Beachgrad05

https://bigringcentury.com/

Anyone else planning on doing this?

I have signed up for the Metric Century and am both nervous and excited. My preparation was thrown off by having to replace my bike after I fell and damaged the frame on 5/20. Last weekend was my first ride on the new bike. Hoping to get a 50 miler in this weekend to see how that goes.

Rick@OCRR

Looks like a good event, but it's on the same day as the Grand Tour Double Century (which I ride every year), so I think some better planning by the organizers would have avoided a big event date like the Grand Tour.

But then, on the other hand, it is tough to find an open date for a SoCal ride during the summer months.

Rick / OCRR

bored117 

Been thinking about it... Hmm... probably 50/50 right now.

haaseg

The route for the century is definitely NOT spectacular, particularly if you ride around OC regularly. And they chose probably the worst section of PCH to ride on.

rooftest

I like riding that stretch of PCH, but think that organized centuries on MUPs suck big time.

JimmyNH

+1

+1

And to drop my own 2 cents here - I stopped doing rides like this long ago. What's the point? Ride on a road where I can ride any time I want but pay $100 for it? They don't close the roads for traffic, they don't even marshal the intersections. And on top of this, they force you to buy that lousy jersey.

rooftest

Good point - I didn't see that they wanted $100 at first. I remember that Jax did a charity century a few years ago. It was really a lot of good advertising for Jax. Wanting $100 for it just sounds greedy. It hardly costs anything to just set everyone loose on public streets and give out water and muchies at a few rest stops. Turning it into a profit center just seems greedy...

Rad Fondo

I don't mean to thread jack but...

You can always do the Rad Fondo#7 event on July 4th in San Clemente. We are doing a 70 mile loop that is also supported and the cost is FREE.

More info www.radfondo.com

CommuteCommando

They are called charity rides. I do them if I support the cause.

Edit.

I've done about half dozen, and not once was I forced to buy the jersey, and at two of them the "free" t-shirt was pretty cool.

haaseg

Apparently a part of your entry fee goes to World Vision. I didn't notice that before because it's not mentioned in the text on the home page, and the World Vision banner on the right is cleverly disguised as an advertisement. Whenever I see images of drop-down menus it makes me angry. The unsuspecting user believes they are choosing a selection when in fact they are taken to a different page.

The other thing I dislike is that for months they have been spray-painting "bigring century" stencils everywhere in the area. At first it seemed like a pretty cool idea but it got old quick.

TrojanHorse

Looks like I'll be riding the exact OPPOSITE direction as the big ring century tomorrow.... how funny, taking almost exactly the same path from San Clemente back over to Anaheim.

rooftest

I see on their site it says "an (unspecified) portion of your entry fee..." I hate it when they're not specific about stuff like that. Part of me thinks that portion is $0.01.

As for the spray-painting; vandalism is never cool - not even when it's for charity. A few years back, Incycle spray painted their shops' name all over the surface of GMR. They got their name out there, all right - everyone thought they were real dicks.

CommuteCommando

I saw markings for it riding the San Juan Creek path southbound yesterday.

JimmyNH

I know these are charity rides, but for $100 they should offer something more than a peanut butter sandwich and a lousy looking jersey (agreed, "forced" might have been the wrong word, but they use the jersey as an excuse for the price). So, I'm afraid I'll have to side up with Rooftest again - that seems greedy.
I've done a few charity rides in AZ (Tour de Mesa, Tour de Tucson) and I like the way these events are organized and the flexible, no-nonsense pricing: so much for the ride, so much processing fee, minimum donation (usually $10-15) to the supported charity, etc. It costs me quite a bit more (to put it mildly) than the $100 for the Bigring century, but I get something in exchange for my money, and I still support a good cause. I'm sure the organizers of these rides (PBAA) raise a lot more money for their charities than any of the local rides. Hell, people drive all the way from CA to participate in their rides.

Beachgrad05

The $100 includes a ride jersey so I thought it was a pretty decent deal for the ride AND jersey.

Beachgrad05

And I don't feel FORCED to buy the jersey. I am new to cycling and need jersey's and getting one for my rides is something I am doing for now to build up my jersey selection and help me to get motivated. If it isn't your thing...great. From what I heard, there were only about 300 riders so far signed up so they are not making a crap load of $ and I'm hopeful it will be a nice ride.

Beachgrad05

Could the spray painted markings you are seeing be the route markers? The LA River Ride left their arrows on the road and I am still seeing them on the SGRT when I ride.

allroy71

Spotted their "tag" on Santiago Canyon Rd yesterday. I hope it's water color!!!

bored117 

Century on MUP... bleh... I was riding in SART yesterday and now I know where the people who were going three abreast, sticking way out taking both side of MUP, walking around and blocking people came from. Indeed, worst idea for organized century is what I agree with.

Beachgrad05

I would not know how the majority of the riders were as I was at the tail end of the ride as I'm slow and I was riding alone.

Beachgrad05

Also got a $20 gift cert from Jax Bicycles so for $100 I got a decent ride, jersey, $20 gift cert and a decent post ride meal from Chik Fil A.

ddimick

I would have traded all of that, except maybe the Chik Fil A, for rest stop bathrooms.

Beachgrad05

I plan on mentioning to the organizers a few things especially this.

My gripes:

1. Lack of restroom facility at pit stop 1 (pit stop 2 was at a church and you could use the facilities there)
2. More pit stops - pit stop 1 was at 26.5 miles...that's too far to the first one and 2nd one was in the middle of the gnarly hill on Nohl Ranch and nothing after that 2nd one at 40 mile mark for those on the metric ride.
3. Better signage and especially at turns.

mtrider05

Those stop intervals are pretty normal, especially for a ride with so little climbing. I did a ride recently where the first rest stop came after 25 miles and 4k ft. of climbing.

Beachgrad05

Out of the 62 mile Metric and the 100 mile Century only about 13-14 miles were on SART...going North from PCH and used the right side (south or east) of the trail and from what I saw...FWIW the other side had way more riders on it than the side the ride used. Eventually had to cross to the other side across a bridge. So a very small percentage of the ride utilized it and from what I gather, many rides in the area use them....Tour of Long Beach and the LA River Ride used both the LART and the SGRT....