cycledogg

Not a Race Team or Race Club, but a local cycling club. I'm just curious who are members here. I am: Columbia Cycling Club, Tennessee
The club I am a member of does have folks who race bikes, but it is not a specific racing only club. There are MTB, Road and Triathlete members. But most are folks who like to get together and ride. We organize one century a year, a MTB race and a Tri race. And of course we have Saturday morning rides and one night ride a week.
Cheers

seypat

You know what the first and second rules of Bike Club are. You don't talk about Bike Club.

Zaskar

Have been for about 10 years. We - five of us - actually created it 10 years ago. We have a mix - A, B, C, groups, mountain, road, gravel... some guys race, most don't. We have club rides several days each week. Very informal - no dues, but we do have a club kit.

joelcool

No.

caloso

I am on a race team, so by your definition, I am not on a club. But we do club-like things: we have folks who like to get together and ride, we have a summer pool party and BBQ, and a family holiday light ride. But mostly we talk smack on the team FB page.

datlas 

Yes. West Chester Cycling Club. I think we have about 400 members. On most Saturdays in the good weather, you can choose from up to a dozen different rides of varying length/pace. There are also a few Sunday rides and even weekday ride options.

p.s. if anyone in beautiful Chester County PA is interested, here is a link to the club site: WCCC Main

cthenn

No

Nachoman

Yes. But only to support them by paying a membership fee every year. I rarely participate.

mcours2006

Not currently, but thinking about it for next year. Right now I am connect to a couple of large groups riders and we go out regularly to do group rides. We are not quite as organized in our schedule as a club, nor in the structure of our rides, but it is nonetheless lots of fun.

MoAlpha

Back when I was racing, I joined a club and paid dues for the various benefits they offered, including the local weekday crits and TTs, but I never "rode with them." Riding with a racing club "wasn't a thing" back then. Now I'm a member of something completely amorphous that seems to exist mainly no Strava and Facebook (where I do not have an account), but I ride with them all the time. Go know.

tagaproject6

I don't want to be a part of a club that would have me as its member.

robbyville

I’m a member of 2 clubs.

Desert Bicycle Club (cycleclub.com), about $45 per year. They do a social a few times each year which I don’t generally get to go to. I like to support the club and although guests are always welcome, if you’re a member then you’re also covered by their secondary medical insurance if injured in a club ride.

the club has a ton of rides practically every day geared to a variety of riders including visitors to the valley (we’re a tourism centric location with Palm Springs, Palm Desert, etc). A Saturday ride in season could easily see 100 riders which we break down into different rides of course.

very good group, lots of fun. I usually do 3 group rides each week a couple of which may be splinter cells of a larger ride that may be getting a little agro. Overall a great club, every now and again one of the faster Saturday rides folks will get a little too competitive which has been a turnoff for that ride.

the other group that i support is the Salton Sea Triathlon club. Obviously a Tri based club but most of us local riders partake as well because they do some great community activism like road clean up sponsorships and such. Their kits are also way more fun than the other!

Juan Foote

I was a member of a local bike club. Among the perks for being a member was an accident insurance policy with a flat rate payout. There was a large group of competitive riders and racers so for the A group it was very strenuous. Even the B group challenged it's posted averages. I finally convinced them to allow me to start a slow group and led it for two years. Was really nice and helped build the ranks of the club a bit as people moved up.

robbyville

This is what we’ve done as well. In season we have a no drop C ride on Saturdays with a much more reasonable pace and mileage of about 30. People take turns leading it. We have a few other no drops but they’re still longer and a bit faster

StephenH

Lone Star Randonneurs and Randonneurs USA- the local and the national randonneuring clubs.
Greater Dallas Bicyclists- the normal bike club where I live
Fort Worth Bicycling Association- the club on the other side of the metroplex, minimal involvement for me, but still a member.
In the past- UMCA, Ultra-Marathon Cycling Association, the national long-distance racing club, forget what the current name is, and can't remember if I'm still a member or not.
Adventure Cycling- the touring group, haven't really done any touring, but it's a cool magazine for the membership.

gregf83 

I live in a suburb of Vancouver and we have a loosely organized group with about 50-60 members on an email list. No dues and no one liable for anything. We do have our own kit. 2-3 rides/wk with about 10-20 usually showing up on Sat. A number of us make an annual cycling trip to Europe or someplace warm - great friends and many memorable rides.

woodcraft

Yes. Put on it's 57th century ride this year- longest running in the US? I've led a bunch of rides but lately just show up for them.

The slower rides particularly get a big turn out & a thriving social scene.

I also belong to the club to the North, which is big, with multiple weekday & weekend rides. I get up there occasionally.

Also a smaller local club where I attempt and fail to keep up with a fast group.

Machka 

I've been a member of different cycling clubs since 1998.

jpescatore

Yes, the Potomac Pedalers club in the DC/MD/No. VA area. I do 6 or 7 group rides with them each year, and you don't have to be a member to do so. I'm not active other than that, but pay the dues to support the work they do around cycling in this area.

mvnsnd

Yes. Niagara Frontier Bicycle Club. A couple of morning and evening rides scheduled every weekday and a couple of morning rides scheduled each weekend. Great club with a lot of great members. Some racers, ex-racers, non racing folks and some just to ride a bike. They host a few parties each season and a few century rides.

TakingMyTime

I'm not really much of a joiner.

burnthesheep

I think a lot of "race teams" could qualify more as a bike club depending on what percentage and numbers of races people are doing.

We have local "race teams" where only about half the people ever race, and only half of those race frequently enough to notice.

I think the US could sorely use an improved club scene. It fuels advocacy. It improves rider safety and participation. It gets cyclists closer to the community. It gives riders of all levels more to do and more to look forward to without depending on large "fondo" or events organizations.

There is a yearly membership club local to us that also does races, but their group rides are just a bit outside of the range of what I'd like to drive to/from for a ride. Also, it's a bad setup for a "club" in that none of the weeknight rides start or end somewhere people can chat together afterwards. They just get in their cars and leave.

Also locally, I don't see a lot of strong leadership on rides or leading groups of people. Kind of just post up online some routes and paces and folks randomly show up and randomly do stuff. Nobody talks protocol, route changes, rarely is a lead or sweep chosen.

The hammer rides are worse. Leadership amounts to who is the biggest wang swinging ass. Meaning, no guarantee of any kind of decorum, rules, safety, or organization. Just some ass who likes to control "who's in" their cliq and who's not. Nobody takes the reins to announce sprint points or route changes or protocol of any kind. There's a difference between being the fastest ass and being a leader.

If I had to join one, it would be the one that's a bit too much drive and doesn't have a meetup afterwards. I've tried it out once or twice on a chill and well regimented A-group paceline ride and they had their **** together really well. Website, calendar, routes listed with paces, ride leaders who announce protocol and rules, the leaders will watch/enforce the rides, they have structured training rides led by leaders with experience in doing them, etc...........

Just my $0.02.

Deal4Fuji

Yes and one of the main sponsors is a funeral home Actually the owner is one of the members, and you couldn't ask for a more laid back small town club. Very welcoming and no dues. They accept my C&V interests, and my preference for platforms since joining another club I really didn't want to join....Tombay.

CAT7RDR

I frequently start my rides before dawn. No clubs are out that early.

I was interested in a couple of local clubs but reviewed their routes. Boring!!!! Their choices of roads were poor and did not interest me.

Juan Foote

This particular group had an A/B/"C" ride group when I started with them. The A and B both did "no drop" ride days but ALWAYS splintered into two or three actual groups with a sweep. The C group was listed as a no drop ride, with a sweep, but often didn't really happen that way. Their posted averages were 12-14 and it often ended up being a 16 more like B. The group I worked to form would probably have been considered a D pace 10MPH ride. Generally speaking I would lead out and if anyone significantly fell behind we would have them lead such that the rest of us paced off them. Our distance was easily modified with the addition (or not) of a loop around the racetrack, so ended up being between 18 to around 25 miles according. If anyone was unable to maintain pace to finish the ride in daylight, one of the people who knew the route, or myself, would turn back with them.