JimmyNH

Thanks guys, I feel a bit better now. Maybe I should've elaborated a bit on what I mean by "recreational cyclists". These are the guys who ride road bikes as a sport, but don't hold a USCF license. It's a very broad category - recreational cyclist can be anything between a guy who is as fit and fast as a Cat 1-2 racer, and a guy who is just slightly fitter and slightly less fat than the average couch potato. But yes, I exclude mountain bikers, commuters and kids.
There were a lot of good points made, and I want to throw my 2 cents here and there.
Organized rides - yes, I agree they are expensive and don't offer anything for the money, but that has always been the case. I reckon there must be something else that drives the participation down.
Bike shops - yes, they've got a bigger selection of road bikes, but on another hand, I know at least 3 bike shops just in South OC that closed in the past 3 years (Edge, Revo - Lake Forest and Ladera Cyclery). I don't know of any new ones.
Somebody said "there are no young cyclists". Well, cycling is an old men's sport, so I'm not surprised that there are no young cyclists. But there are plenty of old folks out there who could've been riding instead of searching for that magical weight-loss pill.
Yes Chris - I agree that when the quantity goes down, the quality usually goes up. I'll buzz you when I come out of hibernation and we can go for a ride in your yuppie area. Or maybe even do Palomar if you can be enticed to drag your lazy arse up there.
Rick - just for the record: when I chicken out of a ride with the excuse that it's too hot, you can pull me to the side of the road and shoot me. The only caveat is that said shooting must occur after YOU complete the ride (and you are not allowed to start before 8:00 AM).

JimmyNH

Hey, we must get together for a ride. For 15 years I've been looking for riding buddies who have problems with the helmet requirements.

HBCruiser1

Haha, I'm game but I ride centuries on a beach cruiser (and a Clyde) so I'm not fast, but do love it.

A couple of years ago the family and I were in Palm Desert, I hooked up with a bike group out there to do their usual Saturday morning ride. Showed up without a helmet and they said "awe geez would be nice to ride with you but you don't have a helmet, blah blah worried about legal responsibility". I said really, these are public roads you can't keep me from riding and if I go down just tell them I met up and joined you along the way. I got the silent treatment for the first 10 miles or so then folks started to open up a bit. Great ride, blistering hot.

I see a lot of older-ish folks, I think the kids grow up and people start looking for things to do with their lives and want to get fit again. It seems to be young hammerheads or 50+ out there recreationally.

TrojanHorse

Well, yeah, have you seen the price of bikes these days? It's gonna be young kids before they develop "responsibilities" and people who have some spending money. Ie, us semi-older folk.

HBCruiser1

Agreed, and you bet (cost of bikes) and one of the reasons I ride the cruiser, it's super low maintenance and cheap! Actually it was given to me used and I've put 14,000 miles on it! Had C/L been around when the kids were younger I might have maintained my riding (rode quite a bit in my early 20's and a ton when I was under 16) and ridden more with them as it's much more cost effective to buy used---before C/L it was much less convenient to buy used! They've all got bikes now but they're young adults and they'd rather drive.

ahultin

I had to take a moment to comment on this. Yes, I do trust my son to ride to school, he has been taught for yrs how to ride safely on these very roads so when he began the dialog about doing it I stood behind him fully. I believe that if more people trusted their children to do so the result would be more children cycling to school which in turn would result in less texting moms in minivans on the road. For disclosure this is the first school yr he has been bike commuting, the school has @650 students and half way thru the yr he is still the only one biking to school . His commute is 5 miles each way, has a decent climb each way and requires him to cross highway 76.

calamarichris

Sorry for the clumsy wording. I'm sure your son is fully capable and responsible; it's the texting minivan moms I don't trust. I see so many of them (easily more than half), I don't even shout obscenities anymore. In fact, when I see them texting with their kids in the car, I give them a thumbs-up; have to appreciate their steadfast devotion to their phonegod when they're willing to pull an Abraham-Isaac and drag their own offspring out of the gene pool with them.
Crossing the 76 is pretty hairy with all the traffic and right-turners in a hurry. Is the school up on West Lilac? That is one of the sweetest roads in North County IMO, especially when you take it over that beautiful bridge over I-15.

Earlier this month while motorcycling on Palomar Airport Rd (North SD County's Road of Death), I gave a gentleman a thumbs-up for texting with his wife and 3 children in the minivan with him, and he rolled down his window and asked if I had a problem.
"You're an idiot for texting while driving like that..."
He cut me off with, "I needah my phone!" in a tone & inflection that sounded exactly like the racist aliens in the cr@ppy Star Wars movie we're all still trying to forget.

jimxyz

I ride GMR regularly and it seems like the volume of riders is actually up (at least on warmer days). I don't do group rides much anymore simply because my family schedule is tight so I tend to ride at crazy hours. If I can't clip in before 6 am on the weekends, and 5 on weekdays I don't even want to get on the roads - too many distracted drivers. I used to do the big organized rides but the cost/benefit stopped leaning in favor of the organized ride over my self-supported long rides. The two exceptions for me are Breathless Agony and the Levi GF. Both are run by people who seem to really care about the cycling experience, including providing great food.