Has Bicycle Touring Become Boring?
January 17, 2009 by Darren Alff
I recently received an email from a BicycleTouringPro.com reader who is currently in the process of preparing for a long distance, self-supported bicycle tour to raise money for a charitable organization. She’s planned out a route, purchased all her gear, and is now in the process of raising awareness for her ride. But she’s has a problem… and she needs your help!
To find out exactly what her problem is, watch the video below:
If you have an idea, comment, or suggestion on how we can make bicycle touring exciting again, please leave a comment below. This is a topic I would like to discuss in further detail in a future series of articles, so I’m curious to hear what you think.
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You may want to check out some of the comments left on the YouTube channel here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8SXF6gRKY74
There is a good discussion going on there about this topic and the comments might be worth reading.
A couple of thoughts …
1. Bicycle touring … Not boring!!! Check out the guy whom is riding to Obama’s Inauguration from California. I’ve heard all about that on the news. (bikingforobama.com) Going green is certainly the “in thing” right now. The bicycle is a huge part of this.
2. Charities … Around the world they have to be feeling the global crunch right now the worst. With everyone seeing their retirements going down the drain with the Wall Street crash we feel less rich, and thus partake in fewer things not involving our basic necessities. Subsequently we are not donating to charities like we were last year.
It has to be more than a regular tour. It needs to be different like how this guy did it: http://www.takeaseat.org/ —watch the trailer
last summer I cycled the length of great britain from jon o groats to lands in 7 days for cancer research,in memory of grand parents. Both pre and post event i found it difficult to get my story into the papers and when it did make the paper it was only a small section with a photo the size of a pasport photo. however in prevous weeks the newspapers have published, in depth, storys of individuals taking part in a fun run for charity over 3 miles.
This could have been down to timing, with other events distracting the focus away from your event, lack of understanding of the event by the editors of the paper?
However with this in mind anything done for charity is worth celebrating and therefore the magnitude of the event becomes irrelevant
My wife, school age son, and I spent 11.5 months backpacking the Appalachian Trail. I have ridden my bicycle from El Paso almost to Houston here in Texas.
The responses are predictably the same types: Oh (I am not interested); I could never do that (discussion ended); how much did your pack weigh?: how far did you ride/hike?All of those responses are dismissive.
But a rare some one will say “Really? I have always wanted to do something like that.” Then an interesting discussion ensures. Even more rarely one meets some with the same or similar experience. That is fun as we mutually appreciate our experiences.
These types of adventures are quite personal. Few people are adventuresome. Most are passive participants who watch it on TV. “I saw on the Discovery Channel… or I saw this guy on TV….”
Even most bike riders just want to get in their fashionable costume, hop on their road bike, and go fast for s few miles. They have fun, but the adventure is left out.
I understand what motivates the three of us: “Why go to Six Flags to be entertained, when we can have an adventure?” There is the challenge to overcome obstacles, endure, meet new interesting people, see new places, with some risk and perhaps some danger.
My comment to a group of adventurers, “We could watch this on TV.” is always met with laughs of derision. All of us are unwilling to trade sore muscles and some minor discomfort of an easy chair. Adventure trumps entertainment to that crowd.
I live just off ‘The Great River Road’ in WI. Over the years I’ve seen many travelers on bikes and river craft.
IMHO, it’s not the iternerary, or the cause, but the appearence that gets the press. Newspapers, especially the small town variety often depend on photo ops to kick off a story.
Outlandish works.
My take is that the means to raise the money is secondary to the popularity of the charity. Jerry Lewis, for example, raises money in the same old tired way, year after year, because his cause touches the hearts of the viewers. There are numerous examples of this. Secondly, the economy has got to be a big factor.
Perhaps if the young woman represented a larger group of people who could in turn campaign for her fund raising ride, she could benefit more. A church group or company with a mission to participate in the community, come to mind,
Whenever I hear that a person finds ANYTHING boring,its quite often that person not paying total attention to the subject at hand.Life is what you make it and Im guessing that the person who found touring “boring” ,hadnt put all their creative energies into the program as of yet.She could enlist more folks to help spread the word,find other riders to go on the trip with her,get thourghly enthused on the charity of her choice so that folks NEED to help her………….What a person sends out in life always returns……….
It’s who you know not what you’re doing.
I agree with alot of what’s been said if you’re doing the ‘tourist routes’ (not my words) like London to Cape Town through East Africa or Alaska to Argentina then it’s hard to really grab peoples attention. People have become too used to hearing about it. I think alot of peoples opinion is that if it’s been done once then that makes it easy for everyone else. Not sure they fully understand the blood, sweat and tears it takes just to decide to get up off the sofa and out the front door.
Last year I cycled from Korea to Cape Town through the Axis of Evil and down the West Coast of Africa through countries that are constantly in the news-Afghanistan, Pakistan, Tibet, Iran, Iraq, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Nigeria, DRCongo-and I couldn’t even get in my local newspaper because it “wasn’t really news”. I eventually got an article in quite a big UK paper-the Times but that was only because a freelance journalist in South Africa happened to read an article done for a local newspaper in Cape Town. He rang his contacts up and I was in the paper the next day.
I hate to say it but if she wants coverage she’s going to have to sell out-PR company, some soul selling photos etc.
One thing I was told before this trip that has stood me in good stead and that is that nobody gives a sh$t. I hate it but have been unable to disprove it. This is only relevant in the developed world as people everywhere else have been in my experience a shining example of hospitality.
I agree with much of what y’all are saying. Problem is… we’re preaching to the choir so-to-say. But, if we continue to be visible and approachable and simply just out there we will continue to get our messages out there.
Economies will ebb & flow just like peoples’ interest. Of course the mainstream media plays a huge role in how people view their world around them. People, like a school of fish, will change direction as quickly as they can change the channel so the media (in the U.S.) has to hype everything up and shove it down your throat to stay on the top of their reviews. Given this, I think folks just simply think riding a bicycle on a tour for whatever cause isn’t flashy enough or “Reality TV” enough.
I, though, dislike that immensely. I don’t like being marketed to and, therefore, feel funky when trying to “sell” whatever I am working on. I’ve always felt that the “product” should be able to stand on its own merits… my ride is supporting an organization that I believe is doing an outstanding job dealing with an issue that I feel is important… ‘nough said.
Just the same, I’ll keep peddling along and doing the best I can with what I have (I’m not really technically proficient but I’ll get the hang of it or find somebody who can help me with it). And, possibly, through some great networking like we are doing right here we can all make a bigger difference in whatever issue we are trying to bring awareness to or affect.
So…
I am riding from Houston, TX to New York, NY from 11AUG09 through 11SEP09 to raise awareness of and money for Wounded Warrior Project benefiting our Soldiers, Marines, Sailors, Coast Guardsmen and Airmen wounded in the GWOT. I’ve posted what I can on the internet and am keeping a blog of the ride. I am Tweeting on Twitter. I’ve posted fliers all over LBS’s and bulletin boards wherever I see them. I’ve had a friend, who is a free-lance news person, write an article and it will be posted in the Houston Chronicle, though, I’m positive it won’t make the front page. I’m going to send a media release to all the nationwide news stations and papers as well as those local ones in the towns & cities I will be riding through. I’ve written a letter to the President and cc’d it to those Congressmen and Senators whose districts I will be riding through. I’ve sent out contribution request letters to all the big U.S. contractors with ties to the Middle East. I’m hitting up the oil industry from the inside through a network of friends in the business. Being in Houston makes it a bit easier since 99.9% of these companies/conglomerates are based here. I don’t know what else to do but, I will listen to suggestions.
When all is said and done I know that I will have made a contribution. It may not be the $300 million garnered for cancer research by the Lance Armstrong Foundation but, hey, look who they have for a spokesperson… right!?! I will have talked to a few people who will then talk to a few people and so on. Perhaps I will raise a little money… hopefully I’ll raise more money than it will cost me to accomplish the mission but, if not, that’s my contribution.
Ride On!
Exciting? Does it need to be exciting? Pleasurable if fine with me. Informative works too.
Toward that end… whenever I imagine doing a long trip (solo) I always think about what to do when I’m in a store or walking around a town with my bike some distance from me. The bike will be loaded with valuable stuff that is easily swiped. I’d like to know what solutions you or others have found that allows you to park the bike and walk around without everything getting ripped off.
[...] Has Bicycle Touring Become Boring? [...]
Bicycle touring is really exotic activity..where you have fun with your friends, view incredible scenery and improve your mental and physical health. Me and my friends also went for a bicycle tour..but at that time I didn’t use any such touring cycles. I simply had my Hero Cyclone and didn’t face any problem with my bicycle. Its very durable and stylish ..I just love riding on this.