How far do you travel to ride with a cycling group?

[Philip Benstead]

How far do you have to travel to ride with a cycling group?

I am concern at the lack of participation of CTC members with local groups

I am aware this may be due to various factors but I want to know if distance to the start is a consideration.

Question


How far would you would personally travel on a cycle to reach the start of a club run?


How far would you would personally travel in a car to reach the start of a club run?

How far would you would personally travel by public transport to reach the start of a club run?

What is the relationship between the distance to the start and the length of the cycle ride, so if the cycle ride was say 20 miles how far would you travel to it?

[Si]

Depends how long the club ride is - I wouldn't want to exhaust myself getting there if it was to be a long tough one. For 20 miles then I might ride up to 15.

For my local rides I normally ride between 2 and 5 miles to the start.
I wouldn't drive to one (although I might drive to the odd audax).

If it's an MTB ride rather than road ride I might ride further if it was at a good location.

[Mark1978]

I ride half a mile to the start of my club runs. How far would I go cycling? Probably no more than about 20 minutes each way as that's all added on the riding time.

For sportives about an hour in the car max.

[meic]

Last Sunday 55 miles (each way) by a direct route or 63 miles by a more reasonable less mountainous route.
I did something else instead.

The shortest I have had to cycle is eighteen miles each way on reasonable roads.

In the thirties is most common.

[al_yrpal]

Its about a 5 mile journey for me to join a CTC ride. I haven't done one for some time although at one time I used to go a lot often in wintry and wet conditions. I always cycle to the ride start point. My local DA do a variety of rides, leisurely, long distance, quick, and MTB, I have been on all of them.

I wouldn't go by car or public transport to a CTC ride.

I am not that that keen on rides with groups because I can be out in great countryside and forest in minutes direct from my home so why cycle 5 miles to cycle in a group at a time I might want to do something else? I prefer to ride alone or with a friend or two, mainly because I like to ride at my own pace and often stop to look at a view or see some sort of sight, I don't try to beat the clock. This may sound negative and I dont mean it to. The people in my local very successful CTC group are a grand bunch and there are lots of attractive rides to go on if they suit you.

Al

[Mark1978]

Al. Not at all I pretty much feel the same. Sometimes I want to push on as fast as I can. Sometimes I want to pootle along sometimes I do both on the same ride. I like to choose my own route and stop when I want to stop.

I do go on group rides but not regularly

[Mick F]

How far do you have to travel to ride with a cycling group?

Ages ago, I went to the AGM for the CTC Cornwall and I was approached for the meets for rides.
They met at Launceston for a 50mile(?) ride each Sunday.

I maybe wrong on the all these facts.
Launceston is a 15 miles from here, and they suggested an 8am start.
Whatever, I declined the offer for three reasons:
One, Sunday's are for getting up late and slobbing about.
Two, Sunday's are for going down the pub for a few beers and a roast dinner late afternoon.
Three, I ride my bike during the week and am happy to ride as far as I want ................... by myself.

[Mark1978]

I find the opposite that club runs start far too late on a Sunday. I like to be up
and gone by 7am. The local club doesn't even meet until two hours later.

[Vorpal]

I don't think I would go more than 15 miles, if I have to ride there. I prefer to be able to ride to the start, at least most of the time. If I can take public transport, I might go a bit further.

It also depends somewhat on where they are riding. I might ride a bit further to the start, if at some point (after cake ) they were going to be near enough my house that I could drop off and head home on my own.

The only time I've ever taken the car, was to take the kids along on a family ride.

Sometimes, I've done a shorter route with the kids, and met the club run at a cafe for lunch.

[easyroller]

I ride a shade over 10 miles to the start of my Sunday club ride.

I don't think I'd go much further than that, although I'd ride up to around 20 miles for an organised charity ride or Sportive if it looked like a good one. I wouldn't bother putting the bike in the car each Sunday just to drive to the start of a club ride (although some from our club do, not sure how far they come though). I'd just head out on my own of that was the case.

I've driven an hour and a half for a Sportive once as I fancied riding in that area, but that's more of a one off thing.

[Paulatic]

Our club rides start at ten. I will always ride there if it's ten miles away. I sometimes ride there if it's 20mls away and especially if I can leave the route to make it less than 20mls back.
I never drive to a start now although 20yrs ago I did as it was a great way to discover roads west of my location.
Public transport isn't an option but I always carry my bus pass In case of breakdown. (Bike or body)

[wirral_cyclist]

My local CTC group is 12 miles away and they ride a minimum 30+ so a 60- as a minimum if riding there and back, and whilst I'm OK at that distance it's the 10am start that puts me off (11 would be fine but also I wouldn't ever drive just 10-12 miles to cycle!) so I never go with them - not that I'd fit in the clique there, but that's a whole different thread.
Oh and let's not get into 'needing a road bike to keep up nonsense'.

[gaz]

My minimum distance to attend a current CTC club ride would be about 5/6 miles. The furthest I've ever cycled to attend a club ride is 35 miles when I was younger, fitter and considerably keener.

At present I would not choose to drive by car to take part in a club run. In the past I have driven to ride with a family based group, the maximum distance was 55 miles. That ignores using cars to reach hostels for "tours".

I can only recall ever using public transport to attend a CTC club ride once. I already had a rail season ticket suitable for the same journey, otherwise I would not have considered it.

Your final question depends on a great number of variables. Wherever the start of the ride is it's more about enjoying the company of the people I'll be riding with than the distance I'll be riding. The last organised ride I went on (Sustrans) was a 20 mile ride to the start, 12 mile round trip ride, 20 mile ride home.

Incidentally if distance to the start is a consideration it's difficult to see what can be done about it. I suppose you could try to introduce a policy of CTC rides starting from public car parks or rail stations but I can't imagine it going down well with the volunteer leaders.

[TonyR]

Its 11 miles to the meet for my CTC club runs and generally a 40-50 mile run. I could take the train there but the timetable would mean a half hour waiting around at the start so it's quicker to ride. Depending on the route and how I feel I might take the train back or peel of early from the ride if it's nearer home for the ride back.

[mjr]

I travel five miles suburban to the usual start of the local 10am or 7pm group rides. I'd probably travel up to an hour (so 14 miles rural or 10 urban) and up to 30 by public transport. I wouldn't regularly drive to bike.

I'd not want to ride more than 75 total often and if it was always the same long route to a start, I'd probably not do more than one a month. Of course, everything has exceptions occasionally.

The main reason I've never ridden with CTC is they ride on weekdays but that's OK, it's less competition for my usual local group.