Organising a Group Tour

[PaulSB]

I have toured and survived on my own for a number of years and with retirement approaching next March plan to do more.

Having heard some of my touring tales and belief that cycle touring is the purest cycling one can do several friends in my cycle club have asked me to organise a tour and take a group.

Usually I set off on the bike with a destination several days away in mind. There will be a railway station at the final destination for the train home. Accommodation is B&B, hostels etc. which I just pick up enroute.

Using this approach means a major hurdle is getting everyone home again. So my thinking is a circular tour starting in Chorley, up to Morecambe, follow The Bay cyclway to Barrow, up to the Solway Firth, across to Carlisle and back home. I've ridden this solo.

Organised accommodation is obviously essential and I would expect to ensure everyone understands minimal packing and has ridden 70 miles on two consecutive days at least once.

I'd be interested to read of others experience of leading a group like this. The positives and negatives.

If it's a success I plan to take people to France in 2018.

 

[ianrauk]

Check out the FNR tour thread HERE
Some of the people who help organise these, @mmmmartin @redfalo @Gordon P @StuartG would be able to help you out with advice.

 

[PaulSB]

@ianrauk thankyou. That thread is going to be a lot of fun to read and very informative.

 

[mjr]

Organised accommodation is obviously essential and I would expect to ensure everyone understands minimal packing and has ridden 70 miles on two consecutive days at least once.

I've been on but not led a multiday group tour. I think 70 mile days is a bit long. We did 62 but that was too much. 40-50 is much nicer.

 

[Tilley]

Having done much riding alone I can agree with your statement about it being the purest form of cycling. However the group dynamic will have an impact. Riding with a few companions is relatively stress free as long as you are all like minded and evenly paced, and certainly helps if the days are dragging or the weather turns foul. But the more people you add to the group the harder it will be to maintain everyone's attitude. I am not saying that it isn't possible just that it will need some diplomacy and that it can be hard and tiring and detract from your enjoyment of the occasion.

 

[PaulSB]

Yes I think I'd agree with this. I'm basing 70 miles a day on what I like to do. Sometimes I hit 90 if I'm really feeling up for it!!

 

[sbird]

Using this approach means a major hurdle is getting everyone home again.

Consider asking for a quote from a coach company to get you home. I used a local one to get 16 of us back and they rose to the challenge brilliantly.

 

[PaulSB]

@sbird yes it's a good idea which hadn't, and probably wouldn't have, occurred to me.

@Tilley very much agree with this especially from my perspective when it will change dramatically. All those expressing interest are regular club run people who I usually chose to ride alongside on Sundays. 6 hours and 6 days are very different though. To balance this issue I plan to give people the route and some guidance with the intention to meet at the accommodation. People can then chose the ride style and company they fancy on any given day.

 

[Tilley]

@sbird yes it's a good idea which hadn't, and probably wouldn't have, occurred to me.

@Tilley very much agree with this especially from my perspective when it will change dramatically. All those expressing interest are regular club run people who I usually chose to ride alongside on Sundays. 6 hours and 6 days are very different though. To balance this issue I plan to give people the route and some guidance with the intention to meet at the accommodation. People can then chose the ride style and company they fancy on any given day.

Glad to see you have thought this through and I hope it all goes really well for all.

 

[Nigeyy]

I've organized group tours in the past, and while I've enjoyed it, there are some things that caused issues. In no particular order (and of course many of these depend on who you are going with):

• set expectations and communicate (note: some people may not want to cycle in bad weather, or do more than 50 miles a day etc), and have them written down, I found email to be invaluable for this. Try to work out if there will be any issues in terms of keeping a relatively cohesive group and again, set expectations so no one is surprized when they may have to wait for the group at the end of the day to catch up (or set it up so you can meet them at the end of day at a place they can be relaxing at).
• when it comes to accommodation, and assuming you are the one who books it, set a deadline to receive money for it (and then deduct a week from it). When someone -and invariably there is someone -doesn't get you the money in time, be fair but firm and say that you haven't received money from them, so you're crossing them off the list (and you'll have that extra week to give them a final chance). Really money talks -getting someone to commit financially really lets you know they will or won't be coming.
• Likewise for any activity that may require prepaid tickets, etc see above
• Limit your group size; the more that are included, the more you will be messing around (and I don't mean to sound grumpy, just that this is what happens!). I personally found a group of 4-6 works best. And speaking of numbers, try to work with a group that allows flexibility -e.g. you can split happily into groups to pursue potentially different things (one person may like a railway museum, another may like a pub sort of thing, or one person may take hours to get ready in the morning to set off). You say several people, hopefully it means you can split into 2 groups of 2 if necessary.
• Since you are the one organizing it, people will look to you for alternatives if something goes wrong. Have a plan to cover reasonably unforeseen circumstances! And have a plan to communicate with everyone easily (much much easier now with phones than it ever used to be).
• Be prepared for someone who may complain; take it in good heart, smile, and ask them to organize it the next time!!

It's a lot of fun, and don't mean to sound negative, just that it is far better to be well prepared so you can handle differences easily and comfortably. Trying to anticipate issues and how to reasonably sort them out and letting people know about them makes a huge difference IMHO -not just to them, but to you.

I bet other people have some great advice to add!

 

[PaulSB]

@Nigeyy - sound advice there thank you.

 

[mmmmartin]

• Plan a route for a group of two dozen riders, remember they'll be together sometimes and spread out at other times. Narrow roads with fast traffic and poor sight lines are a no no. You might not have two dozen but if it's safe for two dozen it's safe for half a dozen.
• Plan things such as crossing busy roads with a group. Always ask yourself the question: "What would you tell the coroner?"
• Plan a route everyone can enjoy, faster riders can slow down but slower riders can't speed up. Obvs.
• Plan for coffee stops, ladies in particular need indoor loos. This is very important. You'll have to go off route for coffee and loo stops.
• Plan the route to finish at a particular point each day and take the group to that point. Tell them to be back at that point ready to depart at a particular time the next morning. Tell them some might not want to ride tomorrow, that's fine, no need to communicate with you, just don't be there at the time we depart and we'll go without you. If they're not there, go without them. They're grown ups and will have a good reason. You can't have the while group hanging around waiting for someone. You'll be surprised how effective this rule is in making sure everyone is there on time.
• Plan for food stops, if there is no suitable restaurant or pub then take them to a supermarket and let them buy their own picnic and plan a decent stopping place.
• Plan lunch places in big towns and tell them to disperse to different restaurants and be back here in 90 minutes. Ditto if they are not there at the time of departure.......we'll go without you.
• Plan a decent route and check it. Once you have planned this and checked the entire route on Google Streetview, then go and ride it. All. Make notes. Lots. Every ride the Fridays do has a recce. That includes the week long European tour. And every night ride. This is important.
• Plan a way to let them know what it'll be like. Detail the route to them, distances, hills, lunch stops, coffee stops, views, etc. They'll want to know what they're signing up for. Be honest or they'll never trust you again.
• Plan the route to one spot each day. Tell them where each day ends and tell them to make their own bookings near to that place. This means some can go upmarket, some in cheaper places, friends will group together. You can suggest places to stay, obvs. Taking money and booking places is a pain and really quite unnecessary: if they're incapable of booking somewhere to stay their ineptitude ought to bar them from cycle touring.
• Plan a route that's easy to follow, try to avoid dozens of turnings and opt for long sections on the same road. Don't bother with mobile phone communications. You'll often be out of mobile signal. If you want to you can buy some walkie talkies on eBay for a fiver. They're pretty effective within a kilometre ish. If the front loses comms then it's going too fast so slow down until you can talk again.
• Plan it like this and the numbers are not a problem. Remember The Fridays does night rides with 120 riders and nearly 30 on the week long European tour. But none of them are numpties.
• Look at the first word of each paragraph above. Any questions, pm me your phone number and I'll ring you.

 

[mmmmartin]

@ianrauk thankyou. That thread is going to be a lot of fun to read and very informative.

Remember that thread shows you the development of an idea. The Brittany idea was dropped as the roads are too narrow, hilly and busy by the coast and bikes on trains out of London on the Friday was too tricky. So the idea then changed. It's looking like Dunkirk, Ostend, Ghent, Leuven, Maastricht, Eindhoven, Breda and back from the Hook of Holland. So be ready to adapt ideas.
If your chums like what you do then they'll sign up for future ideas. You might want to develop into a CTC Holiday tour.

 

[mcshroom]

I tend to tour alone, but I've organised (and ridden on) a few group tours. My advice would be: -

• Make sure that you aren't overestimating the ability of the other riders. If you can, get out for some group rides before hand so you all know each other and how the group works.
• You are likely to have more delays when the group is larger (mechanicl/toilet/food etc.). Also travelling as a group means that you aren't alone at the end of the day, so it can be an advantage to be finished by about tea time, without being knackered, and have the evening to find a pub/restaurant.
• If you can get someone either to look after the route finding at the front so you can do mechanicals at the back, or vice versa then it makes the job a lot easier and more enjoyable.
• I've found estimating around 10mph for a day (including stops) is a pretty good estimate when I've been in groups. Obviously slower in hilly areas.
• Try and make sure you get to enjoy the ride and don't just become the tour organiser/facilitator.

 

[PaulSB]

Thanks to everyone who contributed, you have given me a lot to think about. I may well be in touch in a few weeks time.