Anyone have good advice on how to do this? I'm not sure if my knee will love the 75km, so I don't really want to pay for the whole ride.

... zuffletuft....minkiedoodle

I do feel kinda bad even considering crashing a charity event.... wow there's still hope for me yet.

i wouldn't feel too bad, especially when they're charging $50 for the privelage of riding a bike. i think it was $10 the first year i rode it. i'm kind of losing my enthusiasm for charity rides.

Just make a donation to them if it bothers you. $110 to ride the DVP seems a bit exorbitant to me. As _K. said we already pay for upkeep and whatnot for this car-centric eyesore, so one free ride seems more than fair.

$50 is something I'd consider, but $110 seems a little steep. It would be interesting actually to see how much actually goes to charity and what the admin fees are.

you can be certain the 100% of the $50 admin fee is eaten up by the costs of putting on the ride and paying for those donation incentives you get. as for the donation money, i'm sure it doesn't all go to the worthy causes. but, if you've never done the ride, it's an interesting experience.

FWIW, each time i've done the 75km ride, i'm usually home by 10:30-11:00. not a full day in the saddle.

I was surprised by the minimum donation requirement as well, but it does seem to be inline with many charities.

Personally, if I was gonna get out for a road ride, doing it on the DVP would rank pretty low on my list. Why bother with all the sneaking around or fund-raising (unless of course you *want* to raise money for a charity, obviously) when you can just pedal out of the city or do the doughnut ride or something..? The DVP doesn't really seem like a particularly pleasant/scenic route, imho. Plus dealing with all the above-mentioned fair weather cyclists has to be annoying. *shrug*

I just did it for the novelty of riding on the highway... it wasn't all that special and we arrived late so the bike traffic was absolutely terrible.

Volunteer with the TBN, get a radio and ride the whole thing anyways!

I've actually quite enjoyed it. Smooth..... The 75 k start is the way to go, the only challenge is you get to thread the dawdlers on your second loop.

I'm sitting it out this year. I did the $110 thang last year but I was working. I don't have trouble raising $60, but I find the $40 a bit out of line. Although I may talk myself back into it before the 31st :D. The admin thing of this could be significantly cut by dropping the stupid incentives and just registering people and collecting donations. That's been my biggest critique every year. Lose the incentives. It's a *charity*!!! Bad karma raising $ so you can get a flashlight with a carabiner or a third rate boombox... gack... That and the entry fee blocks people who can't afford to do it. Charity fund raising is only for those who can afford to do it :mad:

The other thing is that now I don't have a 30k daily commute, I'd be blowing chunks after the first 10k.

Yeah, I thought that was kind of dumb as well.

I just got an email from a friend saying I am the team captain of their Becel Ride For Heart group because I am the only one who knows what is going on. But I don't know what is going on at all, I just know how to ride a bike. These office-types are crazy :rolleyes:

Lol...

That's Captain Jet...to you

I thought I saw a jpeg flyer for the Curbside thing on Friday...can't seem to find it here. Anyone know where that was posted - there site isn't showing it.

From robins blog. http://www.mybigride.com/
http://www.mybigride.com/wp-content/...ike%20week.jpg

who is going to the curbside thing? Dr.Benway is moving that day and i said i'd give him a hand in the evening but assuming we finish up and still have some energy we might head over... is it gonna be worth it?

Just make sure to tell them they have to wear their underwear on the outside to prevent friction burns. If anyone asks you where something is, say "thattaway" while pointing vaguely, then ride off.

It's easy-breezy: get your team there early to sign in together so you're not waiting for stragglers. First release is the 75k: just follow the lycra; next is the teams: follow the people with similar coloured t-shirts, then the individual types. If all else fails, just keep your group together. The first year I did it, I ended up with the teams because the signage was sort of vague.

Thanks, this is good advice. I haven't even checked the site and didn't realize we needed to have the same outfit, that is another thing to go on the to-do list. These people whom I don't even know have been emailling me with all sorts of great questions, the most common being "can I borrow a bike?", the most vague being "the pushing part of my bike is broken, can you fix it?" and the worst being "can I borrow some cycling shorts for the ride?". I think I will lend my GT to the guy who "nominated" me for this ;)

Yeah I'd really like to make it out to that as well. As it stands, getting out of the shooting gallery is priority uno. At the very least I'd like to make it out for the night ride, provided the Mrs. doesn't mind me ditching on some unpacking activities.

ermm... I was speaking in jest mostly (except about wearing your underwear on the outside). Are you registering as a group or under the corporate challenge thing? They give you t shirts if you're in the corporate, otherwise don't worry about it. General start, unless you've raised more than $60 is at 8:15.

Sure....but that will require 2 pairs of gitch...one on the inside and one on the outside. I heart underwear lines under bike shorts.

An inside look to a volunteer leaders daily life. ^^

There are plenty of places to hop the fence on the DVP and the marshalls don't give a **** from what I've seen. If they do I'm sure you can make them happy for less than $110... or just hop back over the fence again. The NW corner of the overpass at the molars is a good jumping on point.