# Changing Clubs



## PpPete (23 Oct 2011)

Just back from Southern California ( business trip ) on which I decided to take my cycling gear, in case I could borrow a bike and find a congenial group to ride with on the weekend.

I'd originally found on the internet a shop-based ride (and since shop claimed to have a tool I wanted much cheaper than available in the UK) it looked a good bet. As it turned out shop had neither the tool nor the ride their website claimed, but someone at the company I was working with put me in touch with another shop that he said rented out decent bikes (linky) and the BCI (Bicycle Club of Irvine) which offers both Saturday and Sunday rides starting not too far from where I was staying.

So, kitted out with a rather fancier bike than I'm used to (Specialized Tarmac Expert SL3), I arrived at the Saturday meeting point over an hour early (mis-read the start time!) Everyone friendly (if a little "earnest") and as the ride time approached large numbers gathered... I guess about 100 to 150. Although the city of Irvine is a "planned community" and has bike lanes on every street, it seems some of the residents have been whingeing about large numbers of cyclists clogging up the roads, so on this a particular Saturday they had a local police guy come round to give a talk .... no RLJing, stop at Stop signs, no more than two abreast, keep to the bike lanes etc all pretty obvious stuff.
And then we set off.... and I understood what the locals had been moaning about... although there were three different rides of different lengths - everyone set off together in a massive bunch ! Fortunately I'd not only picked up a route sheet, but managed to tag along with others on the same route..... easy to tell apart, the different route sheets were on different color paper ! I didn't have a holder for mine so just tucked it into jersey pocket as soon as I knew i was with the right people.

As we rode, of course the groups split up and got rather strung out. I found myself in a very congenial group and we rode along chatting for an hour or so. Then came a number of points where there were diversions due to road works and some of the disparate groups seemed to come together because no-one could agree on best way round!

The first group I'd been with were just a tad gentle paced, so I moved into the next group, and rode along, talking to them for a while. I was impressed with the design of some of their jerseys.... different to the two styles of BCI jerseys I'd seen earlier. Tag line ... "we're not a club, we're an attitude". 

After a while I noticed their route sheets all seemed to be white.... mine was blue.... took my sheet out to check and we had made some turns that were not on my sheet !	With no GPS and no map I was never going to be able to rejoin "my" ride.	I explained the situation to the riders around me....none of them seemed to have heard of the park that was my starting point. Suggested I ask the leader who they pointed out up the road. 

A little effort and I caught the leader, who seemed a little put out, until I explained that I'd started out with BCI and would happily finish their ride with them, and then find my way back somehow. This, it turned out, was Jess, the founder of the Orange County Rebel Riders.... and as we rode along he explained that they had split off from the BCI some years ago and there was evidently still some antipathy between the two groups. The "Rebels" were a smaller group, a lot more relaxed, and very friendly. By the time we finished Jess was thrilled to have "kidnapped" a visiting rider.. and boasting of it to all he met. Photographs were taken, to be posted on their website. They bought me lunch, I ordered one of their fine-looking jerseys and Jess put my bike in his car to take me back to where I was parked.

If you happen to be in Orange County.... I can thoroughly recommend you take a look at ocrebels.com


----------



## frank9755 (23 Oct 2011)

Good story - and hooking up with a local club sounds like a fun thing to do when abroad. Must remember that next time I go on a trip.


----------



## johnpembo73 (31 Oct 2011)

Sounds like you had fun Pete.


----------



## Globalti (3 Nov 2011)

What a laugh! I did something similar in Johannesburg one Saturday morning. Turned up at a LBS called Bike Lab and found about 500 riders all wearing identical blue Bike Lab jerseys, setting off in groups. I was put with the newbies group, which was just a few overweight beginners on BSOs so the leader immediately sent me and another bloke up the road to join the next group. After that the different groups seemed to split up and merge together so we ended up straggling home a couple of hours later with no sense of having done a group ride. Still, it was an enjoyable morning ride even if the dust and pollution did give me a bad chest infection.


----------



## Ajax_Gaz (7 Dec 2011)

Sounds fantastic!  How was the ride overall?


----------

