Cycling club etiquette - other riders.

[Racing roadkill]

The majority of cycle clubs I've encountered on my rides have been no problem what so ever. There have been a small minority, where they have got the right royal arse when I've passed them, and behaved like petulant little kids, but they have been in the minority. If I get a troublesome bunch, I just feign a mechanical, and let them have 'their road'. Life's too short to worry about baw bags like that.

 

[mjr]

Dare I suggest that the new wave of "power ranger" (love that phrase, sums up a certain type so well) sportive wannabes clubs are more likely to ride stupidly? And that maybe it's partly our own fault for not integrating them into traditions... a sort of cycling "September that never ended" like the Internet had? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eternal_September

 

[Venod]

Interesting thread, I find its the younger & newer riders who get most upset if they think the "rules" have been broken, I find that most of us old guys don't give a F

 

[mjr]

I don't care about rules as such, but overtaking and then slowing without explanation, as described in the opening post, is unnecessarily dangerous for all involved.

 

[Racing roadkill]

Dare I suggest that the new wave of "power ranger" (love that phrase, sums up a certain type so well) sportive wannabes clubs are more likely to ride stupidly? And that maybe it's partly our own fault for not integrating them into traditions... a sort of cycling "September that never ended" like the Internet had? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eternal_September

That's it in a nutshell.

 

[Racing roadkill]

I don't care about rules as such, but overtaking and then slowing without explanation, as described in the opening post, is unnecessarily dangerous for all involved.

And that sort of behaviour really grips my merde. The ones that decide to put on a Cav sprint as you go for your bottle, and then ride at half your speed, once past.

 

[chewa]

I don't care about rules as such, but overtaking and then slowing without explanation, as described in the opening post, is unnecessarily dangerous for all involved.

Indeed, as is overtaking so closely (obviously to make a point) without any warning. If we want cars to give us space, other riders should do to.

My wife is pretty fast on the flat - for a 50+year old life long cyclist- (hates hills - she changes down to go across speedbumps in Sainsbury's), normally rides her lovely Roberts Tourer and gets so incensed if someone does that, that she chases them down, makes a point of giving a clear warning and then blasts past.

She (we) went past 4 power rangers on the road from Carronshore to Grangemouth the other week. They passed us like silent assassins (we were bumbling along), no warning at all and so close I think I got engaged to the last one. It was obvious they's made an effort to pass as they didn't really make any distance on us and, to be frank, were starting to hold us up. Then Mrs (after saying loudly "What was the point of that?") comes flying past me, and shoots past them (after a cheery "coming through"). The first guy sped up as I came past, but he was doomed really . Such bad manners

It's the only time she gets competitive.

 

[mjr]

I'm a slowish cyclist, so a club group will usually pass me.

How do you know? Groups like the one I ride with probably won't pass you so you'd never see us

 

[Venod]

she changes down to go across speedbumps in Sainsbury's

 

[TheJDog]

I hate the stream of riders passing me, staying in each other's wheels. When the first guy pulls in he usually gives me plenty of space, but because they are all trying to take the same line, and I am in motion, and they are idiots, each subsequent rider gets closer and closer to my front wheel until I have to call one of them an peanut, and tell him to stay the hell away from my front wheel.

 

[jefmcg]

How do you know? Groups like the one I ride with probably won't pass you so you'd never see us

I went and looked up the only ride I've done with a club, going on the slowest run with Kingston Wheelers. They dropped me when we got back to home territory and I could find my way, as I was holding them back. More than 2 years later, that ride is still the fastest or top 3 of the speeds on the segments I have ridden many times since.

Though now I notice, the last 3 segments before I was dropped, I was going at 29.9, 31.7 and 29.9 kph. That's all > 18mph. I think they were a little mean to drop me.

 

[mjr]

I went and looked up the only ride I've done with a club, going on the slowest run with Kingston Wheelers.

I don't know them, but it sounds like a racing club. They go fast while I go places. My usual group averages around 10mph... maybe 13mph on a good leg if everyone's comfortable with that - worst I remember was 8mph mostly into a battering 30-gusting-50 headwind on the fens last December where we stopped short for lunch. I suspect easy-rider groups like ours would be a blur as you flashed by us :-)

 

[screenman]

I went and looked up the only ride I've done with a club, going on the slowest run with Kingston Wheelers. They dropped me when we got back to home territory and I could find my way, as I was holding them back. More than 2 years later, that ride is still the fastest or top 3 of the speeds on the segments I have ridden many times since.

Though now I notice, the last 3 segments before I was dropped, I was going at 29.9, 31.7 and 29.9 kph. That's all > 18mph. I think they were a little mean to drop me.

Maybe you went out with the wrong group, Kingston Wheelers does a 14mph no drop ride each week as well.

 

[jefmcg]

Maybe you went out with the wrong group, Kingston Wheelers does a 14mph no drop ride each week as well.

No, I was in the right group: it was the one they put all the newbie drop-ins in. And when I was flagging towards the end of the ride, it was mentioned I was in the slowest group.

But in fairness, I wasn't really dropped. We got back to within 10 minutes of the starting point, which is a car park which would then be full of customers. I imagine at that point people generally head towards their homes. One of the other riders, who nearly taught me how to draught asked me if I could find my way from where we were and I said I could.

As I'd recently done the Dunwich Dynamo and my daily commute was about 2/3 the ride length, I didn't take it too much to heart.

 

[jefmcg]

I don't know them, but it sounds like a racing club. They go fast while I go places. My usual group averages around 10mph... maybe 13mph on a good leg if everyone's comfortable with that - worst I remember was 8mph mostly into a battering 30-gusting-50 headwind on the fens last December where we stopped short for lunch. I suspect easy-rider groups like ours would be a blur as you flashed by us :-)

Ok, you win the slow rider competition. But I am still slow. The minimum speed for audax, 15kph which is meant to leave riders with a large margin of error , leaves me about 10 minutes to spare over 200km on average. And I am slower than that when I don't have a dead line.