Hoo Peninsula Sunday 20th May

[ColinJ]

There is also the attitude/behavioural antics of folk on ride. They simply cannot see the difference between a bimble or a brisk run. At the heart of it is utter selfishness and a failure to understand other people's abilities. This extends to the passive-aggressive person at the back who can keep up with the ride but will choose not do so.

Ha - I had the king of them! Not a forum member, just a local person I know. I got him into cycling and nursed him along without ever complaining about his initial slow speed, but the fitter he got, the slower he insisted on riding.

On one ride, I'd told him that the forecast was bad for later in the afternoon but we had at least 3 hours to do the planned 20 miles and still beat the storm. We set off from Hebden Bridge on the A646 towards Todmorden. It is pretty much flat apart from a few minor lumps. I can walk it in an hour, but he decided to take 1 hour and 5 minutes to ride it! It's not a scenic route, it is a busy A-road, so it wasn't a case of enjoying the scenery. he was just playing silly buggers. I was getting really annoyed by the time we finally arrived in Todmorden and asked him why he was riding so slowly. He replied "No f***er tells me how fast to ride"! Given that only f***er on the ride apart from him was me, I didn't exactly have to work out who he was talking about! I should have left him there and then but I bit my lip and we continued on our way. The inevitable happened and we got caught in the storm, 10 miles from home ...

Next ride, we did my 'Trauma of Trawden' loop. Now that one is a hilly 29 miles, but he'd ridden it with me in 5 hours so I knew what speed he could manage. (I ride it in about 2 hours when fit or about 3 - 3.5 hours these days.) It was winter and we had 6 hours of daylight, with snow forecast after sunset. Before we set off, I told him that we needed to be back in less than 6 hours and I knew he could do it, because it took us 5 hours the last time we'd tackled it. 7 hours later, we were out on the moors, still 10 miles from home, in the dark, temperatures plummeting and the snow starting! I pleaded with him to get a move on but he just stared at his front hub and plodded on. I asked if he was tired and he simply said "Nope" ...

I finally lost my temper on a third dismal trudge. We have a 4.5 mile climb from Hebden Bridge towards Haworth. For a novice cyclist, it is a significant challenge, but I'd been riding up the climb with him since the summer and he had cracked it after 3 or 4 attempts. We'd got his time down below the hour and he was comfortable with that. So there we were on another winter ride. It was bitterly cold, with freezing mist, and an easterly wind bringing a deep Siberian chill. I'd emphasised before we set off that we needed to ride at a steady rate to keep warm. We didn't need to bust a gut, but no more messing about - keep moving! So of course, the inevitable happened ... Hypothermia was setting in as I descended for the 3rd or 4th time to see where the hell he was. I'd done my very best not to drop him, but somehow, even riding at 3 mph, I kept doing it. One second I'd be with him, the next, he was back in the mist somewhere. He chose to do it. Finally, I u-turned in the road, and descended flat out, shot past him at over 40 mph and went home to thaw in front of the fire. I was still shivering several hours later. He sent a message to me through a mutual friend that if I "made a grovelling apology", then he might be prepared to talk to me again. I haven't bothered to!

 

[potsy]

Blimey Colin, that is unbelievable
Wasn't bfb was it?

 

[ColinJ]

Blimey Colin, that is unbelievable
Wasn't bfb was it?

Yes - it was unbelievable, at least, I could hardly believe what the guy was doing. Talk about mind games ... I'm a mild-mannered person but there is a limit and he managed to smash his way right through it!

No - it wasn't bfb!

 

[dellzeqq]

it's a funny thing - but if you organise a ride you will get complaints. And, sometimes the complaints are justified, in the sense that they make you think about what you're doing. Sometimes the complaints are not justified in the sense that no ride will cater for every rider on every ride, and that there's going to have to be some compromises. The thing to do is to work out which is which, and do your best next time round.

 

[User10571]

it's a funny thing - but if you organise a ride you will get complaints. And, sometimes the complaints are justified, in the sense that they make you think about what you're doing. Sometimes the complaints are not justified in the sense that no ride will cater for every rider on every ride, and that there's going to have to be some compromises. The thing to do is to work out which is which, and do your best next time round.

Heh!
Choice words.

 

[User10571]

It's also true that if you organise a ride you will get lots of thanks from grateful riders, and I think those probably always outweigh the complaints

Ummm... it's actually just exactly that, which does it for me.

 

[Flying Dodo]

Considering how many members of Cyclechat there are, there are very few people willing to organise rides. We are predominantly cyclists and being out on our bikes is our raison d'etre. Reading a thread like this, you do realise why so few people are willing to organise a ride because at the end of the day it's really not worth the hassle.

I will continue to ride my bike. I may even ask some people if they wish to accompany me but I can't see me organising an "open invitation" ride again.

I think the main issue is probably the difficulty in managing everyone's expectations. On the rides I do, I try now to state an expected moving average speed and/or general pace. Several years ago I didn't consider that aspect, and often had endless emails from new cyclists not sure if they were up to the distance, and so on the day, ended up effectively running 2 rides in 1. I've also had super speedy club riders (no-one here) zooming off all the time and making less speedy riders feel a bit out of place.

The trick is to be clear up front on the pace expected. As Ian says, for the Speedy Rides for Food, the topic makes clear they've not for beginners. When I did the Round the M25 ride 2 years ago, I made it quite clear it was a difficult ride against the clock, and turned away several people I didn't know, as I wasn't aware of what their riding capabilities were, and didn't want to slow things up for everyone else.

Another aspect is that with more riders turning up for a ride, there are more things to consider in respect of the rolling pace and the fact that you're more likely to get a wider range of abilities.

If I had more time, I'd organise more rides, so please continue to put forward suggestions for open rides.

 

[her_welshness]

Ha - I had the king of them! Not a forum member, just a local person I know. I got him into cycling and nursed him along without ever complaining about his initial slow speed, but the fitter he got, the slower he insisted on riding.

On one ride, I'd told him that the forecast was bad for later in the afternoon but we had at least 3 hours to do the planned 20 miles and still beat the storm. We set off from Hebden Bridge on the A646 towards Todmorden. It is pretty much flat apart from a few minor lumps. I can walk it in an hour, but he decided to take 1 hour and 5 minutes to ride it! It's not a scenic route, it is a busy A-road, so it wasn't a case of enjoying the scenery. he was just playing silly buggers. I was getting really annoyed by the time we finally arrived in Todmorden and asked him why he was riding so slowly. He replied "No f***er tells me how fast to ride"! Given that only f***er on the ride apart from him was me, I didn't exactly have to work out who he was talking about! I should have left him there and then but I bit my lip and we continued on our way. The inevitable happened and we got caught in the storm, 10 miles from home ...

Next ride, we did my 'Trauma of Trawden' loop. Now that one is a hilly 29 miles, but he'd ridden it with me in 5 hours so I knew what speed he could manage. (I ride it in about 2 hours when fit or about 3 - 3.5 hours these days.) It was winter and we had 6 hours of daylight, with snow forecast after sunset. Before we set off, I told him that we needed to be back in less than 6 hours and I knew he could do it, because it took us 5 hours the last time we'd tackled it. 7 hours later, we were out on the moors, still 10 miles from home, in the dark, temperatures plummeting and the snow starting! I pleaded with him to get a move on but he just stared at his front hub and plodded on. I asked if he was tired and he simply said "Nope" ...

I finally lost my temper on a third dismal trudge. We have a 4.5 mile climb from Hebden Bridge towards Haworth. For a novice cyclist, it is a significant challenge, but I'd been riding up the climb with him since the summer and he had cracked it after 3 or 4 attempts. We'd got his time down below the hour and he was comfortable with that. So there we were on another winter ride. It was bitterly cold, with freezing mist, and an easterly wind bringing a deep Siberian chill. I'd emphasised before we set off that we needed to ride at a steady rate to keep warm. We didn't need to bust a gut, but no more messing about - keep moving! So of course, the inevitable happened ... Hypothermia was setting in as I descended for the 3rd or 4th time to see where the hell he was. I'd done my very best not to drop him, but somehow, even riding at 3 mph, I kept doing it. One second I'd be with him, the next, he was back in the mist somewhere. He chose to do it. Finally, I u-turned in the road, and descended flat out, shot past him at over 40 mph and went home to thaw in front of the fire. I was still shivering several hours later. He sent a message to me through a mutual friend that if I "made a grovelling apology", then he might be prepared to talk to me again. I haven't bothered to!

Frack me - that sounds horrific. All I can say is that you have the patience of Job, ColinJ.

We had the queen of those on some of our rides. A great lass, but we did end up calling her 'Slow ***'. Ian will know her. She could do 10 mph on the flat, and 10 mph on the hills. One of the most memorable ones was in Hertfordshire, dedicated to 'A Pilgrims Progress'. Bermondsey Bill was leading it. Cracking route except Person Slow was not even bothering to keep up. We pulled into the cafe stop. Bermondsey Bill takes me aside 'You have to tell her to up her pace'. I replied 'It is your ride, you tell her'. We lost her once or twice but eventually she would just turn up with a placid smile on her face! Just one of these people who will not be a part of the group, and will not respond with any positivity to any kind of authority, albeit a laid back ride leader.

 

[ColinJ]

It's also true that if you organise a ride you will get lots of thanks from grateful riders, and I think those probably always outweigh the complaints

CC riders are always very nice about my rides. If there is any muttering about my slowness, then at least they have the decency to do it before I catch up! I do often get teased about it here on the forum afterwards though ...

 

[Blue Hills]

I know totally where you're coming from M.
As an (not entirely) aside, there is a dearth of good ride leaders - I hear this often lamented by the local LCC groups.

Tis true, tends to be the same folk again and again - reccying the routes, checking lunch stops which the field can hit in the lunch window (this is where issues with different paces can come into play), ensuring that folk get back OK by a reasonable time, and committing themselves to being there at the start at least come rain or shine. In my view, if that commitment from the leader isn't there, folk never quite believe it will happen and rides never get popular.

If the weather is truly appalling and shows little sign of getting any better, nothing to stop a friendly adult discussion about what to do, but I feel that the leader shouldn't, er, take the lead in saying "sod it, it's shoot weather - I wanna go home". This happened once when me and hwelshness turned up at Otford - as the only two who had turned up we decided to forget it. Needs more folk who regularly go on rides to volunteer to lead some themselves. Not easy leading rides but I remember very few, thankfully, which were a real problem. I can count on the fingers of far less than one hand folks I'd never want to see again - especially as this number reduced by one after herwelshness had been taken off

Ah, Ian, that guy - nice chap but I never saw him again - kind of funny in a way - got to laugh. He had dropped out of a ride some months before with another leader and turned up all keen at Tonbridge with a new bike and telling us about some training he'd been doing. The ride was rerun a year or so later and went very well - I have a collection of appreciative quotes - none of them extracted with a chain whip.

Hi User10571ikins - if that reference to throwing a bomb and walking away was aimed at me, I didn't mean it that way - it just seemed wise to let the thread calm down - I've returned to see that we are up to rather more pages and the temperature seems to have lowered. Thanks for your help the other day.

SE London lcc rides meet still takes place last Wednesday of every month at the Dog and Bell, Prince Street Deptford - leaders will be made more than welcome I'm sure for rides of all lengths and descriptions. Fair to say I think that none of them are macho/fast.

Ride on chaps, have fun, best regards to all on the thread - I'd better sod off now before I lose the thread.

 

[dellzeqq]

It's also true that if you organise a ride you will get lots of thanks from grateful riders, and I think those probably always outweigh the complaints

The ride organisation is really not a lot different from killing thirty contractors at a site meeting with facts (and, trust me on this, the pleasure that affords one is squelchingly splendiferous). It is different in that it's grounded in my great loves, but, at root I do it because it pleases me to sort things out. The complaints, and the thanks are grist to the mill. What really, really matters is the friends you make, and in that respect I count myself the luckiest person alive - my blessings are far, far beyond counting.