Originally Posted by
Jim from Boston
On this year's 2nd Annual Fifty-Plus Ride held with the Great Finger Lakes Bike Tour with at least about 300 or more other riders, the BF crowd of about twelve found each other pretty readily and chose a table for meeting in the clubhouse. The interaction throughout the week-end was IMO well-described by the term "clustering"; we naturally gravitated together.
One new experience as a solo rider who does very few organized rides, was the informality of the event. There were several courses available for the main riding days of Saturday and Sunday, with a single, traditional Friday late afternoon ride. There were no massed starts that I was aware of, and eventually I lingered at breakfast and spontaneously switched to a longer ride on Saturday. I rode by myself or with pleasant strangers. Nonetheless, the BF'ers clustered Friday PM, Saturday AM and PM; and several did ride together.
... so I have no problem with joining a larger organized ride. It just seems most are one day events, unlike the GFLBT.
Jim has described last year's event well. Although there was a large group at the GFLBT event, and they were friendly and hospitable, we were our own subset. As some of us rode different rides, another fun element came into play; at dinner, we all came back together and exchanged "war stories" of our rides. Everyone had an interesting story to share. It was a great time and everyone had the opportunity to ride the type of ride they felt comfortable with.