Archive for November 23, 2014

Winter Rides

Winter Rides: *Updated November 2015*

Please Read the below so you fully understand our intentions for winter club events. 

Unfortunately living in the North of England we are at the mercy of mother nature. Just to re-address the issue of winter rides.

We try our best to keep club activity to as near to as full time as we can, we were lucky in previous winters as we never really had any severe weather.

Safety of all members is our top concern and it may get to the point where for these reasons we call off a ride. If you don’t feel confident riding in the weather that has been forecast, there is no shame in dropping out of the ride if you think you won’t be to manage for whatever reason.

We recommend lights for all rides during the winter months due to visibility being lower than the brighter summer months, especially for the ride to and from the club rides. For our week night training sessions they are mandatory (these rides take place in the hours of darkness, it’s also a legal requirement to be lit up at night) – as a minimum, on a club ride a flashing rear light is suggested in daylight hours. (just think if there was an insurance claim, have you took reasonable precautions to aid your visibility) It is your responsibility to make yourself visible to others.

Regarding club rides and events, the decision to cancel or alter a ride will be made where we can, the evening before so during the winter please make sure for our events you check the social media channels (usually this will be decided

We will post a message on one of the following (twitter and main club page are interlinked):

  • Our Facebook page
  • The Event Page
  • Twitter

This decision will be made amongst a group of our regular riders from observing the current conditions, forecast and any weather warnings in place. Rides may be also subject to delay, cancellation or alteration on the day if we feel that it may not be safe to continue due to sudden weather or forecasts received. Please check the individual events and main page for any relevant messages before you leave the house that morning.

CONTENT UPDATE

You may notice some changes in the coming weeks, I am tidying up the site and keeping it a little more up to date. Some pages may change titles and we may add some new features.

Affilation: Blaydon Cycle Club and the year ahead (Please Read)

In the next week or so we will be submitting our British Cycling affiliation forms again.

We will have a few new options available:

first of all you will be required to submit emergency contact details. this will be a mandatory field when you sign up, as of the new year we want to make sure we have a contact for all should we need it.

Secondly there will be a few membership options, the majority of new members will be standard members and that remains at £10 a year. We will also be offering a discounted second club membership. This will be only open to members who have a primary club already (we can and will check!). Some members will be racing there’s extra costs to this so a small extra amount may be added to cover racing affiliation costs. This hasn’t been confirmed yet and will be arranged when subs are due. We will keep the half year membership, but again, this won’t be due until mid-summer for new members. on all memberships British Cycling levy a £1 charge unfortunately this is a small fee we pay to BC to enable us to keep all record electronic and less paper!

We are Time Trial affiliated. More on this to go on the website soon for anyone interested.

2014 has been a big first year, a big learning curve. We have done things right, done things wrong. we hope to build on the lessons learned of 2014. While we have aspirations of a race team and Time Trials please do remember this is just natural progression and development of the club, We have members of mixed ability down from the newest cyclists, right through to those who have raced across a country. We need to be able to accommodate everyone, the club will do its best to strive and preserve that yet it is very important to get the key messages out that although you may see chatter about racing, time trials and competitive cycling we have something for everyone, In numbers on every ride we can have groups of riders matched to their ability, and we are always open for questions if you have doubts about a ride.  We don’t want people to be ‘scared’ of a club run due to distance, speed, or its terrain, a simple post on the event could be all it takes to have your mind put at ease. Our main focus is and always will be catering for anyone who has an interest in cycling.

What we have done well we want to do better, where we have let people down we don’t want to repeat. We hope to see you on the other side (in 2015 that is!) and help us to build on the foundations that have already being set for a club that is getting some great attention.

As always any feedback or suggestions drop us a line.