Do clubs mind if you can't ride with them regularly?

[Welsh wheels]

I have recently joined a club and have been out with them a few times. I haven't ridden with them for over two weeks since that. Unfortunately due to other commitments I can't go out with them every week, and sometimes it may be longer than that before. Do clubs tend to frown on this and maybe wonder why you joined in the first place?

 

[DCLane]

Mine doesn't - due to my son's racing and my long-distance audaxes I tend to disappear in the summer months only to re-appear in the autumn. Usually I ride with them once every 2-3 weeks and I've been a member for 4 years.

Other riders disappear in the autumn and re-appear when it gets warmer.

 

[palinurus]

I used to ride very infrequently with the club I was in. It was accepted that some people did club runs, some raced, some did TTs and some would turn out for almost anything. Large club mind, there was always a fair number and multiple runs each Sunday.

 

[S-Express]

I have recently joined a club and have been out with them a few times. I haven't ridden with them for over two weeks since that. Unfortunately due to other commitments I can't go out with them every week, and sometimes it may be longer than that before. Do clubs tend to frown on this and maybe wonder why you joined in the first place?

Unless you've signed a contract with them which guarantees a certain number of personal appearances, they simply won't care.

 

[Smokin Joe]

As long as you pay your subs they won't mind. I've known club members who were seen no more than a couple of times a year, often because they were on a break or had work or family commitments.

 

[GrumpyGregry]

I haven't ridden with my town's club for four years. And were I to turn up they'd only moan that I'm not wearing the horrid plastic kit and the horrid plastic hat. They are entirely happy to collect my subs though.

 

[Fab Foodie]

I have recently joined a club and have been out with them a few times. I haven't ridden with them for over two weeks since that. Unfortunately due to other commitments I can't go out with them every week, and sometimes it may be longer than that before. Do clubs tend to frown on this and maybe wonder why you joined in the first place?

No.
If they do, quit.

 

[User33236]

My current CC still involve me in all there communications and are happy to see me ride when I can despite the fact I am moving well out of their area in 5 and a bit weeks.

 

[boydj]

Why would they have a problem? I'm sure most clubs post up their runs every week so people can say if they are going - this saves hanging about at the meeting point. The only problem then would be someone who has posted and fails to turn up.

 

[Dayvo]

Depends if you beat/are faster than them when you do ride with them.

as an aside: I bought a Trek 4400 mountain bike one winter when I was in Spain for 4 months and (briefly) befriended an old (in his 60s) Dutch rider who claimed he used to be 'top (amateur) rider' but was still 'pretty decent.' He welcomed me to join him for a three-hour ride, but when I showed him a clean pair of heels, both up and down the hills, he never invited me again.

 

[Racing roadkill]

Mine doesn't, as long as you pay your subs. Good job too, I rarely make it to the club rides, but the shop discounts are useful.

 

[Cycleops]

One persons 'pretty decent' is anothers 'pretty slow'.

 

[HarryTheDog]

My road club has 150 members, 50 max turn up for a club ride, MTB club around 250, most rides less than 30 turn up. Never heard anyone moan that such and such a person has not turned up. If everone in a club turned up every ride, the roads would be blocked.

 

[screenman]

Quite a few of our club members do not own bikes any more, or certainly do not ride them. So no, they do not mind.

 

[Richard A Thackeray]

I doubt it
I've not ridden with mine (if you mean club-runs) for over 20 years
I only really joined as a 'badge of convenience' for Cyclo-Cross races, & I don't even do that now

I keep considering changing clubs, as I go out on quite a few rides with Wakefield Triathlon Club, but with being a parsimonious Yorkshireman, it's far easier to pay the £10 subs, than the £30(??) for WTC
Plus, then I'd have to buy new WTC kit too