Thursday, November 30, 2006

Back after a year's spell.

I'm riding a lot more now than I was. I've joined DubboBUG, a local group which has a ride every Sunday morning, and another on Wednesday evenings in the summer. The rides are a great motivator to get out on the road. You also learn basic bunch riding skills and safe riding practices, and meet a nice bunch of people.

Regular riders' ages range from 'teens to seventies, and there are usually 15 to 20 people on a ride. Most ride mountain/recreational bikes. There's generally a huge range in fitness, and with that in mind we've settled on two kinds of rides:

Out and back

Whitewood Road for example. The ride organiser names a road out of town and a time (45 mins or an hour). Everyone rides out, and the group generally splits into fast, slow and medium bunches. After the nominated time, everyone turns around and heads back, and gets to the cafe at the same time (in theory!)

Loop ride

The Town Loop is typical. We make sure there are short-cuts in the loop for those who don't want to go the whole distance, and so that slower and faster riders still meet up for coffee at about the same time.



One of the experienced riders stays with the back markers so that no-one gets lost or stuck with a mechanical problem. Sunday rides include the obligatory coffee stop on the way back.

I've posted some more of our regular routes on bikely.com - search on "DubboBUG".