So I was thinking about doing SAGBRAW this year as my first tour.

Then I added up all the costs. 1200.00. 200/day.

Ride, 400
towels, 50
bag transport, 125
car rental, 240 (I'm a one car house)
meals, 100
tent, 300

Red flags are a-flyin' !

Can anyone explain why these are so expensive?

My wife and I have done a supported week long tour a few times run by a cycling association here in Quebec, their prices have gone up a bit over the years but are about $800. I believe that they are exceptionally good at logistically organizing this sort of thing and are successful at this price range (its gone up about $100 over the last 5 years or so), and there are usually about 1500-2000 people doing it. A certain percentage go the hotel route, a certain percentage go the "have someone put up a tent and take it down every day for you" route (adds about $300 or 350) and the rest of us use our own tents.

no matter what, you can understand how a company has to run all the meals, all the logistics of moving everything (lots of trucks) have all the employees to put stuff up, take stuff down, set up this, set up that, tear down this and that, have insurance, organize shuttle buses for mech or injuries to transport people and bikes, school bus shuttles for getting people into town if we camp far away etc etc.

In other words, a heck of a lot of logistics----now why this american one costs 1200 and ours 800? I suspect its an organisational thing and / or the fact that this organization here is a bicycle advocator , Velo Quebec, so they first and foremost put promoting biking and getting people out there biking, although I very much suspect they are very efficient and still make it profitable at the same time as running a good fun operation.

I agree completely that for especially 1200 bucks, you can buy all your camping stuff and do this own your own--but thats the whole thing, this is for people who dont want that, and enjoy the social side of it. Le Grand Tour , the name of the velo quebec supported tour, is very social and fun. We see the same faces year after year.
In mycase, my wife isnt the sort to do a self supported tour, so getting out to do this is an incentive for her to ride more, and I do it so that we do a bike trip together.

all this doesnt really address why your event costs 50% more.....its probably because people pay it, so they can, and/or there is an expected amount of profit that they want to make so they have this price (which leads back to if people pay it, then it works)

here is the english web page for Le Grand Tour this year

https://www.veloquebecvoyages.com/e/d...the-grand-tour

It seems like you're concerned about the cost but including all the expensive, but optional, extras. Usually those concerned about the cost would dispense with the extras as much as possible. And the $125 bag transport is for those staying in local motels so there's extra labor involved in getting their luggage to those locations - but if you're buying the $300 (rent our tent and have us set it up) option there would be no sense in also getting this one. If concerned with the cost then bring your own towel and your own tent (easily purchased for under $100), see if there's someone you can carpool with (or public transit), and decide how much of their meal plan you really want. That should cut the estimated cost in half.

You can easily pare down those costs. Bring your own towels and tent. Eat at restaurants or buy food rather than the tour's meal plan. You would have to eat anyway that week, regardless of touring or not, so it's not really fair to count that in the costs. As others mentioned, usually the tour organizers don't charge extra for baggage transport unless they are having to deliver your stuff to local hotels. Generally the baggage transport to camp sites is included in the overall fee for the ride.

Regarding the rental car, you could explore other options. Take a bus, and have them carry your bike in a box. Or try to carpool with other riders from your area. Eg, Cycle NC has a message board on their website, and many of the messages are from people trying to arrange transportation and carpool.

Supported means... if its not someone in your family doing all the support , you are Hiring someone to do that and they need to be Paid .
like any other Job or business .. insurance and so forth is part of the overhead.

you are then a Job Creator..

If you wanted to do RAGBRAI the ride costs $160 for the week. That includes transportation from town to town for one soft sided bag that can be up to 50 pounds and includes you tent and all your gear/clothes/etc that you do not take on your bike. In addition to that you have to get yourself to and from Iowa somehow and you will need transportation across Iowa at the beginning or end of the ride. You budgeted $240 for transportation to the ride, bus rides across Iowa at the beginning or end add another $150. What do you want to eat per day and spend on showers, etc? A lot of people say around $40/day so figure $320 for the ride plus one day at the beginning. That comes to $870 with you doing most of the work.

If you want to be pampered by a charter service that does most of the work then it can run up to $405 more to the charter if you bring your own tent and another $420 on top of that if you want to use their tent and you sign up before they are all taken. Now you are at $1700.

Or, you can sign on with a team or club that will provide some of what you need for less money. I do RAGBRAI with a few buddies in my own motorhome and we can typically do RAGBRAI for about $150 each in gas money, plus $160 for the ride, plus $320 (or whatever you figure) for food, etc. So that comes to $630 which is bare bones and depends on my personal generosity to my friends to a large extent. To keep the cost that low we either have to find someone willing to drive the MH for us for free, or split the driving among us which means we don't get to do the whole ride. If we want to hire a driver we would be lucky to get one for another $150 each for a week.

I don't know what to say, life is just expensive!

Your car rental requirement has nothing to do with the cost charged for the tour. You can bring your own towel. And the $125 is appears to be for motel luggage valet service. Tent charge is optional and not out of line with what other supported rides cost. Bring and pitch your own tent. The add-on services are usually contracted out to companies who need to make a profit.

And if you think it's expensive, look at something like Cycle Oregon, of which I have done four. The base price with meals is now probably over $1,000. Add another $110 or so for bus transportation to and from the start. Flying from the east coast costs some coin, including airline bike fees or shipping, and I have needed hotel rooms the day before and the day after. Tent and porter service, which I have never done since I don't have a problem pitching my own tent, is probably close to another $500.

The whole putting up your tent thing is popular now, I kinda shake my head at someone who feels they need to pay someone 300 bucks to put up a tent for them each day, my wife expressed interest and I just shook my head. Its clearly popular but also clearly has the audience of mamby pamby city folks who have money to spend on "being looked after", and an attitude that thinks that putting up and taking down a tent is a hardship.

I looked this up: SAGBRAW® Prices - BikeWisconsin.com - Bike Wisconsin®* Scenic cycling tours


If you were on the ball, and signed up by the end of November, a full week would have cost $299 (adult). Now the fee is $378.

The full week includes: "Your choice of indoor or outdoor camping, showers at overnight sites, cue sheets & maps, GPS bike routes, online bike routes, SAG support, luggage support, four luggage tags, frame numbers, PreRide camping, week-long parking, town shuttle bus, cool nighttime activities, mechanical support, daily rest stop (fundraiser for local groups), water stops, celebration lunch, marked cycling route, tons of fun!"

If you want to opt for the meal plan (3 dinners and 5 breakfasts), that's $100. $12.50/meal. That would probably be the only thing I'd choose out of the option list ... for convenience and to be social.

So my cost would be $400 for the full week. $57/day. Plus lunches and 3 dinners ... although if I were doing this event, I'd ask for more information about the "daily rest stop" and "water stops".

When I did my first two Cycle Oregons in 2002 and 2005, the tent service was not available. When they added it I couldn't believe someone would pay $400+ for the service, but it fills up in the blink of an eye. Like you, I don't find handling my own tent a hardship. And there are benefits, like being able to choose where you pitch. The tent service tents are grouped together so they are often in a large open space without shade. Also, the tents are often inches from each other. Since you sleep in the same numbered tent each night, if you have a neighbor who is loud and/or snores, you are stuck next to that person for the entire trip. I would much rather be able to have some flexibility as to where my tent gets set up.

On Cycle Oregon, people tout the fact that their bags are delivered to their tents. However, that event has local "sherpas". Usually they are local school students. For a tip (usually $2 or so) they will carry your bag to your tent. A lot cheaper than the tent service, and the money goes to school-related things, like athletic uniforms and class trips. There was some of that going on at the Bon Ton Roulet when I did it last year, only it was the Boy Scouts.

Ok ! All good considerations. If I drop the tent svc and buy my own, and can piggy back a ride there, then it seems reasonable. I also agree not counting food is correct.

Thank you Machka. I will go re-read the site.

Gawd. It's not even small print. How embarrassing.

Machka, that price seems rather reasonable all in all. Le Grand Tour has a bus service to get people to and from the start and end of the event, but this is from Montreal so if you come from afar, you still must get to Montreal. Still cheaper than renting a car for someone local who doesnt own a car.

Indy-- all very good points about the tent option. I wasnt being very polite about it, but as you mention, its very popular on le grand tour also, so it probably makes good money for them which is fine with me, Velo Quebec is a good organisation.
Also I guess if it gets someone out biking for the week who doesnt like camping and who normally wouldnt, then this is a good thing,more people biking is always good.
And yes, on le grand tour, there are always school or scouts groups doing bag shuttle to tent for a few dollars, so that's great to raise money for their teams or whatever.

The demographic of Cycle Oregon has changed over the last decade. There are now more older, well-heeled riders, which is not surprising given the cost. As noted, my first one was in 2002. My last was 2012, with 2005 and 2007 in between. I could really notice the age difference.

And yes, it does make sense in some instances. Some friends of mine who also did Bon Ton this year don't usually camp and thus don't have the gear, so the tent service made sense for them. Plus, they could easily afford it.

When did LGT start offering tent service? I did it in 2008 and don't remember it, but that doesn't mean they didn't offer it back then. Well organized event, but the weather was horrible. That summer I think it rained somewhere in PQ every day. It certainly rained every day of the tour, although the first day the rain held off until after the day's ride.

Indy, we first did it in 2010, and I'm pretty certain it wasn't offered, didnt go in 2011 but in 2012 it was offered because I recall vividly the super strong winds the first night and a whole bunch of the rental tents ended up with broken poles. I recall because the grid layout of the rentals made me think of the Pete Seeger song, "Little Boxes" which made fun of suburbia identical houses, and this is exactly what the rental tents looked like all the same in a grid.
So probably started in '11 or '12.
Costs 400 clams now, that'll buy you a really nice tent, but as you say, different strokes (and budgets) for diff folks. Lgt ,I'm told, has also changed over the years, avg age is over 50 and most people on light + pricey bikes. Used to be much more tourer types...but I still figure people getting out for physical activity like this is nothing but good.
The popularity of this event gets folks out, and the more people who ride, the more respect and acceptance of cyclists in society, that's what I figure. Quebec is pretty good for bike culture being popular.

I'm probably going to get this wrong, because I'm going from a conference I attended 2 years ago. It seemed like one of the speaker said the average age of participants in most cycling events (not races) is 50-55. The thing I can't remember is whether it was just for Oregon or if it was nationally.

If the cost is a major issue for you, why not just do a self supported tour. People manage to ride coast to coast on that kind of money. I think that $20 per day is fairly doable on a route like the TA.

Supported touring is like CoOperatively Funded Catered movable Bike Party , with a No Host Bar.


Putting my Stuff in storage and vacating my apartments let me tour , self supported, thru Europe, for Months
at a Lower Cost than trying to stay Home .. and pay all those Bills .

My first "Tour" was this ride, SAGBRAW, when I began cycling. I had never ridden the distances day after day, and was curious how I would do. So the supported route made sense. I only paid for the tour and the shuttle to the ride start. I paid for my meals each day. When I did it, there were groups and organizations doing meals along the way, and at the days end location, or I would hit a joint along the route or in town. So many dollars can be added to the trip, or not. Personal preference.

I've done 5 Bike Virginia rides, and 3 Ride Idahos. I've used the Sherpa service mostly, but one year I set up my own tent, and last year I stayed in the hotel

I could do it either way, but not having to mess around with finding your stuff and setting up a tent after a long hot day, or having to pack everything up when it's below freezing in August (yeah, Salmon ID!) is not the best use of my limited vacation time

On Ride Idaho they moved camp every night except for the layover day, so having the service was very nice. With the new format for Bike Virginia this year, they're actually only moving camp once, so it wouldn't be that much of a value-add there.

What kind of tour is it where you only move your camp once? Sounds like a bunch of day trips. Might as well do these out of your house.

I'm sorry, lots of "city folks" like camping and putting up their own tents. Try again.

Some organized events are moving in that direction. Last year, the Bon Ton Roulet, in the Finger Lakes region of New York, had two days where you didn't move and instead offered loop rides from camp. Or you could take the day(s) off. Surveys show that many people prefer this. This year they will be doing the same. Since I don't live anywhere near the Finger Lakes I couldn't do the routes as day trips out of my house.

I am certainly one who does. In fact, I own four tents.

It's called Hub-and-Spoke touring and allows you to explore and get to know a new area without the hassle of packing up and moving or carrying all your stuff with you every day.

My first organised tour like this was the Logan's Pass tour put on by the Elbow Valley Cycling Club in Calgary. We all camped in a spot on the west side of the Going-to-the-Sun Road (near West Glacier, Montana) over a long weekend, and each day we decided where we wanted to ride. The first day we broke up into 3 or 4 groups, the second day I think we only broke into a couple groups, and the third day we were all together.

It was an excellent opportunity to explore the area in our own way, and we were all together for breakfasts and dinners.

And I couldn't have done it from my house, as my house was nearly 600 km away.