nickyboy
Norven Mankey
- Location
- You want hills? We got hills
+1. If you're ride leader, duty of care is your job (well, it's every rider's job, really, but the buck stops with you). End of story. If people turn up with no map or GPS, well that's because they (quite rightly) expect someone to know the way, and they shouldn't have to. Myself and all the ride leaders I know check out their routes properly first, and even if we dish out GPXs you cannot and should not rely on them, or expect anyone else to. If anyone thinks that having someone without an OS map/Garmin/other GPS with them is going to ruin the ride for them or anyone, then they need to get a life, or join some boring chain gang or other.
Depends on how you decide to organise the ride if you're leading it. You can keep everyone together with waymarking etc. Or you can allow folk to drift into smaller groups with regrouping at cafes. Depends on how you want the ride to operate but if you go for the latter then people do need to have some element of self-sufficiency regarding navigation. I appreciate that the Fridays' rides are fully waymarked but not all ride organisers want to do that.
I think so long as it's made clear at the outset that some personal responsibility is needed for navigation and/or mechanicals that's fine and riders should only come on the ride if they are willing to accept this.