Someone once described trying to organise cyclists like herding cats.
The road bikers seem to have the whole sunday ride team strip cafe thing well sorted. MTBers seem more of the small group brigade – and maybe no bad thing given trail congestion.
Bottom line is that organising something takes time and can be a thankless task. Until you have done it you don’t realise the effort it takes to keep running rides, dealing with membership, legal kak, formal meetings etc. As a member of the Leeds Cycle group (road mainly and local lobbying) it’s amazing to see so many people giving up their free time to actually *do* something. I have also managed to join the Local Access Forum (group dealing with footpaths, bridleways, local strategy etc). There was no cycling representation so I thought, why not get involved? Clearly I am not going to be able to convert Leeds into a massive off-road velodrome in a couple of months but I might be able to chip away at improving and increasing bridleways etc. If you look at where cyclists have got more organised, sadly often as a direct result of a tragedy, it has had an effect, viz London, and the Times’ campaign. Basically, it won’t happen on it’s own – change is up to us.