BathMTB: It's Weds again.. and Midsomer Madness 2012

[DES ESCIT-SSS AS (Stewart, Andrew C1)]

Feeling cra at p myself but who's out later?? Aileen's last ride for a while? 

 

 

Whilst I'm on: Midsomer Madness 2012

 

Yeah, I know, June is a long way off but several things are happening now which mean it's a good time to think about it.

 

Quick recap of feedback from last year:

 

Good: 

Fantastic event - format, routes, led rides worked well (leaders were: Andy 'short', Dave & Richard, John & Justin and Tony & Aileen) . Numbers mangeable (about 50). 

Good to get (most) of the local groups together once a year but also open it up to anyone who wants to come. (It started up about 10 years ago as a 'joint' ride between Chis Revill's group (who are now mostly Somer Valley CC or The Raven) and us).

 

Not so good: 

Short route too hard for kids, could we do another weekend event aimed at complete beginners / families / kids? 

Complaint from one resident at Dunkerton cottages about speed past houses.

 

Last year, like we've done previously, we did it as a Bike Week event using their free insurance (which is worth a lot in itself).

 

http://www.bikeweek.org.uk/

 

Last year I did a Risk Assessment and got hold of some signage, we (me, Dave, Tony and Chris) did some clearance work, I marked the junctions with paint on the road (paint from Dave), printed the maps (courtesy of the MoD!), Chas did some posters for us which we stuck up in the shops. Cadence kindly put up 3 £10 vouchers for 'Most Spirited Ride Awards'

 

So what do we want to do this year?

 

A few suggestions I've had:

 

Keep it as it is (Weds night) / Move it to the nearest Saturday / Sunday

Run a families / kids event (possibly from Wellow Trekking Centre?) on the Saturday before? (More work).

Find a 'sponsor' to cover our costs (Pro - means I don't have to spend money(!), Con - means work in the short term finding a sponsor and ties us to that sponsor)

Run it as a formal club event using their insurance (and money if they have some)

Try and get the school to agree to allow us to use their carpark.. or swap to the nearby Odd Down Football club (they've got a car park, changing and a bar but we would no doubt have to pay!)

 

Charge an entry fee (generate some income we could use to cover costs and potentially spend on other things to get more people riding)- Pros and Cons! Would be a big step, some will say it moves it away from the idea it always was of just all the local groups getting together for a ride once a year) (Others have also said to me that we 'undervalue' it by not charging - i.e. we put a lot of effort in, it's well organised and they expect to get charged).If people pay they expect more but they then 'value' it more? If yes, how much?

 

Finally, (and the main reason for raising it now) I've been approached by the organisers of the 'Bike Bath' event who spotted the 'Turkey Twizzler' ride and are thinking they could do something similar off-road to complement their planned (road) rides:

 

http://bikebath.co.uk/

 

Several ways that could work, but most likely we'd run it for them on the Saturday and/or Sunday, they'd charge an entry and would pay individuals involved - i.e. route planning, risk assessing, liaising with landowners etc etc. leading, signage etc. They asked me what kind of numbers the course could cope with and I said up to several hundred if we sent people off in waves.

Would most likely mean a lot more work including possibly getting approval from landowners etc. posting notices and most work of all, signing the route in the days before.

 

..so, if anybody can be bothered to read that lot... opinions welcome :-)

 

 

O/O

Andy

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