I ride with a group that's been riding together 52 Sundays a year for about 20 years. Not all the same people, but the same group dynamic. Unless it's icy. Then a few of us go snowshoeing instead.

This is how it works. We ride out of a brewpub with parking nearby. There's always an after-ride social time at the pub. That's perhaps the most important part: bonding. Those who don't come in don't get invited back. It's invitation only. Exclusive club, if you will. The motto is "Safe, cooperative riding." No racers. Guys who go off the front and don't wait also don't get invited back. We want predictable riders whose wheel you can hold all day with no effort.

This is how you do it. You advertise. Bike club, word of mouth, whatever. Rules: There's a leader or several cooperating leaders. You're there on the leaders' sufferance. If a leader says don't come back, you don't. A member can invite someone, but they have to babysit them. If they seem to fit in, after a few rides they get added to the email list. Different people can design routes. They get published to the group, so everyone knows what's the ride. We have maybe 120 people on the list. On a nice day, maybe 20 regulars show up. On cold rainy winter days, maybe only 5, the core group.

To build the group up to this size we'd advertise a ride with the local large club. Sometimes we'd get 100 riders, many new ones. We'd have three leaders, fast, moderate, and slower. We'd send the group up a "sorting hill" and organize into groups by arrival time at the top. Sometimes we've had just one group of regulars, other times we've had three, depending on the ability range of those who showed up regularly. The group is self-sustaining now. We no longer advertise at all.

This isn't a public group. It's a private group of friends. We don't do insurance. In 20 years, we've never had a problem because we weed those out who might cause a problem. Those who fear need not apply. On the advertised rides, the bike club's insurance covers. Everyone signed a waiver for those rides.

We have great fun. As we say, this is as much fun as you can have with your clothes on.