dont agree with sportives so looking for charity rides

k3vinjam3s

As title says, don't really agree with sportives and paying to ride on open roads so I'm looking for charity rides to fill the void. I would much rather pay to ride in a charity event which is more relaxed and friendly and actually helps a cause rather then line someone's pockets. So if any forum members know of any in the north east of England I would really appreciate it.

priory

I do not need a reason to enjoy riding my bike , but if you must give people an excuse for your cycling you could go round with a tin and say ' on saturday I intend to cycle 130miles. please give money to charity X.'

Audax uk will provide the route and a card to confirm that you did it, in case anyone actually cares.

http://www.aukweb.net/events/

ElliottDavo

Manchester to Liverpool
Manchester to Blackpool
Manchester 100
Manchester Great Cycle

I dont know any none Manchester based ones

thefd

Bethany, a homeless charity in Edinburgh do one on June 1st.

http://edinburghsportive.btck.co.uk/

Anonymous

I dont really see why you have to go slagging off sportives (on a cycling forum :roll: ) just because you want to do a charity ride.
The two things are very different and its bizarre to link them!
You could just have titled your post 'any good charity rides in the north east?'

The cost between the two is not always that that much and you are paying the extra to ride with cyclists rather than people on shopping bikes wearing angora sweaters in the rain.

Charities always say that the entry cost only covers the admin so I hope you are going to actually give them a decent amount on top of the entry fee.
This would then cost more than the sportive and seems an odd way to approach cycling to me.
If you ask for sponsorship it starts to sound like you are asking people to pay for your cycling rides.

Have you ever done a sportive?
Why do you disagree with someone charging to organise a sportive but not someone charging to organise a charity ride?
You are paying to ride on public roads with (most) charity rides too.
Do you disagree with joining a club and paying to ride on public roads with them?

navrig

Just be careful about how charitable some organised events are.

The Etape series support Marie Curie but very little if any of the entry fee goes to the charity.

Additionally you will soon become persona non grata if you continually seek sponsorship from family, friends and colleagues.

zardoz

Read the small print for some charity rides too, the T&C's sometimes say that the organisers reserve the right to refuse entry if you have not raised money for the chosen charity. As has already been mentioned, the entry fee usually goes to organisation of the event and not to the charity. Ergo its the same as a sportive but with a requirement to raise sponsorship.

thefd

Navrig wrote:

The Etape series support Marie Curie but very little if any of the entry fee goes to the charity.

Marie Curie pay to be the sponsor. They get nothing from the event back directly. But because lots of participants raise money for them they do make money out of it.

diy

I don't agree with asking for sponsorship on charity rides. Personally I just match the entrance fee or add £50 in a donation. I know that this is not what the Charity want, because my £50 is nothing compared to a couple of 100 in sponsorship, but I don't do charity rides that are massively over subscribed.

I don't have a problem with paying an entrance fee for an organised ride either.

But for those who do, isn't that what clubs are for?

k3vinjam3s

I'm not really slaggong off sportives just putting my opinion accross that I prefer a more relaxed event. I have no problem with them or the people taking part but part of the reason I like a mass charity ride is the people I see on them in jeans and on rusty old bikes. I was riding in one in stokesly on Sunday and there was around 350 people taking part in anything fromold 1980s steel framed road bikes, to rusty old mountain bikes and even someone on a sky coloured pinarrelo. There was a guy that was on a hybrid in jeans and a t-shirt, he was going like the clappers trying to hold on to a couple of roadies. I just thought good for himfor making the effort even though I can't imagine how uncomfortable he must have been in jeans. As for sponsorship I reckon 80% of participants like me didn't bother. I paid the £6 fee and gave a bit extra. It was only 30 miles with one decent climb but you got a couple of refreshment stops and some home made cake so I was happy. It's these events I would like to find as if I was going for sponsorships I'd want to do something which is a challenge to me. I'm yet to do a sportive but considering the Etape pennines in Durham as it looks a challenge and I would rather pay more for closed roads.

Mikey23

I understand what you are saying but your title and first post seem to be slagging off sportives and your second post is less altruistic in tone than your first... I'm rather confused to be honest

zardoz

I'm confused too, I thought from your first post that you were an old hand at sportives and wanted something different. Then you say you have yet to do one. So how do you know how "relaxed" or not they are? The couple of sportives I've done have been fairly relaxed affairs.

Grill

As has been mentioned just do Audaxes. There is nothing more relaxed in terms of organized events. Charity rides are no better than sportives in that a substantial amount of the money goes to the organizers.

Better yet if you're only doing 30 miles why pay anything. Just go out and ride your bike...

Anonymous

How about helping a charity out with an event?
If you give up some of your free time to do some marshalling you wil see all of the other riders and their bikes ;-)

plowmar

I agree, I think, with previous posters re sportives. Those that I have done have tended to be pretty relaxed, some with a fair mix of entrants others with just bikies.

The point though is the entrance fee does just tend to cover expenses but you are able to get sponsorship from freinds family and workmates for you to complete the ride.

My reccomendation for what it's worth is to try one of the open rides attached to the Durham Cyclone series.

iPete

If raising money is main reason for the ride, set your own challenge and start a justgiving page?

That way you can guarantee the money isn't going to an organiser, if that's what irks you.

mrbubbaman

If I were you, I'd try a sportive first. I did my first a few weeks ago and it was very relaxed and enjoyable. My problem with the charity rides, is the logistics. Drive to a location, cycle to the end of the route and then need to be picked up, or cycle back to the start again.

Then there's the raising money issue, 3 of us struggled to raise £100 for the last one we did, if I signed up for these regularly, I'd soon have people pissed at me.

me it's sportives only until a large charity ride comes along and I may consider it.

southdownswolf

To me, a charity ride is the same as a Sportive, but you are more likely to get "non cyclists" on the charity ride. The entry fee for a charity ride is generally as much as, if not more than a Sportive and the charity doesn't normally get any of the money, other than to cover their costs.

I'm riding a solo, unsuported JOGLE in a few weeks time and the charities that I am raising money for have been most helpful with things like providing jerseys and giving advice. It hasn't really cost them anything (other than the jersey) and yet ALL the money that I raise for them, goes straight into their coffers. That wouldn't be the same with a charity ride which would cost them a great deal of money in organisation and providing staff, food, drinks etc.

Guanajuato

North West rather than North East, but its only a quick nip across the A66.
Have a look at the Jennings Rivers Ride, raises money for the Cumbria Community Foundation which does lots of good work around the county. Its sponsored by companies predominantly involved at Sellafield which pays for much of the organising costs. So the entry fee really does go to helping the charity.

I did the shorter of the two proper routes on offer last year, then took my daughter on the family ride. This year they've introduced a 4th ride, between the full day long ride and the 2-3 hour shorter distance. I've signed up for the 2nd longest, as I want to be able to take my daughter on the family ride again. Well organised & relaxed.
I think its a sign of how good it was that although the weather was truly abysmal, everyone including small children loved the day.

hatch87

You can mix the two, I've seen plenty of people wearing sponsorship T Shirts on sportives. I've done 3 sportives now and all have been a mixture of relaxed riders and very quick serious riders. I remember at one of the feeding stations a rider asked for assistance to raise their saddle, and it turned out to be a quick release lever, I had a little giggle to myself and I'm sure the guy must of been rolling his eyes on the inside

As others have said, I can't justify raising money to pay for me to ride, I know charity starts at home, but I think thats taking it a bit far lol

andy9964

Hers two for you

http://www.bikeforbobby.com/more-info/
And
http://www.greatnorthbikeride.com/Home/Index.html

Mikey41

k3vinjam3s wrote:

I was riding in one in stokesly on Sunday and there was around 350 people taking part in anything fromold 1980s steel framed road bikes, to rusty old mountain bikes and even someone on a sky coloured pinarrelo. There was a guy that was on a hybrid in jeans and a t-shirt, he was going like the clappers trying to hold on to a couple of roadies.

You just described my first Sportive. Apart from the guy in jeans.

On a Sportive you are paying for the organisation and the feed stops, but even so I will be sticking to the ones that are reasonably priced rather than the big profit-making ones. The Evans ones are very good value at £15, and they do not always cover their costs. £60 to enter a Sportive is way, way too much IMO.

However, charity rides are good and I would like to do some myself in the future, but probably only one each year at most, as people will get sick of me always asking for sponsorship 4 times a year otherwise.

raymondo60

I've done many a Sportive and quite a few 'charity organised' rides too. In essence they are very similar events, only with the latter you are (supposedly) asking other people to 'sponsor' you for a particular distance or challenge. Personally I've stopped asking for individual sponsorship. While the concept of charity is important to me, I find that my circle of friends and acquaintances are very much 'charitied out' for want of a better phrase. It seems like several times a week one receives emails requesting sponsorship for one event or another, and while I'm happy to donate and often do, I'm less happy asking for sponsorship, aware that many people are finding life financially difficult at this time.

I would like to defend the 'value' of sportive costs though. I've recently completed a Wiggle organised sportive where I chose to do a 100-mile route. For my entrance fee I received;

a pre-planned route that exploited the best roads in the area, many of which were very quiet and/or traffic-free
the attention and support of motorcycle outriders to warn me of specific danger areas
a personal timing chip to monitor my performance
a free coffee at the start and two feed stations with food and energy drinks supplied
mechanical and medical back-up if required
a goody bag containing (approx) £8-£12 worth of samples
access to purchase professional photographs of my ride
a chance to ride with groups of other riders of similar ability that I wouldn't get riding on my own

For all that I paid £28. Now, if I were to go out and ride a century on my own (which i have done before) the 'potential' cost if something went wrong - i.e. a mechanical breakdown etc - could be much more than the £28 I paid. Based on that I consider the sportive good value in the sense that it helped me achieve my objective.

Finally, and as a suggestion to the OP, the best EVER charity ride I did was one I organized myself about 5 years ago. I have always had an ambition to ride the length of the river Thames, from 'sea to source' (corny I know!) so, along with a good friend, i organised a 5-day route, sticking to the towpath as much as possible, and emailed a few (hundred) friends and business acquaintances. I ended up raising over £2k for a Breast Cancer charity, based on my sister's experience, and had a bloody good time too. If you have a personal ambition that can catch people's imagination then you can certainly attract significant support.

Grill

My last century cost me 20p in bananas. 28 quid would get me halfway around the world...

jgsi

Raymondo60 wrote:

I'v
For all that I paid £28. Now, if I were to go out and ride a century on my own (which i have done before) the 'potential' cost if something went wrong - i.e. a mechanical breakdown etc - could be much more than the £28 I paid. Based on that I consider the sportive good value in the sense that it helped me achieve my objective.
t.

That is absolutely ridiculous stance to take on sportives, but heck what do I know, I spend far too much on race fees as it is.
Really, apart from being involved in an rta what 'mechanical' situation do you possibly need digging out of?
Should you be out if you havent prepped your bike up proper?

Mikey23

Not a ridiculous stance at all but a sincerely held point of view with which I happen to agree.

apreading

I paid £7.50 for various Evans Sportives this year (booked in November when they had a half price offer). This covers my son too if he comes, as kids are free. If we both go, we get £25 worth of High5 goodies, so its more than paid for itself before you start thinking about the event.

Not having to plan a route, carry food/drink, having mechanical backup etc all worthwhile - even at the full price of £15.

Having it booked as an organised event also means that it goes on the family calendar at home and helps both to motivate me to do it and helps with avoiding family commitments getting in the way.

Always found a good bunch of friendly people. Not as many beards and sandals as an Audax (which are even more friendly).

I have paid £60 for a one-day charity ride and got less provided than at an Evans Rideit (no free cake & jelly beans - water only). Really annoyed me because I think the commercial companies organising charity rides pocket alot of money, which I would rather went to the charity.

I also cant do more than 1 sponsored ride a year, as I would feel wrong asking people for money so often.