Thanks for reading! I've done and had a blast at bigger charity rides (MS, Diabetes), but this one was nice because it was less than $20 to register and there was no additional fundraising required--so no $$ pressure. The proceeds still benefited a good cause, though (local trails). So yeah, I definitely recommend trying to find local events to check out sometime. There's always a wide range of friendly folks riding! I saw people on road bikes, mountain bikes, tandems, hybrids... parents with kids (one dad had a kid on a rear seat plus two more in a trailer ), at all different paces. At one point I was briefly passed by a girl who couldn't have been older than 12--go girl! In my opinion, diversity = the most fun rides.