Weekend rides 10/13-14

We co-led a 38 mile ride in Little Compton, RI, Westport, MA yesterday. Beautiful scenic route with ocean views.
What a group. We had about 20 people of varying abilities, wherein lay the problem. It was the leader's first ride where he had to screen participants, as he had only helped us lead or done show and go rides. I gave him my set of questions and he did pretty well, but didn't follow his instincts with 3 or 4. The majority were fine, but there was a group of 5 or 6 riders who were extremely slow, and more concerning, 2 didn't even know how to shift their bikes. One of these crashed, thankfully, only skinning her knee. DH and I took turns staying off the back, but in the end, he ended up being last, with the 2 or 3 that really needed coaching. I stuck with the few who were just slower. DH ended up teaching one of these ladies how to use her gears, but the other one told him she "couldn't learn after riding for 40 years."
Then there was the guy who came wearing sandals, shorts, and a jersey that was so small on him that it looked like a sports bra, with his huge gut hanging out :eek:. It was 42 degrees out and I honestly don't know how he could ride in sandals. I rode behind this guy for quite awhile and his shorts were so worn, there was nothing left to the imagination.
It was still a gorgeous day out, and I did get a workout, despite the fact I probably was riding at 5-10 mph the whole time. Good thing my cue sheet was covering my computer.

Oh my! Crankin, I can relate. I have been leading both weekend day rides for the shop my husband works at beginning in April. I ended up making a rule that road bikes are required and a speed of 14-17mph is what we maintain with the exception of hills. We do regroup. It is nerve wracking that someone would join a group ride without being familiar with the bike & changing gears, but that seems to be pretty common I found out. I just recently added a Ladies Social ride for when I come back from the regular group ride on Saturdays for women on hybrid & comfort bikes, which a purchased a Specialized Vita fitness bike with platform pedals so it would be easier for me to keep a slower speed.

There is hope as of this past weekend many of my original group moved up to the A level at my suggestion as I felt I to keep the speed that is advertised I felt my ride was holding them back. I will end the B level ride in mid November to resume next April.

These rides are more social than traditional bike clubs, but still, this is billed as "intermediate," with an average of at least 13. Problem is, I can tell when someone thinks an average of 13 means moving at 13 and the leader who screened just needs more experience. I've led plenty of these rides where we averaged 14-15.5, with hills. But the AMC is trying to reach out to new people, and it's changed the dynamic. We have slower rides, it's mostly that it's near the end of the season. We got thank you notes from some of the ladies, so I guess it's appreciated. We are doing another ride with this leader, in Nov. so he will get to use his screening skills.
We don't say no hybrids, as some people out ride me on a hybrid.

The problem here is that this world is filled with lots of people who don't know what they don't know.

To a new or otherwise uninformed cyclist riding 10mph or riding for an hour or two might be be pretty noteworthy.

Shifting gears? When they learned to ride xxx years ago, they didn't have any gears.

But how will they ever learn this if they don't go on a group ride and learn their shortcomings?

I guess if the ride leader just assumes that there will always be some people that need more attention and lowers his/her expectations, it will be a better experience for all in the long run. The ride leader gets to develop coaching skills, the new rider gets the help he/she might need, the group may develop some new riders.

I am not a fast rider myself but I do make time on occasion to work with new, slower, or just less experienced riders in the hopes of developing future riding partners.

Screening? I've never heard of this for group rides.

Jo, where do you ride? I know of one group on Long Island that starts in Westbury or Garden City and heads north up to the Oyster Bay/Bayville/Glen Cove area. I borrowed part of their cue sheet once, but was less than thrilled with the traffic and inpatient drivers.

I went for a short ride yesterday (24 miles). I've been totally lacking in motivation for several weeks now, and have had to force myself to get out and ride while the weather is still nice. There were several club rides yesterday morning that would have interested me a couple of months ago, but I couldn't see the point of getting up early and riding in leg warmers and long sleeves knowing that temps would hit 70 later in the day. So I went out on my own in the afternoon and enjoyed myself despite the breezy conditions. I think I'm done with long rides until next spring.

I personally don't have a problem showing inexperienced riders the ropes. At first I was ok with the flat bar road bike, but than we were regrouping way too many times. In my case I have to consider the riders that can ride at the advertised pace which like yours turns out to be a 14-15mph average. By constantly having to wait for the others does not make for a fun ride for them.

Up until the days got shorter I began another shorter ride of 14 miles on the day the shop closes early for the riders that could not ride up to speed and for new riders to give then a idea of what our weekend rides are which are but double the mileage. We are slowly trying to have a group for everyone.

When my group rides end next month I offered to work one on one with 2 ladies so by April they should be able to ride with my B group.

Crankin- the picture depicted in your original post is too funny......but seriously, are there any more ride leaders so you can break into more groups? Our local big Sat ride often ends up with 4 groups, but they are very lucky to have that many ride leaders......Also, maybe your comic view guy will buy some new clothes before the next ride (:

Crankin, oh my...though I had to laugh at your description. Hopefully indeed the comic view guy will find some clothing!

NY Biker, AMC screens for group rides that are not show and go, just as they would screen for a hike or ski outing. This is an outdoor club, not a bike club. We do have weekly series show and go rides and those are more like traditional bike club rides. DH and I used to lead some of the Friday AM ones in the summer, until the group got so fast, I could no longer keep up, averaging 17-18! We are, by virtue of our liability insurance, required to keep the group together as much as we can. We have to have a sweep. We do not just give people cue sheets and go. If someone wants to go ahead of the leader or lag behind the sweep, they have to tell us and then we are absolved of our responsibility. We only had about 20 people, not enough for 2 official groups, but we did sort of end up with 2 groups. Good thing both DH and I were sweeping. DH and I lead our "new members ride" in early May and when we started there were groups of 50-60 riding through Concord :eek:; not fun. So now we have a "beginning" and intermediate group. This is not really for just new members, just a traditional ride the club does. Every year we are getting more and more people in the beginner group who clearly have no idea what to do with a bike. And yes, while I do enjoy working with beginners, this past year we had one young woman who had just learned to ride and the poor sweep (the same man who led Saturday) spent 3.5 patient hours getting her through the 22 miles. DH and I lead the intermediate ride and as the sweep, I have had to tell many in the last 2 years to stop and wait for the slower group (it's the same route), as I no longer had any of the others in sight. It's show and go, and they just overestimate their ability.Many of the riders come out from the city and have never ridden on a hill. I got a good workout last year, sprinting to find DH, after a rogue participant wouldn't follow the cue sheet and didn't bother to tell me he was doing something different.
I'm good sweeping for DH, because we have agreed upon patterns. The guy leading Saturday is very good and cognizant of new riders and has much more patience than I do. It's just that he told me he had a "feeling" about 3 of them when he spoke to them and he ignored it. I told him never to do this. My tell-tale questions are: tell me about the kind of riding you do, where do you ride, what kind of bike do you have, and what's your average on a 20 mile moderately hilly ride? The answers are telling. If they tell me they can ride 20 miles on the bike path by the Charles River and they don't know what their average is, my radar is up. I've learned that these are signs of not qualifying for a hilly ride with an average of 14-15. Like the woman who came in jeans, with a basket on her bike. We do have rides that are appropriate for that and I just steer them that way. We want people to enjoy themselves, and not feel like it's a total sufferfest.