Advice on organizing group rides

[traveller_62]

Thanks to all of you for the great insights and ideas! I love this board more every day....

I'll keep you posted on progress. I stopped by to talk to my local bike shop folks and they are very supportive of this idea and want to work with me on getting information up on their web site. Now I'm going to have to think of a snappy name. Fortunately I have a few months yet to work on this until the roads thaw out again!

-carol (traveller)

[Geonz]

The one that got me started was the "Ashland Breakfast Club" ride. What made it 'accessible' was that it was every Saturday, year round, so I went on the Saturday that *I* was ready for it. It was always there for me; it was "10 miles out and 10 miles back, stop at Hardee's" with the option for going further. (People get together at Hardee's and decide from there.) Since it was in the paper every week, reminding me... eventually I went.

The big risk there is that any time you have a regular ride, you start getting regular riders, who go 'way too fast for newbies even when they think they're going slowly. IMO it's a huge mistake to ask them to go slowly - they think they are. It just doesn't happen. Then people get dropped.

What made me go *back* was that there really *were* people (even in Februrary) who ddin't drop me - in fact, I was never in back of the group.

Out here in Illinois, we have two rides a week that are 'entry level,' and we work at keeping them that way but it is a challenge. We also have a monthly "new member ride" that doesn't get too many riders but we've pulled some people in who've stuck with it. Next summer, unless I forget, I'm going to have one Saturday ride a month be a "family special" ride with a short, easy loop about 10 miles long.

Usually our Saturday Saunters are 16-20 miles long, mainly because most of the next-towns-over are 8-10 miles away. Tuesday Pedaling for Pleasure is usually 12-15 miles.

We have three or four standard routes depending on the wind. Every year I keep saying I'll get maps ... soon as I find somebody with the software that makes it easy...

Sue J, webmastress
http://www.resourceroom.net

[cindysue]

..... Every year I keep saying I'll get maps ... soon as I find somebody with the software that makes it easy...

Try:
http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/

or

you can play around with earth.google.com by placing stick pins at your rest stops along the route....