Road CC – anyone a member of Sotonia or New Forest CC?

Thinking about joining a club. In my area there are two big ones, I don’t have anything to judge which one would be better for me, other than the colour of the team kit (both don’t look great imo)

Reason for joining a club is to be a bit more social, not ride on my own all the time and learn to ride in a group / maybe get tempted into racing / or events with team mates.

Odd i’m in exactly the same position think of joining New Forest CC as i’m more that way than Southampton.

I was chatting to one of them who was trying to get me to do a TT 🙂

Definitely go and ride with and talk to each club before you make a choice.

I drifted away from my club in 2012 because I was no longer interested in time trialing, and they didn’t seem interested in what I wanted to do instead.

Also worth finding out where their club rides / social evenings are, as this might not be anywhere near the theoretical location of the club ie Bournemouth Jubilee rides HQ is Wimborne, 10 miles from the centre of Bournemouth.

Having said all that, I’m seriously considering joining a different local club – Wessex RC – this year just because they have a nice retro style kit 😀

I’m not familiar with New Forest CC but know a couple of members of Sotonia and they seem to have a lot going on, there is also Hargroves CC which I don’t know much about but they organise a number of rides each week starting from various branches of the shop. Depending on where you are based VC Venta in Winchester has a growing membership and seems fairly active organising regular rides and events. I think they’re all predominantly road but have riders taking part in the Wessex CX league as well.

I used to ride with <cough> Crabwood CC. It pretty much petered out, I think there;’s a handful of aged members left. However they used to organise al lot of training sessions which the other local clubs used, particularly Sotonia. They (Sotonia) were always a decent bunch and are pretty active with training, racing (road & TT), track sessions at Calshot, even have a mountain bike section (although its a roadies definition of mountain biking!).

I think New Forest CC are a bit more social, less a racing club these days.

I don’t really like the idea of just turning up at a ride and joining in, never liked just inviting myself along to things, would be much better to do it with another mate but sadly they are all busy being dads.

I’ll probably give Sotonia a go first, there is a TT coming up and should be a good judge of whether they are a friendly bunch or not. Like the fact they have a mtb section too, I also would like a club that organises the odd trip away I can tag onto as a solo relatively cheaply.

I’d love to fly the club colours but they are really not to my taste.

I think I’ve seen the hargroves club out for a ride so that’s worth a look but probably more casual

I ride with the Hargroves lot. Mostly on a Wednesday. They are a laid back club which suits me fine coming from an MTB background.

I believe the other clubs are more structured with more stuff going on though.

I’d love to fly the club colours but they are really not to my taste.

What is it with roadie clubs and crap taste? I mean I’m so bad at dressing myself I get accused of being colour blind, but am lot of club kit is just plain bad even by my standards.