X-LinkedRider

How is it going on this fine Saturday morning here on BF? I am anxiously awaiting the first of hopefully many group rides with the cycling club I joined a couple months back. I have not had the chance to meet anybody yet, at least that I know of, but the ride leader for this particular ride seems nicer than most so it should be a good ride to introduce myself and B pace No drop ride for only 27.5 miles.

The pace and mileage I am not overly concerned with, but I was thinking that I am not quite experienced in the group riding etiquette yet and did not want to do anything too stupid out there. (step on anyone's toes) as I'd like to be asked to join a team in the near future.

Any standard group riding etiquette tips or best ways to introduce myself to the group aside from the usual just walk up and shake hands as usual?

-X

kayakdiver

Tell them the truth OP in regards to your lack of experience in group riding. That will go far in good will. Ask questions and have fun. That is about it.

kayakdiver

I'm about 10 minutes from heading out. A nice day in the Northwest in January is special!

Brian Ratliff

A handshake and introduction is as good as anything. Otherwise, keep your eyes open and conform to what the group is doing as far as pacelines, time at the front and other indicators of etiquette. The most important is to do the same workout as everyone else. If it's a hammer ride, have fun hammering. If it's a social ride, don't push the pace. And for lord's sake, don't say you are "doing intervals" when you get to the front or something like that. Do individual workouts on your own time.

Other than the normal social stuff modified for a group of cyclists, have fun with your new club!

KiuBWhy

If you find for some reason you're the strongest rider, don't try to show off. Stay on the tail end of the line and pick up the habits of the group through visual observation.

And like Kyak said, be honest with them....they aren't going to crucify you for being new.

X-LinkedRider

Thank you. That s pretty much what I thought. Just be open to learn, be honest, and be myself. The rest will come from experience. I just wasn't sure if there was an insiders thing. The metaphorical Secret Handshake. Thanks. Leaving in 10 minutes. I'll let you guys know how it goes.

I am excited.

skol

yea be honest and most important thing is to start complimenting other peoples bikes, gear etc and you'll have a lot of friends right away!!

kayakdiver

So how did it go? Come on.. spill the beans.

Cactuskid

wait till they haze you in, where the club jersey then they piss all over you...



oh wait this not motorcycle club?

mobike_moexcite

Hope it went well! I had my first "fast" group ride today, what a coincidence!

Sardian

I went on my 1st group ride today as well. I tried not to be a "wheel sucker" and pulled a few turns at the front, but I didn't know the route so spent a pretty good bit of time at the back. I did let everyone know it was my 1st group ride (and my longest ride at 65 miles). Everyone was polite and I felt welcome. I had a great time!!

X-LinkedRider

I thought I posted this before but the browser time out. So here it goes again, abridged this time

The group ride was great. Everyone was very nice and the group leader and one other rider were extremely nice and stuck with me a lot to talk and feel me out a bit. I went skiing last night so my legs weren't as ready as they could have been but I did ok as far as the ride goes. I learned the call outs like "Car Back" and such and they let me keep up the rear for the most part.

I did lag 50-100 yrds back on a couple of the bigger hills and the entire route was quite hilly but I never fell that far behind that I caused an issue I hope anyways. There were a total of 7 or 8 of us and the ride leader and I both were riding Specialized Allez'. One other guy had a "Habanero" which looked cool but I never heard of and EVERYONE else was on Cannondales.

The weather threw me off though as it was much colder than it looked and felt like standing in the parking lot. I was partially underdressed as all I had on was Under Armor base layer and riding shorts and short. A couple of the guys had on balaclavas and booties, and winter riding pants. I am sure I felt the temperature much more than them.

Overall, the ride was about 30+ miles including my ride home after wards and very hilly at around 14.5 mph overall. I rode at the back of the pack but enjoyed every moment of being out there with a group of other riders despite how my legs were feeling after last night. I was able to take one picture on my way home after I split from the group and I plan on riding with them as often as possible. Pleasurable experience, all the way.


Thank you to everyone who posted before I left and I tried to be honest, polite and conforming tot he group as much as possible.

AngryScientist 

read event services post " we're going to yell at you" - its about 1000 now, but theres a lot of good info in it.

awesomejack

Nice. Where in the northwest are you? Its been rainy and wet since monday, and today was a beautiful day for a bike ride in the Willamette valley

deep_sky

Do you know what kind of elevation you did? Since clubs all over have different rating systems, a B pace ride to me is fairly relaxed, doing maybe 10mph for 1200-1500 feet of climbing over 30 miles. Now I led a B ride today, and we did 35 miles and 1900 feet of climbing, I ended up at about 12mph, which was much faster than the club's rating system says I should be doing No one complained and I had semi-frequent regroups so that the slower riders would be never more than a few minutes behind the fastest rider. Once I get me knees sorted out, I will probably be stepping up to the next classification as B rides are kinda slow to me now.

Trek89

Thats Awesome! I cant wait to get riding in a group. I think i need a little more self training first. The only thing i dont know is how to get ahold of people in Phoenix to get into the bike club.

X-LinkedRider

trek89- Goto the local bike shops and ask how to join the local cycling club. They can point you in the right direction.

Deep_Sky- I actually have no idea as my cyclometer froze about 100 ft into the ride and I never stopped to fix it. But its very hilly here so I don't even want to venture at a guess. probably over a mile of actual climbing grade, over the 30 mile ride. About 20 miles or more included hills up or down, there is not that much flat and we were bouncing between 600ft-about 1500 ft in altitude over the course of the whole ride. Yes it was hilly.

AwesomeJack- Northeast Pennsylvania I am out of.

diverguy

Interesting that so many of us had our first group rides yesterday. Mine was with the local bike shop. Their A group is a bunch of tri-athletes and race team members. Their B group is a "no rider left behind" group and typically runs in the range of 15 to 20 mph. The route leaves from the shop and goes about 15 miles south to a little convenience store in a town called Alturas, where we take a break, and then ride back. Nice people. Time to chat. Good pace. It was 58 and I was a bit underdressed so was a tad chilly. However, this was my first time in an organized group so it took a few minutes to catch on to the routine of things. You guys all know this stuff but it was knew to me. The people in the front of the group call out turns, potholes, sand, water on the roadway, etc. The people in the back call out when a car is approaching from the rear and they say, "Car back!" After hearing that a few times, I asked... yeah, some of you already know where this is going... "If a duck is approaching from the rear and is going to overtake us, can we call out, 'Af-lak??'" (you know... the Af-lak duck on the TV commercials) Several blank looks. After a few seconds, the leader chuckled and said I was quick on my toes. :-) Hey, they invited me back so it wouldn't have been that corny. I had a chance to ride with everyone for a few minutes to get to know them and vice-versa, which was nice. They knew this was my first group ride so they didn't mind that I stayed closer to the back of the pack to get a feel for things but I also spent some time in front, too.

Stats: 31.6 miles, avg speed 16.3, top speed 24.9. Mostly flat terrain. Calories burned 1673. I use an app called TrailGuru for the iPhone to track ride details. Someone on BF mentioned the other day that there is no way I could be burning that many calories so I did a cross reference with four other calorie counters. They came in at 1062, 2046, 1625, and 1672. It would appear the calorie counter built into TrailGuru is in the middle of the road and reasonably reliable. Thanks for spurring me to verify the results.