Time to find a new club ?

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cyberknight

As long as I breathe, I attack.
My current club has been running for 3 years now starting from a few riders on a sunday and morphing into around 20 riders on a saturday in various rides .
I have led the sunday ride for a few years but it has always been hard to get more than 3-4 of use whereas a saturday they are fighting for spaces and sundays for the last month have had no takers at all .
This means im struggling to motivate myself to ride as although i can do the distance easily its more fun with a few of us so my mental health as well as physical health is suffering .
My old club still meets on a sunday but they start later so im not back till around 2-30 and last time i went they had a medium group avg 15-16 which is sedate for me or it was the fast boys who would aim for 20 avg and if you got dropped it was tough luck and i didnt enjoy killing myself every week .
Contacted the club founder sayign they need to promote the sunday ride a bit more as there are plenty of capable riders but he doesnt seem interested .
 

DCLane

Found in the Yorkshire hills ...
If there's no-one else interested and you want a group ride, but can't get one, then I'd say "yes". Maybe keep this one and join another as 2nd claim?

My son's in his team for racing, my club for TT's and social rides but has had to join a 3rd club to get a really hard training ride. Other groups/clubs have said "no" because he's under 18 and/or a rider doesn't want to be embarrassed: we've had that from a local group and one of my club's rides [personally I think the rider in question who's in both needs to grow up a bit :whistle: ]
 

13 rider

Guru
Location
leicester
If I was you I'd stick with your current club for the summer and see if the numbers pick up with hopefully the nice weather . Would also look at gusting at other clubs to get a feel of the club . Coalville Wheelers ?.
 

mjr

Comfy armchair to one person & a plank to the next
It sounds like you need a bit of assistance promoting, rather than a new club. Could you contact the current club secretary or newsletter editor to promote the Sunday rides more, rather than the founder?

And I'm not sure what you want, rather than what you don't (15mph, 20mph, 2.15pm finish, Saturdays...)
 
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cyberknight

cyberknight

As long as I breathe, I attack.
It sounds like you need a bit of assistance promoting, rather than a new club. Could you contact the current club secretary or newsletter editor to promote the Sunday rides more, rather than the founder?

And I'm not sure what you want, rather than what you don't (15mph, 20mph, 2.15pm finish, Saturdays...)
One and the same, there is a core of people who are mates who run the club
 
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cyberknight

cyberknight

As long as I breathe, I attack.
If I was you I'd stick with your current club for the summer and see if the numbers pick up with hopefully the nice weather . Would also look at gusting at other clubs to get a feel of the club . Coalville Wheelers ?.
Current club was Sundays to start with that turned into saturday.been struggling to get rider's for a couple of years now.
My usual ride would be 50-55 miles 17-18 avg
 

PaulSB

Legendary Member
It's a perennial problem in cycle clubs, you can't please all of the people all of the time. This is not to have a dig at you but to suggest it's a common issue. We have similar in my club and no matter how many rides the club puts on it's impossible to embrace the needs of all.

From what you've said it sounds as though the majority want to ride on a Saturday. Have you considered putting on your ride on a Saturday?
 

Sharky

Guru
Location
Kent
You should probably take the issue up with your club mates, committee or at your agm. If there is no demand for a Sunday run, then you need to accept it.

But a thread like this on CycleChat makes me wonder. Are any of your club mates on cycle chat? If they think you are having a moan about them, it might not strengthen your position?
 
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cyberknight

cyberknight

As long as I breathe, I attack.
If I was you I'd stick with your current club for the summer and see if the numbers pick up with hopefully the nice weather . Would also look at gusting at other clubs to get a feel of the club . Coalville Wheelers ?.
bit far for me , current club is a 6 mile ride away , i think mercia was about 5 ( old club)
 

PaulSB

Legendary Member
wife works and i have kids , mini ck swimming lessons and half the time i dont get to bed till 1.30 am gone dependant on shift rotation at work
Yes, very sympathetic to this situation and although I'm now retired I remember the difficulty of fitting my riding around family. I used to ride 5.00-9.00am on Saturdays.

In my club we have a bunch who go out at 6.00am on a Saturday because it solves their family/social situation. They looked at the problem and solved it.

I feel what you need to do is cast around for people who want/need to ride at similar times to you.
 

lane

Veteran
When you have young kids then live revolves around that and domestic stuff and you can't always make club rides. I was lucky able to make some Tuesday evening rides but it was luck the rides were on that evening any other would have been out. Then things changed and it was hard to make the Tuesday. Then covid came along and all the rides stopped. Then all of a sudden my kids are older and I am semi retired and can do more or less what I want.
 

Milkfloat

An Peanut
Location
Midlands
I would be tempted to ask the members what they don’t like about the Sunday ride. One of the local clubs near me switched time from a 10am start to an 8am start and got huge numbers of people joining the club as they were looking for an earlier Sunday ride.
 
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cyberknight

cyberknight

As long as I breathe, I attack.
When you have young kids then live revolves around that and domestic stuff and you can't always make club rides. I was lucky able to make some Tuesday evening rides but it was luck the rides were on that evening any other would have been out. Then things changed and it was hard to make the Tuesday. Then covid came along and all the rides stopped. Then all of a sudden my kids are older and I am semi retired and can do more or less what I want.
due to mrs ck having chemo etc we had to have ivf and started late so mini ck 2 is not 18 till im 62 , the shift pattern at work means im up at 3.45 am or getting home after 1 am the next week on top of a job that tbh is killing me ,
 
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