Riding buddy
#1
Big Boned Biker
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Riding buddy
Really wish I could find a riding buddy, but haven't seen any Clyde's in the area. Any suggestions for finding one?
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a local bike club? your local bike shop? problem with a shop is most of those guys ride hard and fast ...
#3
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You could show up and give it your best effort. Here in Milwaukee, several of the local bike clubs have more relaxed rides. Bay View Cycling club has a social ride every Tuesday out of Bay View, and Cream City has the same sort of ride every Wednesday leaving from various locations around the area.
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If you live by a university there are likely faculty and staff that ride bikes. You might try what I have done which is work with your LBS and organize a moderate group ride a couple days a week.
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#7
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If the city or area has bike paths hit them and try to make a friend, I find the people on the paths ride slower and are generally more apt to ride with a friend of lower skill like me. After a while challenge them with further routes and street riding to see if they go for it. Wish I was in your area, your just the type of guy I'd ride with. I'm not interested in fast pace, just enjoying the ride and scenery and putting some healthy miles under my belt.
#8
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The problem I found with my local cycling club was the beginner group had riders a lot slower than I was which is pathetic since I only average 15-16 MPH on my hybrid and they all looked more fit than I am. Then there's the next ride group up, of which were too fast for me (they average 18-20 MPH). I could work up to that, but they didn't seem very interested in me joining their group since I ride a Hybrid. I guess what I'm saying is, in my experience, if you don't ride a road bike don't expect to fit into bike club.
One recommendation given to me by the ride leader of the beginner group was to participate in an organized bike tour, apparently there are more recreational riders in those than the ones who pay dues to a bike club. He recommended a "Tour De Cure" ride but I missed the registration cut off and I don't know of any other group tours until next summer.
Like someone else said, ride your local MUPs - I occasionally have other riders talk to me at rest stops or ride along side me and strike up a conversation. Not everyone that rides the MUP wants a friend so don't be surprised if you just get a nod or wave.
One recommendation given to me by the ride leader of the beginner group was to participate in an organized bike tour, apparently there are more recreational riders in those than the ones who pay dues to a bike club. He recommended a "Tour De Cure" ride but I missed the registration cut off and I don't know of any other group tours until next summer.
Like someone else said, ride your local MUPs - I occasionally have other riders talk to me at rest stops or ride along side me and strike up a conversation. Not everyone that rides the MUP wants a friend so don't be surprised if you just get a nod or wave.
#9
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The problem I found with my local cycling club was the beginner group had riders a lot slower than I was which is pathetic since I only average 15-16 MPH on my hybrid and they all looked more fit than I am. Then there's the next ride group up, of which were too fast for me (they average 18-20 MPH). I could work up to that, but they didn't seem very interested in me joining their group since I ride a Hybrid. I guess what I'm saying is, in my experience, if you don't ride a road bike don't expect to fit into bike club.
One recommendation given to me by the ride leader of the beginner group was to participate in an organized bike tour, apparently there are more recreational riders in those than the ones who pay dues to a bike club. He recommended a "Tour De Cure" ride but I missed the registration cut off and I don't know of any other group tours until next summer.
Like someone else said, ride your local MUPs - I occasionally have other riders talk to me at rest stops or ride along side me and strike up a conversation. Not everyone that rides the MUP wants a friend so don't be surprised if you just get a nod or wave.
One recommendation given to me by the ride leader of the beginner group was to participate in an organized bike tour, apparently there are more recreational riders in those than the ones who pay dues to a bike club. He recommended a "Tour De Cure" ride but I missed the registration cut off and I don't know of any other group tours until next summer.
Like someone else said, ride your local MUPs - I occasionally have other riders talk to me at rest stops or ride along side me and strike up a conversation. Not everyone that rides the MUP wants a friend so don't be surprised if you just get a nod or wave.
I ran into this problem this summer, and in previous years with a cycling group my local health club organized. I showed up for one of their rides and the ride leader was a real life Izzy Mandelbaum.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pcFSOnumgZA Anyhow, I never thought it would come to this, but the group went so slow, maybe 8 or 9 mph on a mostly flat ride. (and even with this, there was 1 guy who kept falling behind, though it hardly seems possible to get dropped when the group average is slower than 10 mph). With frequent stops and breaks to allow the slow guy to catch up, we only went 12 miles in 90 minutes. And then they were stopping for lunch. I skipped the lunch left the group and rode back to the start myself as I didn't count on a 25 mile ride taking 3 to 5 hours.
Another group ride I was on recently I wound up riding with just two other people. We were going really slow, maybe averaging 12 to 12.5 mph. One lady, riding a full carbon road bike was absolutely gassed after just a half hour. We had to slow down the pace to 11 mph just so we didn't drop her. Anyhow, I rode by myself another 25 miles after the group ride was over to get a workout.
I guess I am saying, don't count on finding a group ride perfectly in synch with your ability and riding style. And if you do, keep in touch with those people and coordinate your schedules so you can ride with them more.
#10
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That seems pretty fast to me. Everyone has his or her own level. No reason why you can't ride with the slower group for an hour or so, then see if there are a couple of faster riders who are game to take off and ride a little faster for the duration. Either that or, go with the fast group and hang on for as long as you can, just make sure you know the way back to the ride start.
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I'm just saying most of the time, roadies like to ride with other roadies no matter how fast you can ride on a Hybrid. And around here, most of the riders I see are roadies who are out of my fitness level.
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Sounds like great advice. I find it hard to find someone that rides the exact speeds I like to go. When I go to the bigger MUPs, I just find a random rider that is doing my same speed and pace with them. Hopefully that's not too creepy
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Like someone else said, ride your local MUPs - I occasionally have other riders talk to me at rest stops or ride along side me and strike up a conversation. Not everyone that rides the MUP wants a friend so don't be surprised if you just get a nod or wave.
#14
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He's either peddling his tail off because he stays on the middle chainring and I think 7 out of 8 on the rear and says he runs about 12-13 mph. Must be vastly different than mine because there's no way I could run 12 mph on the 2nd chainring or my legs would launch me up like a helicopter I'd be spinning so fast. I'm on a relatively flat rails to trails along the river by myself and I thought I was cruising pretty good at 12-14 mph on the ever so slight uphill at the top of my gear ratio. Heading back which is ever so slightly downhill, I'm hitting around 15 mph and that's a good cadence for me. Any more and my legs will be flying way too much. I sprint the last half mile and can only get 19 mph peddling as hard as I can (without standing, too much torque and the chain starts jumping around somewhere.)
#15
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But, what I found...
First off, in a big metro area (Dallas area here), there's lots of charity rides, where you go pay your $40 and you and 2,000 other people all go ride. So you're not riding with buddies, necessarily, but still not riding by yourself, either.
Secondly, the local bike shop here has a non-drop ride that I rode on pretty regularly on Saturday mornings.
Then if you ride fast, ride hard, ride long, eventually, you get less slow, then you do find more people you can ride with.
So that's where I am now. Weekdays, mostly riding by myself. Weekends, riding 200k on the tandem with a friend, with other friends along. Lots of fun.
You might contact local bike shops. You might try placing an ad in the bicycle section of Craigslist.
Good luck, and hang in there!
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#16
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You may also want to look on meetup.com, here is what returns for you area. https://bike.meetup.com/cities/us/wi/platteville/
Also, if none of those are appealing, you could do what I did and start your own ride. May take awhile initially to find people, but you will be surprised how many folks are looking for a group. In the case of my group we have five people, two are slower beginning riders who average 8-11 mph and the rest of us are in the 18-20mph category. How we organize the ride is the slower folks lead the way for the first 5-10 miles (depending on their strength and how far they want to go). The faster riders then split off and put in their miles at their pace and we all wind up meeting again towards the end of the ride. For example, two weeks ago the slow group did 20 miles and the fast 40 of those the first and last five were ridden together. This seems to work pretty well for us, since we are all very encouraging of each other and don't mind taking it easy part of the ride to help others get better/more fit to join us on the longer faster rides.
Also, if none of those are appealing, you could do what I did and start your own ride. May take awhile initially to find people, but you will be surprised how many folks are looking for a group. In the case of my group we have five people, two are slower beginning riders who average 8-11 mph and the rest of us are in the 18-20mph category. How we organize the ride is the slower folks lead the way for the first 5-10 miles (depending on their strength and how far they want to go). The faster riders then split off and put in their miles at their pace and we all wind up meeting again towards the end of the ride. For example, two weeks ago the slow group did 20 miles and the fast 40 of those the first and last five were ridden together. This seems to work pretty well for us, since we are all very encouraging of each other and don't mind taking it easy part of the ride to help others get better/more fit to join us on the longer faster rides.