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So the OH doesn't ride bikes and due to the level at which he thinks I ride, doesn't want to join in and this is leading to the huge amount of solo rides and although sometimes solo is better id really like to have some reliable mates to ride with. I have one best mate who lives miiiiiles away (prob why he puts up with me) and have a maximum of 5 occasional friends. Who I can occasionally meet up with but who often let me down or simply piss me off by adding over an hour onto a ride. I'm tempted to sign up to POF again just to meet people!! Don't think this would go down too well with the OH as one friend recently I managed to forge I had to cut ties with as he wanted way more! Anybody got any bright ideas or should I suck it up and be pathetic forever more?!
Are there any local mtb clubs? Might be worth a look maybe.
No different that making friends as a kid, go and do social activites, join local bike club, hiking club, whatever your interests are.
simply piss me off by adding over an hour onto a ride
Sorry. 🙁
Not you, ya arse!
I met most of my riding friends through trailbuilding, and this website full of bellends you might have heard of called singletrack... And quite a lot of crossover with marshalling and racing.
😀Not you, ya arse!
Trail building and marshalling are good ideas actually!
Andyl - otherwise I'd of said cutting the end off a ride because he couldn't survive any longer!
Local mountain biking meetup group
If you want to meet people who mountain bike, a mountain bike club does seem like a good place to start, or maybe even a road club with mountain bikers in it.
Lbs that does shop rides?
I struggled a bit I guess.. I have two friends who are quite flakey, and some people from work who have not been able to ride for a long time due to injury. I got hooked up with a local-ish group via the mrs who works with someone in it. i'm not sure. I enjoy their company, and the challenge, but not always what and where they ride so much.
Luckily for me one of my flakey mates and I have an old mutual friend who was a roadie for the last few years. Including club ride etc. He got knocked off about 6 weeks ago and its put him off for good. So much so he bought a mountain bike and has his road stuff up for sale. He saw me sharing strava rides on fb and our pics and knew we were riding sometimes so asked when we were out next. That was a week ago. he joined us for the first time Sunday.. "best fun i've had on a bike for 3 years" he said. He's just got to square things with his other half so he's allowed out with me/us more.
So, if you can tap up friends-of-friends, people you know, or via strava/facebook local groups, and the other suggestions here something will come together.
Also, I understand being a lady it could be hard to trust men. So a mixed group might be best, even better - start your own thing. I was thinking of starting a monthly "casual ride" thing to network a bit til the recent change of events. Pick a place, say you'll be there and what time, rought idea of whats on the table and see what happens. I play guitar on weds nights with a couple local guys and found each other randomly througha post on a local commmunity forum - one of the guys turned up to our first session unannounced because he'd heard it was happening.. so you never know!
Depends what type of mountain bikers you wanted to meet. With our lot your best bet would be to sit at the end of the bar that's closest to the pie fridge and the crisps 🙂
It's tricky to find riders who you get on with and who actually want to come out and ride regularly and when you do. I guess it's a bit like dating in that you have to kiss a lot of frogs.
Moved up north a few years ago and now have a couple of keen regular riding buddies and quite a few more people I ride with now-and-then.
Is there a FB MTB group local to you?
Be careful what you wish for. I ride with the same shower of arseholes every week now.
If you are Manchester based there is always room for one more.
[NinjaEdit]Not that you are an arsehole.[/NinjaEdit]
[FurtherNinjaEdit]But if you are you'd fit in.[/FurtherNinjaEdit]
yeah I think its very much the keen regular and as far and same pace that I struggle with. I'm an awkward sod so the lbs that does shop rides rides at about 7pm and because of life etc I ride either home from work or right after work so always miss out on the group rides. Also the friend I made who I have to now try to avoid rides most of the rides so I think it would be awkward then too. Although I'm super competitive I worry that any MTB clubs will be full of equally annoying competitive people!
Is there not something equivalent to our Monday Night Pub Rides (the afore-mentioned shower of arseholes)? There's loads of people come out with us, and the only rule is that no-one gets dropped. Our rides are many things - in last nights case a highly enjoyable, unbelievably muddy farce - but one thing they most certainly aren't is competitive.
Mind you, Harry is bang on. We're definitely not a 'club'. We are a shower of arseholes. But we're fiercely proud of that fact 🙂
We have matching shirts to prove it.
Although I'm super competitive I worry that any MTB clubs will be full of equally annoying competitive people!
😆
This is probably why there are relatively few MTB clubs.
OP, clearly you've done the "look for a local cycling club" thing? Not all of them are Roadies, certainly not in my Club.
First place I'd be checking out if I was seeking riding buddies, certainly not POF (isn't that a dating site?)
Or join that lot who eat pies for breakfast ^^
Yeah my theory was, Im pretty sure you can mark yourself as 'just looking for friend' (ridiculous I know but maybe I was wondering if there was similar)
I've checked out local clubs before yeah but I've heard not great things about one nearby club and the other is full of roadies.
I ride with whoever whenever. OP you threaten to rejoin POF, surely that's in jest?!
Where are you based? Some local trailbuilding in Falkirk going on this weekend...absolutely no use if you aren't within about a 30 minute drive (apparently that makes you local!).
Local club - you have heard, but have you tried for yourself? IF not, give it a go and see how you get on...at worse, you have another bike ride under your belt (or chamois!).
GC I think your local to me, so a couple of options if you can travel a few miles is the Bridgenorth club, but I think this is quiet steady mixed group and restricted to the local area and dudmaston, see FB page.
Or LGB organises female group rides occasionally around Malvern, may be associated with a Malvern club but not sure, can possibly let you have contact details if interested.
Localish to me in that case - I'll be your friend 🙂
If Malvern is close to home, then quite a strong female contingent in Malvern Cycle Sport if you're wanting to avoid blokes ( 🙁 ) and there are some female only group rides.
When you work it out let me know, i'm crap at the whole friends thing.
Although I'm super competitive I worry that any MTB clubs will be full of equally annoying competitive people!
THIS is precisely why I ride on my own all the time.
And have no friends 😐
Hummmmph...
My couple of local mates who ride where rarely available the same times/days as me, so I started to look around for ways to meet other riding buddies.
Meetup.com is a possibility if there is a mountain biking group, or an outdoor activities group that does some mountain biking meets. Getting to know a some people through my local Meetup group led to going along to a few rides with the local MTB club and also joining a local facebook group. Now I have so many riding possibilities I just can't fit them all in.
So as well as investigating any local clubs I'd say check out Meetup and Facebook for any local MTB groups, although not all are publically visible to non-members, which is why a bit of 'networking' is best.
In the spirit of this thread. I ride the Quantocks most Sundays, so if you fancy a ride you're welcome to tag along with us. Usually me or me and a mate.
Here's the plan for Sunday - https://www.strava.com/routes/6440434
try this: http://www.cyclingbuddy.com/
I've never tried it just aware of it's existence.
The other way I've found of meeting people is to add randoms who keep popping up on your local strava segments. Comment with your email address perhaps and see if you can hook up for a ride. You get a good sense of the distance and time they go out from people's strava feed so you'll get to see who would match you.
large club on Berkhemsted if you're located around there.
Female friend did a ladies-only skills course, at Whinlatter I think. Not only did it do wonders for her riding, but she now meets up regularly to ride with some of the women. Even though they're geographically scattered, they seem to be able to meet a couple of times a month for rides.
you're still welcome to come on a NWAlpsCC ride, we're probably too slow though
Started out finding rides arranged on a forum. Bunch of people just looking to get out and ride local places. Informal and social.
Then a local expert showed me loads of the trails and cheeky stuff. I rode them a lot solo and in groups, found a lot more, learnt the area, and then find I'm in demand as I know the trails.
"Birds on Bikes"
Search on FB.
My GF is involved and is quite an active group countrywide.
https://m.facebook.com/groups/birdsonbikes
Don't want to sound harsh but perhaps try to be a bit less annoyingly competitive? Most rides with other people involve a bit of route compromise/waiting around etc. Good luck though - hope you find a nice bunch.
Just to add a mild observation, it looks a bit like you want to meet people that ride at the pace you want, in the group size you want, at the time you want, in the area you want. You may need to be a bit more flexible, at least at first, until you do meet a few people/groups and then it'll naturally whittle down to the ones who are most 'suitable'.
I say this from experience of my OH; we moved to a new area and she was not happy that she could not make new friends, but was not really willing to put the effort/compromise in to make it happen. So it didn't.
Don't want to sound harsh but perhaps try to be a bit less annoyingly competitive? Most rides with other people involve a bit of route compromise/waiting around etc. Good luck though - hope you find a nice bunch.
+1. Sounds like your looking for an MTB version of a Chain Gang.
My wide struggles with female riding friends - she has a few locally who are flaky as hell, but standard disparities are an issue. She used to race a reasonable amount so is quick (and I mean this in the nicest way) for a woman, but if she comes out with me & my riding mates, she gets the legs torn off her & it's a bit much, so tends to shy away.
We ride together a lot, but it would be nice if her friends were a bit less flaky so she could get out more with them. She's part of a recent ladies FB thing has decided to do a race for the first time in years as they have pushed hard for ladies entries so hopes to broaden her social circle that way too.
Most of my riding friends are reasonably local, we all used to race together & got talking. Then other friends of friends gravitate towards the social circle too.
Still enjoy the solo rides though 🙂
I'm an awkward sod so the lbs that does shop rides rides at about 7pm and because of life etc I ride either home from work or right after work so always miss out on the group rides.
Much of my riding is a 7pm group ride and I ride to work - I just start my evening ride earlier as a solo ride and then join the others at 7pm. Does make it a 5 hour epic but it's usually fun!
I'm sure the other person will feel a lot more awkward about the 'more than a friend' situation and will be keen to pretend it never happened...
I think you have find a group and then be patient - Any group will have a mixture of abilities and it will take a while for you to suss out who's at your level.
what about www.meetup.com ?
also try MTBCHIX on facebook
Local MTB club. Then you have to work at getting your OH involved. First step is getting him on the bike which may need some patience... If I were him and you went on POF for friends I'd be slightly miffed.
Yeah, finding a group takes work and compromise. If you want your ride done on time go solo. If you want to have a laugh join a group, persevere and try a few.
Are there any other activities which interest you, which could lead to meeting new people?
Yoga / pilates classes? Book groups?
Mrs M joined a couple of book groups a few years back, from which she's developed a really good social life.
Just to add a mild observation, it looks a bit like you want to meet people that ride at the pace you want, in the group size you want, at the time you want, in the area you want.
And why not? 🙂
I found a good group near me, I wasn't looking for one, and if it hadn't worked on all the points there, I wouldn't have joined them past the first ride. As it happens, they tick all those boxes, and they're a really nice bunch and there's usually a pub or similar afterwards, which isn't something I'd do on my own.
Having said all that, if you want to go hard and fast for an hour and a half, 2 hours, it's not going to be social. If you want a social, there's going to be some chatting and stopping.
On last Sunday's Cheshire 100 ride I was quite surprised at the numbers of women riding alone. I had quite a pleasant chat with one rather fit looking rider and had I been single I wouldn't have hesitated to ask for her phone number. I might have got turned down but you never know....
Where are you based? I'm on the edge of the peak district and always looking for an excuse to get out more, give me a shout. Have a fair ridings buddies but with time constraints etc easily find a lot of my rides are solo.
I've found a fair few local groups on facebook who I drop in with on occasion. Groups that I have never heard about outside of facebook, maybe worth a luck
You're welcome to join us on Peak / Dales rides, but we tend to make up arrangements and rides as we go along and we're not especially quick so that's probably not much help.
I have the same problem - its a bit of a gap in the market but obviously privacy and security concerns are the same as they'd be with any other social network,and it'd need massive exposure/market share to really work. I guess running a dating site is much more profitable
I say I'm competitive and that's why I have shied away from certain clubs but that's because I want to have fun and not take it all too seriously (the very same reason I dont race or get involved in racing). I'm not bothered about other peoples pace, I got mostly annoyed with the one friend because as usual he was half an hour late and then admitted he hadn't eaten anything all day. If he'd been on time and actually prepared I wouldn't of cared and would of meant he wasn't threatening to puke the whole time!! I dont care what pace other people ride at, I'm bothered about my own pace! I'm based Kidderminster so a bit too far for most offers but Im willing to drive around so one of these days I'll take everybody up on their offer! I can be more flexible on time etc on the weekends because then I dont have the dog to get back to! Strava tip is a good one and I have made the one female friend from there actually who is local.
I'm a member of birds on bikes and MTBChixandTrails and often post where and when Im going but nothing seems to have worked yet. I'm pretty sure if I posted I was going to Cannock Chase it would of worked but I've resisted that so far! 😆
Bit far but if your ever passing your more than welcome out on our Wednesday club rides (calderdale mtb) we even have ladies (shock horror) :).
try and get yourself out on one of the lbs rides. It may eb a pain but you'll possibly meet new people.
Being late then ill-prepared for an event you are doing together is incompetent and bad manners. One of the pleasures of having a regular, grown up cycling buddy is that he is always ready on time, looks after himself and doesn't neglect the bike, causing breakdowns. We get out twice a week and seldom suffer delays or problems apart from the occasional puncture.
In illustration, last night my son aged 17 accompanied us on the Wednesday evening hooligan ride and three miles out his tyre burst when the latex inner tube herniated out of a small hole in the tyre, one of the hazards of latex tubes. As we fixed it he admitted that he'd noticed the inner tube bulging inside the hole after the weekend ride but had neglected to do anything about it! An unnecessary delay although not really a problem on a warm summer evening.
If you learned the difference between 'of' and 'have', you'd make friends with more grammar pedants 😉
I say I'm competitive and that's why I have shied away from certain clubs but that's because I want to have fun and not take it all too seriously
You sound very similar to me! I'm competitive (against myself mainly), yet I don't take myself or my riding 'attitude' all that seriously..
The thing that puts me off joining a group of fasterish (competitive) riders, is a sense they would probably take it all a bit too seriously.
I might be wrong, but that's the sense I get anyhooo...
Combine that with strongly introverted mysanthropism and 99.9% of my riding is solo. 😆