Run your club's rides somewhere better than a Facebook group

Why move your group off Facebook?

When I went looking for group rides again in 2021, just after COVID, there was nothing organised. It was all scattered around Facebook. Everyone was out riding, but finding out what was on this Saturday meant scrolling, asking and hoping someone replied.

That's the problem with running a club on a social network. It was built for posting, not for running rides:

	A Facebook group or WhatsApp chat	A Plus1 group
Who's coming?	Count the likes and comments, then chase the rest	An attendance list: who's going, who's waiting, when they joined
The ride's full	"Sorry, full" in the comments	An automatic waiting list: when someone drops out, the next rider moves across and gets a notification
The weekly ride	Post it again every week	Set it once: every week, every other week or every four weeks
Safety sign-off	Nothing	Your own waiver wording, agreed before a rider can join, recorded with the time
Telling everyone	Posts slide down the feed	An update lands on your members' phones as a notification
People not on it yet	Need an account to see anything	A public group page with your rides and add-to-calendar
Ads	Yes	None

You don't have to burn the Facebook group down. Most clubs will run both for a while. The point is that the ride itself, who's coming and who's responsible, lives somewhere built for it.

What your group gets

Screens from the Plus1 app, with a sample group.

See a demoStep-by-step guide

• A proper home A group page with your name, cover photo, area, links and leaders, as a club, a guide, a shop or a group. Share it as plus1app.uk/g/your-group.
• Set the weekly ride once Repeating rides every week, every other week or every four weeks, with an end date if you want one. Skip a date, edit it or stop it any time.
• Know who's coming Attendance in one screen: going, waiting, when they joined and when they agreed your waiver. Share it as a spreadsheet if you need a register.
• Caps and waiting lists Set a limit from 2 to 60 riders. When it's full, riders join the waiting list, and the first in line moves across automatically when a place frees up.
• Joining deadlines Close sign-ups from an hour to two days before the start, so you know your numbers before you leave the house.
• Waivers Your own wording, or a standard one to start from. Riders agree before they can join, and you can see when each one did.
• One message to everyone Post an update, with a photo if you like, and your members get it as a notification. Trail closed, meeting point changed, pub after: sorted.
• Your members, your call Open or ask-to-join, listed in search or link-only. See your member list, add co-leaders, and remove someone quietly if you need to.

Looking after your riders

Running a group ride is about people more than routes. The best rides I've been on mixed ages and abilities, everyone looked out for each other, and nobody got left at the top of a climb.

Plus1 helps you do that properly:

• Every ride says its level. Skill level and ride type are on every ride, so riders turn up to the right one and you're not nursing someone round a trail that's beyond them.
• You know exactly who's on the ride. The attendance list tells you who said they're coming, and the waiver tells you they read your terms before they joined.
• Riders can see who's out. Plus1's Active now shows riders who are out right now, roughly, never as an exact pin, so your members can find each other between club nights.
• It's checked. Every new group is approved by hand before it goes live, and block and report are one tap away for everyone.

When you start a group, you accept the group leader terms. In plain English: the rides are yours and so are the riders on them. That's how it should be. Plus1 gives you better tools; you still lead the ride.

Guides and coaches: payments are coming

If you guide or coach, you can already run your sessions on Plus1: repeating dates, caps, waiting lists, waivers and a register. What's missing today is taking payment in the same place.

That's coming. coming soon Paid rides and bookings for guides and coaching sessions are next on the list, so a rider can find your session, book it and pay without a single message. Until then, take payment the way you do now.

How to move your group

1. Download Plus1 and choose "I run a group or club" when it asks what brings you here. Already on Plus1? Go to Settings, then Community, then Groups, and tap Start a group.
2. Start your group: name, type, area and links. Accept the group leader terms.
3. Add your weekly ride. Set it once and it repeats.
4. We check it by hand, usually within a day. You'll get a notification when it's live.
5. Share it where your riders already are. Post the link in your Facebook group, WhatsApp chat or Instagram bio, and share each ride as it comes up. Members join on Plus1, and the group moves across at its own pace.

The step-by-step guide goes through every one of these screens in order, with what to tap. Or email hello@plus1app.uk and we'll set your group up for you.

Plus1 is free on iPhone and Android. If you want to talk it through first, email hello@plus1app.uk. It comes straight to me.

For riders looking for a club, we've written up how to find a mountain bike club in the UK and how to join a group ride.