Originally Posted by
SquireBlack
For the last several years, Jan Heine (Bicycle Quarterly) has announced a thing called the “Unmeeting”. It’s the opposite of an organized ride. He says quite explicitly that there is no fee, and that no services will be provided. You bring your own tent, bike, and food. There are a couple of published routes, and the times that I’ve attended, I’ve met great people, and throughly enjoyed riding, eating and camping with them.
What I like about the Unmeeting is that there is no false advertising: one knows up-front exactly what one is (not) getting for what one is (not) paying.
I had a great time at Eroica. I had an even better tine riding down the coast with Thor and @
Davestr. I feel fortunate that I can now afford the time and money (about $1600 plus airfare) to indulge in this. But if Eroica California keeps on shrinking, as seems to be its trajectory, perhaps we could turn it into an “Unmeeting”-style event in which like-minded cyclists get together for a weekend without any pretense of “organization”?
My experience mirrors yours - even the mirror image of swapping responsibility of driving a borrowed car down! In fact, comparing the September "Touroica" + "Fauxroica" to this year's "Touroica II" + Eroica is perhaps the best comparison. Coming up with our own self-supported route last fall plus other rides we did seems to me to be the sweet spot unless the organizers can provide an exceptional experience - which I believe is what Cino does much better. As for @
Andy_K's enjoyment of randomly meeting new friends, as long as enough people show up, this happens. Here's a pic from the final day of last year's Touroica, where I met a few people on the way down to Cambria.
The Unmeeting concept is wonderful. If Eroica decides this is the last California event, a simple post here and a few other sites would make for an organic event. If they do decide to have it again, we just start a week earlier or later. We could encourage, but not require that vintage bikes are ridden. Could have a ride up to Ragged Point and back from Cambria on Saturday, then a 3 climb no fries route from Paso Robles on Sunday.