General Cycling Discussion - How do you build a (group) bike ride of destiny, honor and amazingness?

Hey guys,

We're (http://anewbike.com/bicycle-stories/) planning on making a local group bike ride for our site. We'd like it to be just a few miles long and probably in the evening. Only... We've never created one of these before and we've never gone on one ourselves. We would love any and all advice on how to put one together. We'd especially like to hear about elements from the best rides you've been on, and stuff to avoid, too.

How long should it be? We have to drink...right? Do we ride to bars? Parks? Goodie bags? What stuff do we need to plan out? Have stuff waiting?

Help us out,
af

Poker Run!

People make the ride.

Try to find a few riders who have similar goals and go for a ride together. Do it again next week and tell your friends who ride. If the planets are in alignment, you'll gradually gain more riders and the ride will acquire a personality of it's own.

Good Luck.....Very difficult for the same Time Frame and Riding Speed.

"destiny, honor and amazingness" "We'd like it to be just a few miles long and probably in the evening"

That's a lot to ask of a ride that's only a few miles long!!

Hey guys,

We're (http://anewbike.com/bicycle-stories/) planning on making a local group bike ride for our site. We'd like it to be just a few miles long and probably in the evening. Only... We've never created one of these before and we've never gone on one ourselves. We would love any and all advice on how to put one together. We'd especially like to hear about elements from the best rides you've been on, and stuff to avoid, too.

How long should it be? We have to drink...right? Do we ride to bars? Parks? Goodie bags? What stuff do we need to plan out? Have stuff waiting?

Help us out,
af

Go on one.


I could comment on how a ride of a few miles long in an evening shouldn't really require much planning, and shouldn't require goodie bags, and all that. I could tell you that those sorts of things usually take place on century rides. I could ask what you're planning to do about insurance. But I'll just say this ...


Go on one. Go ride with a club. Please do not try to organise something like this till you do.

A common mistake when organizing a new group is to do all the formal stuff (website, meeting times, themes) first, without consulting any actual friends/acquaintances, and then expecting people to just show up for it.

Got any friends that ride bikes? Call up one or two and see when they're free to do a bike ride. If that goes well, do it again, and see if they have other friends that would be interested. Keep it simple and personal.