cyclezen

Hi all,
Since I still have/ride plenty of my old iron, I am thinking I'd like to start a 'Vintage Bike' group / ride here in our Local Goleta/Santa Barbara/Carpinteria area.
There are a ton of bike riders, many who ride on 'older / vintage' machines...
Currently not thinking of making it a 'club' thing, just a weekly regular get-together thing... 1 hour, coffee, shot the SHT... kinda thing, with a ride just before...
The 'ride' thing is difficult, because of the wide diversity of what a 'ride' might be...
DOn;t want to turn off anyone because they don;t feel comfortable with the ride 'character'. Some like to Hammer, some like to Bimble... All good
We might get enough riders to do many types of rides, down the road...
Maybe it gets bigger down the road, and becmes a 'club' thing...
Has anyone, here, done that, belong to similar, have ideas about this?
Certainly possible to give a try on Meetup... not sure if I want to throw money at it, to start.
There's a bunch of us ex-racers (and some older current ones) who get together most Sat mornings for the b*LLSh*et session.
...would be fun to do same for riders with 'old iron'.... LOL (could easily now also be old pencil lead...)
any ideas?
Thx
Yuri - ...just acquired a RIH, late 70's, maybe 80 ish... I think I like it... more on that later... LOL!

uncle uncle

If you have a bicycle coop, and they have a online presence, like a facebook feed (or whatever)... you could see if they are interested in starting a published and organized ride geared toward a C&V community. The idea being that a bicycle coop would have some overlap into people who have those types of bicycles. I belong to a Strava vintage bicycle community (it's a worldwide reach, as far as I can tell). That Strava group generates a somewhat community, but I don't really ride with any of the fellow members. In fact, the closest one might be some 200 miles away. But with a larger-than-my urban area, a Strava group started around your area could generate enough local interest, and that could lead to an occasional group ride. My local bicycle scene, which is basically an urban area of upwards of a half million people, it doesn't generate enough interest in the C&V bicycle realm to support a like-minded community ride, but you might have better luck.

smontanaro 

We have a small group in Chicago for Sunday rides. Coffee and croissants at the turn around. I eventually created a Google Group for the ride announcements, but you could use a Facebook group or post to your regional forum. If there's a local shop with vintage chops, they might be able to support something.

steelbikeguy

Perhaps the scale of the area matters, but around here (a metro area of 150k people, I think), a person can just declare the ride to exist. It's good to publicize it through the various bike clubs and shops. Then, once the word is out, show up for the ride and see who else shows up!

In some ways, it is nice to start off small and figure out what works and what doesn't. I took over a weekly after-work ride and had to figure out things fairly quickly. It (and I) survived, and the ride thrived for a long time. It is still going, 20 years later, albeit with a much smaller number of riders.

I also started an annual vintage ride, and it is reasonably successful after 6 years or so. There is a core group of riders, with some others that come and go. Everyone has a good time, which is the goal. We chat, look at the other bikes, get to know each other, enjoy some baked goods, etc. Mission accomplished!

Steve in Peoria

SwimmerMike 

@cyclezen - I was struggling with the same thing. I wanted to do some C&V rides (and see some cool bikes) but there wasn't anything local. I connected with another BF member locally and we talked it through.

The approach we are doing is what @steelbikeguy suggested, start small, see how it goes, then worry about scaling. We are doing our first ride and we just announced in here on BF C&V, created a route, and and cue sheet and posted them. Similar to the rides in SoCal (Pasadena and San Diego) are announced here. There appears to be an interest and a group of us will ride. We decided to set the distance at ~30 miles and no big climbs figuring most people that were interested could attend. If it goes well, and there's interest, we'll do more and we will try to get the word out more.

Mike

Kabuki12

I was thinking about that as well. I went down to San Diego and did the Brian Baylis ride in July and that was great, although it turned into a race at a certain point. I just enjoy cruising and that excludes me from most group rides. It is difficult to find riders that match on riding styles so I ride alone. I would be interested in something in the S.B.or Ventura area, maybe once a month. I lived in Goleta back in the seventies for short period of time and even back then there was great cycling.