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Charity Rides — and the Fundraising Dilemma

02.11.2010 by Ray Niekamp // 7 Comments

Lots of us sign up for charity rides. Often, they require payment of a nominal entry fee, a portion of which supports some worthy local organization, and that’s that.

But then there are the big ones, that are tied into national charities, and require not only an entry fee, but that each rider raise x amount of money.

I hate to ask people for money. I couldn’t sell ice in the desert.

But, if I want to ride in my MS 150 in two months, I’ve got to.

In my case, it’s not too bad. The MS Society expects each rider to raise a minimum of $400. Last year, I surprised myself and raised $485. This year, with the economy still in the doldrums, people seem to have tightened their purse strings. But I’m still well on my way to exceeding $400 again.

Other riders set a target higher than the minimum. That’s the case of Ashley, of Massachusetts. She’s entered in the Livestrong Challenge Philly (Philadelphia) in August. The minimum fundraising amount is $250, but her target is $1,000.

How does a person raise that kind of money?

Since most of these big events are organized by big charities, with support staffs, fundraising tips are made available to riders. The MS Society posts a 12-week plan to help you reach your fundraising goal, starting with your participant center. That’s a web page where potential donors can click a link or two and make an online donation to your effort.

Bike Noob’s participant center.

Ashley’s participant center.

But I like the MS Society’s tip for Week Two: Be Strategic with the First Donation! The names and amounts from your donors show up in a scroll on your Participant Center. In my case, my cousin has MS. Her sister made the first donation toward my ride, in the amount of $100. That sets the tone for others who visit the site — they can see that some folks are giving generously.

Then, it’s recommended you email your “second tier” of prospective donors — friends and family. Many of these can be expected to write a check. My second tier is made up of my co-workers, and my boss donated $50. Everyone will see his name in the scroll. Hint, hint.

Other ideas: Email a third tier of prospective donors. These could be people you know who you don’t see as often, but who might surprise you by coming through for you. In my experience, these donations average about $10, but they mount up fast.

You could also raise some additional money yourself, by selling unwanted or unneeded items at a garage sale, or on EBay, or on Craig’s List.

And don’t forget matching gifts from your employer, if they offer that kind of program.

Most people I know who have ridden in these rides were pleasantly surprised at how easy it was to reach their goals before ride day.  If you’ve read this far, please consider making a donation to Bike Noob or to Ashley.

And if you’re considering joining a charity ride yourself, they’re all over the place, all year long. I won’t list them here, but Biking Bis has a nice list of them. There’s sure to be something to whet your riding and fundraising appetite.

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Categories // Rides Tags // charity ride

What’s the Best Cyclocomputer?

02.09.2010 by Ray Niekamp // 18 Comments

Once again last weekend, I started a ride without waking my cyclocomputer. It automatically goes into sleep mode if I’m stopped for about five minutes, and quite often, I’ll forget to hit the button to wake it up so it can continue to tote up my mileage and measure my speed and cadence.

It’s a bit bothersome, especially for someone as OCD as I am about keeping tabs on my cycling stats. But overall, I like the computer. It’s a nice Cateye V2C. It’s wireless, and it gets me the info I need — but not the info some of my friends expect from their computers.

So I wonder — What do you expect your cyclocomputer to do? How elaborate do we want it to get at collecting and storing data?

Some want a GPS unit that saves the whole ride, so it can be downloaded to a desktop computer and then followed interactively.

Some want a computer that measures heart rate in addition to speed and cadence.

Others prefer a minimalist approach, and just want to know how fast they’re going and how far they’ve gone. They don’t really care about all that other stuff.

And then there are those who have a love-hate relationship with their computers. That would include both of my guest posters, Jeff Hemmel and Don Blount. Jeff and Don have each used this space to rejoice in the “freedom” that riding without a computer gives.

But whenever I ride with my club, every person in the group has a computer of some kind attached to their handlebars. So — to repeat my opening question, what do you expect your computer to do? And if you’d like to describe the make and model of yours and its features, feel free to go ahead. That’s what comments are for.

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Categories // Accessories Tags // computer, Cyclocomputer

Trainers Vs. Rollers

02.07.2010 by Ray Niekamp // 8 Comments

Guest poster Don Blount follows up his post on rollers, by comparing them to trainers.

If the weather changes so you are reluctant or unable to get outside to ride, is it better to hop on a stationary trainer or on bike rollers?

The answer is, it depends on what you want to accomplish.

The consensus among a few experienced cyclists is that rollers will allow you to work on your riding skills, although you’ll need practice to be able to stay upright on them. However trainers will let the most novice of riders hop on and do power workouts without any type of learning-how-to-ride-them period.

So which is better?

“I would recommend both because they do two different things,” Robert Fuller said. Robert is a licensed USA cycling coach and team manager for Rocket Sports Foundation, a youth cycling team in Lodi, Calif. (www.rocketsportsfoundation.org) In full disclosure, Robert did my bike fitting.

“As you know, with a trainer balance is only a minimal factor so doing hard intervals, standing up, sprinting, and slogging away while watching a video or TV is much easier to do,” he said.

But with rollers “there is a riding/balancing skill that is hard to replicate with any other form of cycling,” he said. “When riding rollers you are forced to learn to control your body movements since any movement is magnified on rollers.”

Ah, so true. While riding rollers I’ve turned my head slightly to one side to look at something and found myself lurching toward the edge of the roller and then to the floor.

Robert continued that rollers carry an important benefit. “If an athlete has mastered being able to ride on rollers for 30 minutes without falling off, you know that rider is going to be a safer rider on the road.”

So given that, if he could only have one, he’d use the trainer. “I would say that a trainer is going to give you a better, safer workout for 99 percent of all cyclists.”

A longtime friend of Robert’s is Craig Sanders. Another full disclosure — I work with Craig. He helped me select my bike and introduced me to Robert.

The two used to race bikes together a long time ago.

If Craig had to choose between a roller and a trainer, he would go with a roller. “A trainer is the same as riding a stationary bike at the gym. You can work on power but nothing else.”

Avid cyclist and blogger Dana McEwan (“Maine Velophile“) uses her trainer to build her base. “I do mainly endurance workouts with it and not too many intervals, or at least standing sprints,” she said. “The frame can torque a bit so you have to be a bit careful about body movement on it.”

She added that by the time she’s ready to start doing intervals on the trainer, the weather in Maine is starting to turn milder, and she can do those workouts on the road. “A road ride beats a trainer ride any day.”

Another cycling blogger, Bryan Dewberry, (“Biking to Live“) just started using a trainer. He says his biggest problem with it is boredom. “If I hadn’t set up my laptop on a table in front of me I don’t know if I could do it,” he said. He’s thinking about getting cycling DVDs to play during his workouts.

And in talking with a few sales people at my local LBS, all avid cyclists, they agree with the uses of each piece of equipment but also are split on which to use.

Ann, who is short, prefers a trainer in part because if she fell off a roller, it would be a long way down.

Steve, a former competitive racer prefers to use rollers because it allows him to work on form. Yet, he said, the trainers come with DVD systems that help you simulate riding. And depending on how much you want to spend, you can get trainers with all types of resistance settings.

Dana McEwan uses a fluid trainer, which she likes because it’s quiet. She suggests going with a reputable brand, such as CycleOps. “If you can afford to spend a bit more, then look for a good quality fluid or mag trainer. The latter actually allows you to adjust the resistance remotely,” she said.

But her most important trainer advice? “Invest in a trainer specific tire! And never use a regular tire that has been run a lot on the trainer outside on your road bike. Dangerous!”

I paid $110 for my Travel Trac rollers during a Performance Bike online sale in Sept. 2008. I haven’t seen them anywhere near that price since. A basic trainer I’ve seen on sale for as low as $89.

I may add a trainer at some at some point, in part because my wife wants to do indoor cardio work on her mountain bike. Daresay she won’t go near my rollers.

So depending on whether you want to work on your form and simulate riding while working out indoors or care less about your technique and just want to crank, that may influence whether you want to go with rollers or a trainer.

However, in the end, I agree with Craig: “Riding indoors is boring. I’d rather ride outside.”

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Categories // training Tags // Blount, guest post, rollers, trainer, training

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