Joining a Dublin Cycling Club

purple cow

If you're based in Dublin 7/8/15/20 and are thinking about joining a cycling club, the Blanch Wheelies welcome new members from this Sunday 8 October.

Spins leave from the Strawberry Hall Pub, 9am

More info: https://www.facebook.com/BlanchWheeliesCC

pot p

purple cow wrote: »

If you're based in Dublin 7/8/15/20 and are thinking about joining a cycling club, the Blanch Wheelies welcome new members from this Sunday 8 October.

Spins leave from the Strawberry Hall Pub, 9am

More info: https://www.facebook.com/BlanchWheeliesCC

Do ye ever do club spins of a saturday???

purple cow

Hi pot p,

Organised club spins are on Sundays, but some club members will self-organise spins on other days of the week (depending on availability)

CramCycle

Not in Blanch Wheelies but know quite a few of their members, would highly recommend, the ones I know are really nice and friendly and really seem to have a good community spirit within the club.

Tabnabs

Talking to an Orwell Wheelers member recently and he said they have closed their membership to new members for a 6 month period. Has anyone else heard this?

CramCycle

Tabnabs wrote: »

Talking to an Orwell Wheelers member recently and he said they have closed their membership to new members for a 6 month period. Has anyone else heard this?

Don't know about Orwell but I have heard of a few clubs doing this or planning too. A big change from people giving out a few years ago about too many small clubs being set up. I imagine quite a few of them will get swamped if it becomes par for the course across bigger clubs.

plodder

What's the reason for closing membership?

Matt Bianco

Tabnabs wrote: »

Talking to an Orwell Wheelers member recently and he said they have closed their membership to new members for a 6 month period. Has anyone else heard this?

Had heard that informally as I believe they were swamped with applications - would imagine a club of 600+ takes a lot of organisation and communication based on my experience of a club a quarter of that size

CramCycle

plodder wrote: »

What's the reason for closing membership?

No idea, presume it would be numbers are too large and it is hard to effectively manage the club This could all be hearsay though.

wirelessdude01

pot p wrote:

Do ye ever do club spins of a saturday???

Lucan CRC do organised spins during the winter term on both Saturday and Sunday for racing groups. Saturday is the main day for everyone.

Lumen

plodder wrote: »

What's the reason for closing membership?

Too many people not knowing how to ride a bike properly. Hiatus required to sort it out.

smacl

Lumen wrote: »

Too many people not knowing how to ride a bike properly. Hiatus required to sort it out.

Seems about right, from their website

The club committee recently agreed to suspend the intake of new members (those aged 18 years and older) to the club. We still look forward to accepting new Youth and Junior members. While this was a difficult decision for us to take, it has been done with the safety of all members in mind.

During this closed period it is our intention to coach, educate and train all potential group leaders. In turn, when we open our club to new members, they will be trained in all aspect of leadership and our club will be to the fore in cycle training for those new to group cycling within a club environment.

We will review this decision in mid-2018 and hope to re-open the membership thereafter.

Really just a reflection on how popular cycling has become and how much it is continuing to grow.

plodder

Makes sense and a responsible thing to do.

Lumen

plodder wrote: »

Makes sense and a responsible thing to do.

Yes, after the rollout of mandatory Child Protection Policies the next obvious step is Fred Protection Policies. :pac:

disclaimer: I am a Fred

velo.2010

With 600+ members, I'd imagine there is a lot of turnover on the periphery of the club - folks sign up for a year, then leave and are replaced by another wave of new members - all the while, the actual total membership gradually increases year on year.

I'm guessing most of the older clubs were set up with a view to getting people racing. With the boom in cycling and the BTW scheme, we've seen the rise of the more social cyclist. Someone who just wants to get out for a spin at the weekend and isn't too fussed about anything else. I can understand some clubs' boards wouldn't be so keen on having to spend time on mentoring a bunch who may never come up to relatively competent level of proficiency riding in a group. Finding experienced mentors to give up their own training time is a problem too.

In an ideal world, I think a club would want an underage/junior group, a senior racing group and a leisure/sportive group. Anyone who just wants the odd cycle on a Sunday morning should consider a more informal group to suit their needs, perhaps?

LollipopJimmy

I'm thinking the time has come for me to join a club.I'm over two years cycling solo or with one or two buddies with a small handful of events thrown in.

I managed to not annoy anybody in any of the group cycles I've done, conscious of not half wheeling or suddenly stopping etc. Strawberry Hall is quite close to me too so Blanch Wheelies could work

seamus

The number of groups on a Sunday morning in Orwell was becoming huge and the number of people willing/able to lead groups out wasn't keeping up to match.

I'm sure the death of a club member earlier in the year also factored into the decision to spend more time developing roadcraft within the existing membership before bringing anyone new in.

Look at the figures at the bottom here:
https://www.orwellwheelers.org/about/about-us

The membership more than doubled from 2013 to 2017, and while some of them may have transferred in from other clubs, it's fair to say that the majority of them would be new(ish) riders with little experience of group riding. Your problem then is that there just isn't enough experienced heads to go around, so on a group spin the "experienced" riders/leaders may themselves only have 1/2 years group riding under their belt and may have learned their roadcraft from someone similarly inexperienced.

I didn't renew my Orwell membership for 2017 (new baby), so I'm locked out of getting back into the club for the moment. But I do support the decision.

Whyner

Interesting about Orwell, I plan to try a club out also but was thinking of going for something smaller. I had St Tiernans in mind. Apparently now is a good time to join, with the racing over (presumably, no idea) and people have more time to lead beginner groups. I'm not a beginner but have never done group spins

Would anyone know if St Tiernan's would be appropriate? I get the impression it's more a racing club. Plan for next year is to perform better in Sportives. A4 has me curious but will need to start in group spins first obviously

07Lapierre

If your near Swords, this may be of interest....(The Sunday, October 8th spin is going ahead..website will be updated later today)

http://swordscc.com/green-spins-october-2017/

LpPepper

If you're looking for Mid week winter training spins Clondalkin Cycling Club train Tuesday and Thursday evenings meeting at 7pm at the SDCC building in Clondalkin village - on the pedestrian square.

These mid week sessions consist of training around Adamstown loop.

purple cow

Drop down any Sunday LollipopJimmy. New members always welcome in the club

neris

I joined a club 2 years ago and haven't been anywhere near it. Think I pay membership just for the numerous emails

sy_flembeck

seamus wrote: »

Look at the figures at the bottom here:
https://www.orwellwheelers.org/about/about-us

What jumps out at me is the enormous debt of gratitude many people in south Dublin owe to Liam Keenan! Chapeau that man