Group ride planner (UK)

Planning a group ride in the UK usually means a Facebook thread that's chaos by Thursday, a WhatsApp group where the meet time changes four times, and someone still turning up at the wrong petrol station. A proper group ride planner fixes the coordination — one meeting point, one time, one place to see who's actually coming — so the only thing left to sort is the route, which is the fun part anyway.

What a group ride planner needs to handle

Three headaches sink most group rides before the engines start: where to meet (and everyone finding it), who's coming (and how many), and keeping the group together once you're moving. Rallypoint handles the first two directly. The third is down to good ride-out habits — we've written a full guide to that.

Planning a ride in Rallypoint, step by step

1. Drop a meeting point. Pick the spot on the map — a café, a car park, a landmark — set the date and time, and add a note ("full tanks, 9:30 for a 10am off").
2. Add a destination (Pro). Turn it into a Ride Out: gather here, ride to there. Rallypoint never plots the route between — that's the group's to choose on the day — it just anchors the where and the why.
3. Set the pace. Steady, brisk or spirited, so nobody signs up expecting a gentle potter and finds themselves hanging on, or vice versa.
4. Cap the numbers. Want a tight group of six rather than a twenty-bike convoy? Set a rider limit; the join list shows "Full" once it's reached.
5. Choose who sees it. Public puts it on the map for every rider in range; unlisted keeps it invite-only, shared by link — ideal for a club run or a few mates.
6. Riders join and you're set. Everyone who taps join is on the list, you can message the whole group, and the plan lives in one place instead of scattered across three apps.

Why not just use a sat-nav app?

Navigation apps are great at drawing lines on maps and poor at the human part — getting the right riders to the right place at the right time. Rallypoint deliberately doesn't do routing; it's the social layer that sits before the ride. Bring whatever nav you already trust for the roads themselves. What Rallypoint gives you is the thing a route planner can't: the people.

It's free (Ride Outs are the Pro bit)

Dropping a meeting point, messaging riders, and joining any ride is free. The destination-plus-pace-plus-cap Ride Out planning is part of Pro (a few pounds a month), but anyone — free or Pro — can view and join a Ride Out. No app store, no download; it runs in your phone's browser and installs to the home screen.

Next reads: how to organise a group ride · ride-out etiquette · FAQ