking rider and had I been single I wouldn’t have hesitated to ask for her phone number. I might have got turned down but you never know….

Where are you based? I’m on the edge of the peak district and always looking for an excuse to get out more, give me a shout. Have a fair ridings buddies but with time constraints etc easily find a lot of my rides are solo.

I’ve found a fair few local groups on facebook who I drop in with on occasion. Groups that I have never heard about outside of facebook, maybe worth a luck

You’re welcome to join us on Peak / Dales rides, but we tend to make up arrangements and rides as we go along and we’re not especially quick so that’s probably not much help.

I have the same problem – its a bit of a gap in the market but obviously privacy and security concerns are the same as they’d be with any other social network,and it’d need massive exposure/market share to really work. I guess running a dating site is much more profitable

I say I’m competitive and that’s why I have shied away from certain clubs but that’s because I want to have fun and not take it all too seriously (the very same reason I dont race or get involved in racing). I’m not bothered about other peoples pace, I got mostly annoyed with the one friend because as usual he was half an hour late and then admitted he hadn’t eaten anything all day. If he’d been on time and actually prepared I wouldn’t of cared and would of meant he wasn’t threatening to puke the whole time!! I dont care what pace other people ride at, I’m bothered about my own pace! I’m based Kidderminster so a bit too far for most offers but Im willing to drive around so one of these days I’ll take everybody up on their offer! I can be more flexible on time etc on the weekends because then I dont have the dog to get back to! Strava tip is a good one and I have made the one female friend from there actually who is local.

I’m a member of birds on bikes and MTBChixandTrails and often post where and when Im going but nothing seems to have worked yet. I’m pretty sure if I posted I was going to Cannock Chase it would of worked but I’ve resisted that so far! 😆

Bit far but if your ever passing your more than welcome out on our Wednesday club rides (calderdale mtb) we even have ladies (shock horror) :).

try and get yourself out on one of the lbs rides. It may eb a pain but you’ll possibly meet new people.

Being late then ill-prepared for an event you are doing together is incompetent and bad manners. One of the pleasures of having a regular, grown up cycling buddy is that he is always ready on time, looks after himself and doesn’t neglect the bike, causing breakdowns. We get out twice a week and seldom suffer delays or problems apart from the occasional puncture.

In illustration, last night my son aged 17 accompanied us on the Wednesday evening hooligan ride and three miles out his tyre burst when the latex inner tube herniated out of a small hole in the tyre, one of the hazards of latex tubes. As we fixed it he admitted that he’d noticed the inner tube bulging inside the hole after the weekend ride but had neglected to do anything about it! An unnecessary delay although not really a problem on a warm summer evening.

If you learned the difference between ‘of’ and ‘have’, you’d make friends with more grammar pedants 😉

I say I’m competitive and that’s why I have shied away from certain clubs but that’s because I want to have fun and not take it all too seriously

You sound very similar to me! I’m competitive (against myself mainly), yet I don’t take myself or my riding ‘attitude’ all that seriously..

The thing that puts me off joining a group of fasterish (competitive) riders, is a sense they would probably take it all a bit too seriously.

I might be wrong, but that’s the sense I get anyhooo…

Combine that with strongly introverted mysanthropism and 99.9% of my riding is solo. 😆