peanut said:
don't bother. They never send out your membership stuff for months and months and the forum is modded by a couple of yobs who when they are not pontificating ,throw their weight about and issue arbitary lifetime bans to members for no reason other than they have the power to do so.
I've heard a few people have problems with the membership, but I've had some dealings with them and the service has been fine.
My feelings about the CTC is that nationally they generally do a good job for cycle advocacy and the member benefits are worth 30-odd squids of your hard-earned. At a local level I get the impression that it can get quite cliquey and middle-aged, but there's no compulsion to get involved. I also get the impression that the typical member profile is shifting from the bearded tourer to the dedicated commuter - horrible generalisation I know but it gives you some idea.
As for the CTC forum - my only visit there was apres videoed accident, when somebody had linked me in from here. I received some criticism for cycling too fast (about 15mph) and being too close to parked cars (about 2 metres away) so I exercised my right to not bother.