Originally Posted by
Chris L
I gave up on try to organise group rides years ago. Some of the problems I encountered were in people being totally unprepared (this happened after one of my rides was featured in the outdoor section of a major newspaper). People thinking you could do a night ride on an unlit dirt road without lights of your own. I even had one person want to do a ride who didn't even have a bike. Then there were the flakes. People would phone up all excited on the Wednesday before a Saturday ride, who would lose interest in the days leading up to it. Among the ones who did show up, I had to contend with people having varied ability levels. Some who overestimated their own ability, then the others who would disappear in a cloud of dust. Oh, and the guy who turned up for a ride up a mountain and then told me he had a serious heart condition. In the end, it just wasn't worth the effort.
Now I might organise something social with some friends occasionally, but the days of inviting random strangers out for a ride are over.
The bonus about the club I led this ride for was that the ride levels and such are clearly published and most people are aware of what's what. I'm sure the occasional issue like you pointed out that you experienced will still occur but I would not expect it to happen too often.
I just heard back from the person who takes the ride information and puts it on the site and he was thankful that I volunteered and thankful that I would continue to do so on the bike path and went on to say that certain behavior is very ingrained in bike culture in small pockets and they continue to address it. He asked me for names but I refused and told him that until I set the proper pre-ride expectation I would not do any kind of enforcement.