When choosing a ride, please do not attempt rides significantly beyond your level of experience. Your presence may hinder other riders and you may injure yourself trying to keep up. CCORC encourages advancement, but we don’t want you to become discouraged by biting off more than you can chew. If in doubt, err on the conservative side and call the ride leaders for their opinions of ride difficulty.
Non-members are welcome on all club rides and at all club activities. Minors (under the age of 18) are required to have a parent or guardian attend. Bring water and food for every ride. Be prepared for a flat by carrying a spare tube, patch kit, frame pump and tire levers. Helmets are required on all club rides. Also all rides, unless noted, are “rain cancels”. Rides are rated as follows:
A: Good for beginners, flat, smooth fire roads with little or no loose gravel, sand or unavoidable obstacles, such as the parameter loop of Woodward Park.
B: Gentle rolling hills, some loose soil, a few shallow ruts, smooth single track without manydrop-offs or technical areas, such as Millerton.
C: Single track with easy downhill technical areas, may have some large loose rocks, jumps, speed bumps and/or small drop-offs, such as the middle and bottom of 007.
D: Technical single track, rutted fire roads, short hike a bike sections, such as Goat Mountain. E: Expert skills required, rocky, steep sections with lots of drop-offs, some hike a bike sections, such as the Willow Creek Trail.
1: Slow pace, lots of rest stops, very slow climbs and descents, pace set by slowest rider.
2: Leisurely pace, slow climbs and moderate descents.
3: Moderate pace, moderate climbs and descents, fewer rest stops.
4: Brisk pace, moderate climbs and fast descents. 5: FAST, approaching race pace, fast climbs and descents, very few rest stops.
Visit our Facebook events page for more information and to RSVP
So you’ve been invited on a group mountain bike ride. Is it ok to invite somebody else to join?
Here are the rules:
You are responsible for the person whom you invite. That means, when the shit goes down, and your buddy tangles himself up in rhododendron and his derailleur resembles a corkscrew, nobody else is walking him out. Expect the ride to go on.
When the guy you’ve started seeing, and haven’t ridden with yet, is having a temper-tantrum in the back because he can’t climb, don’t expect anyone to hang around close enough to witness it. That’s when you need to do an immediate abort especially if you want to continue seeing the guy without your friends calling him a #@%%y forever more.
What? Don’t know your way out of the woods?! Don’t want to go back? This behavior will only bar you from future rides.
When you feel out of shape and decide to invite somebody slower than you on a ride, the dynamics change drastically. The guy who came up with the ride probably knows exactly how long it will take him were he by himself. He has already added in the extra time factor for more breaks, inevitable with more people, to allow for some waiting. Something small always happens. But if you have just slowed the ride down by one or two hours, you have screwed a lot of people for the sake of your ego.
Don’t invite the girl who tries to tick off her boyfriend by riding as slowly as she can in the dead of winter when everyone’s legs are cementing and core temperatures are dropping while waiting.
DO invite the girl who can keep up, despite the fact that she has forgotten her bike shoes and is riding in some borrowed Brogans on flat pedals.
DON’T invite the guy who has designated himself as fastest rider of all, who also talks incessantly of bike parts.
DON’T invite the guy who insists on going downhill first, only to ball every one else up in the juicy bits where he has crashed.
DO invite the girl who, although she is always 10 minutes behind, consistently carries a pack full of Ho-Ho’s for everyone.
(Not sure who sent this to CCORC but it’s a keeper)
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