Ding, ding, ding!! The perfect response.

Heh...the group I ride with on Sat/Sun has very few women riders. The charity rides I do have a much higher percentage of female cyclists. I'm not there to oogle the ladies, I'm not 12 years old, but it's a much different crowd then I normally ride with.

The real reason I do a couple charity rides each year is simply because they are events that I'm more than happy to raise a few bucks for. I'm truly there for the charity, not the company.

I do them because it gets my dad out and riding with me - at his pace. Recently went on a 50 mile organized ride with him, I knew he could make it all the way, but he would need a lot of breaks, and need little help here and there with a hand on his back for some extra oomph. I will always remember that ride! About 25 miles of pushing was had (and a lot of great memories). He's 60, I'm 30. He does need to get in shape though, which organized rides are great for those that aren't like the rest of us and need some event to 'train' for to be able to finish, instead of riding thousands of miles per year getting ready for a crit, road race, triathlon, whatever it is you train for. Not everyone wants to enter a race.

Some of us aren't fast enough to go with the club rides. I do 3 or 4 organized rides each year, 2 for charities, 2 not primarily. They either go places I would not ordinarily go, or are sufficiently difficult that I would have a hard time matching them without travelling first (or developing the self discipline to do hill repeats!) and therefore are something of a challenge. It is easier to keep going on a steep long hill if you know that 20 or 30 people will see you stopped than if you are out there by yourself. I know, HTFU, but honestly I am in this for enjoyment. I ride a fair amount (usually around 2500 miles) but i don't "train".

Most people are terrified of being alone.

Meh.

If you ride in the back, there are dozens of tires to pick up the goatheads in front of you.

This is called letting the pack "sweep" the road for you.

Why do brevets: a challenging event and accomplishing it is then permanently recorded.

Safety increases with three or more riders together in traffic conflicts.

You ever ride the EBC Homestead ride in October? If not I highly recommend it. All the rides (30, 62, 100 miles) start with a lap around Homestead Speedway, pretty wild in the banks to be riding upright with a road surface that is sloping something like 30% or whatever. This year it's October 19th, on my calendar every year.

I ponder the same thing. I've only down 3 organized rides this year and it's the only 3 I've ever done: Levi's Granfondo, Markleeville Death Ride and Wine Country Century. They're usually ranked pretty highly in terms of quality. They were fun and all but were they $100 of fun? Fun that I couldn't have had riding solo or with a small group? I dunno. This weekend I was going to do the Marin Century but I cheeped out since I'd be paying $100 to ride roads that I do every weekend. A lot of my regular riding friends are doing it so obviously there's something I'm missing out on.

Having closed roads for the death ride was definitely the best thing about the organized rides that I've done. Food/water fill up are nice but I'm not one of those people that pedal up to the trough and pig out at every rest stop. I haven't needed SAG but I do my own wrenching and could probably handle most issues myself.

I am planning on doing an organized double century in a couple of weeks. I think the convenience would come into play more over the course of 12 hours than it does at 6.

Any chance that I get to see eye candy then I am all in.

I ride about 5-6 days per week, and usually on Sundays I do a long group (99.99% all male) ride anyway. But an organized group brings the ladies out ;)

riding with the fellas is great and we do that every week anyway.. but an organized group ride allows for the meeting of new people. What is there not to understand?

Boy, I was a real perv two years ago. Glad I have matured since then...(farts loudly).

I did them because I had no friends. Still don't but now I don't care. ;)

That is The MD Cyclists Association moto, The only other place I've seen so many squirrels is Central Park...

I know that charity rides can raise lots of money for great causes. But I really just don't have the cash to pay to be a part of very many organized charity rides. I love riding with other folks, and there are plenty of groups who ride every week that don't cost a dime.

I'm in it for the babes.