Originally Posted by
Bekologist
People are conflating two distinctly different events - organized, multiple day rides with hundreds to thousands of participants, corralled like chattel into school gymnasiums and parks, and the intimate, small group organized tours of a dozen people or so, rolling to common destinations each night, with some flexibility and autonomy vs. some version of RAGBRAI.
I agree these are somewhat different beasts.
I've done a variety of these different rides ranging from:
- Small organized rides with BikeChina (3 participants) and Spice Roads (3 participants once, ~10 participants another time). These were about a week long and in foreign destinations where I had limited time and appreciated the extra logistics.
to
- Organized events such as Ride the Rockies (4 times, ~2000+ participants), Bicycle Tour of Colorado (~900 participants)
and some that come in between such as the HI-AYH Christmas ride (~100 participants) and BRAT (~100 participants), TX Hell week (~300 participants), Tour D'Afrique (~60 participants) and some we've organized with local cycle club. I've also done a fair amount of my own self-supported cycling both in US, Canada and overseas. The first six months of this year I'm actually doing a mixture of all three: TDA across Africa for 4 months, my own self-supported ride in USA for 1 month and Bicycle Tour of Colorado for a month.
Originally Posted by
hyhuu
So what's the appeal with organized tours? Just asking because I've never done one.
I enjoying doing a mixture of different types of rides including organized tours. For me the appeal is different for the different types of rides:
-- Organized tour overseas, I like appreciate extra logistical support in some places I've been e.g. across Africa, as well as making sure I see some of the highlights along the way.
-- Self touring in US or areas easy to travel, I like the freedom of the road and deciding where I go. I have more and better interactions with locals. Costs are lower. For an extended trip across a continent, I like being able to adjust and adapt.
-- Event riding; I like the challenge. Being part of an "event" has its own fun for a while and bit more party atmosphere. Costs aren't as much as the small organized tour.