What is a CTC Member?

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Mick F
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Re: What is a CTC Member?

Post by Mick F »

langsett wrote:CTC members join/remain for the insurance aspect and not for community, campaign or comradeship?
That's me.

The only discussion I'm interested in is whether I'm going to remain a member. I thought my membership expired 31st March, but it's not until 30th April. Still not sure if I'll renew.

BC has a similar package for me.

This forum is CTC's biggest asset IMHO. Brilliant shop window for them, and they even don't use it despite being told! :shock:
I was a member of it before I joined CTC, and no doubt I'll remain a member if/when I leave.
Mick F. Cornwall
Psamathe
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Re: What is a CTC Member?

Post by Psamathe »

Mick F wrote:
langsett wrote:CTC members join/remain for the insurance aspect and not for community, campaign or comradeship?
That's me.

The only discussion I'm interested in is whether I'm going to remain a member. I thought my membership expired 31st March, but it's not until 30th April. Still not sure if I'll renew.

BC has a similar package for me.

This forum is CTC's biggest asset IMHO. Brilliant shop window for them, and they even don't use it despite being told! :shock:
I was a member of it before I joined CTC, and no doubt I'll remain a member if/when I leave.

Re: 3rd party insurance cover: check with your household insurance. I changed my insurance company last year and both my previous and current insurance companies provide 3rd party liability cover that includes cover 3rd party liability when riding my bike.

Ian
PH
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Re: What is a CTC Member?

Post by PH »

I joined and remain a member for the local group. I enjoy some of the magazine, broadly support most of the campaigning, fully behind every attempt to get more people cycling, the insurance is useful, I'm glad to support the Cyclists Defense Fund. There's plenty I dislike of course, it's a time of change and I share with many the feeling that on a national level I'm becoming more of a supporter than a member, but even without the local group I think I'd still want to belong.
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admin
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Re: What is a CTC Member?

Post by admin »

I joined CTC in 1984 as a teenager, for the route sheets (I was keen on trying LEJoG) and touring and technical information. Also to be a member of a Great cycle touring club. My early cycling was on a Raleigh town bike with a three-speed Sturmey hub that I later upgraded to one of their new 5 speed hubs. Cottered cranks and steel mudguards! Cycling fitted well with my love of engineering, and the ability to tour in the southern highlands of Scotland from school at weekends, sometimes even with a tent and food for a night of wild camping.

I remember very clearly the excitement of receiving my self-addressed and stamped brown envelopes back from CTC at Cotterel House, packed with photocopied route sheets and touring information. Not forgetting the magazine with stories of exciting tours and new equipment to be wished for. I obtained quite a few of the A5 "Byways Network" leaflets, which mapped out a network of country lanes recommended by CTC members. I also did some of the CTC national "treasure hunt" which is now called the British Cycle Quest (I think it had a different name when I did it?) and I'm pretty sure I completed Surrey and West Sussex.

Later I joined the local CTC DA section, and went on countless rides throughout West Sussex and neighbouring counties. Even managed a few years as Section Secretary, too, and joined the RtR network to get a bit of campaigning in. A highlight was joining Edwin Jones of Bognor and Chichester CTC on an epic tour of the Colorado Rockies: ten days from Denver finishing with a climb to the top of Mount Evans at over 14,000 feet. Also two CTC trips to St Lô in France for the amazing Cycling and Cider Festival. Joined Audax UK and managed a Super Randonneur series. Then I got hitched and had a family, so my touring days are currently on hold. Now I have a lovely heavy Dutch bike and spend most of my miles on local streets to and from school and shops, still cycling, but not as scenic and with far too many motor vehicles to deal with!
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gaz
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Re: What is a CTC Member?

Post by gaz »

Philip Benstead wrote:Please explain why

I drifted out of Club riding when Mini-Me came along, as I said upthread we did join in some family rides for a few years but Mini-Me hasn't taken to cycling. Perhaps when he is older we'll drift back in.


My recollections of dropping out of CRN are somewhat fuzzy, it's about 20 years ago. My own experience of campaigning as a CRN member through a local cycling forum was that it achieved extremely little. The council had recently taken out corporate membership of CTC, seemingly to tick a box on the local government flowchart, as they now had direct access to CTC's design recommendations and still chose to ignore them. Most of what the cycling forum did achieve had been brought to the table by the council's officers rather than the cyclists and in today's parlence its legacy would be categorised as "farcilities".

CRN membership amounted to having a series of CTC factsheets and a copy of LTN 1/89. As I recall things my perception at the time was that CTC wanted to reduce the numbers with one RtR rep covering a single geographic area. The RtR reps were to be "trained" to do things "the CTC way".

So having banged by head against the local authority brick wall for some years I decided it was time to stop, someone keener than me carried on as the local RtR rep. I have not dropped the campaigning baton completely but most of my actions since then have been re-active and equally ineffectual.
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admin
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Re: What is a CTC Member?

Post by admin »

Ah, yes the CRN, I vaguely remember that. I think I started campaigning with CTC not long before the RtR network started. I still have the big blue RtR lever arch ring binder sitting on my shelf, complete with the welcome letter saying that I'm now accredited to campaign on CTC's behalf.

Same experience here: token "consultation" by council so they could tick the "cyclist consulted" box, then pointless sub-standard and often impossible-to-negotiate-on-a-bicycle farcilities. Most of my time was spent pointing out the new unintended features they had managed to introduce that made cycling considerably more dangerous than before. And that was in the 1990's when the council had a Cycling Officer and a Cycling Strategy that at least had good words, if not actions. This are perhaps a little worse these days, no Cycling Officer or Cycling Strategy at all any more, and the recently-departed Cabinet Member for Highways and Transport was strongly against investing anything in cycling. We have a LEP that happily spends millions of "sustainable transport" money on revamping shopping streets to benefit Big Business, and no accountability at all.

On the positive side we're now more aware of what's possible, looking at the Netherlands and even places like Brighton and London, so the vision is strong. But we haven't yet really cracked the politics where everything panders to the Motoring God and Economic Growth (apparently generated by ever-increasing quantities of motor traffic?), to the detriment of any forms of sustainable and efficient transport.
langsett
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Re: What is a CTC Member?

Post by langsett »

[quote="Mick F"][quote="langsett"] BC has a similar package for me.

As with all insurance I'd check the small print, I believe BC insurance does not cover you if 2 riders collide or one causes an incident for another, so called rider on rider cover, whereas I understand CTC insurance does?

Small but possibly important if correct?
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Philip Benstead
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Re: What is a CTC Member?

Post by Philip Benstead »

langsett wrote:
Mick F wrote:
langsett wrote: BC has a similar package for me.

As with all insurance I'd check the small print, I believe BC insurance does not cover you if 2 riders collide or one causes an incident for another, so called rider on rider cover, whereas I understand CTC insurance does?

Small but possibly important if correct?


I have made that point many times, do i nee to shout it from the roof tops for cyclist to hear?
Philip Benstead | Life Member Former CTC Councillor/Trustee
Organizing events and representing cyclists' in southeast since 1988
Bikeability Instructor/Mechanic
thirdcrank
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Re: What is a CTC Member?

Post by thirdcrank »

I'd have to say that this "rider on rider" stuff has got me confused, although I understand that the phrase means injury caused to one rider by the negligence of another.

If I'm injured through somebody else's negligence, I'd expect to recoup my loss from them and if they were insured for 3rd party liability, it might make the difference to a claim being worthwhile or not. No point taking action against somebody who cannot pay out. In the opposite circumstances, I'd be looking to my own third party cover to defend the claim against me or to stump up.

Is it suggested that the BC third party cover does not accept claims when the injured third party is a cyclist?
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Re: What is a CTC Member?

Post by Psamathe »

thirdcrank wrote:Is it suggested that the BC third party cover does not accept claims when the injured third party is a cyclist?

Is this any cyclist/cyclist incident or only BC member/BC member incidents or only on BC organised rides/events (where other insurance cover might apply?).

Personally I suspect it is not a major issue for many as I suspect a lot of people are actually covered by their home insurance policies anyway (easy to check, just give your insurance company a call).

Ian
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Re: What is a CTC Member?

Post by AndyK »

Psamathe wrote:
thirdcrank wrote:Is it suggested that the BC third party cover does not accept claims when the injured third party is a cyclist?

Is this any cyclist/cyclist incident or only BC member/BC member incidents or only on BC organised rides/events (where other insurance cover might apply?).

Personally I suspect it is not a major issue for many as I suspect a lot of people are actually covered by their home insurance policies anyway (easy to check, just give your insurance company a call).

Ian


It's specifically claims by one BC member against another. From the BC website:

What is not covered?
Important exclusions include:
business use (eg cycle courier) but commuting is covered.
deliberate acts.
member to member liability (claims made against one British Cycling member by another) such as:
one member against another in a cycling competition, race, time trial or timed event(5)
any liability directly or indirectly caused to a member’s immediate family arising from either social or competitive cycling events
claims against members who are not resident in Great Britain, Northern Ireland, the Isle of Man, or the Channel Islands
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Mick F
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Re: What is a CTC Member?

Post by Mick F »

AndyK wrote:What is not covered?
I can live with all that.
Mick F. Cornwall
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