Good opportunity discuss a bit re the culture of the club we’re trying to build here.
Over the past 10-15yrs, social media platforms like Facebook have become the default operating system (?) for clubs and social groups. Consider the two bike FB ADV rider groups in Colorado, with >11k “members” and ~7k “members” respectively.
Members in quotes because they’re not members of a club or a group. Rather, they are large collections of randos aggregated by a social media platform in order to sell their attention to advertisers. And I know from experience, as I’ve done this many times with these other groups / pages, that when you organize a ride on these platforms you often get just that…a group of unvetted randos showing up to engage in an activity where, in less than 30 minutes on the trail you can get to a place that will take you all day to walk out on foot if something goes sidewise.
I have a raft of stories of unvetted group rides going sideways – 12 guys in Baja with 2 of them carrying drugs across the border, guys with a 12 pack in their backpacks, shotgunning beers at intersections, helo evacs of injured riders, having to physically eject a douchebag from a 3 day ride by throwing his keys into the bushes while the rest of us just rode away. More locally relevant, I’ve done 2x mini-COBDRs with one of these groups and each were an absolute shit show of 15+ riders, no real leadership, no group SOPs, no comms, and the dangerous combination of under-skilled and over-biked riders.
The fact is that ADV riding is a risky, dangerous activity and when things go sideways you want mature, dependable, capable problem solvers with you. In fact, I consider every group ride to be an interview, as I assess who is an asset and who’s a potential liability. IE, who I want to ride with and who I will activity avoid riding with in the future.
The model that Gino and I are following is a cycling club: real people who connect, socialize and ride with each other in the real world. Group riding SOPs and, more importantly, every full member has been vetted by having to attend a ride before we take their whole $30/yr membership fee. In fact, we absolutely will not take your money or let you join until you’ve attending a club ride.
And multi-day rides of a BDR flavor or other will always be limited to full, paid members of the club. This is to ensure that everyone on the ride has been through this in-person vetting process.