Solo or group ride?

alorlious said:

How do you spend your miles?

Man this board loves poles... I ride daily alone, and sometimes with my wife, and on the weekends I ride with wifey on a mellow constitutional...low cadence stop and smell the roses kinda thing. Anyway, the only group rides include the snotty little bike store employees that think they are the [censored]...I avoid them like herpes

alorlious said:

How do you spend your miles?

Almost every single mile I've every had on the bike was with a group. And if it wasn't with a group I still had a partner. I've never done a solo ride but always hear that they aren't nearly as fun. So I'll stick to group rides.

I ride solo. Cycling is something I do by myself and for myself. I enjoy the solitude of it. However, I do enjoy occasional group riding. Mountain biking with groups is fun. But, I'll keep group rides to one per week max.

mattv2099 said:

I ride solo. Cycling is something I do by myself and for myself. I enjoy the solitude of it. However, I do enjoy occasional group riding. Mountain biking with groups is fun. But, I'll keep group rides to one per week max.

I ride solo, I find the time by myself with nothing to think about but cycling a great antidote to the stresses of everyday life

I enjoy the camraderie of a group ride and try to do them whenever I can. The majority of my rides, however, are solo. There's something to be said for those as well. The meditational value - just the sound of your breathing and the machine beneath you - can be very rewarding...

alorlious said:

How do you spend your miles?

Solo rider but I've got my first group ride coming up on Tuesday morning. It's with a seniors group. I'm hoping I can keep up.

Brunswick_kate said:

Solo rider but I've got my first group ride coming up on Tuesday morning. It's with a seniors group. I'm hoping I can keep up.

I like riding solo because then I don't feel like I'm holding anyone back or going to fast for others to keep up. I guess I like riding my own pace. Riding with a group is actually more fun though. But just once in a while for me.

I ride solo just because the group I go with talks and brags about their "nice and shiny" bikes all the time. But when it comes time for a climb, they all hide as if their bikes dont exist.

Most of my riding is my commute. I've lengthened it from the actual 3 mile distance to work, to a 10-14 mile loop (depending on how early I leave the house). I work 60 hours/week and the wife doesn't bike, so when I'm not commuting or actually working I don't get to ride much.

I ride solo, not necassarily out of choice but because i havant yet joined a club and none of my friends ride racing bikes. I think theres pros and cons to both, at the moment I quite enjoy my own company and can obviously dictate where exactly I want to cycle to, but am also looking forward to having cycle partners in the future when i sort out joining a club. I think its sort of nice testing yourself against others, im not particually competitive but do like to see where my strenghs and weaknesses are! Also by being with others you can keep in their slip stream given you less work to do 🙂

Solo now.

Back when I was seriously racing I'd do about half and half. But every group ride turned into a training "race" basically .......... so I tried to keep them to a minimum if I could ............

mmpc001 said:

I enjoy the camraderie of a group ride and try to do them whenever I can. The majority of my rides, however, are solo. There's something to be said for those as well. The meditational value - just the sound of your breathing and the machine beneath you - can be very rewarding...

Soooooooooooo true. But on my "off" days I do like to ride with my wife, when she wants to ride.

I used to love riding in a group. You get to learn and hone your bike skills and have good conversation as well. Lately I haven't enjoyed it as much. I've had two bad crashes this year, one result a broken hand, the other bunch of road rash and a sprained shoulder. These crashes were not my fault...of course...
:-) What I have found is that when I ride in the group now I'm so overly cautious, that I don't enjoy the ride as much. All that to say I'm beginning to become a solo rider. I have always enjoyed my time riding alone as you can focus more on what you want to accomplish without worrying about going too fast or slow for other riders. Just my 2 pennys.