[Closed] Cycling club dictatorship

Most of what you've wrote there could describe the club I used to ride with.

Pretty much everything is based around what the club chairman wants to do and trips are planned around where he wants to go. Rcaing and training is all arranged around his experience of racing "back in the day"

Accounts are at best some random figures scribbled on a piece of paper with no explanation or input from members as to what the clubs money is spent on. Any suggestion that something is amiss is met with out and out hostility.

Needless to say that club has lost many members the past couple of years as you'd expect.

I gave up with them, life is too short to be spent riding with people like that.

Either :

1) Fight the fight.  A club 'should' have a constitution, AGMs, election of officials, accounts etc even if they are informal (our 'elections' are usually the incumbents asking if anyone else wants the job then grudgingly carrying on when nobody does - not a bike club).  The bodies you're affiliated to may even have requirements for that sort of thing.

2) Life's too short.  Just leave them to it and move on.

Depends what the agenda for the AGM is. I'm guessing that if there's no constitution, there may be no requirement to present accounts or opportunity to elect officers for the coming year.

My view would be that without a constitution, it is going to be difficult to effect any change, but you should keep it cordial, suggest that others be included in some of these roles, perhaps leaving your dictator atop the pyramid as Chairman.

"(our ‘elections’ are usually the incumbents asking if anyone else wants the job then grudgingly carrying on when nobody does – not a bike club).  "

I'm a secretary of a race league. In  a moment of weakness I answered yes and now am waiting for some one else to do the same and take over. This is the proper way to run a cycling club 😉

In  a moment of weakness I answered yes and now am waiting for some one else to do the same and take over.

That's the other problem. While you like the club, what happens in the nightmare scenario that the current incumbent just hands the reins over and tells you to get on with it?

I remember getting talked into chairing a mountaineering club for a year, which I recall just being a cacophany of whining culminating in me getting bladdered before the next AGM and just mumbling incoherently throughout.

Yeah - club committees do seem to be asshole magnets, although IME they are half made up of people who do the work and the other half of egotistical male chickens who just want to throw their weight around.  Not naming names.  They know who they are.

But to be helpful (is this England or Scotland ?) you might find that if you have no agreed constitution (which you are by law required to have to run a club bank account) then you will default to the British Cycling club constitution.

When I set up a cycling club to run events I read the BC one, which includes the clause "if everything winds up and there is money left it belongs to BC" aye no chance.  So I found something on t'internet that seemed reasonable and sat OK with Scottish Law, and didn't have a stealing money clause snuck in.

Is there no guidance from BC about club governance and constitutions?

There must be some sort of constitution otherwise how does the chair get elected (or stay chair)?

Without AGMs, it seems hard to imagine how he might be deposed. I doubt BC is interested in enforcing good governance in badly-run affiliated clubs. There are probably quite a few of them.

I spent more than my fair share of time on hockey club committee. Not really dictatorship level stuff like you've got OP, but you'd generally get desent and grumbling when things weren't transparent. People get passionate and vociferous in clubs b cause it's what they want to do and they give up their free time for it. The problems occur when you get the same people making all the decisions that benefit themselves and not talking to members about it [Yorkshire Hockey association springs to mind]

I wouldn't be surprised if your club chairman gets a bit defensive. There may be a flounce in the offing

I'm struggling to understand why someone would get hostile if you're just asking about how the club is run, unless they have something to hide? It is just a hobby afterall, serious in racing but a hobby nonetheless.

How can it possibly end well if this bloke is not inclined to give up any control of "his" club? Join the splinter club or set up your own if there are others who feel this way (and you/they are up for the responsibility!)

A quick perusal of the BC website shows they say each club "must" have a constitution, and their sample one mandates a committee with at least 3 members, AGMs, complete transparency of accounts, etc.

Our club hold annual AGM's. Secretary's can hold a position for a maximum of 3 years before a break, and on each AGM they are mandatorily removed, and applications/re applications are voted, and seconded in.

We have monthly club meetings, whereby any and all club members are invited to attend and speak their opinion, submit ideas which is also advertised in advance on the internal web forum so people can post there should they not be able to attend.

Its all quote done quite professional and friendly.

I was a member of my local club for years and absolutely loved it. As the club developed though, it grew bigger and bigger and became much more road orientated. When I finally put a shout out for support of the dwindling MTB community within the club, I was told to go find another club. So I walked away from something that had been a really big part of my life, and where I'd made some amazing friends....and evidently quite a few who weren't all that I thought they were!

I've actually returned to the club after a few years....although I don't actually ride with them. I really support the grass roots development, the kids cycling club, and I really, really like the club kit. So I give them my annual membership. The folk in the club, however, are a bunch of tossers, so I don't ride with them!

Leave the club.

If the majority of other members are reasonable you will know after a few months if you made the right decision.

I was a member of my local club for years and absolutely loved it. As the club developed though, it grew bigger and bigger and became much more road orientated. When I finally put a shout out for support of the dwindling MTB community within the club,

This for me - I was MTB secretary and voted out of most my ideas in favour of Road and CX - arrrgh the democracy.  The clubs interest just isn't in MTB.

Our club is very good though, despite just having 2 permanent MTBer amongst 250 members, the people are fantastic, I very much enjoy road riding, club rides and other opportunities and learned a lot during the first few years about riding, training and racing.  I pay £30 a year membership and for that I get access to all that knowledge plus any of 4 guided rides of varying speed and distances over a weekend, and the option of about 4 weekday (evening) rides such as chain gangs or hill based hammerfests which I feel far outweighs the cost.    In addition we have summer & Christmas parties, charitable events, promotional events and race marshal events in the clubs sphere of leagues so theres loads of opportunity to give back.

Almost every single club I've been a member of has ended up with more committee politics than a government or house of commons trying to sort out Brexit!

Something sounds fishy to me. Dodgy dealings?  Magnetic pocket that's attracting membership fees?

I'd get out asap, and join either another club or start a new one (both probably with other club members you get on with). Certainly don't be the one inheriting an executive committee position when the excrement hits the fan.

We set up a (non-cycling) club that had to affiliate to a national organisation for the liability etc. insurance to cover the club and its committee. The constitution accepted was written on a beer mat in the pub at one of the rained-off club meets. "The club shall be called XXXX", "Membership shall be by invitation and acceptance to the mailing list", "Chair, Secretary and Treasurer shall be decided by  mutual agreement of those present at the AGM". Status of that organisation would be equivalent of that of CTC, with several million £ worth of insurance coverage.

a) Check BC etc rules. Probably find that membership of that defaults to their rules if nothing else in place. Most governing bodies do that.

b) Get support for your cause. Pointless moaning if you are by your self.

c) Have all the answers.

d) If rules broken formally write to officers insisting on AGM. See point a. With many names, See b above.

e) Revolt! Vote them out but beware that you may bite off more than you can chew.

Clubs of all sorts drift. I bet that those in power were the only ones to take the job on at ne point and unless there is definite backing for change things won't and to be honest if you can't be bothered to support a club then you can't complain either.

Most clubs are along the lines of "does anyone want my job?"  "No? Then I guess I'll stay on until someone puts their hand up. "  It may be that or fold.

Most of what you’ve wrote there could describe the club I used to ride with.

Yep, me too.

Club was started up and aligned to a bike shop, which basically used the club as a form of life support, as it was off the beaten track and couldn't have survived otherwise. As time went on, all decisions were based around the shop, and made by sycophants that worshipped the shop owner.

Got to the point it just wasn't funny any more, chucked it. Shop has since shut, inevitably, but club carries on, albeit a bit smaller,  in a days gone by rose tinted spectacles mentality, bizarrely.

Clubs can be great, if the right people are in the right positions, and for the right reasons.

Most clubs are along the lines of “does anyone want my job?” “No? Then I guess I’ll stay on until someone puts their hand up. ” It may be that or fold.

^^ That x 1000.

Most clubs are run to a reasonable level by little more than enthusiasm but quite often the people who end up there are the ones no longer riding - the "old fogeys" who can't bear to move on because they've put their entire life into cycling. Many, in fact the vast majority, mean nothing other than the absolute best for the club but often (especially with road clubs) it comes with this massive anchor of traditionalist views which is sometimes just ignorance of new things (like new tech, new ways of working, best practice with regards to safeguarding / ride leading / running a club) and occasionally veers into active hostility towards anything new.

The old adage of "we've always done it this way..." is never truer than in places like that.

Very few people in those positions actually mean any malice or criminal intent - I'm willing to bet that it's all sort of worked up until now, that things have just been left to slide and and he meant to do some accounting but never got round to it and he was going to learn to use a computer and...and...

However if there was active fraud then your club will default to the British Cycling club constitution template.

Most clubs are along the lines of “does anyone want my job?”  “No? Then I guess I’ll stay on until someone puts their hand up. ”  It may be that or fold.

Every club I've been a member of has been this. If the Op's club is affiliated to BC there has to be an AGM. If they don't a complaint to BC could see their affiliation cancelled.

But as ever be careful what you wish for. If your not prepared to do the work yourself it's better to just leave.

Not cycling specifically but the best run clubs I've been in have tended to be dictatorships. The whole committee/AGM/voting thing just seems to bring more hassle. If there is someone at the helm with a strong vision then things happen. Of course it's a pain that you can't change the little things but if the general steer is right I'd stick around if it's wrong then find another club.

Was membership secretary for a golf club for around 3 months until a bit of a set to with the chairman on how memberships actually work to how he wanted them to work for his cronies.

Vowed never to get involved with a club committee again.

Though, as said above. If there's a bank account for the club there has to be some sort of club constitution.

You need the essentials like a constitution, AGM, committee, open accounts, etc so you have some basic standards to work to that are independent of how individual people behave. That way, if someone goes rogue, you have a process to deal with it (or even better, prevent it in the first place). It's important to have policies on stuff like child protection and inclusion as well (and these may also be requirements if you want to get club funding).

If your current chair is not prepared to implement the basic requirements for running a club fairly and openly, I'd say it is time to join a new club, or start your own and use your experience to do it right!

sounds like a cult, do your old friends still talk to you or are they not allowed, one of my local clubs got too eliticist and so a new club formed and they are far bigger .. are you in west yorkshire, last of the summer wine territory :0)

b) Get support for your cause. Pointless moaning if you are by your self.

c) Have all the answers.

d) If rules broken formally write to officers insisting on AGM. See point a. With many names, See b above.

e) Revolt! Vote them out but beware that you may bite off more than you can chew.

Clubs of all sorts drift. I bet that those in power were the only ones to take the job on at ne point and unless there is definite backing for change things won’t and to be honest if you can’t be bothered to support a club then you can’t complain either.

Most clubs are along the lines of “does anyone want my job?”  “No? Then I guess I’ll stay on until someone puts their hand up. ”  It may be that or fold.

Just bear in mind that (AFAIK, I wasn't a member) this is how the Bog Trotters Mountainbike Club died a death by pedantry and paperwork?

On the one side there was the existing hierarchy who rightly or wrongly were overlooking "safeguarding" issues surrounding accepting 14/15/16yr old kids on group rides without their parents, without having done full blown risk assessments, chaperones, CRB checks etc. Their justification was that the kids were generally better bike riders than the grown ups in the group.

On the other was one person who demanded everything should be done by the book.

Simon Barnes et al. got forced out and the club (which used to be massive) folded as no one really wanted to take over.

I'm currently membership secretary for a running club, we've over 2000 members. A few years ago we needed to update the constitution due to changes in the law and so that the club had limited liability should anything untoward happen. Until then it had been run as a "benign dictatorship" so we announced an AGM that would take place after a popular race to look at the proposed changes. Other than the committee just one club member turned up!

After three AGMs where just the committee, well most of it, turned up we've gone back to the benign dictatorship model 🙂 The constitution allows for members to call for an AGM but based on historical evidence it doesn't look likely. So we just bumble along herding cats. About eighteen months ago the secretary stepped down but it took nearly six months prior to that to find a member to take his place.

@thisisnotaspoon - generally the initial setting up of the paperwork takes some effort but after that there's not that much to do really. Even the initial paperwork can be adopting some "boiler plate" type constitution where you just substitute the club name at the appropriate points. The main problem with our cycling club's kids' skill sessions etc. was that some parents would see the club as a child minding service so drop them off and then bugger off shopping!

Don’t forget to ask the chairman about GDPR compliance.

I've always reckoned a book about UK cycling clubs and the petty reason they splintered off from their parent club would be a good read.

Pretty sure the first ever cycling club was a splinter club

Our club is pretty small but seems to work well - part of a bigger group (the Clarion) I guess helps with the constitution, operation etc.

There has always been a bit of argy bargy at the Clarion at the national level, AFAIK, between those who want to promote the organisation's socialist principles and those who just want to ride / race their bikes. We don't really get this at our club - I think we all value the fact that no Tories are permitted but beyond that it's really just bike riding.

I punctured in a TT last year and an old chap marshalling kindly gave me a lift back to base. Said he used to be in my club a long time back but left as he wanted to get involved with the national body, but couldn't as he wasn't a union member. This might have been going back a long way but indicates the Clarion were pretty clear in setting their stall out.

This thread contains perfect examples of all the hateful shit that sucks the joy from an otherwise lovely pastime.

Why anyone would want to put layer upon layer of admin and politics onto their free time?

Awful.

Do you pay subs? If so, what are they spent on, aside from affiliation fees? Does the club have assets? This is basic stuff that even the most relaxed club should make transparent to its members.

Any club, in any activity goes like this. One person lives his/her life for the club and does everything. The majority of members don't really care as long as someone does the work. Just try getting volunteers to sit on a committee!

People like you are seen as troublemakers, sorry.

If you don't like it leave and move on; no-one forces you to stay. Apart from having a name on your jersey for races why do you need a club. (you say you have one of those anyway).

We live in an age of instant communication. If you want a ride there are a myriad of ways to find someone to go out with. Not being in a club isn't the end of the world...unless you are the insecure type that needs your hand holding.

@ScienceOfficer. Partly true but your attitude, which is typical in MTB, is why things like (currently) Wharncliffe happen - no-one is prepared to put in the time and argue our case. There are a few local advocacy groups (the Peak one that @pook is involved with is one) but there's no national organisation like the BMC (climbers), Ramblers or British Cycling that can converse with councils, grant giving bodies and the like.

For most club members there's very little admin and politics, actually there's none because things like a constitution are in place. The club I mentioned above takes roughly an average of 1hr a week of my time across the year and that's for 2000 members.

If you don’t like it leave and move on; no-one forces you to stay. Apart from having a name on your jersey for races why do you need a club. (you say you have one of those anyway).

You need to be a club member to race. Although in principle you could send you £15 to any club in the country and race under their name.

We live in an age of instant communication. If you want a ride there are a myriad of ways to find someone to go out with. Not being in a club isn’t the end of the world…unless you are the insecure type that needs your hand holding.

'Someone' still has to put their hand up each week to lead each ride (there's 4, sometimes 5 different rides from our club), which means 'someone' has to start the ball rolling each week with a Friday afternoon "who want's to lead a ride where" post. Which means you need a facebook page, and admins.

Someone else has to organise our annual races (a few crits, a round of the CX league, time trials, hill climbs etc). And then organise a lot of volunteers to marshal them.

And all the other stuff the 'club' does.

There'll always be people who are happy just to turn up at a ride someone else organised and contribute nothing, but on the whole it's a lot nicer when most people pitch in. Without cycling clubs doing the work in the background the £2 it costs to race at a time trial would spiral to the cost of MTB events, no one wants to pay £60+ for a time trial unless it's got "enduro" in the name. Five or six (or more often two and someones wife press ganged o the night) volunteers mean the whole thing can be run for almost pittance (the cost of a few number boards and some road signs amortised over several years of use).

You need to be a club member to race. Although in principle you could send you £15 to any club in the country and race under their name.

You don't need to be in a club to race - just open time trials require membership of an affiliated club AFAIK. Anyone can show up to a CX, MTB race or club TT and get stuck in. As you point out, though, without clubs there are no races, so it is natural to be part of a club if you want to race.

Thought I was reading a brain fart I'd written....
I used to manage one of the top clubs in the country - I'd honestly stand over that - for 4 years. Club had a significant footprint in nearly every race and event and large number of trophies coming in on a regular basis to reflect the success. From an Admin POV it was a piece of piss - I could have most of our races "configured" in half an hour from insurances, access, equipment etc and it was a case of assembling people at the right time and place to tape it up.

With a smallish club of 60 people we had regular club rides weekdays (winter forest riding in the dark) and races or enduro-style adventures a few times a month. It was predominantly an MTB club but we had regular road rides for a bit of craic each month. A few people decided to change-up how things were being done for their own advantage using the club's name...this then lead to a split in the club and from there it all went sideways. None of the committee would take a stand to agree how money was being spent, rideouts were hijacked and descended into bullying standoffs and eventually several of us just jacked it in and joined other clubs.

I really miss it and its gone from the solid 60 to around 7 people who can barely get a ride together once-a-week.

If you're planning on racing, then a club affiliated licence gives you the insurance the training runs and going out with like minded people who are into the same thing. However, since leaving I've just grabbed a few mates and gone out to do our own thing. I'ne no qualms heading out by myself and hooking up with a group no matter who they are - I'm not shy. Saves all the politics in the end of making it official

Yeah it's generally the ****ts who are attracted to the 'petty offices' of things like Club chair or treasurer.

It's the same with middle management at work or the w@nkers who did junior common room or student union stuff at University.

folk in the club, however, are a bunch of tossers, so I don’t ride with them!

Thanks, I think! 😉

Whoever is the Club Secretary should really welcome the extra interest and help. Our club was small, but we invested what we had in a disk wheel for everyone to use in TT's.  We had just enough in the bank to cover BC and RTTC fees.

Something isnt right I'd say.  We had an AGM, it was just the usual weekly meet in the pub with the accounts, and seeing if anyone else wanted a position.... all very amicable.

This thread contains perfect examples of all the hateful shit that sucks the joy from an otherwise lovely pastime.

Why anyone would want to put layer upon layer of admin and politics onto their free time?

Awful.

No one would want to put layer upon layer of admin and politics onto their free time and literally no-one in this discussion has suggested doing that.

People are talking about basic governance that keeps things above board and helps you run a club for the benefit of its members.

One of the reasons my club had been successful for many years is that some far sighted volunteers put good practices in place and have kept improving and updating things. Today it is one of the biggest cycling clubs in the UK, promotes lots of events, 25% of the membership is female (pretty unusual for cycling) and has two oversubscribed kids groups.

Lovely.

Pretty sad to read all this club stuff...

It so much fun to bike together with some pals!

Did road biking and do a lot of mountain biking. With my road biking bunch I had luck - but while doing road biking we had contact to quite some clubs which match the descriptions above. Dictatorship stuff.

Mountain biking: somehow have the impression that fun is really the focus. Younger bunch. Getting into the mud, having fun and drinking beer. Luckily no dictators around!

Sorry Dick, should have said MOST folk in the club are tossers. Everyone knows you're just an arse. 😘

Does the club confer any benefits?  Ours is well organised and run by a committee with a constitution, AGM and accounts. Surely if you pay membership this is to be expected.

Compete in a national level race, then the club pays the entrance fee. Race at or above 2nd cat and you get a set of kit. We also support a new ladies race team as well as the normal racing.

Clubs exist for you to get more out of your cycling; track days, cyclocross, TT advice. And yes we even have some mountain biking.

Leave. But what does that “RT” get you. Plenty of riders have left clubs to be in a Race Team, but a proper club will provide the same benefits plus more.

Sounds like my archery club, and some of us are convinced that the dictator is using the club account as his personal slush fund (he’s known to be in financial strife). My recommendation is leave, usually in this scenario the person has a core who will support them so you’ll have to oust all of them.

Most of my clubs members are leaving for pastures new on the next membership renewal. Knowing that the current setup can’t support itself, we’re hoping to pickup the lease when the current lot get evicted.

Race team is just a group of mates. We were all indviduals in larger clubs but got a bit bored of turning up to races alone. So one guy designed some kit, registered a club so now we race together - pretty much any bike discipline is covered. Only about 20 of us but focussed on racing. We've got a handful of second cats but this isn't a semi pro enterprise, we just share a passion for racing.

The ideal would have been a proper club providing all the social stuff, racing team mates, easy cafe rides and a great diversity of  members and interests. I love that you join a cycling club and you've got all walks of life sharing a common passion.

The problem with race teams round our way is that a lot don’t put anything back in. There was a spate of little race teams cropping up but They don’t run any races and don’t offer marshals and rely on big clubs like ours to do the donkey work. Iirc the local road racing league has made it pretty difficult to race if you don’t run a race in the league, which I’ve been told has resulted in a few rt’s folding

I was in a local bike club; made up from 1/3 junior, 1/3 road and 1/3 mtb - the formalised committee-led club structure run by roadies didn't really work well for MTB- we had the normal problems of what times to ride, what to do if a novice showed up on a ride down mountain cliff paths, what to do if <18yr olds turned up and so on.

- so a few bunches of mtb collectives were setup in the locality with facebook/web forum/whatsapp communication and they ride regularly.  Ours is not a club, has no rules, no fees, we ride anywhere we like (it's in scotland) and we organise all sorts of riding tours including abroad on a pretty loose basis.

The group are just a bunch-of-cocks-who-ride-bikes.

Never enjoyed riding bikes so much as I do now.

 Ours is not a club, has no rules, no fees, we ride anywhere we like (it’s in scotland) and we organise all sorts of riding tours including abroad on a pretty loose basis.

But you potentially have a lot of liability issues should a novice rider or Youth fall off a cliff somewhere....

The argument of "he/she turned up for the ride of their own accord" doesn't carry a huge amount of legal weight....

Kilo, that’s the experience in the south east. A select few RTs do stage events. But they are rare. No event means no affiliation to the largest racing leagues in the country.

Kilo, that’s the experience in the south east. A select few RTs do stage events. But they are rare. No event means no affiliation to the largest racing leagues in the country.

Yes, KWCC here 😉

But you potentially have a lot of liability issues

Eh? He said they're not a club. Therefore they won't have anymore liability issues than any other group of friends meeting and doing a ride together would.

"But you potentially have a lot of liability issues should a novice rider or Youth fall off a cliff somewhere….

The argument of “he/she turned up for the ride of their own accord” doesn’t carry a huge amount of legal weight…."

We don't invite them. Other than that, were just a bunch of mates / consenting adults. Live with it.

 "should have said MOST folk in the club are tossers."

Beagleboy - careful. The club will threaten you with exclusion under section 11 of the constitution and email a personal character assassination to all members.

I didn't even get a bunch of flowers as an apology when they did that to me - and I wasn't even a club member at the time. Tossers all of them.

My partner is a vice chair for a club. One thing that I know she finds is members are always quick to complain about how things are ran but a very small percentage of those who complain contribute anything themselves.

Maybe if you don't like the way things are done put your name forward to join the committee and try and make some changes?

Maybe if you don’t like the way things are done put your name forward to join the committee and try and make some changes?

That's the problem, we would like to but can't.

<span style="font-size: 0.8rem;">As for the race team, I'm the secretary of a race league. We have done one road race and two CX races this year. That is more than pulling our weight for a group of 20.</span>

Why can't you?

What sometiems happens in these situations is that a splinter group sets up under the same name and confusion results.  Not particularly in cycling, but it is a scenario one sees.  Does the club own all the domain names it should?  If the club has no constitutoin, who is to say who the club is?

@thisisnotaspoon - not my recollection of events, although there is some elements of truth in what you say. However Bogtrotters are fine, not bogged down in paperwork and still have a healthy membership.

On the OPs topic if enough other members want the same and will put the work then it is Extraordinary Annual General Meeting time. He has all your subs and it seens like you have no say.

Failing that it is time to leave.

Well look on the brightside at least it is easy to leave.

A friend of mine is a vicar and his church has been talen over by a power crazed couple, they upset the congregation but they are very good at winning awards for volunteering etc so he cant get rid of them.

At the end of the day he is just the chairman of a voluntary organisation not your boss, so just leave and find or set up a new club. It bites for a while but you soon get over it.

so a few bunches of mtb collectives were setup in the locality with facebook/web forum/whatsapp communication and they ride regularly. Ours is not a club, has no rules, no fees, we ride anywhere we like (it’s in scotland) and we organise all sorts of riding tours including abroad on a pretty loose basis.

The group are just a bunch-of-cocks-who-ride-bikes.

Never enjoyed riding bikes so much as I do now.

thats pretty much what i've just done.down here- facebook used to arrange social meets between people looking for a ride. i've arranged a few rides now and attracted a 1 new person to 3/4 me and my mates each time. its good as its actually making my prev social circle a bit more organised, and the new people are now riding with my mates etc when i'm not about. (and this is from strarting probably at exactly the wrong time of year)

i'm literally trying to make it a non-club, totally ad-hoc thing where people socialise with each other and every so often i try to stoke the fire with a bit of an organised ride, and i'll be super happy if people organise regular rides i could never make (like evenings etc)

we're staying out of everything apart from actually arranging to meet and ride, and discuss routes/trail issues/bikes online

I'm part of a local whatsapp group of around 15-20 people (depending on who's left/joined) who just post when they're available to ride and what kind of ride they're thinking of.

Zone 1 - steady away tonight after a longish ride on Sunday!