I have been toying over the decission of joining one of these for some time. Looking at a few of them including one ran by my employer the prices seem to vary from £0 a year to £40 in my area. All seem to just organise regular outings and discounts in my LBS. Is it just me or does £40 seem a bit steep for this. I am one of the committe in a motorsport club and we only charge £20 per year and for that our members get a bike night out subsidised, all insurances paid for discounts. What I am asking am I better paying the 40 for a club, what are the benifits, will I get covered by the likes on Public Liability Insurance or do I just go for the freeby that run 2 runs a week?

Some clubs pay British Cycling affiliation fees so that you can race under a club name and in club colours, so that would take up some of your membership fee. There’s also stuff like IMBA affiliation. Some clubs also contribute to racer’s entry fees.

So if I am not interested in racing (since I’m too slow lol) it’s probably not worth it?

ask them what the money covers. if its tea and cake, join, if its racing and insurance, start your own

Thanks, I would have probably been better doing that in the first place.

As for running my own, no thaks as I said already heavily involved in one club and cant be bothered with the bother of another.

Lanarkshire MTB club is free http://www.lanarkshiremtbclub.co.uk/

Hi Bob,

Yeah thats one of the ones I looked at and fancy. Glasgow was £20 for new members and then £40 for repeat membership. As I said just seems alot for only wanting it for some new faces to ride with.

The 50% off servicing costs at Alpine Bikes that comes with the GMBC membership is pretty good if you take your bike to be serviced rather than doing it yourself.

You seem to get a lot more for your money with Stirling Bike Club

Why join Stirling Bike Club?

As well as the satisfaction of joining one of Scotland’s friendliest and forward-thinking cycling organisations, catering for everyone who just loves to ride, there are some real tangible benefits to being a member:

Organised rides, social events, races and weekend trips away.
Excellently designed and produced club kit, available at Wheels of Callander.
Variable discount at Wheels of Callander on production of SBC membership card.
10% off all accessories from Rock and Road Cycles.
10% discount at Summits on production of SBC membership and even greater discounts at special club nights.
10% discount on parts and labour from Stirling Cycle Repairs
FREE BRONZE membership of British Cycling, or save £11.50 off Silver or Gold membership. This applies to new BC members and those that have lapsed for more than 2 years. The main benefit for bronze is a provisional race licence for competing in certain events. Silver membership includes 3rd party public liability insurance, legal advice and a full licence.

http://www.stirlingbikeclub.org.uk/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=44&Itemid=41

You get 50% off labour at alpine and 15% off bike stuff where they can. YOu used to get free demo bikes but I’m not sure if you still do. You get a discount at bike love and some other shops, ask them for more details. You also get the use of a club house for tea and cakes (provided) every Wednesday night along with the use of a jet washer if you want to risk your bearings. On top of that you get shown all the hidden singletrack around Glasgow and rides at the weekends all over the local area with a great bunch of people.

I was a member for years and think it’s great value for everything that they do. The whole thing is subsidised by the fact that they make money from organising races which adds to the coffers.

I think £40 a year is great value for everything you get. I normally make it back on the Alpine discount alone!

I’ve never worked out how a club can offer insurance for leading a ride. If say for example led a ride and someone fell off and it was on FC land, bridleway, [cough] footpath how would any insurance cover this?

Don’t get it ?

Quite often the membership money for clubs goes towards funding junior programmes within the clubs, so although not necessarily benefitting you, it’s benefitting the sport instead.

I can only speak for Stirling BC here (I was their treasurer for a couple of years) but membership fees went towards:

– subsidising weekends away (road and MTB)
– buying club equipment (the ****-off big tent seen at SSUK08; specialist bike tools such as bearing presses, wheel jog, headset tools, etc)
– donations to bike-related organisations (such as Carron Valley Dev Group when it existed, and the Cyclist’s Defence Fund)
– a bit towards funding coaching for juniors
– but most importantly, free beer at the AGM 🙂

Of course, there’s always the non-tangible benefits of trail knowledge, social aspects, etc – can’t put a price on them.

I’ve always thought the £15 at Stirling was a reasonable amount to pay given the discounts it can get you on bike parts at local shops. Very easy to get your money’s worth.

the insurence that most clubs provide is not for you, more for others.

e.g if there are a crowd on bikers and some walker gets in teh road and gets mowed down insurence might cover that. Thsta certainly what we pay for through the MSA.

I could be interested in the Stirling one. Seems to be good value for money.

Went for my first ride this weekend with the guys from the Lanarkshire MTB club. Really good bunch of guys. About 10 of us went to Innerleithan. Good range of abilities and was made feel welcome on my first outing. Would recomend this bunch of guys to anyone. Not a registered club that you can race under but still good bunch to go a day/night out with.

£40 is high, I suppose it depends on what you get for it and what they spend it on. £10-20 is more normal.

Club affliation to BC is about £88 p.a.

the insurance for led rides could be spent in getting someone qualified to “lead” the ride.

17 for a full Adult at ours and that gets you

Affiliations:
* British Cycling – http://www.britishcycling.org.uk
* Welsh Cycling – http://www.welshcycling.co.uk
* Cycling Time Trials – http://www.cyclingtimetrials.org.uk
* British Schools Cycling Association – http://www.bsca.org.uk
* British Triathlon – http://www.britishtriathlon.org
* Welsh Triathlon – http://www.welshtriathlon.com

Discounts:
* 10% LBS and sponsors

This is a club with active road and MTB sections and one membership covers both. They organise 2 road races, a season of road sporting TTs and weekly chaingangs, sunday rides, weekly mtb night rides, weekly mtb weekend rides and a monthly epic mtb ride.