Expectations from a paid riding club?
 

I decided to join my first club to start participating in some group rides with hopes of meeting other cyclists, improving my training etc. In 5 months since I paid to join the club, there have been 3 rides. I was not able to make it to 2 of them (scheduling conflicts on my side) and the 1 ride I have been on had a turn out of a whopping 8 people and they cut the ride at about 15 miles of slow, flat riding. I was expecting the 1 "group" ride per month that the advertised among other perks that have yet to be delivered. This is a club affiliated with a shop and they have excuses every month for canceling rides (mostly due to everyone being busy with their race team). I think if you are going to charge money for people to join your club then you should find some people to run the rides on a regular basis. Are their races every Sat and Sun every month? Am I expecting too much?

Are you paying to go on the rides or are you paying for a shop membership where you get a jersey and discounts/etc?

I'm paying for rides. They do include nominal discount on "accessories" with the membership that I have never used. They do not include free jersey with the paid membership but you can buy their jersey and kit which I believe they charge about $200 for the club jersey and bib set.

So to me I'm paying for services not delivered.

Find another club. Our club has 1100 members and at least one ride everyday of the year and it only costs $25 to join.

IMO, just by asking the question you already have your answer, they have not deliver the value to meet expectations.

Perhaps i am a little short sighted here, but paying to join a group ride?? Is there a support van/car? a mechanic? shop provides some spare wheels to ensure everyone finishes the ride without having to stop/delay others for flats?

Around here, there are a bunch of paid rides with some of the above mentioned perks in some form or another.

Try the San Fernando Valley Bicycle Club. https://www.sfvbc.org/

Would you mind listing the annual cost and the list of membership benefits of this club? It will help to put things into perspective.

I paid to join just because I don't know enough serious riders to find a large, faster group for free. I ride with about 10 people I know semi regularly. Sometimes it's 2 of use sometimes 6 or 8 at at time but I'm a much stronger rider then most of them. Not saying I'm anything special, I just ride a lot more consistently so when I ride with my friends I have to ride a lot slower than I ride solo and stop to wait at tops of hills etc. I would like a more serious group where people my level and stronger that can push me. If I have to pay a reasonable amount of dues for that, I'm fine as long as there are rides. I have looked into other local clubs that charge about the same in dues as the one I joined and advertise at least 1 ride per week not per month. The main reason I chose to join the club I did was location and convenience of getting to the rides for me.

And yes, by asking the question I know my own answer but I've only been riding road for about 2 years and this is the first club I've joined so I wanted to make sure my expectations are appropriate.

$25/year:

Thanks. I am aware of the club and looks great. My limitation is that I share a car with my wife and she usually works weekends so most of the time I need to be able to ride to the ride and most of their ride starting points would be a little far for me to motivate to ride to and then do the ride and ride home. And I'm not quite ready to buy a second car just to get to rides....but that may be in the future

Agree find another club. Our club is basically free, you just are supposed to buy the jersey (from Voler) and we have 5-10 different rides on Saturday, plus several other rides on other days.

Try www.meetup.com and search for cycling groups. You may have one there.

How much are they charging? $1/month? $10/month? $100/month? If I was paying $100/month, I would be upset, not so much for $1.

Surely there are other clubs in southern California with a more robust ride schedule. Here in northern California, the major recreational riding clubs have group rides almost every day of the year for around $2/month.

I belong to a club that pretty much doesn't have any rides either. I paid for a family membership this year but I'm done after this year. I can't figure out what the "club" does. Heck I've offered to help out and haven't heard anything back.

$25/year. It's certainly the principal of the matter more then the money at this point because I just feel like they took my money 5 months ago and I've gotten nothing in return.

Most bike clubs with which I'm familiar are happy to have new potential members come out for a few rides before they join to see if it's something they want to do. The club I'm in currently had over 600 rides last year (i.e. just about every day and quite a few days with multiple rides), and that's not counting planned rides that were canceled due to weather or other issues. Check around for other clubs and also Meetup or similar groups in your area and see if there's a group that's a better match for you.

Look man, they got your money, what's the problem?

Seriously, I'd drop 'em like a blind roofer, after going in to politely let the LBS owner know why...

I recommend a "Dear John" sort of conversation about your needs not being met. :D

I am a member of three cycling clubs. Only one charges dues.

Club one has 2 official rides per week, plus several other informal rides per week put together by members. We communicate by Facebook. This club is free, sponsored by a local shop.

Club two has three rides per week. Also free. Communication also via FB. Sponsored by another shop.

Club three has multiple chapters, most throughout SoCal, but also Vegas & a few international chapters. This one is $50/year. There are 7 rides per week in various SoCal locations. Plus one picnic ride per month- a group ride sponsored by one chapter with full SAG support, a lunch & a raffle with so many prizes that 60% of people win a piece of bike schwag. They also put on four climbing century rides per year, also with full SAG support and a lunch. All of these things are included for your annual dues. If you pay next years dues by Dec 31 of this year, it's only $40.

So yes, it sounds like you need another club. :)

Please keep in mind, I haven't joined a cycling club myself yet BUT definitely should expect more than what you're getting. While $25/year isn't a huge amount of money, you're still paying to be a part of it.

A cycling club that I'll probably join next year (also $25/year) has a list on their website of all their rides, past and future with contact info, route info, etc. all with varying distances and paces. If possible I'd try looking for something like that to make sure they go on plenty of rides.

As someone else mentioned though, I'd imagine many clubs would be okay with you tagging along on a couple rides before deciding to pay the membership. Good luck, hope you find one that works for you.

Sounds like your club doesn't have the requisite critical mass. That's unfortunate. If the organizers have made an honest effort to schedule rides and offer some other benefits, they can't be criticized for the fact that their members didn't take advantage of what they offered. But who knows whether they might have done (or yet do) something different to make the group stronger, more active, etc.

Yes, and you know who those people are? The members. Like you. You're a member of the club, what have you done to organize rides?

They sold you membership with all associated rights and privileges, and that's what you got. They weren't charging you for a service. Learn the difference, find a club more to your liking, move on.

This is just 25 miles from Glendale:

http://www.meetup.com/find/#?allMeet...41010556448961

You can expand the search by a few miles if you want.

S

The key words are "honest" and "effort". The most aggravating part is that they sent out a six month schedule of monthly rides and they make no communication that the rides are not happening. I showed up for one at 8 am on a Saturday to find no people there and now I make the effort to email a day before to see if it's actually happening to find out that they don't have people to run it again. Apparently most of the communication happens on Facebook and sorry I'm not on Facebook and not going to be just to find out if the rides are canceled.

Oh well, I actually just signed up for a new club that charges a little more in dues but have many many more rides. And I actually see their groups on the road every weekend so I know they are actually having rides.

what you could do for revenge is join a bunch of clubs then don't show up at any rides.

Hmm... That's what most of our members do.