Breaking up (with your group) is hard to do...etiquette advice?

I was once banned from a group ride of women because I had aerobars on my bike and refused to remove them each week after the two weeks of "introductory ride." This in spite of the fact that I never have nor ever will ride in aerobars unless I am completely solo on a training ride. I don't even ride in aero bars if I am doing a charity ride and find myself in a solo situation. Heck, Idon't even ride in my drops much in any group situation.

I was made to promise not to ride in the aeros on the first ride and reminded of that promise on the second ride. On the third ride they said that if I showed up with aerobars on my bike for the next ride, they would not let me ride with them. I pointed out to them that I had kept my word, and that I was an adult and a woman of my word. And that I trained four or five days solo for every ride I did with them and I wasn't about to spend that much time messing with my aeros for the questionable privilege of doing a polite 20-40 miles with them for social time.

Sigh.......

so what's the deal with no aerobars on a group ride? I don't understand.

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Originally Posted by Irulan

so what's the deal with no aerobars on a group ride? I don't understand.

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As I've always understood it, if you're in a paceline, you need to be able to react quickly and/or signal with your hands to prevent an accident. That, and some (though not all) people aren't as steady in holding a line when they're in their aerobars. I have some friends I don't mind riding with when they're using their bars. They're really steady, and I keep a little extra distance. Other people, not so much. At group training rides (where the paceline is pretty big and pretty fast), I strongly prefer that people not use them. It's the club's policy that people don't. Plus, you shouldn't need them. That's the whole point of a paceline.

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Originally Posted by Irulan

so what's the deal with no aerobars on a group ride? I don't understand.

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Aerobars are scary and anyone who rides with them is just plain dangerous. Insert tongue in cheek icon.

Personally, I prefer to evaluate the person's abilities before judging them to be dangerous. I did a double century once almost entirely behind a guy riding in his aerobars. I never worried about his skills.

BTW I almost never go on big group rides because I can't stand how the groups around here disobey traffic laws. What do you mean I have to stop at the stop sign? All my rides now are solo or with friends.

Veronica

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Originally Posted by Veronica

Aerobars are scary and anyone who rides with them is just plain dangerous. Insert tongue in cheek icon.

Personally, I prefer to evaluate the person's abilities before judging them to be dangerous. I did a double century once almost entirely behind a guy riding in his aerobars. I never worried about his skills.

BTW I almost never go on big group rides because I can't stand how the groups around here disobey traffic laws. What do you mean I have to stop at the stop sign? All my rides now are solo or with friends.

Veronica

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I've gotten away from big group rides myself, in part for the same reason. At least at the training rides I once frequented, there were always a lot of stupid manuevers in an effort to keep up. I finally had enough one day and never went back. I have a group of friends who have ridden together for years. They're about the only people I enjoy riding with now. Several of them use their aerobars when they're leading the group without issue. But the grou isn't huge, and generally isn't going really fast.

My issue with people using them at open-invitation group rides is that you don't necessarily have an opportunity to judge how skilled they are at using them before the ride starts. Add in a bunch of squirrely riders in general, and it's better to just have an enforce a strict policy against them IMO.