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at that point i was a newbie to club rides - so the whole bunch riding etiquette was new to me - although i take your point that i didn't particularly worry about being dropped.
in terms of the kit that you turn up on - i never saw any 'ageism' or anything like that. As far as i could tell, as long as the bike was fit for purpose i don't think anyone cared.
But... if you turn up on something that is clearly badly maintained or not suited to the ride (a bmx/polo bike etc) then you will get some odd looks. But this will only be because no-one wants to spend a precious sunday morning stood on the side of the road waiting for someone who has either turned up equipped for the wrong sport or on something held together by road grime and hope. -
I don't really know why the Dynamoes get such a hard time. I did a whole bunch of their sunday club rides last year to train for a couple of triathlon's and a sportive and thought they were completely fine - to my knowledge no-one was ever dropped and the only mechanical which caused an issue was some bloke who turned up on tubs, wasn't carrying a spare and flatted.
one thing that makes Rapha less pricey are promotional codes. Anyone know of any that might work at the moment, I need to feed my habit...