Charity Cycle Ride

[peza]

A couple of mates and myself are planning on doing a charity cycle ride next year. We are looking at doing 400 to 500 miles over 3 to 5 days.

Does anyone have any suggestions on a route?
Or has anyone done anything similar and can give us any advice?

We are looking to stay in the UK or Ireland.

All 3 of us are built like rugby players and not cyclists so nothing too extreme.

Thanks.

 

[snorri]

Fairly vague parameters there, some things to consider.....

Perhaps you should think about the total time you can devote to this project, as you might have to allow time to travel to/from the start/finish and your home if you select a route from A to B. A round trip from your home base would make best use of the available time.
Do you intend to camp or use hostels or hotels along the way, this will be a factor in your choice of luggage and therefore the load you must carry.
Do you intend to be self sufficient, or horror of horrors, will you be having someone following you in a car?
You say nothing too extreme, but 500 miles in 3-5 days would be regarded by many as extreme.
Do you want a hilly route to add to the challenge or a more gentle level route?
You might consider taking a train from your nearest station to some point 500 miles away and cycling home.
Disclosing your location would help people to advise you of route possibilities.

 

[ufkacbln]

How are you financing this?

A colleague of my wife her husband, and two of their friends are doing LEJOG for charity.

So far so good, except that they are claiming £3000 in "costs" from the money raised to finance the accommodation, support vehicle, and administration!

Personally I think it is outrageous, but others are coughing up.

 

[tokwitney]

Friends of mine have just done Oxford to Paris(403 miles) in 5 days. I think it only cost them around £250 each for accommodation etc. They wernt the fittest of people before the ride.One is a recovering cancer patient(hence the ride to raise money for local unit). A great place to finish under the Eifel tower..

 

[peza]

Thanks for the replies it's much appreciated.

I was quite vague with the original post because i am open to any suggestions.

Where we live is irrelevant because we will have to travel to a start point as we live in different parts of the UK.

I think we would be looking at staying in B & B's along the route.

We considered doing an organised route, but the organisers charge a lot of money and therefore we were going to try to sort it out ourselves. As there are only 3 of us i don't think it will be too difficult ( i hope).

Thanks again.

 

[dellzeqq]

London to Edinburgh with a midnight start. You've can pick a really fabulous start, take your choice of roads, and arrive to a thrilling backdrop. There are good railways services to the start and the finish.

 

[Little yellow Brompton]

How are you financing this?

A colleague of my wife her husband, and two of their friends are doing LEJOG for charity.

So far so good, except that they are claiming £3000 in "costs" from the money raised to finance the accommodation, support vehicle, and administration!

Personally I think it is outrageous, but others are coughing up.

Outrageous why?

They are giving their time and effort for free, do you think they should pay for the priviledge as well? When you see a "commercial " charity event that says £X minimum donation required " where do you think that £X is going? It's being pocketed by the organisers, I see nothing different here.

Last month I did the Dun Run, and raised sponsorship for a Scout Group the " expenses" came to over £250, but I raised over £1250. If I had simply claimed the expenses the Group would still have been £1000 better off*, which would you prefer £1000 or nothing done at all?


* In actual fact the Group will end up over £1600 better off, I claimed the £250+ in expenses , then donated the same amount to the Group and the Group claimed Gift Aid on the donation.

 

[Tim Hall]

Are you rugby players, rather than just built like them? If so, why not Twickenham to Murrayfield? It'll add a bit of wossname to the task to get sponsors to dig a bit deeper.

 

[BikeLiker]

Outrageous why?

They are giving their time and effort for free, do you think they should pay for the priviledge as well?

Giving their time to who? If they collect litter off a beach or spend their nights consoling the homeless then they have given time. Going cycling is what I do for pleasure and I would cringe with embarrassment to ask other people to finance me whilst doing it. I can't believe anybody still falls for the "pay for my holiday and I'll give the left overs to chartity" routine.

 

[Little yellow Brompton]

Going cycling is what I do for pleasure and I would cringe with embarrassment to ask other people to finance me whilst doing it.

I agree with you, but I wouldn't want to see a situation where only those who can afford to work for a charity can work for a charity.

I think you need to look at the root definition of the event.

If the idea is " Let's raise some money" then £3500 Raised - £3000 expenses is a net gain of £500 for the charity, the experience is a by product.

If the idea is "Let's have some fun and raise some money" then maybe the ;point is valid

If the idea is "let's have a cycling holiday and get others to pay for it , and pass the remnants on" then that's fraud.

 

[martint235]

I agree with you, but I wouldn't want to see a situation where only those who can afford to work for a charity can work for a charity.

I think you need to look at the root definition of the event.

If the idea is " Let's raise some money" then £3500 Raised - £3000 expenses is a net gain of £500 for the charity, the experience is a by product.

If the idea is "Let's have some fun and raise some money" then maybe the ;point is valid

If the idea is "let's have a cycling holiday and get others to pay for it , and pass the remnants on" then that's fraud.

I can kind of understand the expenses thing just about but from a personal point of view I'm actually always quite sheepish asking people to sponsor me for doing something I enjoy.

 

[Alien8]

As long as it's made clear that some of the sponsorship is going towards costs/expenses then I guess there is no issue.

If the sponsor is actually bothered by this they can always give their hard-earned direct to the charity or whoever.

What pains me is that 95% of the time the activity/aim of what is being presented for sponsorship is so uninspiring (I'm not just thinking about cycling events).

If the sponsee is an able-bodied adult then I would expect at least something of Walliams or Izzard-esque proportions to get me to part with my cash.

 

[peza]

Well guys and gals thanks for your suggestions.

I think we will be doing a coat to coast ride in the summer of next year.