I am not, by nature, a joiner. I’m not sure if it’s due to stubbornness, a tendency towards hermit-ing or fear of rejection, but I don’t generally find myself joining a lot of formalized clubs or organizations. I’m not a member any sort of fraternal organizations, fan clubs or book clubs, and that is fine with me; it frees up a lot of time to pursue other interests such as sipping coffee or Glenn Danzig cosplay. But there is one type of club I show no hesitation in joining, and that would be bicycle clubs.

I am currently a member of two different bike clubs, the Century Road Club Association (There’s two different Century Road Clubs, the aforementioned one from New York City that I belong to, and the Century Road Club of America, which I think is in Central New Jersey. Both clubs predate the 20th century, with the CRCofA starting 7 years before the CRCA in 1891. Do these two clubs have any beef between them? I have no idea. But I do know that the century in these clubs stands for riding a hundred miles, not for a span of one hundred years. Bike dorks, alike even if they are apart.), and I’m also a member of a club here in New Jersey, the Bicycle Touring Club of North Jersey, known as the BTCNJ, which honestly isn’t really much of a timesaver as far as acronyms go.

These twos clubs are pretty different. The CRCA is a racing club which puts on regular races for both club members and the general bike racing public. Competition between club teams can be very intense, often leading to many heated team group messages in the days following races. The BTCNJ is a social club, with a schedule of rides that gets posted to its site, supplying members with a multitude of ride opportunities. (Seriously, there’s like 5-10 rides listed for every day of the week.) The BTCNJ rides stop for socializing and snacking, because what are we, animals? The BTCNJ also puts on the Ramapo Rally, a lovely ride in August that jaunts about North Western Bergen County.

For the past two season, due to the absence of race at Floyd Bennett Field, I have been a regular on the Tuesday night BTCNJ ride. It starts about a mile from my front door and has a few spicy sections along the route, but there’s spots for regrouping and I’ve never heard of an email sent in anger after any of the outings. There’s a sprint spot near the end, and I guess someone “wins”, but it’s a friendly affair and no one sprints if there’s traffic. The bragging rights for the sprint win last about 500 meters.

I enjoy the variety between my two club memberships (if there was another bike club in the area, I’d join that also, because it usually costs less than $40 a year, and the clubs help bike people do bike stuff—what more could you want?) Each club gives me a very different experience of the world of bikes, one club gives me races and an endless supply of humbling experiences and the other gives me opportunities to ride with friends and stop for snacks. What else could I possibly ask for?