Credibility of touring for charity

[ronstrutt]

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.

Absolutely, my cycling 1000 miles or more says to people that you can do it without killing/damaging/frazzling yourself, so no harm's going to come to them by cycling 5 miles! Indeed, it often makes them realise that all their excuses for not cycling are just that - excuses - and some of them do something about it.

As for sponsorship, yes I'm going to enjoy myself cycling from Dover to Durness next month (I'm fed up with LEJOG/JOGLE having done that three times, so I'm having a change) but I'm not going to turn down the opportunity to raise a bit of cash for a worthwhile cause while I'm doing it.

It's not a case of whether I think it's an achievement, it's whether other people think it is. And I'll get myself there because I want to, not because there's sponsorship riding on me.

 

[Alan Biles]

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.

You certainly live on my LEJOG route. I'll have cycled past your place about three weeks ago. As for being pissed off, I imagine it depends which way they're headed. It certainly is a pig of a climb out of Monmouth heading north, but it must be a brilliant hill to come down.

A

 

[hubgearfreak]

I completely disagree - if they're not thinking people, then you're wasting your time on them anyway.

that's fine, we can all disagree without ill feeling i hope.

as for none thinking people, the solution to our transport and environmental problems relies on them getting onto bikes.

 

[User482]

that's fine, we can all disagree without ill feeling i hope.

as for none thinking people, the solution to our transport and environmental problems relies on them getting onto bikes.

Quite so - this isn't soapbox!

Completely agree about the need for getting more bums on saddles though.

 

[hubgearfreak]

Completely agree about the need for getting more bums on saddles though.

and getting sponsors may be jeopardising that aim, by accidentally putting cycling in the same group of activities such as bungee jumping and parachuting in the minds of some people, when it is a pleasant, ordinary, relaxing & everyday activity. it is indeed a shame that charities will be not benefit from my 'endeavours', but prolonging the misery of car dependency isn't something i wish to risk encouraging.

 

[User482]

and getting sponsors may be jeopardising that aim, by accidentally putting cycling in the same group of activities such as bungee jumping and parachuting in the minds of some people, when it is a pleasant, ordinary, relaxing & everyday activity. it is indeed a shame that charities will be not benefit from my 'endeavours', but prolonging the misery of car dependency isn't something i wish to risk encouraging.

Yes but our transport problems will be eased by more people cycling a few miles to work, not 1000 mile tours. I think that most people ought to be able to distinguish between the two.

 

[Sh4rkyBloke]

So is anything that gets sponsorship a chore???

I can partly see what you're trying to say, but agree with User482 - it's a challenge more than a chore.

I sponsor people if I see it as a challenge to them (I sponsored a colleague to do a Triathlon when he has asthma) rather than something they can just knock out without any training/effort.


EDIT - This message looks a tad out of place as I missed the final page of commenst and thought it would be just after HugBear's comment. Soz!

 

[hubgearfreak]

it's a challenge more than a chore.

yes it is, to us intelligent* cyclists.

but cycling is too important a solution to the global transport problem to risk confusion - in my minds eye


(*excluding me, obviously)

 

[hubgearfreak]

I sponsored a colleague to do a Triathlon when he has asthma

had it been a jog, of 26, or 1/2 a mile i'd have sponsored him. it's a tedious and stupid thing to do..... cycling is pleasure, practical and leisure and consequently quite the opposite

 

[Rhythm Thief]

You certainly live on my LEJOG route. I'll have cycled past your place about three weeks ago. As for being pissed off, I imagine it depends which way they're headed. It certainly is a pig of a climb out of Monmouth heading north, but it must be a brilliant hill to come down.
A

It is. It always makes me mildly annoyed that I have to stop three quarters of the way down!

 

[yello]

you're helping to reinforce in non-cyclists heads the idea that cycling is a chore, and best avoided.

I'd not considered that argument. I'll have to think about it since, right at this moment, I'm not sure I'd give it a huge amount of credence.

Aside: I wonder how parachutists feel about the sponsored jump? Or bungee jumpers etc? Does it trivialise their 'sport'? Make it a novelty rather than a pursuit engaged in week in, week out by enthusiasts? Or conversely, make it elitist and/or radical? Sometimes you can think to much about stuff!

I guess a counter-argument would be that sponsored events (like, for instance, L2B) raise the profile of cycling. Make people more aware of it and the 'do-ability' of riding 60km in a day (or whatever). A good thing?

Personally, L2B would put me off cycling! But that's another issue.

 

[User482]

I'd not considered that argument. I'll have to think about it since, right at this moment, I'm not sure I'd give it a huge amount of credence.

Aside: I wonder how parachutists feel about the sponsored jump? Or bungee jumpers etc? Does it trivialise their 'sport'? Make it a novelty rather than a pursuit engaged in week in, week out by enthusiasts? Or conversely, make it elitist and/or radical? Sometimes you can think to much about stuff!

I guess a counter-argument would be that sponsored events (like, for instance, L2B) raise the profile of cycling. Make people more aware of it and the 'do-ability' of riding 60km in a day (or whatever). A good thing?

Personally, L2B would put me off cycling! But that's another issue.

Thinking about it some more, the fact that I managed to do a LEJOG reasonably comfortably and without a huge amount of training should prove to others that cycling a few miles to work is actually very easy!

 

[hubgearfreak]

Aside: I wonder how parachutists feel about the sponsored jump? Or bungee jumpers etc? Does it trivialise their 'sport'? Make it a novelty rather than a pursuit engaged in week in, week out by enthusiasts?

i neither know nor care - the difference being that parachuting will never be a sensible method of commuting.

 

[aidanp]

I'm starting a RTW trip on 18th July and I've decided to put a link to a charity on my website (www.acousticmotorbike.com).

But I'm not doing the ride for Charity, I'm doing it for myself, and if I can raise some money along the way, all well and good. I've spent 6.5 months living in Nepal and if I can raise a couple of quid for the orphans there I'll be happy.

I've told work not to buy me a leaving present but to donate the money to my charity.

Aidan

 

[Kirstie]

[holds hands up]

OK well a massive U turn from me here.

I was going to do a few 'Race for Lifes' this year to raise money for cancer research. My auntie was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer at christmas (which, if you know nothing about it, is deadly and incurable). She maybe has a year to live. We are very close and it's been an absolutely bloody awful year so far. Anyway, I've been out running to get used to it, and have been having knee problems. I saw the podiatrist last week who told me that because of the way I'm built, under no circumstances should I ever run on tarmac (complicated to explain). So that was the end of my fundraising idea.

I happen to be doing a lejog this year for my summer hols. Since finding out that I am unable to go running it seems to me, after some contemplation and conversations with close friends, to be a no brainer that I should try and raise a bit of money for pancreatic cancer UK on my lejog. So that, good forummers, is my U-Turn.

I've contemplated this very carefully. I have a general problem with these schemes where people raise money for charity and in the process go on holiday somewhere exotic. For me raising money for charity should contain an element of challenge, self-sacrifice and hardship. A lejog is something I've always wanted to do, and something I would consider fun, but I think the physical hardship of it might constitute enough self sacrifice so my conscience is clear...

I just emailed pancreatic cancer UK to tell em. Just giving page up and running in a couple of weeks.

[/holds hands up]