Ride 63 – Who We Are

Ride 63 Community Cycle Club was established in 2014 by Clyde Muirshiel Regional Park https://clydemuirshiel.co.uk/ alongside the development of the Pedal the Park sportive which ran between 2015 and 2021. From 2021 the Club has become a stand-alone entity but we enjoy a close relationship with The Park and the Castle Semple Visitor Centre in Lochwinnoch is our home and clubhouse.

The ‘63’ in the Club name refers to the Ordnance Survey Landranger map 63 which covers the northern part of the Clyde Coast, Renfrewshire, North Ayrshire, Inverclyde, Dunoon and the Isles of Bute and Cumbrae. This is the area in which we do most of our riding though we sometimes venture to Glasgow, South Ayrshire and Arran and Club members take part in rides all over Scotland and beyond.

Ride 63 is a Community Cycle Club, with emphasis on ‘community’. We are a small (but growing) group of recreational cyclists who ride for fun rather than for competition and prizes. Our rides can be challenging because of the hilly nature of the area we ride in but we have a ‘no-drop’ policy that means we look after our fellow riders and won’t leave you behind if you are the last one up (or down) the hill (and someone has to be last after all) or if you or your bike has a problem.

Ride 63 is open to anyone aged 18 and over who can ride a bike and who fits in with our Club ethos.  It is a standing joke that most members can’t recognise each other without cycling helmets on so we don’t care about your sex, sexuality, race, religion, job, politics or anything else. We do require that you are an adult (though if enough members want to take the responsibility of adding children to the Club we are more than happy to do so in the future) and can ride a bike safely on the road.

Ride 63 is the home of the Tortoises and the Hares. Tortoises are riders who won’t set any speed records but always get there in the end while the Hares like to race up (or down) the hills and wait for everyone else to arrive at the bottom (or top). Somehow or another we all seem to arrive at the café or back to the car at the same time… We have been described as a road riding club with the ethos of a mountain biking club, meaning that while individual riders might briefly do their own thing on a ride we will all ride together for most of it.

We nearly always ride on the road (though several of our club members ride mountain bikes and on ‘gravel’) and most of our members have drop-bar road bikes (what those of a certain age might call ‘racers’ – though our bikes are usually a bit more relaxed and comfortable to ride than race bikes) while a few have flat-bar road bikes or hybrids. We don’t really care what kind of bike you ride but you might find that certain types of bikes or tyres (mountain bikes, for example) make it harder to keep up with the group. Whatever type of bike you ride it will need to have a good spread of gears to assist with riding in the hills.

If you are brand-new to cycling, perhaps someone who hasn’t ridden a bike since childhood, or feel clueless about what sort of bike to buy or riding you want to do then Ride 63 can potentially help. We might be able to offer you advice on where to go to buy a bike or team you up with one of our members to take you out on an introductory ride. We might be able to give your bike a once over and help you with getting clothing and equipment together. For any number of reasons it might be that cycling with our club is not the best fit for you but if we can help get you cycling more (or at all) we are delighted to help where we can. So please get in touch if you have any questions at all.

If you have any Questions or Queries, please get in touch using the form below.