British Cycling vs Cycling UK or LCC

[Sergeant Pluck]

The time has come to renew my BC membership and I'd prefer to look elsewhere.

Do all the above offer similar levels of insurance cover and assistance?

[yoav]

If it's only 3rd party insurance and legal assistance you're after then BC and Cycling UK are much of a muchness.
Beyond that, unless you are involved with cycle sport then you might as well join Cycling UK which at least has a magazine and campaigns for cyclists.

[L CC]

I don't do insurance but my assistance is awesome 

[Kim]

Last time I gave the matter any attention, the insurance cover was basically the same, and the difference came down to:

a) whether you need the membership to participate in the activities of affiliated groups
2) whether there are any specific member benefits (discounts etc) you might use
Three) the overall objectives of culturing cycle sport vs improving the lot of cyclists generally
IV) your feelings on the matters of compulsory helmets, non-UCI-compliant cycles, transphobia and $EvilOilCorp sponsorship.

(Obviously I'm in the wrong area to benefit from L CC's awesome assistance.  I have to PushBikes instead.)

[Paul H]

Do all the above offer similar levels of insurance cover and assistance?

If that's all you're interested in there may be better offers outside of cycling organisations, you may already have adequate PL insurance, it's often bundled up with various other things such as household policies. That cycling organisations sell so many memberships on it's benefit is a bit of a wheeze, the cost is minimal as is the risk.
Another benefit of BC or CUK membership is the agreement with their tied solicitors not to charge the success fee to members who have successful personal injuries claims. Hopefully you'll never need it, if you do it could save to £1,000's. You might also find this elsewhere, I had it with a union membership, I don't think any other cycling organisations offer it (Clarion offer a discount from 25% to 15%, I don't think LCC have any such benefit)
I'm a member of Cycling UK, I get enough benefit to warrant the subs, but I support the aims enough that I'd probably be a member even if I didn't.

[Canardly]

Check your home insurance policy you may well already be covered for third party risk.

[phantasmagoriana]

I've recently cancelled my BC membership - mainly because I just don't do any cycling, but also due to a combination of factors outlined in Kim's post.

If I get to the point where I want to join an organisation again, I guess I'll go the CUK route - I originally left them around the time of the great rebrand, but at this point it's the lesser of two evils.

[Philip Whiteman]

I've recently cancelled my BC membership - mainly because I just don't do any cycling, but also due to a combination of factors outlined in Kim's post.

If I get to the point where I want to join an organisation again, I guess I'll go the CUK route - I originally left them around the time of the great rebrand, but at this point it's the lesser of two evils.

Quite.  I too resigned from BC on the basis of their idiotic statements over the past few years that represented themselves as anything other than pro-cycling.

[rogerzilla]

Not BC:

1. Pro-helmet, whatever they say about choice
2. Big Oil
3. Liability cover excludes colliding with another BC member.
4. Lots of highly unsavoury allegations of abuse in the competitive sphere.

Imagine if (3) applied to motor insurance!!!

[Sergeant Pluck]

I don't do insurance but my assistance is awesome 

 

Anyway, I went for Cycling UK, having abandoned BC for the reasons mentioned by Kim and RZ.

[SpaceBadger]

Yay! Cycling UK is awesome. More support to them and less to BC makes me smile. I hope you like the experience as a member.

[canny colin]

Cycling UK , because It supports  the British cycle Quest .

[yoav]

I am a member of both, but that's because I am commissaire and my BC membership comes free. My money goes to CUK.

[paddyirish]

I let my BC membership lapse after the Shell fiasco, but this discussion prompted me to rejoin CUK, which I left after the rebrand a few years back.

Thanks for the advice

[vorsprung]

I also quit CUK as they were cockwombles, joined British Cycling who then out cockwombled with the Shell clusterfuck.  Great work BC!

Looked briefly at rejoining CUK but discovered it seemed to be compulsary to use direct debit ( given CUK's past record of renewal charging insanity this seems like a particularly bad idea)

Probably LCC would be ok but I don't live in London or anywhere near it


I am not a member of any organisation that does insurance now and I'm using https://www.cycleplan.co.uk/ for 3rd party

I am a member of Exeter Wheelers CC and AUK so that will have to do

[Quint]

I've recently cancelled my BC membership - mainly because I just don't do any cycling, but also due to a combination of factors outlined in Kim's post.

If I get to the point where I want to join an organisation again, I guess I'll go the CUK route - I originally left them around the time of the great rebrand, but at this point it's the lesser of two evils.

      As I understand it BC has a clause that says if you have an accident and a fellow member is the other party you cannot claim against them using their system (correct me if I am wrong pls) this raises the possibility of BC member in a car clouting you off and nothing being done.

[MattH]

I'm in the same position as yoav; free BC bronze membership due to being an official. But rather than bump that up to silver (at a discount) to get insurance, I pay for CUK for myself and MrsH as I want to support their campaigning.

[Afasoas]

FWIW just rejoined the CTC (CUK*)

Their forum seems a bit borked. Registration required special measures to get Google Captcha to work and there's no sign of the user account activation email.


*By golly that's an unfortunate acronym

[hubner]

Last time I gave the matter any attention, the insurance cover was basically the same, and the difference came down to:

a) whether you need the membership to participate in the activities of affiliated groups
2) whether there are any specific member benefits (discounts etc) you might use
Three) the overall objectives of culturing cycle sport vs improving the lot of cyclists generally
IV) your feelings on the matters of compulsory helmets, non-UCI-compliant cycles, transphobia and $EvilOilCorp sponsorship.

(Obviously I'm in the wrong area to benefit from L CC's awesome assistance.  I have to PushBikes instead.)

Good points. And there was that thing when BC told people not to go cycling during the Queen's funeral. But I'm not all that bothered about Shell.

[vorsprung]

But I'm not all that bothered about Shell.

That's ok