First group ride report...

[Jolt]

I went on my local AMC (Appalachian Mountain Club) chapter's Tuesday night ride, which is the easier weekly ride. Tonight it was about 10 miles through Grafton, MA (we may have gone into Westborough as well, but I'm not sure on that). The weather was great--mid 60's and sunny. There were (I think) 14 of us on this ride, a decent size group--some people were on road bikes, a good number of us were on hybrids, and there was one mountain bike; I think I had the fattest tires other than the woman on the MTB. I was the only one (at least that I saw) using platform pedals with no clips or straps; this came in handy at one point in the ride when there was a trash barrel in the road, which I kicked to the side as we went by much to the amusement of a couple of people behind me. The group was about 50/50 men/women, a nice mix; I was the youngest person there. I was really nervous going into the ride, thinking for sure that I'd have trouble keeping up since I always feel really slow when I ride. In fact, I was so nervous that when I put the front wheel back on the bike after getting it out of the car, I forgot to reconnect the front brake (had never made this mistake before)! I discovered this upon braking to avoid getting too close to the person in front of me as we were starting out of the parking lot and quickly fixed it; good thing I found it then rather than at an intersection at the bottom of a hill--yikes!! Fortunately this was the only problem I had on the ride, and I didin't get left in the dust--I was solidly in the middle of the pack the whole way, which was better than expected. The route was very scenic and had lots of rolling hills but nothing ridiculous; one of the guys said at the end that our average speed was just over 13 mph (I'm assuming this doesn't count the stops we made to regroup and figure out directions). Not too shabby, and I had a really good time. I think I'll show up for more Tuesday night rides--it was a friendly group and nobody gets dropped, and it doesn't hurt that they're not all faster than I am!

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

Jolt,
I went through just the same experience only a few weeks ago- my first group ride!
Wonderful that you felt like you belonged- and 13mph is a great speed! (I usually do about 9-10!)
It's a whole different experience to ride in a group...i usually ride alone or with my DH.
Congratulations! I know the feeling- now you don't have to be afraid anymore!

[Geonz]

That is a peppy speed for that kind of ride (our beginner ride averaged about 11 last night) - Great job!!! Especially having bigger badder tires

[F8th637]

It's always great to find a nice solid group that you can ride and keep up with. My first experience was quite similar and I'm glad that you had such a great first group ride.

[Crankin]

Welcome to AMC, Jolt. I think you will find that we are a social group of people.
I knew this would be a perfect ride for you. If you ever care to venture east, there are the same level rides that often leave out of Concord or Lexington, also on Tuesday nights. You might also look on line to see if there are "beginner" level week end rides. I kow the Boston chapter has quite a few coming up and it probably wouldn't be much further for you to get to the starting points for some of these. The Worcester chapter also has a calendar on line, which is probably where you find the Tuesday ride.

Robyn

[Jolt]

Welcome to AMC, Jolt. I think you will find that we are a social group of people.
I knew this would be a perfect ride for you. If you ever care to venture east, there are the same level rides that often leave out of Concord or Lexington, also on Tuesday nights. You might also look on line to see if there are "beginner" level week end rides. I kow the Boston chapter has quite a few coming up and it probably wouldn't be much further for you to get to the starting points for some of these. The Worcester chapter also has a calendar on line, which is probably where you find the Tuesday ride.

Robyn

I have definitely found the AMC to be a social group of people. I joined last year and have done a fair number of the hiking trips (both Young Members and general chapter) but this was the first bike ride as I just got the bike this year. I think there are a couple of weekend rides that sound pretty reasonable as far as speed but are longer distances than the Tuesday night ones; I don't think the distance would be a problem so I might do one of those if I don't have other things going on. As for the Young Members rides, which I also looked into, forget it! The person who leads these is apparently quite a speed demon, and the descriptions usually specify "road bikes only" so I don't have the proper equipment anyway. I'll look into the Boston chapter schedule as well--maybe they will have some rides that are at convenient times and are easier ones. The one thing I wish our chapter did was rides that start in Worcester to avoid having to drive to the start--that always bugs me a bit, partly because of the gas price factor and partly because it's somewhat of a pain to load a rather heavy (30+ pound) bike into the trunk/folded down backseat of a small sedan. Maybe that's something to suggest to some of the ride leaders...