Flat bar road bike club riding
 

Hello all. Being relatively still new to road riding and finding that I am most comfortable with a flat bar road set-up, I am looking to start riding with a club next spring and was wondering how most clubs feel about riding with those who use a flat bar set-up. Anyone?

You'll likely find that no one's going to really stop you from riding with them so long as you can hang! Our club sees the flatbar setups disappear at the C level but that's not to say that I haven't seen a flatbar show up at a B+/A ride (usually by accident). Hybrids and ATBs rule the D and D+ classes and road bikes get instant "what are you doing here" looks.

Just ride and dont worry about it. Your lungs and legs will determine how you fit in more than your bike.

It depends on the type of club, racing or recreational. With many clubs the leader has people leave in waves based on desired average speed, or everyone just goes together and groups naturally form from there. If a racing group, well you'll get tons of hairy eyeballs but if you can hang in, then nobody will really care. I'm guessing you're talking the most common and largest type - the recreational club, so no worries with a flat bar. There can be everyone from elite racers to grandmothers on old touring bikes at the starting parking lot, with avg. speeds ranging from 10 mph to 25 mph.

Great, thanks.

I agree; it depends a lot on the club. My recreational club has 6 different difficulty levels for rides. A hybrid or even mountain bike will be fine on the slowest 2 levels. On the faster and longer rides, your bike has significant disadvantages and you will have to work a lot harder than the others to keep up. On a fast ride, people do not like waiting.

Yep.

Yes it depends a lot on the level you are riding at and the type of club. It can be a safety issue to a certain degree when it comes to racing with flat bars as they stick out rather wide so they can catch other riders or drill into them in a crash.

I did however start racing again with a flab bar setup using butterfly bars which loop right around so are perfectly safe. I'm using standard road bars now.

http://www.anthonyglynn.com/cycling/hillbrick4.jpg/

Regards, Anthony

I go on club rides all the time using my flat bar road bike. Granted, I do it mostly just to be a dick.