Not something I would expect at an event.

https://raidersgravel.com/team-entry-packages/

Bloody hell! Do people really pay that much to ride their bikes around a forest for a couple of days.

BigdummySteve wrote: ↑Thu May 06, 2021 9:33 pm Bloody hell! Do people really pay that much to ride their bikes around a forest for a couple of days.

Clean shorts though Steve.

But there's free wifi! FREE!

Jeez.

On the Tour Divide the hotel in Platoro let us use their laundry for our minging gear. Same thing?

Did the Transpyrenees with Blackhound of this parish a few years ago, we got to a cross country ski refuge at 1,700m just S of Andorra. We were late, tired and hungry, the guard fed us and laundered our kit foc. I've been meaning to go back for a visit but not got around to it yet. It was my first experience of Catalan hospitality, he'd waited for us despite us being the only visitors to a lodge that could easily accommodate 100 people.

Only vaguely related but a mate and I rode our Ducatis through England and across France to the Bol d'Or race near Marseille then headed to Bologna to the the Ducati factory, When we got there a couple of the workers asked where we'd come from and then escorted us for a tour of the factory and then lunch in the staff restaurant. When we got back to the bikes, they'd both been serviced and had fresh chains and sprockets. No charge.

When people are wearing shorts that cost more than my frame, these prices don't surprise me. However, did I not see a mention of 'free bar'? There's a few here who'd easily recoup their entry fee

ScotRoutes wrote: ↑Thu May 06, 2021 11:14 pm Only vaguely related but a mate and I rode our Ducatis through England and across France to the Bol d'Or race near Marseille then headed to Bologna to the the Ducati factory, When we got there a couple of the workers asked where we'd come from and then escorted us for a tour of the factory and then lunch in the staff restaurant. When we got back to the bikes, they'd both been serviced and had fresh chains and sprockets. No charge.

That is a good story

Is that bloke behind the Fyre Festival diversifying?

Bearbonesnorm wrote: ↑Fri May 07, 2021 10:42 am When people are wearing shorts that cost more than my frame, these prices don't surprise me. However, did I not see a mention of 'free bar'? There's a few here who'd easily recoup their entry fee

Oi!

Seriously though, surely anyone that cared about the overnight laundry service would likely have two pairs of high end bibs?

Bearbonesnorm wrote: ↑Fri May 07, 2021 10:42 am When people are wearing shorts that cost more than my frame, these prices don't surprise me. However, did I not see a mention of 'free bar'? There's a few here who'd easily recoup their entry fee

I read that as your first drink of the evening is free, the rest you pay for...

i do wonder if a few event organising companies are trying to recoup losses from the last few years and think there is this pent up group of people who have not been able to travel for last year, and have not paid lots of money in events, so lets give them something top end and try and grab that cash..

Plus i am guessing with COVID, that insurance for events is sky high?

Not my kind of thing, many times i have looked at road and off road events in Wales or Scotland and it was £150-200, then decided it was cheaper to share a £90 ferry with 4 friends and pay 30 Euros to enter an event in France or Belgium, and still have change...

Bearbonesnorm wrote: ↑Fri May 07, 2021 10:42 am When people are wearing shorts that cost more than my frame, these prices don't surprise me. However, did I not see a mention of 'free bar'? There's a few here who'd easily recoup their entry fee

That was my first thought but I've no doubt K1100T is right. Potential scope for going round again though Mebbes not mind you, as doubtless the target audience wouldn't dream of drinking more than one small craft beer at the end of / the night before such arduous cycling.

Dave Barter wrote: ↑Thu May 06, 2021 10:03 pm On the Tour Divide the hotel in Platoro let us use their laundry for our minging gear. Same thing?

Similar !!

How much did it cost you to take part in the Tour Divide

Chicken Legs wrote: ↑Fri May 07, 2021 4:17 pm

Dave Barter wrote: ↑Thu May 06, 2021 10:03 pm On the Tour Divide the hotel in Platoro let us use their laundry for our minging gear. Same thing?

Similar !!

How much did it cost you to take part in the Tour Divide

True enough but quite a different ‘product’.
I do remember nearly sh1tting myself when Dave told me what he spent doing the TDR. Money well spent however imo.

As someone wiser than me said “ you pack your insecurities” or pay someone large amounts to pack them away for you perhaps.
Apart from the WRT this year I’m off to the Moors 100 and Woods Grand Rando, both of which and cheap and look to be great fun. The social aspect of both events is for me, the real draw.
I honestly don’t get it, I’d rather a BB spring thing, winter Bivvy or any other hare brained trip than some over sanitised version of Bikepacking.
I don’t think it’s aimed at the likes of us.

BigdummySteve wrote: ↑Fri May 07, 2021 11:05 pm any other hare brained trip than some over sanitised version of Bikepacking.

Top quote that HOTT.

I think it’s an age thing, as Stu has pointed out the reason most bike packers are old farts is because we grew up outside. When my best mate got a mini clubman we managed to fit two blokes, two mountain bikes and my spaniel in it! We’d go out for the day, ragging old clunky bikes around the hills while my springer ran around like a mad thing, fall off in the pissing rain and just lay there laughing. We once put a tent up in a bunker on the royal cinque ports golf club in the dead of night and then went to the clubhouse bar
But we never did it for a cool Instagram photo, it was always because it either fun, stupid or just poked two fingers up at the right people.
When I did my jogle my wife couldn’t understand why I didn’t want to do it as a charity ride and set up a ‘page’ etc. For me it devalues the experience, these overly organised events are like a package holiday, you can say ‘ I’ve done x country but you’ve not actually been there.

I think a 'supported' event will always hold more mass appeal than one that's unsupported. It's perhaps just the nature of people. I tend to believe that the more you do for people, the more people want or expect you to do and many are quite happy to pay for the bumps and rough edges to be smoothed off for them ... these people will be the very first to die, when the zombie apocalypse comes.

Bearbonesnorm wrote: ↑Sat May 08, 2021 7:41 am these people will be the very first to die, when the zombie apocalypse comes.

Cheery Friday feeling gone then Stu ?

Cheery Friday feeling gone then Stu ?

No, just the opposite. That thought really does make me cheery.

Bearbonesnorm wrote: ↑Sat May 08, 2021 7:41 am these people will be the very first to die, when the zombie apocalypse comes.

Nobody dies in the zombie apocalypse

Nobody dies in the zombie apocalypse

Ahh, well I think that depends on your definition of dead* ... unless you've already seen an outline plan I'm not privy to obviously.

*'living dead' ... which one are you? Living or dead, I'm really not sure you can be both with any real degree of commitment.

Bearbonesnorm wrote: ↑Sat May 08, 2021 2:38 pm

Nobody dies in the zombie apocalypse

Ahh, well I think that depends on your definition of dead* ... unless you've already seen an outline plan I'm not privy to obviously.

*'living dead' ... which one are you? Living or dead, I'm really not sure you can be both with any real degree of commitment.

Still grappling with that one . Sort of Schrodinger's Zombie style of thing? No that's not quite right but it amuses me.

Anyway the zombies are already here. They are all shopping in Bluewater or Arndale.