General Cycling Discussion - Ultimate challenge: BikeForums World Relay Tour

How about this for a challenge we can all join: The BikeForums World Relay Tour

Here's how it works:
As there are people from all over the world, it could/should be possible to find someone who lives within a decent bike ride from you. In turn, this person may live within a bike ride of another forum member, and so on. Wouldn't it be cool if we could get a (cycling-related) object, and pass it around the world by handing it over from one forum member to another?

I realize that it may be difficult to get it to pass through certain countries or continents, and that it would probably be difficult to organize, but still it would be fun to try.

We could set up a new thread in which we post status reports and pictures of the people involved in moving the object around the world.

I'm really curious if it could be done, how many rides and riders it would take, and how long it would be before we get the object around the world.

This is just an idea, but let me know what you think, if you want to join, or is you have any ideas about practical arrangements.

Cheers,
TT

I think it sounds like a crazy idea - but I really like it too! Count me in for a ride in the Denver, Colorado area. :)

does sound really complex to organize but would be cool. Sort of like the money tracking thing. Only thing I could see going wrong is when it has to cross borders into another country....oh and at some point its going to need to fly across and ocean (or be mailed depending on size. Still a cool idea though

Sounds like an excellent idea to me, I would be willing to do much of OK and I know people in AR who might be up for it. Keep this thread alive and let's see if it can be worked out. The far west part of OK would be tough but it might be able to be done up from TX or something. Would be a big project to work out but I think a worthy goal...

That'd be sweet! Dunno of anybody in my area.....

Happy to try and do my bit in South Australia... A long way to Perth or Melbourne though. Maybe MediaCreations can complete the Australian leg all by himself? :)

There should be a sticky somewhere where the posts start in 1 place with a digital picture and proceed from there as additional pictures posted as the bikers meet and then move on across the country. So we can just scroll down and see the progression of bikers meeting from county to county.

Perhaps the moderators can choose who meets who to avoid confusion.

I say you post on here or on a web-site a list of every country you want it to pass through, then anyone who can help out, they email or reply, and you can add what country/area you can ride through. just my idea.

I think it is a good idea. A list of participants grouped by postal code and country would possibly be a good way to figure out who passes to who.

Sign me up for anything within a day's ride of Detroit.

Dan
Postal Code USA 48030

i could do south bend indiana to wheaton IL, or similar distance with Chicago the Hub. Perhaps I will get to meet DanFromDetroit.

Count me in if this takes off...I'll be at the west coast (Bay Area of California).

I got the Orange County SoCal hookup

jeff

How about making it a race. Suppose you start with a water bottle with a note pad and pen in it. The starter notes their name and starting point, date & time. They hand off to the next person, who signs on. Recognition could go to the first "team" to cross a continent, the fastest crossing, the longest crossing, the biggest team, first team to cross the equator, etc. I think we would have to agree that it would be OK to be on more than one team, since it is all very informal, you would need to hedge your bets about crossing even the continent.

There should be a sticky somewhere where the posts start in 1 place with a digital picture and proceed from there as additional pictures posted as the bikers meet and then move on across the country. So we can just scroll down and see the progression of bikers meeting from county to county.

Perhaps the moderators can choose who meets who to avoid confusion.
Good idea. It should help keep the thread alive and attract more riders to the project.
How do I get this done? Should I send a private message to one of the moderators?




I say you post on here or on a web-site a list of every country you want it to pass through, then anyone who can help out, they email or reply, and you can add what country/area you can ride through.


I think it is a good idea. A list of participants grouped by postal code and country would possibly be a good way to figure out who passes to who.

I like the list ideas as well. I'm sure that the postal codes would work in some countries, but in others it may be tricky. If you have access to a GPS unit, perhaps you can add GPS coordinates of your location to that list. You can then use these to look for anyone within a reachable distance from you.




How about making it a race. Suppose you start with a water bottle with a note pad and pen in it. The starter notes their name and starting point, date & time. They hand off to the next person, who signs on. Recognition could go to the first "team" to cross a continent, the fastest crossing, the longest crossing, the biggest team, first team to cross the equator, etc. I think we would have to agree that it would be OK to be on more than one team, since it is all very informal, you would need to hedge your bets about crossing even the continent.

The water bottle, notepad and pen sound perfect for the task. It shouldn't be too difficult for anyone to cary and does not have a lot of value, so it should be possible to carry it across borders, and it's not a big disaster if it doesn't get returned to it's rightfull owner. :(


Some great ideas so far. Now all we need is some extra riders. Unless we each want to do a 2000 mile ride? :roflmao:

Cheers,
TT

How about making it a race. Suppose you start with a water bottle with a note pad and pen in it. The starter notes their name and starting point, date & time. They hand off to the next person, who signs on. Recognition could go to the first "team" to cross a continent, the fastest crossing, the longest crossing, the biggest team, first team to cross the equator, etc. I think we would have to agree that it would be OK to be on more than one team, since it is all very informal, you would need to hedge your bets about crossing even the continent.


I like this idea... but I was kinda getting the idea that Bike Forum members would be ONE team... and the goal to connect around the world

jeff

I think it is a good idea. A list of participants grouped by postal code and country would possibly be a good way to figure out who passes to who.

Sign me up for anything within a day's ride of Detroit.

Dan
Postal Code USA 48030

If you pick it up from someone at the Canadian border, say a the Winsdsor tunnel, St. Clair ferry or Port Huron Blue Water bridge, I'll meet you in the Midland / Saginaw area and take it to Ludington and across Lake Michigan on the ferry. That would cover Michigan while giving each of us a good days ride of slightly over 100 miles.

Any takers to meet me at the dock in Manitowoc, Wisconsin.

Or Vice versa

T/E

How about making it a race. Suppose you start with a water bottle with a note pad and pen in it. The starter notes their name and starting point, date & time. They hand off to the next person, who signs on. Recognition could go to the first "team" to cross a continent, the fastest crossing, the longest crossing, the biggest team, first team to cross the equator, etc. I think we would have to agree that it would be OK to be on more than one team, since it is all very informal, you would need to hedge your bets about crossing even the continent.



I like this idea... but I was kinda getting the idea that Bike Forum members would be ONE team... and the goal to connect around the world


Getting around the world as a team is indeed the first challenge. But if we can motivate enough of the 10,000 registered forum members a little competition would be a good idea.

Cheers,
TT

Excellent idea, how about linking it to some charity, each rider gets signed up donations, however small, to pass the, THING, on and upon completion collects & forwards the proceeds to a Global charity need, e.g. children in Sudan. It will need a team that monitors and co-ordinates the chain link, either way I am in and that’s London to 100 miles + covered. Good Idea to start in the spring as we read on the forum plenty of riders disappear over the horizon on a long distance tour.

I would be willing to do some of a Scottish ride (I know there are riders from places not too far to the South of me). I'm in St. Andrews (Postcode being KY16 9NH). I think that sponsers are very important and it would be a large amount of money if this is done globally.

Question..Have Bike Forum members had the best of luck in forming group rides..Think it would be neat to see a bunch of cyclists wearing the BF jersey. Once in awhile members talk of having finally met one another. Seems pretty infrequent..Challenging a world cup seems a pretty hefty goal.

I'm in for the Phoenix area part.

As a suggestion and to get more particapation why not do it for a world recognized charity, say Cancer. Get people to sponsor at maybe a dollar (or the equivilant) a mile. It should work, also gets some press, thus more riders and maybe even a sponsor or two.

I'm in for the Fort Worth, Texas area...

RT

Excellent idea, how about linking it to some charity, each rider gets signed up donations, however small, to pass the, THING, on and upon completion collects & forwards the proceeds to a Global charity need, e.g. children in Sudan. It will need a team that monitors and co-ordinates the chain link, either way I am in and that’s London to 100 miles + covered. Good Idea to start in the spring as we read on the forum plenty of riders disappear over the horizon on a long distance tour.

My thoughts exactly. I was thinking more of auction the item after completion and donate that money to a bike related charity. Maybe try to announce whats going on. The more press the event gets the more then item will sell for. While this is going on start a bikeforums fund to collect additional money for what ever charity people decide on.

I'm up for this.

I'm located in southern Wisconsin.

Let us know how you want to do this...

Koffee

Forum Mod

Count me in forthe Puget Sound area I could even ride to the Peace Arch in Blaine (Canadian border crossing)

I'd be up for it as well. Downtown Toronto, Ontario, Canada

I hope there are a lot more responses from all over the world though - so far we've only got people from America and the odd one from other countries.

The $1 per mile (or £1 per mile, or Canadian/Australian $1, 1 Euro etc) is a very good idea. Sponsership forms would easily be made and there are many kind people who will sign such a form for donations.

Is anyone taking a list of all the various locations that are being suggested - otherwise it will end up with a lot of work in the end. It would probably be an idea to start making a map of where all the locations are as well so that distances can be plotted (I might be willing to do this btw).

The other I thought I had is how does the batton (or whatever it would be) travel from one continent to another? I guess it would have to be posted? If this was to run during the '05 summer it would make sense as most people have their free time then.


Just some suggestions.

I like the idea of an across the country relay.We have enough riders to do it. Maybe charity could go , at least in part to the LAF...Earn our Livestrong braclets. ?
Think we have enough riders to cover the vastness of portions of the West? Heading east, I would be forced to pedal my way back across a huge grade west of Boreggo Springs, Calif...Always avoided that so far...About a 6,000 ft. drop to the desert floor. 10 mile descent at maybe about an 8 % grade...What we are forced to do for charity.Gregg LeMond trained here.
Think my location is just about the last major city before descending the Coastal mountain to the desert floor..We talking maybe 100 miles to do each's part...? Some friends last April crossed the whole USA ...Said the hardest climbs across the US was near Globe, Ariz. and the coastal range here in California...Luckily we aren't further north and have to cross the Sierra.

I think as people in Europe wake up in the morning and get online, we'll hopefully see more of a response from them. The only European I remember off the forums (off the top of my head) is Juha... I'm sure he'd be game.

Koffee

I love this idea. Count me in for New York City...

Pretty neat idea.. the only forum members that I'm close to are PWRD (I work with him too) and BurlySurly, who's about 80-90 miles away... I think there are a few in Chattanooga & Nashville TN as well and I'm in Knoxville.. Burly is in Johnson City, I believe... TN has various entry points from AR, MS, AL, GA, KY, VA & NC. I doubt it'd be hard to get the "baton" through TN.. but where to afterwards. SW Virginia is pretty desolate going up I-81.

As far as organizing this goes, I think we need to have several teams. One should cover the US, one Europe, and the Oceania.

I'll ride across Massachusetts if you need me! I know there are a few eastern mass cyclists here also.

Here's a map I just put togethor with all the locations we have so far. As you can see, way more are needed.

You can see it here (but be warned, it is 1mb in size as it's the whole world) - here (http://www.pro-weather.com/home/mapworldcycle.jpg)

I just had a wacky idea.

Maybe we can have one of those silicone bracelets made (you know, like the LAF ones?) with the words Bikeforums.net World Relay, this way we can mail it from, say, europe to the US

We could also have pics of each person wearing it...

I think that's a really good idea (and they can't be difficult to have them made). Maybe we could ask some 'celeb' riders to do parts of the relay too? If the money was going to charity I'm sure Mr. Armstrong would be more than happy - and that way the bracelet could be auctioned off for quite a bit I should think.

Absolutely. Beats a baton, and it'll be worth something when we're done with it.

We have so many members spread out from Seattle to San Diego to Mass. to Miami, the route could lool pretty wacky to fit all in, who want to participate.

Can this thread be put on sticky so that we get as many as possible responses?

I tried Googling the silicon wristband things to see where they can be made but didn't have any luck (so far).

We have so many members spread out from Seattle to San Diego to Mass. to Miami, the route could lool pretty wacky to fit all in, who want to participate.


I don't think it would be a problem to have it travelling across from one side of the US to the other even if it mean't having to move North and South as well. Keeping track of the miles travelled will be good as well as I'm sure in the end it would be an impressive amount.

There are some places

here (http://www.google.com/search?q=silicone+bracelet&sourceid=mozilla-search&start=0&start=0&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official) but they have a minimum order, in some cases of $200...

That would be very cool... I like the idea!

http://www.globalsources.com/gsol/I/Bracelet-bangle-manufacturers/p/2000000003897/3000000153677/1000463812.htm - That's one which says you can order only a few.

Excellent! Now we just need more looney kazooneys like us to do it :-)

Or.... instead of a bracelet, we can have something bigger, like say... a teddy bear with a custom made bikeforums.net jersey. That would not only be funny, it would definitely be more interesting to deal with.

I'm going transatlantic next year (early June), so if it gets to Chicago last, I can take it to Europe and ride up from Milan into Switzerland and pass it off to some of our Zurich bikeforums members.

Koffee

I am NOT riding through the streets of New York City with a Teddy Bear on my bike!

:roflmao:

Awwwwww, why not? We can get one of those small ones that are about 4 inches high and have a chain with a clip on it- those are popular, and they can clip to bags, clothes, etc. We'll just have to make the bear more "man-friendly". But think of it this way- the ladies will think it's so cute, and they will think you are so cute to be walking around with a cuddley-wuddley teddy bear. You might even get a date out of it! ;)

Koffee

You know, the wrist band still seems oddly more inviting than a teddy-bear. :p

Come on guys though, keep volunteering for your region - the more people the better. And thanks for making the thread sticky.

C'mon Kazakhstan riders! Sign up!