Is cycling at weekends declining in popularity?

I’m yet to meet these people

I’m yet to meet these people who look down on others and make comments about crap bikes/kit…but i’ve sure read about it on forums in the last 6 years.

I think it’s wonderful that a minority of people do that – think how much time you’d otherwise waste getting to know them only to later find out they are a dick…this way you find out instantly and can either try  different club or mingle with other members of the club who are probably alright. You can’t judge a club by a couple of members – there is always gonna be a minority of idiots in life.

As to the original question, my club/clubs have seen a pretty decent growth rate in the last few years plus there seem to be more cyclists about on a weekend than there used to be (albeit less in crappy weather). 

The club I ride with has had
The club I ride with has had more members join than ever before. Clearly we’re doing something right.

I think our club has an

I think our club has an excellent ride format / offering. Basically it is 2 hours, usually based on a similar route with the faster riders just doing some extra bits and the slower riders taking some shortcuts. All back in time for a coffee together at the end. We generally run 3 or 4 groups from 12mph up to 20+ mph most Sunday mornings. There are also regular day long rides on a Saturday, some racing, usual sportives and other organised events.

New riders are always, always made welcome, and no-one gets left behind – apart from in the fast group. What you ride is not important, I often turn up on my MTB. What you wear is not important. Someone will always help with a mechanical or puncture if you don’t know how. Someone will always offer you a draft if you are struggling.

Personally I’d love to see more slower riders out and taking up cycling. We did go through a phase of seriously easy going 60 minute rides for new riders, but uptake was low after some initial enthusiasm.

Not sure on the figures for membership this year, but Sunday rides are certainly seeing more riders than last year at the same time, though this is more likely due to the not so horrid weather.

BehindTheBikesheds wrote:

BehindTheBikesheds wrote:

There is no correlation between sporting success in cycling and increases in cycling numbers and that is where the issue lies.

The non-correlation you cite usually is in relation to utility cycling not lycra-clad riders at weekend. There most definitely has been significant growth in sales of road bikes and associated gear since the London Olympics. Our membership has slipped every year since it peaked at 400 in 2013 and has dipped below 300 this year. If it isn’t post-2012 enthusiasm wearing off then what is it?

Some clubs are old-fashioned and sniffy, cliquey or too hip & cool for you or me – but they are definitely not all the same. Ours is hopefully none of those things, we’re a Go-Ride club, the circuit racing & cyclo-cross attract families and juniors make up a third of the total membership.

The main problem we have with group rides has been getting someone to put their hand up to devise a route and/or lead the ride. Far too many people simply want to be towed around the local roads.

BehindTheBikesheds wrote:

You might consider that average to be very sociable, to the vast majority of people in the UK that is an unattainable average even over short distances never mind not completely flat/longer rides.

There’s one of the problems right off the bat, the speeds of the so called social group (within clubs) are too fast and put people off because they really see that as being racing speeds so wouldn’t bother to even want to go join a club because they’re simply not capable. I went out yesterday and on a non hilly route (couple of short 7% inclines), sure it was a bit blustery but I only managed 14mph (22km/h) average. I know full well that only a couple of the people I know (excluding guys who cycle regularly already) might be able to do that, might, actually wanting to do that is another matter. The vast majority would not be able to get anywhere near that average speed, not even close.

As I said, for us it’s a growth area, we are absolutely not struggling to attract members locally and are looking to train more ride leaders to cope with demand.  Unlike a more established local club which advertises the club ride as 16mph+ (~26kph).  That was enough itself to make the decision for me as to which club to join!

In our case, we run shorter (20-30k), flatter cafe rides on Saturday, Sunday gets longer and more varied.  Our Saturday rides often contain octogenarians, large riders with pacemakers and people on Dutch style cruisers made from battleship grade steel, all of whom managed to keep up, at least with the slowest group.  I would suggest that the majority of people of low to moderate fitness could keep up. 

When I started, I was “big” (well over 100kg) and I couldn’t really even run for a bus, and was still able to keep up on our Saturday rides whilst riding a heavy hybrid.  After some riding and concentrated training I’m not so big and am more appropriately equipped, I could almost certainly keep up with the “other” local club, but I’m happy where I am and just ride with faster groups.  

We can disagree around exactly what counts as a “social” pace for road cycling, but the theme I see locally is that there is saturation at the fast end and poaching fast members from other clubs is not an effective way to grow a club unless the other clubs are themselves disfunctional.

PRSboy wrote:

Time is an issue too… 3 hrs plus for a ‘proper’ club ride in coffee break, plus washing down the bike in the winter etc.  Difficult to justify if you have young family particularly.

But actually, your experience perhaps tallies with what cycle retailers are saying… maybe we have passed ‘peak cycle’ following the 2012 Olympics and so on.

But don’t underestimate the dopamine hit that people seem to get from interacting with strangers on the internet… it is addictive, and software designers exploit this.

There was no ‘peak cycle’ post olympics, nor any other cycle sport achievement, the facts regarding that have been made clear. There is no correlation between sporting success in cycling and increases in cycling numbers and that is where the issue lies. Sporting cycling, which is what the OP is effectively talking about will only ever have a limited number of people willing/wanting to do it and as alluded to it’s the time, effort and often the spare cash to be ‘kitted out’ 

The way society is these days that’s far truer now than it was BITD when it was more relaxed, a lot of club cycling comes across as being extremely competitive, and for the mostpart It’s not really for women either unless your club has enough of them to want to do rides as a group for women only or you have a strong female rider, but that really is not common across the whole country as is women cycling as a whole (because of the danger aspect mostly).

As Romanremus points out, clubs can be very clique, if your face doesn’t fit, if you ride the ‘wrong’ bike, wear the wrong kit or as one long standing member of a club found, forced out because the club (two people in power) decided compulsary helmet wearing was required, then it puts people off.

Some clubs just need to have a look at their offer and actually the people within the clubs/those who lead it too. In some cases unless clubs change the attitude of some (not all clearly) and able to offer up groups that are more innclusive say more in the tourist style rather than the nose down/arse up that’s become so prevelent, as well as gender specific groups (but again comes down to fear factor/feeling included) then it’s not going to get any easier to attract numbers.

I’ve never been a club rider, I like riding with a couple of friends now and again and some clubs I’ve come across (through friends or coincidentally) are fantastic, CTC groups are more often than not excellent too.

I just prefer the freedom of riding on my tod because I can go out whenver I want to without having to stick to rigid timescales/dates, at whatever speed I want on any given day, knock it on the head halfway round a planned route, pop in to see a friend for an hour, or as per a couple of weeks ago have a chat with someone on foot (who turned out to be a very keen cyclist), browse an interesting shop you came across or whatever without the restrictions of being in a group.

It’s why I like Audax, you can ride with someone for a while if your speed/ability matches, but if they go on ahead and leave you to your own devices, well that was already what you were already going to be doing anyways.

good luck getting more people on board.

Ref the OP’s question about

Ref the OP’s question about whether this year cycle clubs or groups are stagnant.. experioence with my local club would state yes and no to that question.. 

We’ve grown by about 50 members this year as a whole (16%), yet when I look at some of our more long established groups/members the numbers in those appear to be stagnant or in decline. The growth in membership is mainly from newer group rides at either different time to more established ones and or a different kind of ride. 

This year we’ve tried to manage people’s expectations more realistically and with that, we’ve lost some riders to other clubs and gained some for the same reasons.. across the board we’ve tried to be more communicative and outgoing.

I also think we can continue this growth next year, there’s a lot of people I speak to who don’t ride in groups, they are usually people who don’t think they are ‘fast enough’ to do so.. (but don’t realise there’s a group out there to suit them)..

Ref others comments about finding the right group, stick with it and you’ll find a group of people just like you.

Ref: leaders being arses/condecending/unfriendly.. it’s difficult, not everyone is a born leader or even suited to it, but every club ‘needs’ volunteers. So you’ll usually find either they are ‘made for the limelight’ and revel in that role, or ‘end up putting themselves forward becuase no one else wants to and puts them out of their comfort zone’..  either way it depends on that clubs culture as to how they want to ride.