Adding a fall weekly town ride?

[Sal Atticum]

I was wondering if we could add a weekly town ride in the evenings this fall.  I think it would add to us as a club, because there are a lot of people around (some of whom I know and who would be interested) who like to ride around town but aren't so into road riding or mountain biking.  This would be a good "gateway drug" for people into cycling, as well as letting people know how to act when in town (on the road, not the sidewalk, etc.)--not advertised as a clinic, but there for people to come cruise around and pick things up.  There are probably enough club people to be able to do this without everyone missing out on a road ride every week (rotating schedule).

Let me know what you think.

[Mario]

I think it might be a good thing IF we find enough interest.

[Sal Atticum]

Yeah, and how are we going to find interest if we never do it?  If we sit around for another year without engaging anyone but the hardcore road racers, how does that help anyone?  People aren't going to come out of the woodwork and say "Hey Cycling Club, give us a town ride" because they can just go for a town ride by themselves--or going on a town ride never enters their minds in the first place.

We should be offering things to the student body in order to attract members who don't already ride, not holding out for people to come to us.

[Plantains]

Beek this had been on the agenda the last fall I was in town.

I think it would be great to do and I say lets just do it. One of my biggest complaints originally was to make sure that this club and team understands that there's more to cycling than just racing. Unfortunately since no one really ever showed interest, we would just go without posting.

Lets not all forget there are 3 tiers of group rides.

1. Cruises
2. No-drop (which are designed for an introduction to bicycle handling etc.)
3. Team Training rides. (essentially open practices)

[Sal Atticum]

I'm just concerned with putting it on the printed materials we have.  If we decide to do that, someone should be there when we say we're going to ride.  People who know nothing at all about us aren't going to get their info from the message board, they're going to get it from word of mouth or from flyers and posters.

That reminds me of something.

[Plantains]

Yeah I hear that... but its just another reason why we need to make sure people see us riding all together. If you see a cyclist here or there in a UND uni or not... its no big deal. But when you see 6 cyclists all cruising together looking professional people notice.

Same would apply for a cruise ride. Some brah on a fixie is nothing, but a group of cyclists all shooting the crap is something.

Unfortunately (or perhaps not) I think we should ride to and hang out at a place in which a large percentage of univ kiddies will be. This is either A. the bars (where no one will want to ride bikes) or B. the coffee shops, where people will take notice. Its all about advertising.

Speaking of adverts. While those posters are a great idea, lets make sure we make it part of the ride to take them down on the way back??? Hmm...

[curlingDave]

Amen to that.  I hate out of date posters    But yah, in my opinion this idea is something that needs to happen.  I think people get intimidated when they see roadies cruising down the streets in their spandex and such.  If we could get just a couple of more casual-looking riders riding along with roadies down University Avenue, I think that would catch people's eye.