No more group ride for me.

[derrick]

My average speed was 12.8mph and that includes some hills ( this is Wales!).They must have been doing 15 or more average mph.

You need to change your avatar to just (getting old) only joking you just need to find the right group to ride with, i love cycling with the club.

 

[screenman]

No problem I don't mind telling anyone my age. Im 57, and I took up cycling again only four weeks ago after not being on a bike since I was 12. That's 45 years. Believe it or not the old saying that you nevef forget how to ride a bike is true. However I did wobble about quite a lot the first few times. Im not very good even now, but I do live in the foothills of the cambrian mountain s and it is very hilly around here.

Same age as myself. You are either a hero or a muppet for doing a group ride after only 4 weeks, I prefer to think of you as the former so keep on enjoying your own company for a few months and then have another go.

Every club I have been involved with always has a 14mph ride going out at least once a week, once you can average that speed on your own it will be a doddle in a group.

 

[lukesdad]

My club had about 17 rides out today that I could have gone on and maybe more, most of them only had one or two riders on.

Do they smell or something ?

 

[oldfatfool]

My average speed was 12.8mph and that includes some hills ( this is Wales!).

Faster than my average speed today.

 

[MrDampy]

Thats a Shame Gav!

Put up a Events page on Face Book, or even here, I have done that, and I just go at the slowest riders pace, we dont leave any behind, but then I'm not a Lyra Lad!

 

[swansonj]

Have I got this right? various people are citing club runs at 14 or 15 mph as the slower offering that caters for the less fit among us? Well, excuse me, but I'm with the poster who thought his 12.8 mph wasn't bad. There's no way I could keep up with a 14 mph average for more than an hour or so. But, after 25 years of cycling solo or touring with a single friend, I have found the pleasures of group riding through the Fridays. Let's say London to Brighton - 60 miles - midnight to 7 am, less a one hour tea stop - 6 hours, lo and behold, 10 mph average. That's more my sort of thing. So such clubs do exist.

 

[Davidc]

Join a group that either goes at you speed or goes at the pace of the slowest.

The group I go riding with does the second of those and puts up with my crawling pace up hills.

The clubs I belonged to when younger wouldn't have put up with the 2013 me, but the 2013 me wouldn't attempt to ride with them!

 

[DCLane]

@gavroche - then it's the club not you if your ave. speed was 12+ mph.

My club has 2 (sometimes 3) Saturday rides, with the slow one going around 10mph ave and the faster one usually having 2+ groups at 12, 15 and 18+mph-ish. I may ride in the fast one usually, but I'm also happy to toddole along beside a slower rider if they're new.

 

[400bhp]

Didn't you think to ask some questions before going on a ride with them?

 

[Dusty Bin]

My club had about 17 rides out today that I could have gone on and maybe more, most of them only had one or two riders on.

Two riders on a ride is not a group...not by any stretch of the imagination. One rider on a ride is...well, that's just a bloke riding a bike.

To the OP - most keen cyclists would see a situation like that (ie one where their fitness was lacking) as an opportunity to improve. Or are you just happy plodding along?

 

[deptfordmarmoset]

Gavroche, if you ever visit London and you're there over the weekend, bring a bike if you can. The Sunday London Ride is a very relaxed affair. I just did a completely flat 44 miles and my computer says my average speed was 11.43mph.

 

[T.M.H.N.E.T]

@gavroche - then it's the club not you if your ave. speed was 12+ mph.

My club has 2 (sometimes 3) Saturday rides, with the slow one going around 10mph ave and the faster one usually having 2+ groups at 12, 15 and 18+mph-ish. I may ride in the fast one usually, but I'm also happy to toddole along beside a slower rider if they're new.

How is it the club/rides fault someone joined them and wasn't fit enough to keep up? Is it the lifeguards fault if someone who can't swim dives into the deep end?

 

[trampyjoe]

I joined my local college bike group and had our first ride today, 40 miles. I am sorry to say that this is the last group ride I will ever do and will stick to riding solo from now on. The reason is simple: I am too slow! Every one was ok but I just can't keep up with them. I know they were all younger than me but I just can't match their cruising speed. When I tried, I was exhausted after a short while and then my speed dropped drastically until I recovered enough to go faster but still at my own speed. So that's it, just me and the bike from now on as we get on alright, at a speed we are both happy with.

First ride of a college bike group? Sounds to me like the younger members were trying to prove something on their first ride out?

 

[swansonj]

Two riders on a ride is not a group...not by any stretch of the imagination. One rider on a ride is...well, that's just a bloke riding a bike.

To the OP - most keen cyclists would see a situation like that (ie one where their fitness was lacking) as an opportunity to improve. Or are you just happy plodding along?

I'm not sure I agree with your definition of "keen cyclist" there....

 

[Dusty Bin]

I'm not sure I agree with your definition of "keen cyclist" there....

Perhaps. Let's go for 'keen sporting cyclist' instead...