Credibility of touring for charity

[Muddyfox]

I'm doing the Devon coast to coast this summer (102 miles) as a personal challenge to myself after giving up smoking on february 1st of this year but like so many others people at work and friends have offered to sponsor me for a local charity and i feel that i should'nt knock back the offers if my own personal challenge could help a local charity with some extra cash ?

Although the ride and accomodation (im doing it over 2 days) will be funded by myself and none of the sponsor money will be used

Simon

 

[snorri]

If you consider the planned route easily achievable, but non cyclists consider it challenging and insist with offers of sponsorship, then take the money.
If your plans are personally challenging, then sneak away quietly and just enjoy the challenge, the added stress of sponsorship could be the last straw that causes you to fail.

 

[Rhythm Thief]

I met two women JOGLE riders near Monmouth who were having a miserable time. They had set mildly over ambitious mileage targets and would have abandoned the ride had they not been sponsored.

Slightly OT, but the LeJoG route must go right past my front door (I live on the Hereford Road in Monmouth). It's amazing how many utterly pissed off - looking cyclists I see going past.

 

[vernon]

Slightly OT, but the LeJoG route must go right past my front door (I live on the Hereford Road in Monmouth). It's amazing how many utterly pissed off - looking cyclists I see going past.

I love Monmouth and have nothing but happy memories of it:

• There's a great deli just by the large town hall/civic building.
• The ride along the Wye Valley to get to/from Monmouth is just breathtaking
• The local constabulary seem to be a good humoured bunch and I had a good laugh with a couple of them when looking for a local camp site - they were clueless and there was a site within 300 yards of our encounter
• I was overtaken by a woman in an electric wheelchair when I was heading out towards Hereford along the quiet back road I found it funny rather than humiliating.
• Eating plums from a plum tree lined road heading towards Chepstow.

I'm quite jealous of you. I'd love to live in the area as there's some great cycling to be had there.

 

[User482]

Slightly OT, but the LeJoG route must go right past my front door (I live on the Hereford Road in Monmouth). It's amazing how many utterly pissed off - looking cyclists I see going past.

I was one of them last September - my saddle was giving me hell!

 

[User482]

I also would not dream of having my holiday sponsored as it would spoil it for me, equally a Randonnee is fun not a charity event.

The other problem is that is not an "achievement" and devalues others work. One of our Scout parents has just cycled 50 miles to raise funds. For him this was a big event that as a non-cyclist pushed him, and was therefore something special.

To mention that 100k is a normal "day out" devalues that.

Well, if I hadn't accepted sponsorship for my Lejog, MacMillan would have been £1000 worse off. To me, this renders academic any debate about the "achievement" of my ride.

 

[yello]

I guess it boils down to what you feel comfortable doing.

I can accept the 'why not' arguments (if you're going to do the ride anyway, why not earn a few quid for a charity) but I personally wouldn't want to do that. It's partly a selfish attitude; I ride for myself and it has nothing to do with anyone else. A sponsored ride becomes for someone/something else and could rob me of my enjoyment, my sense of achievement.

Beyond that though, it just doesn't feel right to have people part with cash for me to do something I want to do, quite apart from the charity aspect.

Plus I just don't like bugging people for sponsorship. It bugged me to have to sign myriads of 'sponsor me' parachute jumps etc (a near form of social blackmail) and so I'd feel a hypocrite to reverse that situation.

But I'm a grumpy loner and just don't like others knowing what I am doing, let alone becoming a part of it - even if it is only via a sponsorship form.

 

[rich p]

I wouldn't ever get sponsorship. I have the feeling that people, friends and family would be embarassed into donating.

 

[jay clock]

I resist any attempt to turn a perfectly easy ride (for me) into a charity event. It has to be a challenge. L2B is a challenge for most of the population - not for most forum members.

I did raise money for 2 events - once for doing the Dunwich Dynamo as it is a long ride and all night with no sleep, so pretty hard, and the other was I cycled to work.... that was a 4.30am start, cycled 60 miles, then left at 4pm and cycled back. Home at 9.30pm. Rain, strong headwind and long steep hills. Again, it was a challenge.

 

[User482]

I would have said that a Lejog is a challenge for most cyclists. I reckon I enjoyed it more knowing that it has helping a worthy cause - it added to the sense of achievement at the end of the ride.

 

[vernon]

I would have said that a Lejog is a challenge for most cyclists. I reckon I enjoyed it more knowing that it has helping a worthy cause - it added to the sense of achievement at the end of the ride.

I felt that the sense of achievement was greater on my completion of LEJOG without sponsors because the motivation to complete was from within rather than from a sense of obligation to others.

 

[yello]

And therein we have the answer gentlemen. No right or wrong answer, just a matter of how you feel about things and what motivates you. Same 'event'; User482 motivated by the sponsorship and gets a sense of achievement, not so vernon.

 

[User482]

And therein we have the answer gentlemen. No right or wrong answer, just a matter of how you feel about things and what motivates you. Same 'event'; User482 motivated by the sponsorship and gets a sense of achievement, not so vernon.

Agreed. I understand the reasons for not accepting sponsorship, it just seems to me that it's a simple way of raising money for a good cause.

 

[hubgearfreak]

And therein we have the answer gentlemen. No right or wrong answer, just a matter of how you feel about things and what motivates you.

except that there is a train of thought that goes...

if you accept sponsorship for a lejog, or c2c or whatever, you're helping to reinforce in non-cyclists heads the idea that cycling is a chore, and best avoided.
sponsoring things like my mrs. being quiet for 24hrs, or me to go a month without beer, would be a chore for us both, and deserves sponsorship.

but cycling's a pleasure - to accept sponsorship and promote the idea that it is a tedious ball ache is doing a dis-service to cycling, and lengthening the life of transport chaos.

 

[User482]

except that there is a train of thought that goes...

if you accept sponsorship for a lejog, or c2c or whatever, you're helping to reinforce in non-cyclists heads the idea that cycling is a chore, and best avoided.
sponsoring things like my mrs. being quiet for 24hrs, or me to go a month without beer, would be a chore for us both, and deserves sponsorship.

but cycling's a pleasure - to accept sponsorship and promote the idea that it is a tedious ball ache is doing a dis-service to cycling, and lengthening the life of transport chaos.

I completely disagree - thinking people are surely able to distinguish between "chore" and "challenge". And if they're not thinking people, then you're wasting your time on them anyway.