I don't know about the club in question, but with my club, we speak with our legs. If you have decent form and are smooth, you'll be "accepted" into the social group, regardless of what you ride. If you look like you are trying hard and learning new riding skills, you'll be accepted. If you keep it up, you'll soon find that your bike is ill-suited for aggressive road riding and you'll want to find a road bike.
If you are new, just like first impressions in a job interview, showing up with an ill-suited bike is a proxy indicator for your skill until your skill level is known. Once you start showing skill, or the desire to improve your skill, then the first impressions are just a colorful footnote.
__________________
Cat 2 Track, Cat 3 Road.
"If you’re new enough [to racing] that you would ask such question, then i would hazard a guess that if you just made up a workout that sounded hard to do, and did it, you’d probably get faster." --
the tiniest sprinter
Last edited by Brian Ratliff; 03-24-08 at 09:28 AM.