Reliability Trial organising advice

OffTheBackAdam

The club's planning on running one of these in December (OK, risk of needing a snowplough to lead things). Not having been involved in running anything for a couple of decades, what needs doing?
We've got an HQ sorted, so parking & changing rooms are available.
Do we need specific PLI?
Length probably 60-70 miles OK?
Anything else routewise we need to think about, we're trying to use as many minor & lightly trafficked roads as possible, route will be around the North Nottinghamshire area.

mouth

Without meaning to sound daft, what's a reliability trial and what are you trying to achieve?

Philip Whiteman

OffTheBackAdam wrote:

The club's planning on running one of these in December (OK, risk of needing a snowplough to lead things). Not having been involved in running anything for a couple of decades, what needs doing?
We've got an HQ sorted, so parking & changing rooms are available.
Do we need specific PLI?
Length probably 60-70 miles OK?
Anything else routewise we need to think about, we're trying to use as many minor & lightly trafficked roads as possible, route will be around the North Nottinghamshire area.

My only comment is with regard to routes. If the minor roads are not too winding and slow then you shall be fine. Check your County or Unitary Council's website to establish what roads are salted and gritted during the winter season. The last thing you will want is a large group of cyclists sliding off the road in treacherous conditions.

Some clubs will tend to split the reliability runs into groups targetted at different ability groups starting with the fastest group first (eg. 22mph+); medium (18mph+) and finally the slow group (14mph+). Riders who cannot keep the pace then drop off the back and wait for the next bunch.

Reliability Rides are not sportives and participants should be encouraged to ride and share the effort within a group. Usually, the participants should be familiar with the route and waymarking is unecessary although you may wish to provide a route card/map in advance. Sometimes, clubs organise control point en-route like those on an audax.

Mouth wrote:

Without meaning to sound daft, what's a reliability trial and what are you trying to achieve?

Wikipedia reckons:-

A reliability trial is an organised bicycle ride which challenges a cyclist to complete a course, passing through designated control points, within a preset time limit. In the United Kingdom, such events are often held in the wintry opening months of the year and are used by club cyclists as training rides. A common test would be a 100 in 8 - 100 miles would have to completed within eight hours, including any stops.

The term is historic and dates back to the early years of the 20th century when cycling equipment was less reliable, roads were rougher, routes were more poorly sign-posted, and mobile telephones had yet to be invented. The name was also a way of emphasising to the police, at a time when the place of cycle sport on British roads was insecure, that the mass rides they might see were not races.

Reliability trial riders needed to be self-sufficient, adept at navigation, able to deal with mechanical problems, and fit enough to complete the course. In some cases, successful completion of the ride entitles the rider to a certificate. Reliability trials have lost a lot of their popularity although they remain a regular feature for sections, or clubs, of the Cyclists' Touring Club. The function of reliability trials as a test of fitness, reliability and the ability to ride long distances has largely passed to the closely similar Audax style of riding.

The term reliability trial is also used to refer to motorsport events and are similar in concept. Rather like rallying, drivers and their vehicles (or riders and their motorcycles) must complete a designated course within a set time limit, without recourse to outside help along the way.

Brakeless

Let participants have access to a GPS upload of the route on Bike route toaster, map my ride or similar.