What's Your Idea of a Perfect Group Ride?

[OakLeaf]

If you're in metropolitan Minneapolis, you probably have a good-sized club, so I'd say delegate, delegate, delegate.

I actually ride with two different clubs. The local club is really short on volunteers right now, so the two weekly rides have gotten less and less organized over the past year.

The club from the next city over (Columbus, OH) has rides several days a week, sometimes two rides on the same day. Each ride starts on a particular day of the week from a fixed suburban or exurban location. The meeting point pretty much dictates the terrain. Each ride has a leader who's responsible for coming up with the routes, distributing maps, collecting signatures on the waiver form, and riding sweep. Pace is specified. Some of the rides have more than one group, others just one.

I understand wanting to have more variety (say, if I wanted a slow, flat ride on a Wednesday night, I'd have to do it by myself), but I think that can get unmanageable really quick, even in a big club. If you do it the way COP does, then people who live centrally can still have a choice of date, pace and terrain, but you don't have to be constantly giving out information, finding new ride leaders, etc. "C" riders can be sure that when they show up, they're going to be welcome and they won't be dropped. "A" riders know whether or not they're going to be able to push themselves, or whether they'll have to take it easy to stay with the group. Somebody with bad knees can ride from one of the flat locations every week. And so on.

[pyxichick]

I appreciate the input. It's very helpful to hear from all types of riders. Our club is relatively small, since there are a lot of clubs here in town and we compete with all of them for members. My goal is to get more people out on the rides, and I think your suggestions will help me to organize, maybe not the perfect rides, but something that will make most people happy.

Thanks again,
Kate