AMR Essex 100 - are they taking the mickey?

brianonyx

or am I mean?

I went to do the ride with my son today and some friends who had booked online.

The on the day cost was £50, which would have been £100 for both of us.

Now I know the organisation is good, the food is good and t is for a worthy charity. But I just couldn't justify the £100 and we followed our mates around and didn't stop at the food stops.

Am I being mean or have they pushed the cost up to just the other side of reasonable?

I know for some people this would be a significant charity event but for most it would be one of many rides during the year.

Broaders

That is rediculus when the on-line cost was £28 I think. It was well signposted (i did't eat any food) but I would agree with you - £50 is taking the P.

polocini

I organise sportives and I always say in advance NO on the line entries. But yet you always get a few people turning up regardless. For an organiser they are the worse thing possible.
Perhaps the organiser is trying to stop people turning up on the day.

AL

brianonyx

You're probably right, they might be trying to put off entries on the day. The problem was that I didn't know until the night before whether I would have to go into work today.

They had two people there with a credit card machine for on the day entries.

I would happily have paid £30 quid each but £50 was just too much.

As it was they got nothing from me and I just cycled the course with my mates.

brettjmcc

I did it last year and had prior comitments this year, but lets be fair on AMR for a second.

The £50 covers what you are asked to do if you sign up early. Last year it was £25 and commit to raise at least another £25 in sponsorship. That way money went to the organisation and it also meant that money went to the charity. If you look at a lot of BHF rides they don't ask people directly to raise money, but they do make a point in telling you that they don't get any money from the ride itself. I would assume they are just talking the whole money on the day assuming you have no sponsorship.

AMR do great work, and a lot of child disease cures would not have been found without them. Since you rode it you could sponsor your mates instead? You may see this as a ride for you, but it helps fund the people doing the research at AMR.

brianonyx

That's a good idea to donate to my mates.

I'm not trying to have a go at AMR, they obviously are a good cause, my question is that is 50 quid more than most would pay for a ride.

Would they do better going for less than 50 quid?

richard205

agree with Brett on this.
Signed up in March for £25 though i'd aleady said to work that was one day i wouldnt do OT....which irony struck its blow and i was offered a nice big bundle of it!

The £50 seems expensive but they are covering the basic commitment asked of you. Though can appreciate how it appears when you rock up and get told its that much!

I have a son and two nieces who without the work AMR do, could have had very different outcomes so for me its no question.

Though todays ride was bloody hard.

brettjmcc

Brian - its tough I know. One of my friends is an editor at a Charity magazine and used to work for the Red Cross. She says its tough out there raising money at the moment.

I am planning/hoping to do the British Legion Pedal to Paris next year. Now they ask for £600 out of your own money and then a commitment to £800 sponsorship that goes directly to RBL. Others ask you to raise £1400/1500 which also pays for your ride. Personally I prefer the transparancy of RBL.

No organsation can improve without feedback. You should tell them your point of view so that if it is a £25 and £25 charge it makes it easier to understand than one figure of £50.

Just a FYI - the ride to the Horns was £28 upfront and you got no bag or anything at the end... well unless I missed it...

bobsgoodeye

I agree that £50 is extremely expensive for on the day registration but it was clearly stated on the website and does seem to be acting as more of a deterent to 'on the day' registration. Especially if as the poster earlier stated, even if you say no 'on the day entries people will turn up anyway.

The thing that really surprised me was that there was absolutely no food or drink available at the finish. I had visions of me tucking into a guilt free dirty great cheeseburger. But nothing, not even a cup of tea. Surely with 500+ hungry cyclists rolling into the finish they could tempt a local vendor.

Fogliettaz

I agree with no food at the finish, such great spreads on the way round but I usually take the bare minimum as it slows me down. It would be great to cut out one of the feed stations to have one at the end.

hmbadger

I paid £50 for on the day AMR Cross Pennine sportive earlier on in the Summer. Excellent event btw - great route, food, etc.

I was just about OK with this, but wouldn;t have paid 2x£50.

I guess the idea is to discourage on the day entries, in particular those who turn out only if the weather is nice. And I can understand that.

In short, I don;t think there is an easy answer to this. A significant premium for on the day entry is justified, but it can be hard on those who genuinely don;t know if they will be available or not.

Cipodog

As the organiser of 16 Sportives over the last 10yrs I can tell you that on the day entries are a pain in the a--- for the first few rides we wouldn't accept the entries & made this clear on the website & flyers however we found that riders just rode anyway & most also went & helped themselves to the food!! We then decided that although we were against E-on_the D we may as well get the entry fee as they were going to ride the course whatever. We charged a fee of £5--£10 extra. There are groups out there who get one rider to enter then another 6 or so wait up the road from the HQ & join in when he comes along--Parasites. Dave Riley--Polkadot/"Spud" Rides

bikergirl17

i would view the AMR as more as a great social day out seeing the english countryside ... the food spreads are amazing (they even cater to the latose intolerent) and support second to none. can't lump with your typical sportive.

the more perplexing ones are the Bike Events charity rides: £18 and NOTHING until a bottle of water at the finish (stops are local pubs! saw a good number of people stocking up on beer and chips too). they claim that all goes to pay for the ride, that anything to charity is above and beyond. i can NOT imagine the fixed costs are that high.

i have done a few, and have spoken to people who do the route without paying. don't think that is the appropriate response, but have thought about doing the route and giving £10 to the sponsoring charity directly, as clearly the Bike Events org is taking a large cut.

hmbadger

bikergirl17 wrote:

i would view the AMR as more as a great social day out seeing the english countryside ... the food spreads are amazing (they even cater to the latose intolerent) and support second to none. can't lump with your typical sportive.

the more perplexing ones are the Bike Events charity rides: £18 and NOTHING until a bottle of water at the finish (stops are local pubs! saw a good number of people stocking up on beer and chips too). they claim that all goes to pay for the ride, that anything to charity is above and beyond. i can NOT imagine the fixed costs are that high.

i have done a few, and have spoken to people who do the route without paying. don't think that is the appropriate response, but have thought about doing the route and giving £10 to the sponsoring charity directly, as clearly the Bike Events org is taking a large cut.

Agree with that. I'd like to see the costs for the Manchester 100 yesterday. They sure had a lot of marshalls - but equally they had a lot of riders.

explosifpete

It is expensive.
But that is because it is for charity, if you want to do a cheap ride go with a club or do an audax ride.
That said when I was disusing the event last year with the organizers they were telling me how tight cyclists are with there money as they spend thousands of pounds on there bikes but don't want to spend £60 on the event! the cheek of her! She then went on to tell me that cycling raises more money that all other sports combined for charity?
I rode this year as a last minute thing (decided to do it at 8.30 the morning of the ride) so I rode the course, didn't use the food stops apart from filling up one water bottle then donated £25 to the charity when I got back

brianonyx

explosifpete wrote:

It is expensive.
But that is because it is for charity, if you want to do a cheap ride go with a club or do an audax ride.
That said when I was disusing the event last year with the organizers they were telling me how tight cyclists are with there money as they spend thousands of pounds on there bikes but don't want to spend £60 on the event! the cheek of her! She then went on to tell me that cycling raises more money that all other sports combined for charity?
I rode this year as a last minute thing (decided to do it at 8.30 the morning of the ride) so I rode the course, didn't use the food stops apart from filling up one water bottle then donated £25 to the charity when I got back

Good example. That is what I am going to do now - having ridden the course without taking food/water will donate £25 to the charity. I guess if this was the only charity thing people did n a year it wouldn't matter - but I normally do a few bike event ones a few of the AMR ones (booked online) and then I do a big annual event for a charity that I usually try to raise over 1K for.

So over a year I do give them a fair amount, but I still think £50 on the day is too much for many.