Cycling UK Forum

Rob - all the short rides and womens rides are the Sky Ride Local and Breeze rides.

The Social Cycling Groups thing only launched this week. For this, any BC member can create a route on the website - there is no limit to distance but the idea is that they are social rides. People who want to ride fast are already catered for with racing clubs, sportives and TT's.

At CTC Peterborough we essentially make this social element (riding slow enough to chat and stopping for cake) our unique selling point to differentiate between ourselves and the two road clubs in the city. BC offering the same thing, presented in a much slicker way, and with no pressure to join an organisation will be real competition for potential future members.

Philip Benstead wrote:There are now Tanks on CTC Lawn ?
http://www.goskyride.com/News/ShowArtic ... t?retURL=/

Indeed.

I've asked BC to clarify the situation regarding any restrictions on non-BC members and also for a clarification on liability insurance.

You only have to witness how successful virtual cycling clubs like Cycle Chat and YACF are to realise that once BC get their version right, then CTC's local groups could begin to die out due to a dearth of new members.

They're not perfect but BC are more organised and better at promoting themselves and the benefits of membership. Add the possible halo effect from the Olympics and the continued success of pro cyclists like Wiggo, Cav, Cooke and Armitstead and CTC has some pretty strong competition.

Sky Rides are far from shambolic and I'd be interested to know on what you're basing this observation?

Disclosure: I'm the secretary of a CTC club, BC member and a qualified Sky Ride Leader.

Sky Ride Leaders receive a full day's training from British Cycling so that all their ride leaders are consistent in their actions. A further day's training is available to cover route planning. Each ride has a minimum of two Ride Leaders and then a ratio of an extra Ride Leader for every 8 participants. Ride Leaders are CRB-checked and hold a current first aid qualification. Routes are fully risk-assessed and this is available (online) to all the Ride Leaders assigned to a ride.

Ride Leaders are contracted to British Cycling and are paid £45 per ride (£30 for Assistant Ride Leaders). They also receive (free) a branded jersey and rain jacket for use on the rides (they have "Leader" in large lettering on the back) and a first aid kit. Oh and a year's free BC membership. In comparison, for running a CTC club and leading CTC rides I get precisely feck all.

Most of the money driving this programme comes from their partnership with Sky, not from the government. British Cycling's goal is to get more people cycling and hence more members (they have a recreational level membership package broadly similiar to CTC's) and Sky's goal is to get more people cycling and "to soften their image".

In all my dealings with both organisations, CTC do not compare favourably at all. British Cycling are way more professional and appear to be run in a much more corporate-like way. I fear the CTC's move to a charity will only widen this gulf.

What British Cycling don't currently have is a club/group structure for people who progress from the Sky Ride events. The next step for them in the BC structure is a local racing club and like many CTC groups, most of these clubs lack either the will or the bodies to promote cycling at this level. Should BC introduce something at this level (and it could be a virtual club with an online community and a small number of local organisers) then CTC would miss out on a lot of potential members.

Asking people to write to the Chief Executive for a membership card complaint is ridiculous and also suggest that the CE has too much time on his hands.

The very act of requesting a replacement card should be logged as a "complaint" (or something). Every time that they have to re-issue a card because of an error, it should logged as such. Someone at the contractor should then be looking at these incidents to see what can be done to stop them re-occurring. If "we" don't pay them enough to do that then someone at National Office should be requesting a report so that they can do it. But someone needs to be proactive.

This is how it works in business.

Investigate Google Latitude. Not sure it does exactly what you want but there may be an API for it that you could use to tweak.

I used it for a recent three day trip so folks back home could monitor our progress. At regular intervals the Latitude app running on my iphone sent an updated position to an embedded Google map on our club website.

Simon L6 wrote:

Karen Sutton wrote:But the YHA charge non members an extra £3.00 per overnight stay. Perhaps CTC Member Groups could charge affiliated members a fee to join the rides?

that would keep the interlopers out!

In all seriousness - if 18p of the extra £27 is going to DAs, then the question the DAs have to ask is 'what did they ever do for us?'

Simon, you're so out of touch. Member Groups now get a massive 37p.

Thanks.

It doesn't really change anything of course, but it certainly does not reflect well on the organisation.

Regulator wrote:Still no response from Council about what they're going to do, given that the proxy votes at the AGM were invalid. One wonders why all Council members haven't been told about the problem...

Greg - Could you explain here or in a PM or email how the proxies were invalid? This is news to me.

Karen Sutton wrote:I, like you, have a voluntary role in my local Member Group. I suspect that at the AGM in the autumn I will stand down. I will possibly continue to ride with the Group on occasion. However other things are more important in my life now; and due to the changes in CTC I no longer have the inclination to give so much of my time to it.

And me. I only got my group going 18 months ago and apart from a lot of help with Ride Leading, I do most of the work involved in running the group. I'll probably give it until November 2012 then quit.

To return to the original premise of this topic for a moment, I think CTC is very vulnerable.

You may be aware of the partnership between British Cycling and Sky. I'm not talking here about the underachieving pro cycling team but the Sky Ride venture. Aside from showpiece closed road city centre events there are lots of local Sky Rides. In fact, where I live, Peterborough, the City Council will be staging 25 local rides this summer all under the Sky Ride moniker.

They have appealled for volunteers to be trained by British Cycling as Ride Leaders. This training is free and participants are also given a jersey, rain jacket, and a year's free British Cycling Ride membership in return for a commitment to lead 4 rides. And each time they lead a ride they are paid £45! Obviously this payment is only possible because of Sky's sponsorship but it shows a massive level of commitment to getting bums on saddles. And this is very much the focus - a lot of the rides are less than 10 miles. But what happens to the people who attend these rides and realise they love riding their bike and want to continue doing it?

Existing cycling clubs with the closest ties to British Cycling are generally racing/competitive clubs. In my experience these clubs do not currently cater very well to slower/leisure/touring/sociable cyclists. CTC clubs are a more natural fit but BC are hardly likely to funnel new members to the CTC.

If BC encouraged their affiliate clubs to open themselves up to non-competitive cyclists or created a new structure with the same aim, that could potentially be very damaging to CTC. Bear in mind the financial clout they currently have with Sky behind them. Picture a scenario where you're a Ride Leader for an active CTC Group and in the same locality, a new group starts up intending to put on similar rides and offering you free membership (with 3rd party insurance) and payment for leading rides. How much loyalty would you have?

Of course they'd probably make you wear a helmet but that's a whole different can of worms.

Not to worry, the cheque arrived today.

Have any Member Groups received their allocation for 2011?

cycletourer wrote:

JT wrote:Sounds good - thanks.

Not knowing the area very well could you flesh that out with a little more detail please?

Well here you goes for an idea, taking in some of the prettiest villages and market towns in Suffolk:

Day 1
Bury SE - Rushbrooke - Bradfield St George - Felsham- Thorpe Morieux - Preston St. Mary - Lavenham - Long Melford - Sudbury - Great Waldringfield - Edwardstone (campsite White Horse Good food) or Polstead (Touring Park)

Day2
Edwardstone - Kersey(prettiest village in Suffolk) - Hadleigh - Cycle route 48 round north Ipswich to Woodbridge lovely port on the river Deben with tide mill - follow cycle route 1 to Kettleburgh - Brandeston (campsite Queens Head only £3 a night, Good food, Framlingham also close by.)

Day 3
Brandeston - Debenham - Wetheringsett (Mid Suffolk light Railway) - Mendelsham - Stowmarket either train from here or take NR 51 to Bury S E

Just and idea, hope that helps

Jon

Excellent, thanks a lot.

He's a border terrier, what do you suggest?

The extra travel will make it too expensive and time-consuming. Also not sure of the logistics of taking a dog on board a ferry when you haven't got a car, because animals are supposed to stay in the hold.

And we're going to the Netherlands for a week in March so for sure we will have had enough of the Dutch.

Sounds good - thanks.

Not knowing the area very well could you flesh that out with a little more detail please?