Can we do adventurous cycle rides without them been for charity?

[YahudaMoon]

I was asked by a colleague at work to do a organised cycle ride. It would be just over 100 miles with food on arrival and transport back home.

I said I would be up for this and he would provide me more details.

So why am I not doing it? The ride is for charity and I have to find a minimum of £70 of sponsorship to take part.

I want to pay a realistic entry free for an event and do it because I love cycling not because I am doing it for charity.

I have nothing against people doing a charity events but there seems to be more and more events organised now with charity sponsorship required.

Even at work, when I tell them I am looking forward to my long ride at the weekend, they will ask what charity am I doing it for.

Can we not enjoy cycling because we enjoy cycling. Or do none cyclists see cycling as a something you would only be stupid enough to do if only you are doing it for charity?

Very well put...

Charities will do anything to try and keep there business running and the newbie cyclist is a very good profitable target along with lots of other sports.

Lots of people think cycling to work every day doing a 200km weekly commute is something no one can do and only a super hero could do. I mean you get new work colleagues asking stupid questions like " Wow ! you cycle into work every day, why don't you do the Tour De France'" lol. So when charities organise a week trip to Paris and people enter then the none cyclist that thinks the above thinks 'wow' your cycling to Paris' like it's some sort of impossible task and you must be inhuman so this is a good source of revenue for any business running a charity.

I don't like the way a lot of these charity's work. I prefer giving directly or actual working for them. I've done lots of hours for charity. Mainly homeless / refugee, of what involves distributing fruit and veg with a bicycle and trailer to organisations like the Salvation Army around Manchester.

Doing these so called charity bike events just gets peoples goat. I mean £1500 for a bike ride. I know some of the money gets through though your work entering one of these things could be a lot better worked out if you put your time effort into a charity more constructavly other than entering one of these thousands of many charity bike events.

Oh yeah Audax

 

[Fab Foodie]

There's nothing wrong with Charity rides. For many people they are their first introduction to riding 'long distances' on a bike and raise an awful lot of money for good causes. They're well organised and usually have good turnouts so there are plenty of people to ride with through nice countryside. So they have their place. Most peoples longest ever bike ride will be on a charity event. We shouldn't knock their ability to get people onto bikes.
However ... I know what yu mean, it's hard to get money from people as there are som many events.

Sportives are an easy bet, pay yer cash, turn-up and ride. Great for wannabee racers.

Audax is a bit more complex as you need stamps and envelopes and have to do your own route finding and stop at controls etc, but great routes and a lot of choice.

Club runs, many local CTC or Racing clubs also organise some longer rides. We did a 75 miler last Sunday.

Then there are 'Forum Rides' and the like, an example being the overnight FNRttC organised and propmoted here by dellzeqq of this Parish (a classic) and there are others, especially overnight a copycat style on YACF Oxford to London FNRttS,the Dun Run and Exmouth Exodus. Others organise random day rides for anyone who wants to tag along. And guess what? You could organise one yourself through these very boards and you'd meet some lovely people.
Here you go, a write-up as we speak ....
http://www.cyclechat.net/threads/strangers-in-the-night.97779/

You have options!

 

[Hacienda71]

I am not a fan of the minimum sponsorship type charity rides, but I do like the sportive where the profit goes to a worthy charity. The Macc Monster and sister ride The Peak 100 both raise funds for a kids cancer charity are run like a commercial sportive but part of your entry fee goes to the charity.

 

[mcshroom]

and of course many Audax rides can now be entered online with no requirement for stamps/C5 envelopes

 

[Sheffield_Tiger]

Some entry fees/minimum sponsorship rates are silly. Is it down to insurance/liability costs etc I wonder?

I was asked by friends who know I'm a regular walker if I fancied joining them on a 20 mile sponsored walk. I said yes, I would tag along but felt uneasy asking for sponsorship for something I could do without too much hassle, 20 miles for a non-walker is a lot but I have been known to do 24-mile walks over high moors so asking sponsorship for a 20 mile easy-going trail walk would feel cheeky.

None of us did the walk when I investigated and found it to be a £200 minimum sponsorship, just for a stroll

I figured I could easily put together a challenging walk and there'd be nothing to stop us doing a friends/families & colleagues mini-event instead, maybe raising less but with 100% of the money going to the cause.

The other thing i wonder is.....since these things are on public routes, apart from looking like a skinflint, what's to stop you walking/riding/running the route anyway, that by sheer coincidence an arranged event happened to be taking on that day

 

[marshmella]

Along with othes we worked with a number of Councils (Gosport, Fareham, Portsmouth, Havant) and developed a 30 odd mile ride round Portsmouth Harbour.

It was a success as part of Bike Week and the numbers built up over a few years, until the British Heart Foundation took over.

It is now a Charity Ride only and excludes all the people that the original design was meant to include.

That stinks.

 

[ianrauk]

The other thing i wonder is.....since these things are on public routes, apart from looking like a skinflint, what's to stop you walking/riding/running the route anyway, that by sheer coincidence an arranged event happened to be taking on that day

Nothing at all. The BHF London to Brighton attracts hundreds if not thousands of unregistered riders.

 

[Fab Foodie]

Er, I think you still need the envelopes to receive your verified brevet card afterwards ... quaint ain't it?

Stamps and envelopes require too much aforthought and planning and I'm not good at that ... and postboxes and stuff, I don't do them, same with trains really can't do them either without breaking into a cold sweat. Internet's pretty straightforward though I'm a bit lot formaphobic when it comes to having to apply for stuff. Map reading and route-finding I'm ace at, but it's not everybody's cup-o-soup ...

 

[Bayerd]

Nothing at all. The BHF London to Brighton attracts hundreds if not thousands of unregistered riders.

As does the Manchester to Blackpool. A couple of years ago I did this ride for charity as it was my first long ride and was the original incentive to get me cycling regularly.

Since then I've completed C2C in a day (127 miles), which I did because I wanted to.

Last week I went with a group from our village on a ride to Blackpool. They were all raising money for Help the Heroes. Most had only done limited training and one had done none. I was asked en route why I wasn't collecting sponsors and replied that to me, asking for sponorship money to do something that is done fairly regularly and is well within the comfort zone is just wrong.

 

[StuAff]

audax, sportives, FNRttC, SMRbtH all fit the bill...

+1.

 

[jefmcg]

Someone I worked with once asked me to sponsor her running 5km. Really? I walk 3 to the station if I leave the bike behind.

The worst was when a couple of colleagues were collecting money for the London marathon. If they hit their target, they got entry to the Boston marathon + airfares + accommodation. Must have been at least 1/3 of the money they collected. They weren't students, they were IT professionals at the height of the boom. It's made me leery of these things ever since

 

[Camrider]

Er, I think you still need the envelopes to receive your verified brevet card afterwards ... quaint ain't it?

I'm pretty sure you don't

 

[Keith Oates]

I'm another one that hates asking people to sponsor me for something, but I would willing pay a fair price for a well organised ride, even if they made a small profit for taking the trouble to organise the event!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Banjo]

A very well paid guy I know was doing a charity sponsorship for a trek across the Andes .If they raised enough the charity flew them out and paid for all the accomodation. I would rather donate the amount direct to the charity of my choice than sponsor someones free holiday thanks very much.

Personally I do som,ething for charity now and then . In recent years i have done one ride for Cancer Research and one for RNLI but thats two in about 4 years,you cant keep tapping friends and family on a regular basis.

 

[GBC]

I think that the Pedal for Scotland strikes a good balance, in that you choose your distance,pay your entrance fee and if you want to get sponsorship for the associated charity, Maggies, that's fine but entirely optional.
I did it with my wife last year and enjoyed it, although it does attract a lot of people new to cycling and who aren't yet quite au fait with the etiquette. Not complaining though, the more people who get involved at whatever level, the better for us all.
The end is quite is a bit of a high point, finishing as it does in Murrayfield Stadium...... but we'll not talk to much about Murrayfield just now, there's always next year