All posts by Andy Henderson

Yes. To be covered by Cycling UK guidance insurance, rides must be led by a leader registered with Cycling UK.

Yes. You decide how many people you want to ride with, it's up to you how big your rides are.

No. You can specify a ride has no limit on numbers. For example:

• A relatively small ride that will not be overcome by numbers
• Rides that are prepared for larger numbers by ensuring they have enough leaders to split the ride into sensible numbers
• An event that, by it's nature, is unlimited such as a club night.

No. In the past all our rides were 'turn up if you feel like it'. If you're confident enough to return to that approach for a ride, you can specify there's no limit on riders and that booking is not required.

Not necessarily. We want our rides to be as open as possible, so if you get more requests than you can deal with, selecting people in the order they ask to join should be the default method. There are however, some good reasons why you might use a different approach:

• Someone might be unsuitable for your ride, or you might find it difficult to invite someone you don't know on a demanding ride.
• You might prioritise certain types of people (best stated explicitly in your ride description). For example, you might prioritise:
  • PCTC members
  • Non-members
  • New riders
• Given the limited size of our rides, you might put someone who recently joined a previous ride to the back of the queue.
• We've put people on notice that if they fail to turn up for a ride, they might find it difficult to join another one

If at all possible, however, we want to avoid creating exclusive cliques keeping the inclusive spirit of Portsmouth CTC rides.

It depends a little on the type of ride and your policy for prioritising requests. If you think it will take a while to send out invites for your ride, consider acknowledging requests as you receive them so the sender knows they got through.

In any case, please let requesters know whether they are invited or not (putting people you do not invite onto a waiting list) as soon as you can.

Check with the web site to see if there's a similar ride that might be undersubscribed that might be able to accept additional riders.

In any case, please let everyone who asks to join your ride know whether they are invited, or not.

Check with the web site to see if there's a similar ride that might be over-subscribed or a candidate for a merged ride.

Yes. We do, however, ask that you to give riders at least one clear day's notice (preferably more) to give people time to see your ride and respond.

There's no harm in announcing you're flexible about the start date and time. You will be required to enter one for your ride but if there's a consensus for moving the ride to a different day or time, you can update it making sure everyone you invite knows.

Yes.

You have the right to say no.

Please let Andy Henderson know of any abuses.

We keep statistics on our rides for reporting to the AGM and Cycling UK each year. You can update statistics via the 'Add/update statistics for this ride' link on your ride page.

You can get to the ride page via the web site calendar.

You can also enter statistics via menu options: Admin / Statistics / Record rider statistics.

Alternatively let Andy Henderson know that all the booked riders attended, or any differences, and he'll update the stats for you.

Points are awarded as follows...

• Ride leaders get double points for the part(s) of the ride they lead.
• Ride to elevenses 1 point
• Ride from elevenses to lunch (with the ride continuing after) 1 point
• Pub ride 1 point
• Riders who abandon get their point for the part of the ride they were on at the time.
• There is only one leader for a ride (usually the person who set the ride up on the web site) unless the ride is split.

So a half-day ride will typically earn riders 1 point; a full day ride 2 points. Leaders will typically earn 2 and 4 points respectively.

Log in to the web site and go to the Add/update a ride page. You can find it under the 'Member services' menu when you are logged-in to the site. You will see a page like this:

You need to enter just six pieces of information:

1. The date of your ride. Click the day in the calendar. You can use the month drop-down or the arrow button at the top right to choose a different month. When you select a date it appears in full next to 'Selected date'.
2. The start time for your ride. The drop down allows you to select from 8am to 8:30pm in 15 minute intervals.
3. The ride type: either 'pop-up ride', or one of the other types of ride we organise. Note that pop-up rides for Wednesdays and Saturdays are converted automatically to Wednesday/Saturday rides.
4. The maximum number of riders (including you) that you will allow on the ride.
5. A brief title for your ride.
6. A description for your ride. We suggest content for this box in the form. There is no practical limit to the size of your description.

Optionally, you can also provide:

1. A grade for your ride. We provide a link to more details about our grading scheme - the page opens in a separate tab or window, you won't lose your place in the form.
2. Venues for: the start; elevenses; lunch (or pub for evening pub rides) and tea - you will see a pop-up window that allows you to search venues in our database).
3. A GPX file of your route - you will see a pop-up window allowing you to select a GPX file from our database or upload a new one).

When you are happy with your ride, add it by clicking 'Add your ride'.

If there is a problem with your ride, you will see an error message. Otherwise you will see a list of your forthcoming rides that should include the ride you just added (see 'How do I change my ride later' below).

It will help riders if you update your ride with bookings made so that members can check they are booked onto your ride before they join.

To record one or more bookings, log in to the site and go to your ride page (you will see an option to view it if you go to the Add/update a ride page. As the ride leader, you will see a 'Bookings for this ride' section that looks like this:

Select the maximum number of riders (including you) in the first box. The change is made immediately, there is no need to click a separate update button.

To add a booking select a rider's name in the 'Add a booking' box. The list includes all current PCTC members plus non-members that have ridden with us recently. If the rider doesn't appear in the list select 'A new rider not in list below'. Then click 'Add this person'. Again, the change is made immediately.

If you select a person marked as non-PCTC or the 'New rider' option bear in mind you should ask them to complete a ride entry form if they are not a Cycling UK member.

As you update the bookings, the 'Current bookings section' changes to show the current list. You will see a 'Delete' button next to each entry. Click it to remove that entry from the list.

Note that rider names will appear only to members who log in to the site.

Having entered at least one ride, you will see a list like the one below when you go to the Add/update a ride page.

Click 'View' next to any ride to see how your ride appears on the site and add/update any bookings you have. Click 'Update' to see the WordPress page that allows you to change any aspect of your ride.

There's more detail on how to use the WordPress page here.

On your ride page, below the list of booked riders, you'll find an 'Email booked PCTC riders' button. Click that to send an email to all PCTC members booked on your ride. If you have booked some non-members, you'll need to email them separately as we do not hold their details on the system.

There is a service to allow you to do that. To cancel a ride, you just need to provide an updated title and, optionally, an updated description. To postpone a ride, you also provide a new date and/or time for your ride.

The service looks after other necessary changes - such as removing your ride from the statistics system - for you.

To get to the service either:

• Click/tap the 'Cancel or postpone this ride' link on your ride page
• Click/tap the 'Cancel/postpone' button shown next to your ride in the 'Add/update a ride' page (see 'How do I change my ride later' above).

To log your mileage you first have to log in to the site. This tells the site who you are and ensures your entries are recorded in the right place.

Then use the menus to click/tap 'Member services' and 'Ride logging' (see right).

That will take you to the logging screen for the current year.

Before you start logging for the first time, you can decide what you want to record in your log besides distance and destinations.

Click/tap the ‘Define log categories’ button to see the form on the left.

You don’t have to do this, but it might make your log more useful to you. I record two extra pieces of information:

1. Which bike I used for the ride

2. What type of ride it was

For example, I might record it was a Saturday ride on my Bish Bash Bosh.

Enter up to three categories of additional information and click/tap ‘Update category names’ to complete setting up your log.

You can change your mind later about which categories you want in your log.

Click/tap ‘Add a new entry to your log’ on the main logging screen (see above) to record an entry, you will see something like the screen on the right.

At the top of the form, select the date for your entry. By default, the system assumes ‘today’. To make the best use of graphs, you should choose the last date of the month when recording a monthly summary.

Then enter your distance travelled. You can use either miles or kilometres (but not both).

You can see I have opted to record two additional categories of data: ‘Bike’ and ‘Ride type’. Your categories (if you asked for any - see above) appear here. Enter anything you like in your category fields (up to 12 characters).

Record details about your ride in the description box. You should at least record the destination if you are logging an individual ride. I also record key events such as “New chain” so I can look back at the log and find out how long items have lasted.

Finally click/tap ‘Add new entry’ to complete your entry.

Hopefully you agree that’s pretty easy. If you decide to record just monthly summaries, I can record them for you if you struggle with the system.

Once you have recorded some rides, you can start seeing the benefit.

From the main logging page click/tap ‘Show graphs’. We show three sets of graphs. Here are mine as at mid-August 2019

My actual distance per month, in miles:

My cumulative distance per month, in miles:

Definite incentives for me to keep my riding up!

This graph shows which distance certificates you are targeting...

You can't tell from the images, but each graph allows you to hover over a data point to reveal more information.

Maybe you want to analyse your data a different way. For example, I might want to review the distance cycled on each of my bikes. Click/tap ‘Download your log’ to download a file containing all your data that you can open in a spreadsheet – like Excel – to analyse it any way you like.

Click/tap ‘Show table’ on the main logging screen to see how you compare with other riders:

Hmm. Could do better! You will, of course see all the entries I have blanked out here. Note we show you only totals for other riders, not their log details.

We use this to award the CCP cup (for the furthest distance cycled in the year). I have no aspirations to win that cup, however, but I still find it interesting to see how I'm doing compared to other riders.

If you make a mistake, or you want to see the detail of your log online, click/tap ‘Review and change your log’ to see a list like this:

Click/tap one of the triangles next to a month’s summary to see all the detail for the month like this:

Again, this shows the categories I’m using – you will see your own. You can click/tap any of the edit buttons to see a simple form that allows you to change the entry you selected.

No harm starting now. The system works best if you log entire PCTC years: October 1^st to September 30^th but you can start logging at any time. The system allows you to enter your log one month in arrears - so you get all of November, for example, to log rides for October.