Why do you want to ride with a group? Is it to improve your riding skills? Improve your speed? Learn new cycling skills? Meet new people? Learn new routes? Show off your speed or your cf bike?

I think that if you're really interested in becoming a really good cyclist, you need to ride with an experienced group. This means joining a club, because just going out on a casual ride with any group is a real crapshoot. With a good club, you will learn the CRAFT of cycling, something that can only be passed on by experienced cyclists, and something most people who ride bikes know nothing about. Experienced cyclists will quickly tell you what you're doing wrong, will tell you how to do it properly, and will allow for your learning curve. You will also meet some wonderful (and not-so-wonderful) people in a good club. But do this only if you're interested in being really good; otherwise, the experience will be wasted and you might as well just go out with some C group who ride slowly and don't allow drafting because they think it's too dangerous, so nobody learns anything.

L.