Smokin Joe
Legendary Member
- Location
- Bare headed cyclist, Smoker
You could join a club for about thirty quid a year and go on 52 club runs.
Cancelled through lack of interest
- Thread starter Pale Rider
- Start date
Page may contain affiliate links. Please see terms for details.
Racing roadkill
Guru
Exactly.
Stephen Piper
Veteran
- Location
- Romney Marsh, Kent
You need to be able to read a map but there are also Audax rides £5, Reliability rides £3, up to 156 club rides a year (three a week in my club, for £12 p/a). I have ridden in a group in each of these kinds of events. Will have to try a sportive one day.
subaqua
What’s the point
- Location
- Leytonstone
depends if you like being looked down upon . I didn't like the attitude at 2 clubs i looked at when I lived in N wales.
so i used the map reading skills I had learned myself and devised my own routes and took the map with me .
Smokin Joe
Legendary Member
- Location
- Bare headed cyclist, Smoker
You do hear about unwelcoming clubs, but I guess I was lucky with the two I've been a member of. The first I joined as a teenager (The Easterely Road Club in east London, still going strong) and they were the most helpful and friendly bunch you could meet. Same experience when I joined the now defunct Goodmayes Wheelers in the eighties.
Leisure cycling (weekenders) and commuting cycling has exploded in popularity along the Aire Valley. I don't think a large % of these people are interested in "cycling" at all, not that it matters, they are using bikes for a healthy family outing along the canal (good) and/or riding to save time/money (good), most would not know what a sportive is.
The last club I joined doubled its annual sub after a couple of years. From one pound to two. I can't recall being looked down upon.
Fab Foodie
hanging-on in quiet desperation ...
- Location
- Kirton, Devon.
Yeah, and we've just raised our club fees to £4 per annum .... And we feel guilty about it ....
Dogtrousers
Kilometre nibbler
It's odd isn't it, that when it comes to choosing rides money becomes terribly important, yet when choosing a bike people happily pay over £1,000 when they could get a beaut of an old Pug or Raleigh from ebay for £50 and turn it into a really beautiful machine for an investment of a couple of hundred and a few hours work, thus saving a grand.
Now, I'm not suggesting for a minute that everybody does that - that would be silly - I just think that the "it's too expensive/somebody out there is making a profit" line for sportive-bashing is just a cover for a deeper tribal reason, which is: I don't like that tribe over there with their fat behinds squeezed into lycra, pretending to be racers in their replica team kit. What a load of nobbers, my tribe is much better.
That said, I've not done a sportive yet. I'm signed up for Velo Wales next year, and it did sting a bit paying £50 or whatever it was, and it did cross my mind that it might be better to go for a nice ride starting from Abergavenny when there aren't a zillion other cyclists about. But a group of friends & I will be making a special occasion of it. And yes - probably pretending to race (against the broom wagon).
But I do draw the line at sqeezing my fat behind into lycra. And as to replica team kit ... well, I saw a really nice "La vie Clair" jersey on the web the other day...
Now, I'm not suggesting for a minute that everybody does that - that would be silly - I just think that the "it's too expensive/somebody out there is making a profit" line for sportive-bashing is just a cover for a deeper tribal reason, which is: I don't like that tribe over there with their fat behinds squeezed into lycra, pretending to be racers in their replica team kit. What a load of nobbers, my tribe is much better.
That said, I've not done a sportive yet. I'm signed up for Velo Wales next year, and it did sting a bit paying £50 or whatever it was, and it did cross my mind that it might be better to go for a nice ride starting from Abergavenny when there aren't a zillion other cyclists about. But a group of friends & I will be making a special occasion of it. And yes - probably pretending to race (against the broom wagon).
But I do draw the line at sqeezing my fat behind into lycra. And as to replica team kit ... well, I saw a really nice "La vie Clair" jersey on the web the other day...
Last edited:
Justinslow
Lovely jubbly
- Location
- Suffolk
Totally agree, but the point most people are missing is it's "FUN"!
Moaning about how much sportives cost and who's making the money is a bit like moaning about Wayne Rooney earning £300k a week - it's market led, if people didn't pay/turn up it would fold, as it may have done in this case.
