Southern California - A Poll: Supported Rides or Do Your Own Thing

We have not had a poll here in awhile...:D

Supported rides or do-it-yourself?

Which do you prefer and why?

Both. Supported because it gets me onto routes I may not be familiar with, the structure/scheduling makes it more likely I'll commit to it, and there's food and stuff.

Like most, I probably do the majority of my rides solo/unsupported. Main advantages are flexibility of route/schedule.

Both. Supported because its nice to simply ride and meet new people. Self because you can go at the drop of a hat.

Ya hate me but dam, I give you some good ideas for good threads!:D..River Ride or listen to that stupid Beanz and go on your own thread!...:roflmao2:

I say go on your own, well with some foumr riders!:thumb:.....Before I discover the net, I wasted lots of money on rides. After the first forum ride I attended about 7 years ago, I realized orgnaized rides were a waste of money.

If you're new and or have a goal, then it's fine (TC, KOM, Personal Best). But just wanting to ride, forum rides are much better. I've attended some great forum rides. 30 riders on GMR, 5 century riders and a big BBQ! Lots of other just meet up and rides!:thumb:

I can't see paying $50 -$70 to ride the trail when we ride it for free every weekend and every weekend is like an organized ride with the amount of people that frequent the trail.

I can see if donating to the charity or cause means something to a rider, but for me, I want to ride so I do what I can. If I had to donate to a cause everytime I rode, I'd have to sell my bikes to pay for the fees!:D

I've done MS rides, Diabetes rides, raised money for this and that since 1992. That was cool, but now it's time to just get out there and ride. Now that times are tough, like another poster states, I'm my own cause right now! I'm feeling the love trying to keep tires on my bikes:p

I'm trying to ride as many of the local organized fun rides as I can, which really isn't that many. I think it works out to just under one a month for the rides that are close enough not to need an overnite. That means the other three weekends a month I'm doing my own thing with or without my riding buddies. I like doing the organized rides for the social aspect of it and its great to see a lot of other riders out there meeting the challenge of the course (or not) with me.

I do some organized rides...Cool Breeze, Lighthouse
Will never ever do Solvang again...
Also will do club rides...SFVBC and such...
I also like to do some charity rides llike Tour de Cure...
But mainly its coming up with my own rides and having people join...or joining their rides!
Sometime is good to go on an organized ride in a new area, then I can come up with my own routes in the area!

I don't hate you! Where in the heck do you get such dumb ideas! Gawd the internet I swear...

I can only hope it's a good thread...:D


Edit: To Beanzer

Oh oh oh, now you just reminded me of another reason of why I dislike paying a fee to ride. Funny actually!:D

Gina and I did the Palmsprings ride years ago. I believe it was the first year. It was much tougher as it was made up of 3 loops. First into the hills, then down and around then the third loop back up into the hills. Well, I guess in order to attract more riders, they have now sissified the ride!:p

Well we did the century on our tandem. There were only a handful of century riders, maybe 50 and a TON of 25 milers. At the start of the third loop, most of the century riders took a shortcut and headed back to town rather than do the hill a second time. We stuck it out and within a couple of minutes, the group we wre near shrunk from 20 to about 3 riders!:eek:

Well after toughing out the ride, we got back to the finish line and the POSTRIDE MEAL. The only thing left to munch on after paying our fees, and after all the 25 miler riders ate the postride meals, were M&M's. Not even the peanut M&M's, just freakin' plain M&M's!:eek:

Ride organizers, eh? Why pay for the orgaization if they aint gonna organize it so that after I COMPLETE the ride, I will have a postride meal that was included with MY FEE!

Another time I was on a century, doing well enough. Maybe in the front 25% of riders. The first rest stop ran out of water by the time I got there!:eek:..WTF! Maybe 5 or 600 riders behind me? I guess they had to stop at 7/11!:D..Orgqnized rides just don't seem organized around here.

I have done a couple of organized rides in Arizona. Now talk about organization!:thumb:...Even a small town like Casa Grande kicked major BUTT on thes rides out here. I've heard so much about Solvang, Amtrak and a few of the other big rides out here. But after doing some AZ rides, these guys make me laugh!:roflmao2:

Think of police stopping traffic at every intersection for 100 miles. People in orange vests and flags directing you on turns rather than just a faded little arrow painted on the street. Other than testing myself on a climbing ride or PB ride, if I want to pay for 'organization', I'll visit AZ again for a real 'organized' ride.:thumb:

I don't hate you! Where in the heck do you get such dumb ideas! Gawd the internet I swear...

I can only hope it's a good thread...:D


Edit: To Beanzer

Just kidding with you! I know you don't hate me. But you haven't met me yet, so you don't love me yet, either!:roflmao2:


It's a good thread!:thumb:

Hey Mr B -

What about the Tour de Foothills in November, you skip that one too? That looks like it runs through your backyard. Maybe we might see you out there rolling along the course in some sort of co-inky-dink same direction kinda way... :p

Hey Mr B -

What about the Tour de Foothills in November, you skip that one too? That looks like it runs through your backyard. Maybe we might see you out there rolling along the course in some sort of co-inky-dink same direction kinda way... :p


I live about 1/4 mile form the start at Memorial Park. I do those roads every other day!:D

Last year I did drive the course in my truck. I stopped to help a few riders out after they flatted. I took my pump along and some tools. I repaired two flats and sagged a really cool guy up Baldy road to the rest stop.:thumb:..I posted a few pics here!

The entire time I was fixing up the riders, I didn't see a support or sag vehicle anywhere in the area!:p

A mixer - like both. I however, no longer like or do "club" rides... I sortof understand why drivers get pissed at riders...

That said I love the idea of an "event" ride like Cool Breeze or the Sierra Century because it gets you out someplace different to ride. I realy enjoy week long sagged rides - for instance the one I did 2 years ago through Montana. My favorite was through Utah.

Frankly the older I get the more I don't like situations where there are lots of people... yes I am becoming that "get off my lawn" oldster (shaking fist in air!)...

For the most part, I prefer the stop-and-photograph-the-flowers rides I do on weekends (especially Sundays). But I also like the Tour de Sewer and the LA River Ride as a chance to ride in places I don't usually ride, meet people who likely don't ride where I usually do (or we ride at different times), and they're for good causes. So I'll keep doing those rides, and most of the rest of the time, I'll be out there wandering around.

Prefer doing my own thing.. Lately I have been on a night ride kick.. Been riding out here in the IE after 9pm and it has been pure bliss.. I had one 25 mile ride where a total of 10 cars passed me.. There was one point at the top of Baseline and Mills Rd where I looked down Baseline Ave for 2 miles and not a single car..

Last year I did drive the course in my truck. I stopped to help a few riders out after they flatted. I took my pump along and some tools. I repaired two flats and sagged a really cool guy up Baldy road to the rest stop.:thumb:

You da man! Very commendable.

How about this year have some fun running your fix-a-flat gig off your bike and push/tow the weaker folk up Baldy? You get that done and I'll personally email the folks at Marvel begging them to design and draw you up a Superbean cape. :D

Let's get some BF folks together and ride it this year paid or crash it. People's choice.

I agree 100% with Mr. Beanz. I might still do some of the "organized" rides, just because some of my buddies do them, but club and solo rides are good enough for me. And when I feel like a real organized ride, I'll take my mini-vacation and head to AZ. The Tours of Phoenix and Tucson are good examples of what an organized ride should be.

I'll probably do 4 pay organized rides this year; the KOM series and Cool Breeze. Same as last year.

For the most part, the local pay rides are the same routes I do every weekend.

Club rides on the weekends, and commute to work during the week.

In 30+ years of riding I signed up for 1 organized ride, that I didn't make because I caught the flu. I don't count the weekend competitive rides with the racers cause theres no food or support.
Never did understand the big thing about paying to ride my bike just because some one had a sandwich for me at the end.

I am mixed. I will pay for the rides because I do use the fees as a tax write off and I enjoy the freedom of riding my bike in some areas when the streets are blocked off and getting goodies along the way but it is not too important to me.

I'm generally pedaling every Saturday with my local club. I also try and pedal three times during the week with friends.

At most, I'll do a hand full of organized charity rides during the year.

I mainly ride alone or with one or two other people. Once a week with the club is fun because the people in the group are at similar levels. I am from now on generally avoiding supported/organized rides unless they are randonneés or a century type ride that has only one or two long courses. In the past two years I've had too many bad experiences with inexperienced cyclists doing organized rides that have shorter courses in which parts of the routes are shared. Especially when there is a large contingent of (no offense meant to the lot of you on here that are) triathletes. Face it: most of them are no good in packs.

I do one or two organized rides per year. Every other weekend is lone wolf, my preferred ride.

I did a semi organized ride this morning. Semi because there no routeslip, no support and the ride was supposed to go "20 or 30 miles". It wsa fun though; I saw a lot of people I hadn't seen in a while.

I did a semi organized ride this morning. Semi because there no routeslip, no support and the ride was supposed to go "20 or 30 miles". It wsa fun though; I saw a lot of people I hadn't seen in a while.


Yeah, the poll wasn't worded perfectly in that regard, "organized" and "supported" aren't exactly the same thing...

I have done a couple of organized rides in Arizona. Now talk about organization!:thumb:...Even a small town like Casa Grande kicked major BUTT on thes rides out here. I've heard so much about Solvang, Amtrak and a few of the other big rides out here. But after doing some AZ rides, these guys make me laugh!:roflmao2:

Think of police stopping traffic at every intersection for 100 miles. People in orange vests and flags directing you on turns rather than just a faded little arrow painted on the street. Other than testing myself on a climbing ride or PB ride, if I want to pay for 'organization', I'll visit AZ again for a real 'organized' ride.:thumb:

What do you think is the reason for the considerable difference between AZ and CA organized rides? Do the volunteers take their responsibilities more seriously or something? Do they care more about cycling? Easier to organize a ride in AZ because of less population?

I've always enjoyed the organized/supported rides that I've done (my favorite was probably one of the last years that Miramar was still a NAS; riding on the tarmac was pretty cool), but I think I like the flexibility of just riding. If I plan on riding longer distances, it's almost easier to get a few friends together and just plan on making a few stops along the way.

I voted for "I like to mix it up" because I do a lot of rides totally on my own, plus I do club rides with OCRR and ADO Gang, and then I do Organized & Supported centuries like:

Wildflower (the Atascadero one), Lighthouse, Solvang, Amtrac and Cool Breeze. All very well supported with plenty of food and fun yet hard-working volunteers at the rest stops. No complaints from me!

Then this year I rode all three of the KOM rides, with Mulholland and Heartbreak supported by Planet Ultra and Breathless Agony supported by Santiago Cycling. Very good support on the Planet Ultra events, Super Excellent support on Breathless!

On top of that, I ride several (5 to 7 depending on the year) double centuries each year for CA Triple Crown points, organized by Planet Ultra, the Quack Cyclists, Davis Bike Club, Los Angeles Wheelmen and others. While they're all good, Top Points go to the Quacks for the Knoxville Double (Vacaville, CA).

Plus, occasionally, I just do silly climbing rides that don't count for KOM points, i.e. The Death Ride, Mt. Shasta Double Metric Century Challenge, etc.

Finally, I do Forum rides which are totally fun and very diverse, even if the support is not there, I don't mind a bit. Okay, my 50+ Forum ride was a total disaster (I was the only one who showed up), but other than that, forum rides are great!

And you know what? They're all good! SoCal has so many different kinds of rides the only bad part is trying to decide which one(s) to do every weekend! Plus, the Rebel evening rides are great fun during the week (as long as WU and Frank don't try to kill me).

Rick / OCRR

I just realized that I need to reply before this falls off the first page...

I do most of my day to day riding alone, since I'm a transportation cyclist first, but I do like to mix in the group stuff. That could be anything from an urban party type ride at night to a more conventional daytime organized ride or just getting on the bike path with a friend or several...

I like community type events.

These days I don't stray that far from home because of various constaints but I feel fortunate to live so close to the SGRT and also Downtown LA, there's always lots going on.

My natural inclination is not to pay alot to ride my bike, also, like several others have mentioned, some rides for a good cause exempted. I don't tend to do much "athletic" riding, either, so support isn't that important to me as it might be to a century rider or somebody attempting lots of elevation.

Of course, who knows what the future holds. These things could change over time.