mthayer

I was wondering, how many people who are care free/lite participate in group excercise rides?

tsl

I'm not sure how a "group exercise ride" differs from an ordinary group ride. In any event, I ride with my club several times a month, and lead club rides several times a year.

I do only the ones where I can ride to the start, and are short enough (less than 50 miles or so) that I can still ride home. Generally, my total including the ride to the ride and then the ride back home is in the 60-70 mile range.

gerv 

Just curious... how many members of your club actually don't mind strapping the bike on the back of the car and driving a long distance to start riding? I used to do this a while back, but quickly realized it wasn't that much fun. Better to start from home on the bike.

bragi

I've been meaning to do some group rides, but I never seem to get around to it, possibly because by the time I finish working 60 hours a week, riding around running errands or fixing things, doing things with my SO, and trying to get in a little social time with my mostly non-bike-obsessed friends, I've simply run out of available hours... now that I think about it, that kind of sucks...

wahoonc

I used to. Don't do too many organized group rides anymore. We only have one cycle club in our area. I joined to enjoy social rides, I am no longer interested in heads down fast as you can go for 3 hours rides. They had one "social" ride that year and it turned into a training ride within the first 5 miles.

Aaron

Caretaker

Unfortunately I'm not carefree, just car lite.

Do participate in group exercise rides informally with a couple of friends. They help from a motivational point of view. I wouldn't do as much if it wasn't for the 'group instinct'.

tsl

The vast majority. I'm one of two car-free members in a club of over 500.

audi666

I go on group rides but live in a big city where i can ride to a good amount. Other rides I would catch a ride with friends and ride home from their place or theyd drop me off. For the last road race me and two others pitched in on a car share to get us out there but you can always ride to a friends/teammates and catch a lift from there.

DX-MAN

Aside from the OCCASIONAL club rides locally (roadies with something to prove, usually), we have regular "open" rides that consist of: Critical Mass, Critical Manners, a loose group of guys who get out and hammer (trails on Mondays, urban on Thursdays -- these guys are wild!), and "family rides" every Tuesday evening on the local MUP.

Won't do Mass, it's gotten crazy.
Can't do Manners, have to work through those hours.
Won't hammer the trails with that group (like I said, they're wild!)
Did an urban ride with these guys last year, almost didn't make it home, I was so wore out...but I may do it again.
The Tuesday rides don't always start at a location I can get to after work. But I do what I can. (The kids don't like those rides, think they're 'boring'....)

SO the kids and I ride when the opportunity is there, and I commute.

crazybikerchick

When I lived in Toronto and was car-free I would go on rides with the Randonneurs. When the rides already started brutally early in the morning I was not keen on adding an extra 80 km round trip on top of a 200 km ride. (though some members did) The rides always had far-away start points to get past the sprawl. Occasionally they met up with a public transit schedule and I could take my bike on a GO train but usually they were too early in the morning to transit part way.

So I'd find someone else that was going and ride with them / give them some gas money if they'd take it. Most bike racks hold more than one bike so there is no point in everyone driving solo to a group ride.

Artkansas 

I try to avoid group rides if at all possible. The last one I did was the Ride of Silence. But then again, I was hauling the ghost bike on my trailer, at the head of the line.

gerv 

I don't usually go on group rides either, but I do regular Sunday morning rides with a gentleman who isn't car free, but hates the idea of strapping a bike on a car. Of course, it's a lot easier to have this attitude if you live close to recreational trails or you ride for fun on city streets.

Having said that, we always talk about riding here or there, usually a remote location, and my friend always ends the discussion, "but then we'd need to strap the bikes on the back of the car.." That usually ends that.

To me putting a bike on a rack on the back of a car is like towing a small car with your RV. There may be a good reason for doing it, but it looks pretty odd.

chewybrian 

I ride a series of rando rides every year. I ride to the rides, or carpool. I also ride local club rides and centuries that start close enough to home.

wahoonc

I know how he feels to a point...however taking a bike somewhere to ride is not necessarily a bad thing. I am getting ready to head out to a project in PA and will be "strapping" a bike on the back of the car. Looking forward to rides through the Amish country...except for all the people driving cars through

Aaron

Sundance89

I live about 5 miles from the lbs I do my group rides with, so I ride over to it. In the winter I actually need to do this because I feel we always start a little too quickly and don't allow for a proper warm up.

Riding to the lbs does turn an intense 50 mile training ride into a 60 mile training ride though. Not huge, but something I might reconsider if I lived any further away from our clubs starting point.

audi666

I don’t think these roadies have anything to prove necessarily, rather a good amount of cyclist use club/group rides as a way to train for races. Since you race like you train, fast group rides can be aggressive with some treated closer to race than a lesuirely ride with a group. There will always be some people trying to show you up but that’s that same in anything else in life.

Depending on where you heading, assuming somewhere around Lancaster, the backroads see very little cars and are quite nice. Bike route S winds through a great deal of that area and usually yields very little traffic with great scenery.

Roody

I don't care for organized group rides, but I love riding with freinds and family. Often these are "chore rides" but we manage to have some fun and get some exercize.

wahoonc

I stay out on Lincoln Highway near Witmer Road. I have ridden down the old Philly Pike and some of the back roads leading to Strasburg. Last year I made the mistake of taking a 3 speed and wasn't geared well enough for some of the steeper hills. This time I am taking my 7 speed city bike, none of my touring bikes are quite ready to roll yet. I apparently have ridden part of Route S and didn't know it.

Aaron

Pedaleur

'Xactly. Don't mistake my working hard to get a workout as giving a rat's patootie about you.

junkyardking

For the sake of community, let's not use the word "roadie" as a derogatory term. I consider myself to be a roadie, but also use the bike for both lifestyle and recreation. That being said, most of the other roadies I know aren't lifestyle cyclists. They drive to work, they drive to get groceries, and of course have no qualms about driving out of the city or the 'burbs to get to backroads where the real training starts. I think that for the car-free folks, the thought of using a big vehicle to get to a place where you can ride your small vehicle seems silly. But not everyone who rides a bike is a lifestyle cyclist, and would rather drive 10-20 miles to the start of the group ride than ride the extra distance, take the extra time, and possibly lose some extra endurance and run the risk of getting dropped. I feel that little to no judgement should be passed on people who have a strictly recreational approach to cycling. Although I'm sure everyone on this branch of the forum would love to see a world with fewer cars, it just isn't a priority for most folks.

Roody

I agree, don't hate on roadies--even though I am far from being one myself. The bike can be a tool for not only exercise, but also competition. There's nothing wrong with that. I've been known to race some of the teenagers I encounter on my rides around town. It's a blast--especially when you can keep up with somebody who's 40 years younger, and maybe even drop them, Roadies take a lot of heat from the non-cycling public, and they've done a lot of advocacy for all cyclists. Besides, the TdF started today.

prathmann

\
I think I qualify as car-lite since my car only gets a couple thousand miles a year and many of those are for traveling to bike rides.

I go on quite a few group rides and certainly prefer those that start pretty close to home - but will sometimes carpool to more distant rides for a change of scenery. But I hate to exercise and would never join a group ride for that purpose. I like to bike, hike, and kayak, but never to exercise.

mthayer

I normally hold a ride on Wednesday nights and I have it where the meeting location changes to different towns in our county each week. This way people will not have to as far or at all at least once a month to the ride. I found that it keeps the rides from becoming boring and also, I have a better turn out since I alternate the ride location.
I feel kinda bad having to drive sometimes 40 miles round trip just to ride 18 miles or less sometimes.

alicestrong

I'm not an athletic cyclist, I'm a daily carfree commuter, but I do occasional group rides, the fun kind or community rides. If they are too far away to ride to, I take a bus or train. I'm in the LA 'burbs.

bragi

I honestly don't think very many "lifestyle cyclists," as you describe them, have anything against roadies in general, or anyone else who rides purely for recreation. Personally, I wouldn't be caught dead in Lycra; I ride a tank-like touring bike with panniers, and don't even like using clipless pedals while on actual tours. However, I very much admire the athleticism of Tour de France riders, and have a positive impression of committed local roadies; they're competent and friendly for the most part, and the more bicyclists that are out there, the better for all of us.

However, I have had occasional encounters with slightly paunchy, somewhat arrogant middle aged men riding $5000 road bikes in full kit, doing a full 15 mph, and I have to admit that I find this a little ridiculous. I'm sorry, but if you're a real roadie, you shouldn't get dropped by a 50 year old man riding a steel-framed touring bike loaded with a 12-pack of beer, and feel compelled to pass him back.