Great Victorian Bike Ride 2005

[enzed]

Hello everyone.
I got the Bicycle Victoria ride guide in the post today.
It meantioned this years Great Vic Ride, and the proposed "free bike" giveaway.
I took part in the "Great Vic Bike Queue" last year, as a catering volunteer. There were over 8000 cyclists. The campsites were very spread out, and the meal queues seemed neverending. Also, we lost some participants along the way.
In the opinions of some fellow volunteers, the large numbers were mainly due to the "free bikes" (Those orange & purple ones)
And just maybe, some of the participants who took advantage of this offer, were newer to cycling and perhraps hadn't quite got enough training. Is this point justified?
My new concern is with offering free bikes again this year, how many more cyclists are going to take part this year. Being a volunteer, I expect to do some work. But with large crowds, catering can be a rather busy job and it's hard to get know the cyclists you are feeding. If the event gets too large, some vollies might think twice before taking part.
By the way, what sort of quality were the bikes? I've heard varying reports about them.
Happy riding

 

[smartie]

They were VERY BASIC quality bikes. I sold mine for $50 and my brother got $82 each for his and his wife's on Ebay.

I'll be going again and selling the bike again as soon as i get it.

I don't believe they should be giving away such cheap bikes and expecting people to use them on a 600 kilometre ride. Most would have come out of the box and straight onto the road at Port Fairy. I'd rather they add $50 to the price for those that want a bike and give them something slightly better than those purple and gold obstacles. You can hardly blame the people that rode them though as they would have probably known no better.

So, anyone want a cheap bike in late October

 

[unicos]

Who provides the bikes?

 

[smartie]

Bicycle Victoria provided all the free bikes but they were built by Learsport. Not a really good marketing ploy for a small name in the industry.

Peoples expectations were probably too great for a bike that had to be cheap to be affordable to build. Although volume was huge (6500 in all i believe).

 

[takver]

Hello everyone.
By the way, what sort of quality were the bikes? I've heard varying reports about them.
Happy riding

I registered for the Great Victorian ride last year, but had to cancel - so I still received the free bike. I would not have ridden it on a 600km tour out of the box. It was very basic. First thing I did was check all the nuts and bolts, change the seat, change the pedals, add a rear rack for panniers, and extension handlebars. It's now okay for general commuting and touring. It has an excellent range of gears, which makes up for it being so basic.

I took it on the Wilderness Bike Ride in East Gippsland early April. I changed the back tire for one with more offroad tread. The bike held together fine, with the changes I had made to the bike. 3 days on gravel roads, including steep climbs and descents, and through mud decsending the Errinundra plateau.

As long as you don't expect too much, the bike supplied is okay. Good for keeping in the garage for visitors to use. Or change a few components to make it more comfortable and useable.

 

[Phuong L]

Ouch! $615...