Roody

Mostly I see solo bicyclists, and I mostly ride solo myself. I used to ride a lot with a friend, but not so much any more. I love riding with my son and grandson but those are unfortunately rare events.. A few times I've ridden with people I met on bikeforums who either lived in Lansing or were visiting the city.

How about you? Do you sometimes ride with friends or family, or in an informal group, or even a bike club? Hve you ever used social media like Facebook to get together with other riders?

Ekdog

I mostly ride by myself or with my wife on our tandem. We sometimes go out with a cycling group on weekends, but some of the members are fond of riding fast and tend to turn those outings into a race. We prefer riding at a more leisurely pace and occasionally stop to look at things, like historic buildings or Roman ruins. In the summer, while we were riding with a friend through the Portuguese countyryside, we stopped several times to pick almonds, figs and carob that was growing in abandoned orchards. Fortunately, our friend rides with the same phliosophy as we do and was more than willing to wait for us.

wahoonc

Usually by myself. Occasionally with my wife, and sometimes the dog comes along. The local club (25 miles away) used to do social rides, but those have pretty much gone a way. The racer boys alienated the slower riders. On my grocery runs I may ride along with a couple of the local guys that ride BSO's. One in particular seems to pop up about the same time am headed out. He is currently riding an old Motobecane. He is the one I give safety vests to a few times a year. I think his bikes get stolen pretty regularly, he seems to get a different one every 3-4 months. Not a lot of riders in my area.

Aaron

Tony Marley

Although I do a lot of solo riding (on my TiRush recumbent), I enjoy riding with my daughters. Sometimes the three of us on the triplet; sometimes the 10-year old with me on the tandem and the 13-year old on her single; and sometimes both girls on singles and me on the Catrike.

I did ride coast-to-coast years ago with a friend from an overseas assignment, and I also rode with him on Cycle Oregon, but geographic distance makes it unfeasible to ride with him these past years.

Jim from Boston

Who do you like to ride with?

Just yesterday posted to the LCF thread, ”Do you participate in cycling events? ,“

The Annual Fifty-Plus Rides are organized on that specific sub-forum. Riding with other BF subscribers is a real treat:

I rarely meet other cyclists traveling at a similar pace to mine, and I always enjoy it when we spontaneously and mutually agree to ride together and chat, as we did a couple weeks ago. I invariably introduce my companion to Bike Forums; most have never heard of it.

This summer I have made the acquaintance of a friendly local cycling club, and they occasionally have convenient rides on nice routes.

My most intimate cycling companion has been my wife, but not for many years now. Before children, in our touring days, we rode amiably together, and can you think of a better cross-country ride companion than a new bride (on a cycling honeymoon)? I have also rarely ridden with my son in his teens and now 20’s, and gotten along well. Once he wanted to take me golfing, and I suggested a bike ride, since both are such time-consuming activities, and I don't golf.

wolfchild

Few years ago I used to be a mountain biker and every weekend a bunch of us would meet together and ride trails for a couple of hours, that was the only group rides that I've done...Commuting, errands and recreational road riding I do by myself.

Jarrett2

I used to ride solo a lot. But thanks to social media, I created a FB group for local cyclists to gather for rides, and its happening. We have at least two group rides a week now, sometimes three. Tomorrow we have have two separate group rides that came about out of this group. One 12-14 mph, one 15-17 mph. Due to that I'm doing more group rides than I used to, but also doing less solo rides as well.

As winter rolls around, most will drop off and I'll be solo riding through the winter. Hopefully, we can rekindle this thing next Spring.

Roody

I have to admit, it was your post that inspired me to strt this thread. It got me to thinking about how many new and old ways there are to meet up with fellow riders, but still most cyclists I see are going solo.

Roody

I've seen a number of these facebook groups, mostly for slow rides or slow rolls, which usually have no minimum speeds. I think this slow ride concept started bigly (sorry Donald Trump) in Detroit, and has spread now to most of the outstate Michigan cities. I guess the Detroit ride attracts several hundred riders every week, and even the one here in Lansing gets up to a hundred or more.

https://www.slowroll.bike/
https://www.lansingstatejournal.com/a...lore-socialize

Robert C

when I lived in China I regularly rode wit the cycling club. We had weekend metric centuries and daily 17-22Km loops. Here in the states there aren't any clubs like the ones there; so I ride alone.

Bandera

Tomorrow is the Saturday Farmer's Market.
Only the most fleet will be early to the Organic-Veg Ladies' stand to acquire the finest vegetables, while the tardy will be left with the pathetic dross.

Tomorrow my mates and I will be in full-on Team Time Trial mode to beat the wicker-basket equipped DL-1 riding retired librarians to the most excellent vegetables.
Fitting four Pinnarello Bolides with Wald baskets was not an easy task but we are dedicated to the ultimate high speed team errand running.

-Bandera

Jim from Boston

Thanks for your comment. Probably just like car commuters, how many people (as a proportion of all car commuters) carpool? One of Boston's major freeways has a HOV (high occupancy vehicle) lane, yet the other (single driver) lanes are notoriously backed up at rush hour.

On my early morning weekday cycle commutes, I pass through some really nice cycling roads, and I see a notable number of pacelines, maybe 3 or so within an hour, of a few riders, about 2 to 5. On weekends in those areas, I see more and much larger groups. Maybe it depends on when/where you ride.

This summer a BF roadie posted to a Metro Boston thread looking for groups to ride with while here on vacation (at his convenience, weekdays ~7:30 to 10:00 AM). I helped him search. Besides me taking him out to some places to ride solo, we found one shop ride on a weekday afternoon, that canceled on the day he showed up.

Actually, that was a rare event for me, to arrange to ride with a stranger, in particular a roadie.

JBHoren

Myself. I like the "here and now" focus of solo riding. Watching the road ahead, what's coming-up from behind, feeling my body as I pedal, breathe, shift my weight, thinking my thoughts and listening to the music (and voices) in my head. It's "my" time... even though I'm single and live alone, my riding time is different than the rest. I wouldn't want to give that up.

B. Carfree

Way back when, I used to ride with a hundred or so local riders. We had some regular meet-ups, but we mostly just found each other out along the better training roads. Anyone who was alone would eventually find themselves absorbed by a peloton. It was good fun. I should have appreciated it more than I did. I naively thought that was just the way cycling was. Nowadays, the few groups I encounter are filled with people whose riding style isn't one that I find acceptable in a group. This is especially problematic when I'm on a tandem with my wife; she's even less tolerant of unsafe riding than I am and the tandem isn't exactly maneuverable when things go bad.

Currently, I ride about half my miles by myself and the other half are on a tandem with my wife. I tend to ride 150-400 miles per week, so we get plenty of time together. We don't often meet any other riders while we're out riding on a tandem. Part of that is because we do a lot of our rides before sunrise and part of it is because we like to ride out in the coast hills and on the gravel logging roads, which is a bit too far for most of the locals to ride.

On rare occasions, my son will ride with me. Last week we went out and picked 150 pounds of apples at a friend's house. He graciously allowed me to haul them the ten miles back. He said something about only having one gear and not being sure he could get them over the hill without a lower gear, but I think he just wanted to let me get a nice workout.

Mobile 155

Utility riding is almost always by myself. MTB riding sometimes by myself but mostly with two or three friends. I also do group rides with 5 to 15 friends three days a week. I try to get in a few charity rides every year either a metric or imperial century to support the charity or in case of the Tour de Palm Springs just to enjoy the carnival attitude of 9500 other cyclists.

mconlonx

Most of the time, I go solo as a commuter.

Infrequently, I go mtn biking with my son or a co-worker from the bike shop.

Ex-no.2 and I used to ride together, or with my son, around the local area. We also used to have fun on a tandem together.

And I used to ride sweep on an annual charity ride out of a shop I used to work at.

wipekitty

I generally ride by myself. I like road biking with non-standard equipment (fixed), which usually means I get up hills more quickly and down hills more slowly. I like to set my own pace, and not feel like I'm pressuring a group to go fast...or making them wait for me on my wacky descents.

When I do groups, I usually go for the moderate pace ones because they tend to be a bit more social. I used to ride with a fast group on the flats, but they got a bit too serious for my taste. There's a local women's road group that is a lot of fun, but I can never find the time, as the starting point is about 12 miles from my house.

But, solo rides are good. Going out in the country and looking out at the bluffs and farms clears my head.

Hopem

My daily commutes are always by myself. Twice a month hubby and I and sometimes our adult children will do the dinner cruises that our bike shop promotes (of course this always includes our friends, most of whom I have met because of bikes or got into bikes because of me). Once a month hubby, brother and I do our mountain bike club ride (urban assault) which always includes dinner. Most Saturdays will find me riding with the ladies from my bike shop unless I am not training for an event (which I am training now for the MS ride (this weekend) and then Lagbrai ride which benefits Moffitt Cancer center (80 miles each way two days-a couple weekends from now) than it may only be once or twice a month so hubby and I can go to the Saturday morning market. We try to have one date night on a bike and last week we had a bike date on Saturday, made 8 stops. This is my favorite kind of riding. After the events I have planned if Sundays are free we will hit the mountain bike trails. We also started a Sunday breakfast ride. Trying out new local (no chain) restaurants and we get there by bike. We had 9 of us last week.

Roody

That is very cool. You really do live in a bike culture with family and friends.

Machka 

With Rowan ... and with my father when I get a chance.


And, using the word "with" sort of loosely ... Audax Australia.

Rollfast

It isn't WHO, it's WHEN. No who.

Stadjer

Most of the time I start alone, sometimes I go pick someone up, to ride together to the cinema or something, or am picked up myself. Often I meet people I know on the road, and if we're heading in the same direction we ride together and talk for the part of the route we have in common.

JoeyBike

"I never found the companion that was so companionable as solitude." H.D.Thoreau
.
.
.

Ekdog

Sometimes with a couple of friends at the weekend, but more and more by myself or with my wife on the tandem as she and I like to go at our own pace and stop to do things along the way, such as foraging for fruit, checking out ancient ruins and interesting buildings, talking to people, bird watching and so on. I can no longer be bothered to ride with people who are in a hurry.

Roody

I seem to attract strangers when I'm riding alone. A number of times I've had teenagers or young adults challenge me to bike races. They probably figure it'll be an easy victory since I'm a good 40 or 50 years older than them. But sometimes I win! A lot of the teenagers around here should race competitively. They go for "quick starts" and elbow-throwing and just bending the rules a bit to see what they can get away with.