PH wrote: ↑1 Sep 2021, 10:54am
mjr wrote: ↑31 Aug 2021, 1:32pm
PH wrote: ↑31 Aug 2021, 11:03amOur mid-week day rides do start later, meeting in a café at 10.00 for a 10.30 depart, that's mainly to miss the worst of the work/school traffic and the same people riding at the weekend prefer the 9.00/9.30 starts.
So, not many of them are working full time? It's similar here for most groups. Riding times are mainly set by the people riding: that's inertia.
Who is it you think dictates these start times? First you say it's the organisers, then it's the riders... what's this inertia? I'd hope they were run for the benefit of their members, isn't that the point of clubbing together? If some members want something different, I'd also hope the club considered that, isn't that usually the case? I wouldn't expect a club to make changes to suit a few that didn't suit most, why would they?
- Start times are primarily set by whoever schedules the rides;
- The inertia is that some groups meet at 8am or whatever because that's when they've always met;
- Some groups run for the benefit of their members, some for the benefit of the community and some for other reasons. I don't know which is more common or which is "the point". Some have posted on these forums that the point of CUK these days is a few chain store discounts.
- I don't know whether clubs usually ask members what they want or consider requested changes. Certainly a few seem to have knee-jerk reactions against any suggested change. Surely you have seen examples of that?
- Clubs sometimes make changes to suit a few: one type I've seen several times is Billy Big-Britches getting elected as Chair and then seeking to improve the club or stamp his authority on it (interpretation usually differs) by changing something noticeable. At least twice I've seen an attempt to change ride start location to a pub or shop that has offered free coffee or snacks at ride start or end, ignoring that it is a complete nightmare to reach on a bike from all other directions than where the Billy lived.
What was question about mid week day rides? It's a safe assumption that a large proportion of people not working mid week will be retired.
Just that. You were pointing out that the mid-week riders were fine with an early weekend start. I suggest that it's not particularly informative because most of them are retired so can sleep later on weekdays than someone with the usual set-for-a-lark work start time.
As already said the least popular of the local MG's club rides were the after lunch series we ran for a couple of years, I was disappointed they weren't more popular, I was the instigator so had a vested interest. I don't know why that was, maybe another time and place might have a different outcome.
Yeah, afternoon rides are probably a slightly different topic to the discussion as to why morning/day rides start early rather than at a time that allows most riders to travel to the start after sunrise. Evening rides seem popular but are inevitably limited by most people wanting to be home before midnight, often long before.