Charity Rides

[MartinQ]

I keep toying with the idea of an audax, they do look like good fun!

They generally are. There is a Cheshire one this weekend (tomorrow?) if you're based in Manchester. Maybe able to sign up on the day?

@ColinJ organizes a few forum rides out of Hebden bridge which isn't too far away and as others have said, there are the Fridays, club rides, evans (ride it), ...

 

[derrick]

A bit of a moan, and I know a lot of them are done for a good cause but why does nearly every long ride / event have to be for charity these days?

I like riding my bike, I don't like walking round the office with a bucket.

Join a club, most clubs do differant rides tou suit differant people, simple, Although you will have to pay a fee for joining.

 

[Alan O]

I do one 100-mile charity ride per year. The fundraising is optional, and the ride costs around £30 to enter whether you raise funds or not - and the past two years I've raised decent sums.

Many others demand minimum charitable donations, sometimes in the hundreds of pounds, and I'm just not going to make such a commitment - and I only have a finite circle of family and friends I can tap for charity cash anyway.

So my rides are mainly solo, with a couple of family members, or with Let's Ride.

 

[mjr]

I do one 100-mile charity ride per year. The fundraising is optional, and the ride costs around £30 to enter whether you raise funds or not - and the past two years I've raised decent sums.

A recent annual charity sportive has changed its approach and is now hounding riders who paid only the basic entry fee to donate more. Some of those riders donated on the day but it seems that the charity doesn't log the donations made at the start/finish. I was told that there were fewer riders this year, (unusually, I didn't even ride out to the route to cheer my friends past this year - I forget why not) which may explain the new hounding, but I suspect they're going to have even fewer riders next year as a result.

Are sponsored charity rides sustainable? Does donor or participant fatigue eventually kill them?

I think there's only one Charity Ride near me which has been going for any length of time: the excellent Sandringham Samaritans Fancy Dress Ride in mid-May, but it's only 14 miles for the long course and I suspect most of the donations come from the participants and spectators, not others sponsoring them to ride. The last few years, there's also been a Mayday Welly Ride accepting funds for the RNLI as it rides along, which seems a bit different, both in the challenge (ride 20 miles of rolling hills in wellies, or 40 there-and-back) and approach.

 

[Pat "5mph"]

when you tell people it was just for the fun of it they think you're some sort of weirdo.

Yes, I get the same reaction: how was your day off, did you go cycling?
Ach, just to Loch Lomond and back (around 50 flat miles)
What charity did you do it for?
When I answer "just for fun" they think it's weird!

 

[Ajax Bay]

I keep toying with the idea of an audax, they do look like good fun!

http://www.aukweb.net/events/detail/18-267/ at the end of the month (YMMV).
In company, questions about the motivation (charitable or otherwise) for your ride will be dilute or non-existent.

 

[MartinQ]

http://www.aukweb.net/events/detail/18-267/ at the end of the month (YMMV).
In company, questions about the motivation (charitable or otherwise) for your ride will be dilute or non-existent.

Done that one and its a good ride. FIsh and chips at Pensarn. As they say, the last 20km is downhill, although its a fair drag up to the lake.