Originally Posted by WhyFi

I did the vast majority of my riding solo until a few years ago - once every blue moon, I'd ride with one or two other people and I'd do the occasional charity ride, but that's about it. I still enjoy riding solo, and sometimes I'll skip group rides because I just want that alone time, but group rides are a nice change of pace and have some great benefits.

The visibility/safety aspect is great - many roads that I'll avoid solo aren't much of a concern with even as few as four riders.

Flying along faster than you could sustain by yourself is awesome, too (funny enough, though, is that my solo rides often have a higher average speed than the group rides). The camaraderie and competitiveness is fun and are great motivators, also.