This page provides information for new and experienced riders.
Group Riding
Follow these links for advice on riding in groups:
Group riding advice from Cycling UK
Group riding advice from British Cycling
Riding Etiquette
In a group it is essential to cycle in a disciplined manner for your own and others’ safety. The guidelines below are designed to make your ride as enjoyable as possible:
- Always maintain full control of your cycle and follow a steady course
- Keep an adequate safety gap between you and the cycle in front
- Every rider should be aware of the person behind. If you turn off the existing route you should check that the person behind has seen you.
- It is OK to cycle two abreast on quiet, traffic-free roads and lanes. When you need to move into single file this is usually done by the outside rider coming in behind the nearside one.
- Always cycle in single-file if there are double white lines, on busy roads, if the road is narrow and you cannot see ongoing traffic or if double-file is preventing cars from overtaking.
- Cycle in groups of no more than five cyclist and leave a gap between groups for a bus to slot into it
- It is OK to overtake the leader on hills but wait in a safe place at the top for the group to re-form. Otherwise do not overtake the leader without permission.
- If inexperienced riders are having difficulty keeping up with the group, they and the leader should discuss whether the group would be better split.
- When riding in the rain or when the roads are wet please consider others and use a bike with mudguards. If you find yourself in a position where it is wet and you have no mudguards please ride at the back of the group to avoid spraying those behind you.
- When stopped to regroup, especially at a junction, make every effort to get off the road, if possible move onto a grass verge, pavement or layby
Hand signals
Please use the following link for commonly used cyclist hand signals:
Bike Maintenance
For help with maintaining your bike either talk to another club member or click on one of these links:
Riding your bike Safely
Click on the links below for more information about cycling safely:
definitive guide to riding safely
Members hints and tips
Adhoc hints and tips from club members.
- Recently my bike developed a very Irritating and mysterious knocking noise. This mainly occurred when going over rough road surfaces. The noise appeared to be coming from the rear of the bike, but couldn’t say for certain. Spent the best part of a day investigating what may be causing this. Took mud fenders off, tightened up every nut and bold etc, but to no avail. What it was, the rear mech hanger had become loose. It was simple matter of tightening up two small retaining screws
Riding on Towpaths
Please see the attached information from the Stroud Valleys Canal Company
SVCC-Towpath-users-note-January-2020