Turn up to club rides fully prepared

Your Bike
Our rides (unless listed as Gravel rides) are designed for road bikes – riding anything else you will struggle to keep up unless super fit.

It is imperative that your bike is road legal and well serviced with efficient brakes and tyres. If something fails you will endanger the safety of the whole group.

Please carry the following with you: a pump, essential tools, spare tubes

Make sure that your tyre pressures are correct as you can waste a lot of energy and effort fighting a low tyre. If you are unsure go to your nearest bicycle shop and get them to check but as a rule of thumb modern road bike wheels and tyres will run happily and efficiently at 100psi or if you squeeze the tyre you should get very little or no top to bottom movement. Invest in a track pump for home and renew your tyres on a regular basis.

In Winter with wet roads and rain, rear mudguards are strongly advised as they reduce spray on the riders behind

Helmets
WEARING A HELMET IS COMPULSORY ON CANTERBURY BICYCLE CLUB RIDES!!

You may not want to wear one but there will always be people around you who are uneasy and nervous about riding with someone that would want to take this unnecessary risk. It is their ride too.

Clothes club members wear club jerseys and bib shorts/tights. Remember a gilet/jacket for protection from wind/rain/cold and gloves/shoe covers as appropriate for the season.

Food / Drink For usual club rides you should food/gels for 2-3 hours and don’t forget to take more water/energy drink than you think you’ll need (most people carry at least 2 x 500ml and some 2 x 750 ml even in the winter).

A mobile phone is helpful and it’s worth taking the numbers of other people on the ride in case of an emergency. Also consider taking some ID, plus money for a coffee stop or train fare home.

Routes
You shouldn’t need a map, but take one if you need some added reassurance, or if you are unfamiliar with the main routes that we cover. If you have a Garmin or similar or if you use Map My Tracks or Strava you can download the routes from the routes page.

Always bring a sense of humour. Things rarely go to plan, but that is one of the joys of these training rides.

The CBC rides are Group Rides – have a read about Group Riding Techniques