A question for forum ride organisers ...

I'm curious (and so is totallyfixed) ...

I reckon that the male:female ratio on CycleChat is about 10:1, maybe higher. I don't have any definitive proof and I know that forum riders might not be a representative sample, but out of 80-odd different members who have come on my forum rides, only about 5 have been female, plus another 4 or 5 female partners of members. I don't think that I've ever had a male partner of a member ride with me. I've had a few friends of members turn up, but I think that they have all been male.

If you have organised a CycleChat forum ride or rides, please post below with your estimated cumulative male:female ratio. (Only count each person once.)

On Pete s new forest ride Ruth s other half came along, TC makes up 20 % of our annual Gower Ride and is also our route guru, the strongest female contingent would seem to be in the SE or SW going on past history.

in 2009 we reached 30%. It's now back down to 27%. That's on a sample of over 1000 in a year.

My general observations are that women (with the odd exception) are less likely to cancel. A great percentage of women riders are in the 30-50 age range (that's me taking a guess) whereas the age range of the men is more widely spread (again, guessing). I would say that the weight bikes ridden by women is heavier on average than those ridden by men.

Bear in mind, though, that less than half FNRttCers regularly post on CC.

Helen is one of the 5 partners on my list.

I think I've only ridden with one couple who are both forum members.

Ridden with about 8 total in the Birmingham/Black Country area, of which one has been female.

I guess the impression that a lot of people get is that the rides are quite competitive, which can put women off. And I guess it is a lot more intimidating for a lone woman to join a ride, than another man.

But I'm just guessing!

Including my better half, my last ride I organised had 2 ladies, the other being the very plucky Angel-Diva, but if you don't count Mrs TF the previous rides I have run have had none.
BrumJim, Dellzeqq, Lukesdad I think you are all correct in what you say. I'm also going to make the observation based on beginners rides done through my club that the ladies are more likely than men to be riding straight bars as opposed to drops.
I don't know exactly how many females we have registered but it would be very useful if some could give their opinions on here. Could it also be that proportionally men are more likely to post than women? I have also come to the conclusion that when it comes to riding a bike and what is achievable a woman believes another woman rather than what a [perceived] testosterone fuelled man might say. In other words if we want to get the ladies out on our rides they need to be recruited by other ladies.
So you see Colin, no matter how out of shape you say you are, the ladies don't believe a word of what you say ...well maybe one but then she isn't in the least intimidated by MAMIL.

YES!!

And, YES!!

Well if there are any female cyclists with female friends who would like to come on any of my forum rides, you are most welcome and bring your mates with you!

Don't worry, there isn't much testosterone swilling around on my rides. We have innocent little challenges like 'last one up the hill wins' or 'see you at the signpost when I get there'!

I'd love to... if it weren't for the distance between London and West Yorkshire.

Women who've been out on CC rides know this. It's getting the ones who haven't been yet, and therefore don't know this yet, to come along and try it.

Well Rebecca we need women like you to spread the word, maybe it would help if the ladies had their own permanent thread without us blokes taking over and getting opinionated and sometimes it has to be said, a bit aggressive.
When we talk cycling stuff that is subjective, there is often no clear cut right or wrong, and everyone is entitled to an opinion without being shot down in flames. I think many of the ladies don't post because they think they don't know enough and that is plainly wrong. If we were discussing changing a sprocket, that is different, it's objective and there is a right way and a wrong way and chaps like to show off their knowledge on these things. After saying that I have seen many an answer to a technical question where it is obvious the answer has just been googled.
I cycle in the real world and would desperately love to see more of us getting together to do just that, you will learn about everything to do with bikes so much quicker. There is so much experience on CC and I feel much of it is wasted. It is one thing to describe a technique to climb a hill but far better to actually see it and than try it.
I'm not entirely sure where this is going, but I think you girls might need to start a mini revolution on here and if you do I will defend your efforts [I'm not this nice all the time].

Another female here. I've never been on a forum ride, though. I keep saying I'll join a CC Ecosse ride sometime, but I have never managed it yet.

I don't get the impression at all that forum rides are competitive. Quite the opposite. Over and again "we will wait for you" "no one gets left behind" etc. The exception (that I've noticed) might be the "Ride for food" but that is a specific group who are quite clear up front that theyare wanting to do bigger distances and that the ride isn't suitable for everyone.

I do understand that a lone female might think twice about meeting up with what is likely to be a male dominated group of internet randoms, though!

However I think the issue is just that not that many women cycle. It is seen as a male-dominated thing. I don't think there are any easy answers to that one.

On our Devon CC ride, there were two female forum members and one partner, and three male forum members and two male friends = 3 women and 6 men.

On the Somerset ride I think there were two female forumers, one female partner and about 7 men.

So, overall for forum rides about 3:1

On the Exmouth Exodus think about 9% of the field are female (apart from the first year, when there were only two of us!).

Another yes! I know several women who really enjoyed cycling, who either rode with partners who always ended up going a little bit too fast for them, or didn't have any ride buddies and didn't know where to look for any, and who for whatever reason didn't think the CTC or local club was quite what they were looking for.

We've now got a female group that meets up for regular rides and have recruited a couple more friends/friends of friends which = a lot more miles of winter riding (and beer) for all involved.

We all rode our first individual time trials last weekend, which individually I don't think any of us would quite have had the confidence to do (or would even have thought about doing) and throroughly enjoyed ourselves - don't think we broke any course records though .

Everyone is also all keen to try an Audax so have signed up for a local one in March which I'm confident will be a good first experience and are talking about riding the Exmouth Exodus.

We still go out for mixed rides and rides with partners, but it really seems to have boosted everyone's confidence in terms of their ability and potential (mine included), which is fantastic. As an unintended consequence of winter riding, the whole group can also now fix punctures, in the dark, without batting an eyelid!

I've got a lot of female friends who lack confidence on their bikes. I suppose they'd be getting into it right now and some of the longer rides for newbies seem like a hell of a leap! It's this idea of riding a bike on the roads or for some riding for longer distances, there seems to be a massive mental mountain for people to overcome. It's the whole 'can't do thing' and I've found myself feeling that at times when not at my best. Hesitation is the norm, especially coming to meet other CCers to begin with. I've tried and will keep trying. I'm one of those that did the reverse of bringing my partner to a ride, he's just getting into cycling at the moment.

I also have female cycling friends who are the other scale who cycle for work or are serious mile munchers, I think a leisure ride on days off is not a good thing and those days are used for resting etc.

As for cycling in general, it is more male dominated and it tends to be reflected in forum numbers. This will change eventually but just needs a bit of work.

Haaving been on Colin's ride I can vouch for them being friendly. But I suspect a lot of females will think twice before turning up on their own to go for a ride with a bunch of blokes into a remote area! A lot of females who ride often seem to ride with their partners so more likely to come on a ride with their partner than seek out their own rides.

Oh and obviously more men ride than women so I would expect more men on the rides.

Colin's rides are just too lumpy for me to attempt in a group. Have to see how I get on this year now that I am back on the bike and have a certain number of weekends free from childcare responsibilities.

I've organised a couple of forum rides in the other place where there were nearly as many women as men along. And our regular-ish pub run last year did, on occasion, have a majority of women in attendance. Don't know why, to be honest!

I think childcare responsibilities are often a factor for a lot of mums. One thing that has enabled me to get out on a couple of group rides since becoming a single parent is the fact that I could take my kids along - in one case because somebody else acquired a kiddy trailer for the day and towed my youngest!

Well there are fourm rides named the Breeze want to start going on those and those seem not bad.

Interesting - you don't say that they are too lumpy for you, but are too lumpy 'in a group' which sounds like you'd be frightened of slowing the group down. Well, I slow my own group down anyway so we were riding pretty slowly on yesterday's forum ride, for example. Of course, some people's idea of slow is other people's idea of fast so let me download the tracklog from my GPS so I can give you the actual numbers.

Okay ...

We took 45 minutes to climb the first hill which is about 4.5 mile long so we averaged 6 mph on the climb.

It took us 3 hours and 10 minutes to get to the cafe which was after 22.4 miles so we averaged 7.1 mph to get there.

We stopped for an hour at the cafe.

It took us 1 hour and 15 minutes to get back from the cafe, a distance of 10.1 miles so we averaged 8.1 mph on the last leg, but there is a long descent into Hebden Bridge to bump the average speed up.

Some of us walked up some of the steeper climbs, and down some of the slippery-looking steep descents.

Total distance just short of 33 miles and total elapsed time 5.5 hours, so overall average speed was 5.4 mph. Average speed when moving was 7.3 mph.

It's true that ice on the roads slowed us down. I think we would have been about 15% faster without that.

I think a lot of people who are frightened of slowing a group down could actually ride faster over that route than we did yesterday. I've had people make apologies in advance for their slowness before riding with me but they turned out to be much fitter and faster than me. Give it a go and see!

There's very very rarely anyone slower than me on the climbs on any ride I've been on. Well, I usually manage to beat Arch up a hill. When she's on the trike... and when I was riding between 100 and 200 miles a week... before I broke my elbow and had a three month lay-off. I reckon she's probably have me even if she was on the blinking maximus at the moment!

I've accidentally collected a small group of cycling mates who genuinely don't give a stuff about how slow I go, including a few scary-mile-munching-audaxers and odd bods who actively seek out the hills. Since my standard group ride strategy is 'pedal and follow' I have as a result bimbled very very very slowly or walked up, among others, Carlton Bank, Commondale, Killdale, up to the Tan Hill Inn (once each from each side) and assorted pretty places in the Wolds. And as we all know, the best way to get better at climbing is to do lots of climbing - last summer I actually dropped someone going up Commondale, which was a bit shocking.

But I didn't ride for the best part of 4 months, did my first 30 mile day since the break on Christmas Day and while my elbow is massively improved, hills now hurt there as well as all the usual places! So mebbees later in the year