Next year................

[swansonj]

The Fridays products are all great, and I've loved all the ones I've been but they're basically an overgrown CTC group ride, mostly at night. They're also a CTC group ride at night which needs a succession plan, but that's a separate issue that'll be easier to sort out with a brand..

I understand the point you're making and I don't disagree, but I think it also slightly disguises another point. Although the Fridays are technically a club, I suggest that the dynamic is very much of one charismatic leader, Simon, with all the rest of us sitting in his wake in concentric circles at various distances. Don't underestimate the extent to which Simon's personality subliminally permeates the whole enterprise. So to that extent, it's not a group ride, it's one person inviting the rest of us to share the experience he has created, which happens to be riding in a group. There's a sense in which your mention of "succession planning" is only sensible - but is there not another sense in which it feels alien to the fundamental dynamic?

(There is perhaps an imperfect parallel with the Lyke Wake Walk club, and I'm sure many other examples as well)

 

[User10571]

It's got Rules, you know.

Reason in itself not to go.
Much as I am fond of the fermented grape, after riding all night,I find greater reward in the offshore stare than in a bottle of plonk.

 

[martint235]

I haz a 3 speed steel framed fixie, complete with Brooks saddle and Carradice bag. Such people don't scare me.

Ah but you probably scare such people.

 

[martint235]

And my problem with that is?

None whatsoever. Just some friendly concern for them.

Just had a look at their website. Lots of rules. They do helpfully tell me how to ride 100 miles though.

 

[Flying Dodo]

I've just re read this thread, and from what I can understand, the Fridays/FNRttC has a problem, and the proposed solution is something to do with branding.

But what's not clear is the exact nature of the problem, other than that it's "dying on its arse" and needs to counter the threat of commercial rides such as Moonriders. Unless the problem known, and a means of measuring it - however nebulous - is established, then there's little point trying to solve it, as you will have no way of knowing if you have succeeded.

Is the problem to do with falling/failing to grow ride attendances? Is it to do with the makeup of the ride (e.g. failure to recruit new riders; recruiting too many old farts and not enough young turks?; turnover too high? turnover too low and stagnating?) Stuff like that, which is all measurable. Or is it to do with projected figures based on assumptions (e.g. all the old farts will die and attendances will fall in future), which is a bit more tentative. Or is the problem just that "it's not as much fun as it used to be", regardless of attendances?

Is the problem a wider one as srw alludes to: That to counter the competition in the form of commercial rides, part of the role of the Fridays should be to encourage other similar non-commercial rides around the country by providing a template? (Apols to srw if I've put words into your mouth there).

How do you define success? Cheesy old cobblers like a mission statement? Some quantifiable metrics? Gut feel?

I just ask these questions as all this branding/product stuff goes right over my head, and without an appreciation what it's actually trying to acheive it goes even further over my head.

So is the answer more advertising, to attract fresh young blood? Surely there must some media type person within the Fridays who has connections? Perhaps someone who could interest some TV people in a piece for the news? Journalists - there was that Guardian piece several years ago. Perhaps someone working there now could do an update? Viral advertising on Twitter/Youtube/Facebook. Just a thought.

 

[swansonj]

They've got one thing right. £45 per person, but £60 for a tandem. I approve of the differential.

Ah, but you can't put your tandem in their Broom Wagon. I'm sure that alone will put you off doing the ride...

 

[thom]

So is the answer more advertising, to attract fresh young blood? Surely there must some media type person within the Fridays who has connections? Perhaps someone who could interest some TV people in a piece for the news? Journalists - there was that Guardian piece several years ago. Perhaps someone working there now could do an update? Viral advertising on Twitter/Youtube/Facebook. Just a thought.

Article for The Ride journal ? It gets sold in all the cool places. You can make it as impressionistic as you want but the common thread is the personal experience of riding. Someone who writes creatively could give it a go - a factual recounting wouldn't cut it.

Innovation/evolution should be a core value of any successful organisation. It doesn't matter if doing something new falls on it's arse, the important thing is to see it through. For me @srw has exactly right : an important objectionable fad like aspects of the uptake in cycling, is the commercialisation of the bike ride. FNRTTC is imitated but has an ambition that other rides will never have, to empower people and make riding an adventure. People may come through FNRTTC only once or twice but it casts the experience of riding in different terms.

I suspect fewer London rides is a good idea - less of an onerous commitment for Simon but maybe giving heightened experience and space for something else to take root.

 

[mmmmartin]

Good idea. I have cancelled at the last minute twice in the past few years and each time sent a fiver to Simon for the caterers so they are paid for the sandwiches they made for me. Trouble is: this then becomes another piece of work for Someone.

 

[Fab Foodie]

Need they always go to the coast? (Spare me the obvious answer), if they went elsewhere it would give a greater number or different people to participate more frequently. There must be other suitable dstinations with nice/interesting routings; Bath, Oxford, Cambridge .... Milton Keynes (ok, just kidding)

Circular routes?

There could be a half-way between rides where the London Massif say the Birmingham crew start at Midnight to meet at Brekkie half way between the two? This then gives an option for the return stylee riders who have maybe cycled from Londinium to ride on to Mordor Central and get a train back to Londinium.

I like the idea of registering 'Friday Night Ride to' with The Fridays as a loosish 'Club' for others to start similar things elsewhere. You just need a few 'Regional Simons' sharing the same ethos. It's something I'd have like to have done with Freewheeling, but fear we missed the boat.

 

[srw]

Well, there was briefly a proposal this year for a Friday Night Ride to Oxford from different points of the compass - I recall suggested by someone blessed not only with thighs of steel but with dashing good looks and the brain of a Nobel prize winner (and limitless modesty). But Real Life (as in the need to drum up regional ride leaders and routes) got in the way.

For me the franchising proposal is the way forward - I take @swansonj's point about the current setup being concentric circles around a leader, but for a revolution really to take root it must be successfully transferred from the charismatic leader to become truly of the people.

I think the example of Reading CTC proves that no-one's missed the boat. If Freewheeling fancied a ride from somewhere else back home (home being a better destination in some ways than away) I'm sure a few Fridays could be persuaded to turn up and support. Picnic breakfast in Albert Park?

 

[dellzeqq]

I'm not sure that franchising is the right word, but the Reading and South Wales rides are just what I'd hoped for. Stephen O and Stu will doubtless sort something for the IoW (Stephen had a good turnout this year) . Marcus is growing a ride in the far, far, far North. I've hopes that the York to Hull ride will be taken over by a local.

I still think that the city centre to coast format is a winner - it's got 'beginning, middle and end', it provides a contrast and it maximises the chance of a return train. It is tough, though - the turnout for Lymington doesn't reflect the work that goes in to it, and Manchester to Morecambe, one of our best rides didn't pull in the numbers.

I just think it's time I thought about the next thing. And I do think that a five to ten minute time trial in the middle of the night in the middle of a city has the makings of a great event. Strand Underpass, anybody?

 

[swansonj]

Well, there was briefly a proposal this year for a Friday Night Ride to Oxford from different points of the compass - I recall suggested by someone blessed not only with thighs of steel but with dashing good looks and the brain of a Nobel prize winner (and limitless modesty). But Real Life (as in the need to drum up regional ride leaders and routes) got in the way.

For me the franchising proposal is the way forward - I take @swansonj's point about the current setup being concentric circles around a leader, but for a revolution really to take root it must be successfully transferred from the charismatic leader to become truly of the people.

I think the example of Reading CTC proves that no-one's missed the boat. If Freewheeling fancied a ride from somewhere else back home (home being a better destination in some ways than away) I'm sure a few Fridays could be persuaded to turn up and support. Picnic breakfast in Albert Park?

But aren't you rather assuming that perpetuation is indeed the objective?

 

[srw]

But aren't you rather assuming that perpetuation is indeed the objective?

There may be different objectives for different people.

 

[StuAff]

Stephen O and Stu will doubtless sort something for the IoW (Stephen had a good turnout this year)

The response I've had has been very encouraging, so reasonably confident that it will happen.

 

[martint235]

The response I've had has been very encouraging, so reasonably confident that it will happen.

There is, unfortunately, the logistics. I'm looking forward to the IoW ride but it isn't one I'd be able to make more than once a year.

I have issues with York - Hull but I did the first half of Manchester to Morecambe, it was surprising how many riders were from outside the immediate vicinity. I would however turn up for another one as, although I've lived in London for 20 odd years, I still see that as being my patch.