therh

Hello,

I was curious, has anyone started a bike club?

I love to ride as much as I can, but my local bike shop has stopped their beginner ride (15-18 mph pace, and 20-30 mile rides). There are a ton of riders in my area, and would like to start my own bike club if possible. the next closest bike club that fits me is nearly 20 miles away.

Any ideas or suggestions?

LowCel 

Never have and don't want to. In this lawsuit happy world I would rather keep things unofficial as far as self organized group rides go. I am a member of two clubs, closest being 20 miles away and other being abotu 60 miles away. I try to ride with both as often as possible. With that said, where I live 20 miles is close.

Carbonfiberboy 

Not really a club, just a Google Group. We invited riders we liked and had ridden with to join. From there, the rule is that anyone can invite a new rider, but the one who invites is responsible for the newbie. If the newbie comes twice and is liked, they are invited to join the Group. Riders who don't behave, i.e. ride dangerously, are removed from the Group. Ride always ends at a brew pub with eats. Each ride is published to the Group a couple days ahead of time, usually with a route attached. No dues, etc., so not really a club. There is a formal ride leader though, who appoints corner men and a sweep if the group is large enough to warrant. We have about 120 members but seldom more than 30 show up for a ride.

This has been going on for almost 20 years. Had a few 911 calls, paceline stuff. Never any other problems.

therh

Some good ideas for sure, and yes I would like it to be more informal than anythings. As in just a bunch of riders getting together.

Bacciagalupe

I haven't started one, but work with one.

Doing it right will require a lot of time, effort and careful planning. You'll likely need to form a non-profit, get some funding, get insurance, develop a website, develop policies and so forth.

A better option may be to talk to the bike shop, and volunteer to lead some beginner rides.

I have to say, I'm not sure why 20 miles to the nearest club would be a big deterrent, you should be able to drive to it very easily. It can take an hour of traveling for me to get to the starting points for my club's rides.

Yo Spiff

I wouldn't call that a beginner ride.

I only belong to one formal club with dues and meetings. The rest are groups created on Facebook, and they are very active.

My only concern is when a group reaches a certain point where it is more than just a bunch of friends meeting to ride, what is the legal standing in regards to liability?

youcoming

I am on the executive of a club and could not imagine starting a new one from scatch, it would be a pain. I would suggest using FB to start a group but make no schedule or call yourselfs anything.

LowCel 

Yep, we are meeting at x location, at x time, x route. NO ride leader.

Seattle Forrest

This is actually a really good idea. Maybe I can start a bike club and organize some rides. Then I could go off and enjoy my solo rides, knowing I've sent everybody else on some other route and they won't bother me.

caloso

Why start a new club? Just stay with the present one and as others have suggested just send out an email/tweet/FB saying there's a ride leaving from a specified place at a specified time for a specified pace.

Looigi

Do you want to start a club or just put together some group rides? A club has a charter (purpose), officers, rules, liability, etc.. Putting together an "informal" group ride is a lot simpler.

surreycrv 

I think it depends on the mindset of the potential organizer. Of the types I've met in the former category the majority are complete control freaks, the purpose of the event is subservient to their needs. If the latter, then just post a start point & time, then ride, which doesn't need the bureaucracy.

David Broon 

I run my high schools bike club. However, I happen to be the Principal climber, sprinter and domestique on the team, so I may not be the best guy for advice.

lesdunham

Setting up as a 501(c)3 is probably the most time consuming at the beginning, maybe up to a year. Creating a charter/by-laws with a county is easy, copy someone else. Our club meets in the public library the 2nd Monday of the month. They don't charge but we donate $300 annually. Setting up a name sake ride is not hard but takes a few years to gain equipment and expertise. Other clubs might loan you enough for a couple years to get your ride established/supported. Our once a year ride gets 600-1100 riders and raises about 15k for club operations after all is said and done. About 4-6k per year is donated to charity (73k in 18 years now). It takes about 6k to seed next years ride so the club uses 4k per year for expenses like awards banquet, storage rental, insurance, tax audit/preparation, and the like.

hochflynn

to go the informal route, and get the word out, you might want to use meet-up.

bianchi10

I wouldn't say we have started a "legal" bike group, but me and a bunch of friends rode together every weekend and any chance during the week. We did this routine for nearly 3 years. We all raced together (Including the young kid which is the son of the guy in the middle of our "team" picture). We figured why not get a kit where we all matched. One thing lead to another and we came up with a team name. My last name being "Arend" and one of the other guys that started riding with me whose last name started with "F", we all loved to climb hills and after a couple weeks of stupid names we came up with "F'Arend-Height". A little play on words. We raced for 1 season then one guy moved away and the kid joined an actual team and is now 14 years old and was ranked top 5 jr racers in Oregon bicycle race association. (Obra). He is still racing and doing awesome. Being 13 last season and qualifying for cat 3, he is really looking to attacking cat 2 this year. We still all ride together (Except the guy that moved away (Far right) and we all still wear our "team" gear. Its all for fun and we dont take ourselves seriously as a "TEAM" when we ride.

We did a very fun Photoshoot which started out as a joke after a ride at my place. my camera was out and someone started posing so we went with it. I find this to be more fun than an actual riding group because its all about being fun and being with friends. I was in 2 of the guys weddings and 2 of them in mine.

Nachoman

I run training rides three days a week for a small group of about ten. All I do is send out an e-mail, the night before the ride, confirming the date, location and departure time of each ride. I'm like the Den Mother. If I don't send out the e-mail, it just won't happen.

gundom66

At first I thought you guys are wearing bibs. LOL

carpediemracing 

If someone organizes a ride (sends out email, determines meet time, etc) then they can be held liable. Even among friends it's tough if someone needs, say, a million or two million dollars to live after a catastrophic crash. Nothing personal but the injured's estate's duty is to try and make sure the injured or their estate get what they need.

To create a club you can probably do the following:
1. Join USA Cycling as a race promoter or a club. $150 per year.
2. Take out a fun ride / training ride permit for each ride you organize. Insurance is low, I don't know what it is off the top of my head. I think you pay a permit fee and a per-rider fee, maybe $25 + $1.50 or so per rider. I don't feel like looking it up but it's something like that.

Now you're covered for $1-5 million liability.

If you want to do more then it takes more work. One straightforward step is to create an LLC. I think it cost me $250 for the LLC plus some annual fee I pay to the state. I can fold the LLC if I really get in trouble. Put the LLC down as the club with USAC. Now you're separated one level in terms of liability.

For getting kits and stuff? That's a whole different matter. Now you have to deal with riders who talk more than they can put out, promise the world and deliver nothing, deadbeats, etc. It's amazing how much money a rider can have in a bike/car/house/etc and how hard it is to get them to pay $100 for a kit they picked up a year ago.

YOJiMBO20

Took me a second to realize what you meant. My first thought was "they probably ARE wearing bibs, but it'd be hard to tell with jerseys on." Then I looked closer and figured out you meant baby bibs. Now I can't not see it.

bianchi10

Lol took me a second also. I was thinking "we are wearing bibs but what dios it matter" and then I realized you meant food bibs. Lol I never thought that but now that you say it, I see it.

prathmann

Have you ridden with the club that's 20 miles away? One option would be to join and offer to lead rides for that club, but with starting points closer to your home. Then invite other riders in your area to ride with you - and eventually to lead some of the rides. That way you get the insurance coverage of the existing club and some of the other benefits that clubs frequently have (established website, discounts at area bike shops, maybe a few social events, etc.) without having to go through the bother of setting up the legal structure from scratch.

roadCruiser76

First of all, I agree with some of the others that the path of least resistance would simply be to work through the club that is located 20 miles away, and volunteer to lead a ride closer to home. It is common for clubs to have rides that start as much as 20-30 miles away from the main location of the club.

I also do have some experience in starting a new club, so that certainly can be done. In my case it wasn't just me who started it - it was a group of several of us. We originally met at the gym in our town and started working together to train for the Tour de Cure. Eventually we decided to organize beyond just riding for the Tour, and one thing sort of led to another. The most active people in the group became officers, and we came up with jerseys and a website and the other things people mentioned. Recently we began distributing waivers that new riders will have to sign if they want to join one of the rides, for liability purposes. The club has also purchased insurance from the League of American Bicyclists, and we have current submitted to get our 501(3)c status. We are still in the process of that. Here's what our website looks like - it's pretty basic but it does the job: https://members.panhandlepedalers.com

The moral of the story is that it takes some motivated individuals, plus a base of riders, to get the thing off the ground. Don't expect to have everything together all at once - gradually build the club over time. Things like liability shouldn't stop you - but it can pay to have people sign waivers and get insurance from an outside group. You can also borrow the bylaws of another club, as we did with ours, and then tweak them for your own needs.

jwible

Yes. I started one. The sole purpose was to provide a USAC structure for bunch of us to race under. We're two years in, have some strong guys, adding some more, and are doing fine.

We're not what you are after though. Almost every member of our club is on the race team with a few exceptions. Membership is invite only. We host a charity ride to raise money for a local clinic.

But the mechanics of actually starting the club are not difficult. At least as far as USAC is concerned. Now the liability, incorporation, tax status, state and federal filings, etc. is another ball of wax.

datlas 

I know my club was founded ten years ago...I think it's a lot of work and it may be a thankless task, but if you are willing to give it a try go ahead.

Make sure you cover your ass from the liability perspective, you don't want some one suing you because they crashed out and got hurt badly on YOUR bike club ride. My club makes you sign a liability waiver.

You may want to start it up informally like meetup.com, and if it develops enough traction make it an official "club."