What's Your Idea of a Perfect Group Ride?

[Kano]

I agree with delegating as much as possible, especially if your goal is to please everyone. If that can't happen, here's a little food for thought --

I belong to a group that rides every other saturday morning. One couple organizes the rides, plans the schedule, the routes, keeps up the web site, and anything else that the group does for the year. He carries tools, first aid stuff, etc. and sweeps every ride. She leads the way, at least until the really speedy folk get too far ahead of her.

My work schedule kept me from all but a couple of rides this year. It was disappointing, but it sure wasn't their problem -- it's cool that they go to all this work to create these opportunities for me, and it's up to me to fix what I let go wrong, and make the rides my priority. (I don't need the job that badly!)

As I see it, if I want to ride with this group, I have a choice:

Make my schedule work with theirs

- OR -

Volunteer to set up addtional rides for the group to make a schedule that works for me


If I were in your shoes, I'd consider anyone who complains to be volunteering to help!

Karen in Boise

[BarbaraAlys]

I'm new to the forum, but just have to have input on this question!

I'm also, fairly, new to biking. I learned to ride a at the grand old age of 44, two years ago...that's right, never learned as a kid. So, I'm not all that fast yet, especially on hills (can't seem to gear right for them)...what does this have to do with your question?....Okay.

Group ride. If you have a large enough group of people then having various target speed options is very important. I would not have been able to do a group ride if I had to try to keep up with even the moderately fast people. For us just starting out, having a ride that keeps the average down to around 12 or 13 is key. Now that sounds really slow to some of you, but it can be a challenge for some of us.

Now, lets talk about 'no drop' rides. You know, the ride where no one will get left behind. What that usually means is no one will get left behind permanently. Usually the group rides along, gets strung out, then waits for everyone to catch up and goes on. Sounds good on paper, but put yourself in the position of the last person...struggling to catch up to the group and as soon as s/he gets there the group takes off again! What that means is the person who is working the hardest gets the fewest opportunities to rest.

My solution to this would be to put your slowest person at the front, as the one that sets the pace, partnered with a more experienced rider. The slowest rider will not get emotionally and physically exhausted on the rides, can get training on the fly from the more experienced rider, and will quickly become somewhat faster. At some point they will even no longer be the slowest person in the group, so they loose the front post to someone else....in manufacturing this is called 'putting the bottle neck at the front of the line'. I think it could be a great way to help people break into riding, and the whole group will improve.

Anyway, my two cents, as the person who is ALWAYS at the back of the pack.

Barbara

[Zen]

VERY good point, Barb (can you tell I've been there?)